But how do managers find the “right” players? Most of the time, particularly for entry to mid level gigs, they post a job description and countless people come calling, all trying to differentiate themselves with a few bullet points.

Just one reason why you should never read another resume. Going through endless resumes and vetting out the best for interviews is a process that only works if you have the time and resources to really do your due diligence. But who does any more? (Union Square Ventures is the exception, not the norm).

So how then do you assemble the perfect team? It’s a lot like networking, actually. They say build your network before you need it. Hiring managers should be determining who they want and planting that seed before they need them.

Stanley “The Coach” Woodward, of the New York Herald Tribune assembled one of the best sports staff’s ever for a newspaper. How?

By using what he described as a scouting system, the Coach studied out-of-town news papers, and when he spotted a good story, he began a file of the writer’s work. If it was consistently excellent, Woodward waited for an opening, then brought the man to New York with talk of “the big time” and possibly a pay raise.

This is essentially the strategy Amber Naslund has used to build her Radian6 team. I suspect it happens often for VP, CMO, President positions, but I’m not yet privy to that culture.

If you’re a manager, how do you assemble your team? Do you look for hungry unemployed workers, fresh-faced college graduates, or do you try to recruit talent from other organizations?

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I got a networking call today from my cousin’s friend who graduated from college last year and is eager to secure a full-time job. He was told to call me due to my experience in – and his interest in – the music business. He has had several internships in the music business and wants to find an employment opportunity in Chicago. As I spoke with him, I could tell that he’s a really good guy – but I realized that he would get more out of networking calls like this if he did some research before typing that email or picking up the phone.

Here is what I suggested to him:

Before you call (or email) people you’re reaching out to for help, research them: Google them and check out their LinkedIn profiles. There are several reasons for this:

1) You’ll learn more from the call.

If you are able to walk into the call with the full knowledge of this person’s background, you can ask more targeted questions (ex: How did you get a career started at Company X just one year out of college?”).

2) You’ll save time.

The person you’re calling is likely busy and doesn’t really know you. That means you probably have a limited window of opportunity to establish a relationship and learn as much as possible during the call. If you already know this person’s background, you can avoid time-eating dialogue like, “When I was fresh out of college, I got a job teaching elephants how to play the harmonica” and your reply of, “Really – you worked with elephants – I didn’t know that?!” etc. You could have known that – and with that knowledge you could have led the discussion by asking how the skills of working with elephants were helpful in getting that job at Company X just one year out of college. Going back to #1, maybe you should be working with elephants – and by leading with this question, you’ll learn more key stuff from this call than if the elephant subject never came up.

3) You’ll be better able to lead and guide the call.

After all, you’re the one initiating this contact. That means you must have something you’re hoping to learn or gain as a result of the call, even if it’s nothing more than a new friendship. If you can take ownership of the call and actually lead it, you’re more likely to walk away with whatever it is you’re hoping to walk away with. If the other person ends up spending the call explaining his/her whole background to you, the odds are that that person will be taking over the leadership of the call and your agenda will get watered down or completely drowned. Showing you know your stuff about the person on the other side of the conversation will help you to maintain control of the call.

4) You’ll likely impress the person you’re calling.

When people you’re calling see that you are someone who does his/her homework before taking action, then they’re more likely to feel comfortable connecting you to their networks for work opportunities. Keep in mind that a networking call is also a marketing call – you are marketing yourself. Wouldn’t you rather market yourself as the impressive person who has done his/her homework?

5) You’ll satisfy the ego of the person you’re calling.

Some people need their egos stroked and want to know that you know their story. After all, they’re about to hear your story….So they could easily think, “why is this person calling me if he/she doesn’t even know who I am and what I do?!” So if you call the big ego type, you’re more likely to get what you want if you’re prepared.

I often like to compare American Idol to the career process. You know how the contestants on American Idol often get attacked by the judges for choosing the wrong song? It’s a similar concept – had the singer done some homework and figured out what song he or she could make unique that also meets that week’s theme, then that singer would have been more likely to nail the performance and move towards the #1 spot. Same goes for you when making your networking calls. If you do your homework and learn the background of the person you’re calling before reaching out, you’re more likely to maximize what you get out of the call and move towards whatever your goal happens to be in making that new connection.

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Brenton Gieser who is a new media rockstar and he’s telling me about this new venture/movement he’s getting involved with. A couple of days later I’m on the phone Arielle (see below) and I’m learning all about GenJuice’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Tour. Needless to say it’s definitely something I wanted to be affiliated with and so I sat down (virtually speaking) with the three co-founders of the tour, and wanted to share with all of you what I learned and why you should be interested.

1.) What is GenJuice and why should people care about it?

Arielle: Well, GenJuice is simply an annual Gen Y innovation and entrepreneurship tour. This is our first year doing this and we are learning a ton, but this year we will travel to 13 different cities and videostream our entire experience on our blog. We will shoot video with young incredible entrepreneurs in each of the cities and hold our “unconference” events in each city.

Virgilia: Nice one Arielle. To add to that point, GenJuice is an avenue for aspiring and early stage Gen Y entrepreneurs to network with other similar minded individuals and hopefully solidify their own business ideas and find a potential partner/team member/co-founder. As well as having live videostreams on our blog, we will also broadcasts from each event through online podcasts.

2.) What was the inspiration behind launching this initiative?

Arielle: I can tell you a little about what inspired me to launch GenJuice and Virgilia & Danielle can tell you about what inspired them to come on board. I started GenJuice for a variety of reasons. It started off as a way to bring entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds but all under 30 together. We would just meet in coffee shops and help each other, trade intros, etc. In February, the concept of the tour came about as a way to expand the entrepreneurial mindset of the Silicon Valley beyond just this area. We wanted to promote Gen Y innovation and entrepreneurship nationally (and feel like rockstars while we did it).

Danielle: I first worked with Arielle when I was Editor-in-Chief of a student magazine at Berkeley. She managed the marketing for our magazine launch party, and it was a huge success. I was really impressed by her energy and her ideas and strategy around buzz marketing. From that point on, I knew that we would co-found a company or work together very closely in the future. When the GenJuice Tour came about, I was ready to jump on board. Sometimes, you just have to take that leap!

Virgilia: I initially had the notion of launching a project with a very similar mission to GenJuice. After briefly chatting with Arielle, I realized that GenJuice had the potential of being a truly viral movement with endless possibilities ensuing from our pilot tour. It’s a good learning lesson – understanding that instead of going off and doing your own project, partnering with other brilliant individuals with similar goals will result in a more powerful and sustainable organization. We want to empower young innovators and trendsetters to follow their dreams, just like we are!

3.) It’s relatively easy to make introductions, but what kind of resources will be provided to enable these new friendships, partnerships, etc. to thrive AFTER the tour is over?

Virgilia: We will keep track of all the attendees through Google Docs (the 6th member of the GenJuice team) and will share this document with each city’s attendee following the tour. We will essentially create a database of everyone who attended the tour and allow various methods using our online blog to facilitate constant communication and encourage lasting relationships.

Danielle: Yes, through planning the GenJuice Tour and what I learned previously from attending various conferences, it is very important to extend the online engagement that you make with people via email or twitter to an offline exchange. That’s where the meeting of the minds happens in real-time and where the magic happens. We’ll be creating this effect with GenJuice.

4.) What makes the GenJuice team special? What can a young professional learn from this team in particular that they couldn’t get elsewhere?

Virgilia: Great question Ryan! Our team is unique in the fact that we have come together to produce this nationwide tour in just 3 months. Organic growth has been our mantra not only for GenJuice, but for our team. We anticipate facing roadblocks and thus when we encounter them they only spur more ideas and we tailor our overall strategy immediately. We are continuously changing and learning from our mistakes, taking these lessons learns and implementing them, and growing our team with rockstar team players who help balance out the rest of our team.

Arielle: I completely agree. I’ll just add that our team does one thing well that I’ve never seen done anywhere else. We are fluid. We’ve had several mistakes. Many problems and issues came up when planning our first national tour, as you can imagine. Yet, whenever a problem arose, we already had three or four ideas on how to shift our strategy and still get the same result. I’d say all entrepreneurs need that ability; the ability to move quickly and solve complex problems in the heat of the moment.

Danielle: I would say that we are three, unstoppable women who are phased by no amount of obstacles. Lack of press? We’ll get the word out. Lack of funding? We’ll find a way. I think it is the leanness of our organization that makes us strong because at the end of the day, we know that if we don’t do it, then it’s not getting done.

5.) Why focus on just Gen Y?

Arielle: Oh pick me! I want to answer this one. Personally, what inspires me more than anything is seeing my peers do incredible things. Sure, it’s great to see older or seasoned entrepreneurs discuss their success – but it’s ten times more powerful to see someone who looks like me, sounds like me and is a part of my generation talk about how we can innovate. The Gen Y leaders we’ve met and connected never fail to inspire me and I want GenJuice to do the same for everyone we meet across the nation.

6.) How can we get involved and/or start supporting the cause?

Danielle: I’m glad you asked, Ryan! You can visit our site GenJuice.com to purchase your tour tickets. We have some amazing Gen-Yers coming to our unconferences, so you definitely want to be there to make those connections. Then, follow us on Twitter (@meetgenjuice) and give us a shout out to let others know about the GenJuice movement. If you’re interested in donating your space for the GenJuice Tour events or want to let us crash on your couch, reach out to us. And lastly, we are welcome to additional tour partners and sponsors. Visit our Indiegogo site (http://indiegogo.com/GenJuiceTour) to find out how you can help. Thanks so much, Ryan!

Who is Arielle Patrice Scott?
Arielle is a student entrepreneur obsessed with innovating while young, and encouraging other young people to do the same. She launched GenJuice as a way to encourage more young people to launch new ventures and projects. GenJuice is a national 12-city wide tour with events to help young aspiring entrepreneurs meet potential co-founders and team members. For more details about Arielle you can follow her during the tour at GenJuice.com, read her blog at TheArielle.com or follow her at @ariellescott.

Who is Virgilia Singh?
Virgilia is in love with the concepts of innovation and sustainability and has founded and managed a variety of projects. She collected experiences in the corporate world while working for Booz Allen Hamilton, building a product innovation strategy for Intel, and advising a UN Ambassador on how to empower women economically worldwide. Virgilia recently left her stable full-time position in DC to co-found GenJuice, a tour launching this summer that is geared towards connecting and highlighting young innovators and entrepreneurs across the nation. You can get in touch with her at virgilia@genjuice.com or follow her at @virgiliasingh.

Who is Danielle Leslie?
Danielle Leslie left her Sales and Business Development role at social gaming startup RockYou to take a risk on a fast-moving project called GenJuice. Danielle will be evangelizing innovation and youth entrepreneurship in Summer 2010 during The GenJuice Tour. Danielle loves discussing marketing and new business models and believes that with the right marketing strategy, anything can become a home run venture. You can get in touch with her at danielle@genjuice.com.

It seems to me that there are some people who go, ‘All right, I’m grabbing the bull by the horns. Let’s do this…,’ and there are some people who it takes a while to figure out. It’s an everyday struggle to be able to go, ‘I’m going to follow my own instincts — I’m going to try and hear my own heart, regardless…’

I mean, there are things that I want in my life. You can hide in your work, I guess I’m saying, or you can be alive and free and live in your work. You can pretend the people that you’re going to work with for however many months are going to be the family that’s going to be forever. But the truth is, they’re not. And no matter what relationships you make along the way – which have been occasionally really, really influential on my life — ultimately I choose all the mishegoss, and all the complications and confusions of life, which takes courage and patience to sift through. Over the temporary moment of ‘Oh, I’m comforted in the womb of this family.’ I choose the other. I hate to say this, but ‘it’s time to jump.’ — Jake Gyllenhaal – GQ May 2010

So I did the unthinkable. I gave my two weeks notice to SMC, in a down economy no less, before having another job lined up. The thing is I know what you’re “supposed to do” I know that they call it a job for a reason. I know that countless people would be ecstatic to have the job I had, and many others would be happy to have one at all.

I also know that I rarely follow the status quo, and I’m entirely too young to have my job adversely affecting the rest of my life on a daily basis. The day I quit there was an overwhelming sense of relief and I got the first good night sleep I’d had in nearly 2 months.

There were a number of contributing factors that led to my departure but suffice to say that it just wasn’t a good fit any longer. Sure I could go through the motions, keep doing good work, and keep collecting a paycheck, but that’s not fair to my employer or to my future. I want to be intensely passionate about doing great work every day, and they deserve someone who can provide that.

I had a good run, and I think I brought some good changes, some new business, and made a positive impact during my time at SMC. More importantly I got the opportunity to work with some incredibly talented people (see below), and I probably learned more about myself in the last year and a half then I ever have before.

So What’s Next?

I’m very fortunate that I’m the most frugal person you’ve ever met, and I’ve saved up over 9 months of living expenses. While I certainly don’t want to deplete my entire savings I do have a bit of a cushion to find something that is a good fit for me – case in point I’ve already turned down one job that would’ve been a solid raise within 3 months time. (Though I didn’t have another job lined up, I did open some doors before leaving).

In the last 4-5 months I’ve been fortunate to interview with 2 companies making great strides in this space, making it very deep in the selection process for one of them. Both have phenomenal leadership, and though I didn’t receive either position I’m very grateful for the experience I acquired going through the process and feel confident that I’ll remain on their radar for future positions as both continue to grow. Besides, what’s life without a little adversity, right?

To be candid, I feel a wide range of emotions: excitement, fear, relief, apprehension and few hundred others. But I’m also feeling reinvigorated and so in my quest for a great fit (if you have recommendations by the way I’d love to hear them) I would also like to get back into consulting/freelance work.

I haven’t done any significant projects in a few months now, but if you need help with understanding the value of social media, integrating social into your traditional marketing and business frameworks, relationship marketing, etc. please feel free to reach out. And if you know someone looking for similar services please let them know I’d be happy to help.

At the risk of missing someone I’m not naming names (save for Lauren, Teresa, Sydney, Jake, and Jackie) but a huge thanks go out to all my friends and colleagues in the space for their continued advice, help and support. I wouldn’t be where I am without the relationships I’ve developed with all of you over this last year and a half.

[Also, my family is the most amazing and supportive presence I could ever hope for.]

And finally, before I thank my SMC co-workers, if you’re an employer in need of a resilient, passionate, strategic minded marketing professional who insists on challenging himself and the organization he works for to continue improving and striving for excellence then by all means I’m all ears.

———————
As for my former SMC colleagues:

Matt – One of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. He’s so polite that it might come off patronizing to someone who doesn’t know him. To this day I often use his mantra of “What can you do about it now?” if I mess something up or find myself on the receiving end of an attack. Also, he introduced me to the great state of South Carolina.

Brittany – Knows more about college football (and sports in general) than virtually any female you will encounter. She’s stubborn and strong-willed in a way that keeps the office on their toes, and I definitely think she sometimes flies under the radar in her ability to create compelling strategy.

Hannah – We jokingly refer to Hannah as tax break because of her ability to always spill coffee on herself, but she’s gifted at finding the balance between work and play. She liked to remind me to ‘work smarter, not harder,’ and we had a lot in common outside of the office. I definitely miss our lunches where we talked about everything but work.

Linda – Our office admin always had the ability to brighten the day whether it was bringing in fresh cut flowers from her garden or catching you off guard with her quirky laugh out of nowhere. She brought worldly experience to an office full of 20-somethings, and lightened our loads by taking on a lot more than just admin work.

Bill – A very talented developer, one of few I’ve encountered who has the ability to speak in plain English about the value and business application of our proprietary software without confusing people with garbled tech lingo. Besides, Bill is a fellow Texan!

Jackie – Because of our mutual affinity for the social media space, and our ambitious drive to keep reading, learning and challenging ourselves Jackie and I grew pretty close during our time sitting next to each other in the office. His efforts to keep adding skills to his arsenal have made him an indispensible employee.

Jake – Without question, I learned the most from Jake over the past year and a half. He’s moved on to Fleishman-Hillard now, but as I’ve mentioned before you’re never working ‘for” Jake, you’re always working “with” him. He is a gifted leader who understands people as much as he understands business and his level-headed approach often kept our team calm during storms. In addition, his efficiency output is virtually unparalled.

Kathleen – I appreciate her taking the chance on a new grad from Texas, and accommodating me when I knew I had to return to my home state after the first year. I’m grateful for the opportunity and wish everyone all the best.

He’s one of the more talented networkers I’ve encountered. If he can’t help you he can certainly connect you with someone who will.

Over a year ago I interviewed Jeff on the topic of networking. The post entitled, “Nursing Home Networking,” received quite a bit of attention and shortly thereafter he was asked if he would be interested in speaking in Zagreb at TEDx?

You can read Jeff’s description of how it unfolded on his blog here. And check out his Ted Bio here.

Like I told Jeff, I’m proud to know that my blog helped facilitate this opportunity even if it was in a small way, but I genuinely believe Jeff would’ve made it happen at some point regardless.

We often wax poetic about how our blogs help our own careers, but how has you blog helped someone else lately?

First, connect with Jeff, and be sure and keep an eye on the launch of his new company, Brandglue. Then discuss in the comments section ways in which your blog has helped others, or how you’ve acquired an opportunity contributing to someone else’s blog.

We have all heard the old adage, “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” It is about helping each other achieve goals and working towards mutually beneficial relationships. But, are we spending way too much time constantly interacting with the same people?

Everyone has a goal with social media. For many, (especially in North America) there is some element of monetary profit, whether that includes independent consulting work, landing yourself a great job, or even scamming others. For everyone, a goal on Twitter is to share a message with the public, whether it is your own or someone else’s. The time we spend talking, interacting and retweeting helps us meet new people, build relationships and even make new friends.

For this argument’s sake we will use the term “relationship” or “interpersonal tie.” With the help from a sociology article by Mark S. Granovetter written back in 1973, I’d like to prove that there is actually more value in a weak tie or than a strong one.

[Granovetter, Mark S. The Strength of Weak Ties. Volume 78. American Journal of Sociology, Issue 6 (May, 1973).]

In my mind, a study on social networks (connections of people, not tools like Twitter) back in the 70s is applicable because there are elements both then and now that have a strong influence on what I believe to be human nature, rather than simply being a reflection of a current societal trends. If we don’t look at the past, we’ll have a hard time understanding what is going on in the present!

Before I jump into it, I want to define ‘The Strength of Ties’ similarly to how Granovetter does by assuming it to be a linear relation. Hopefully we can agree that the strength of relationships is increased by combination of the “amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie.” Using these guidelines, we can intuit whether a tie is strong, weak or non-existent.

The strategy of Granovetter’s paper can easily be applied to Social Media in 2010. He shows how the strength of an interpersonal tie relates to macro aspects like diffusion, and social cohesion in general, among factors. It is important to understand that small-scale interactions have a huge impact on larger scale patterns of communication and, in return, these general trends affect small groups.

We’ll keep all peer groups small for argument’s sake. Let’s say we have a peer group of strong ties between persons A, B, C & D and another group comprised of persons E, F, G & H. It would be hard to create more than 10 to 30 strong ties per year, so this small model isn’t completely unrealistic! Let’s also say there is a weak tie between A & E, for example, which connects the two strong networks. I argue that removing this weak tie will do more “damage” to the transmission of information than the removal any of the strong ties in this model.

We are all bloggers here. We’ll use blogging as an example to show that whatever you are trying to diffuse to the masses can travel a wider social distance, and thus reach a larger number of people, when passed through weak ties rather than strong ones. If someone announces their blog post to close friends, and these friends do the same thing, many of the group will hear about the post multiple times. This is because people with strong relationships tend to share similar ties within their social group. After a week goes by and the motivation to spread the word about your epic “How to Sway Drones, Kill the Queen Bee, & Take Over the Hive” blog post dies down, the spread of information is much more likely to be limited to a few cliques than a blogger with many weak ties.

Those with many weak ties are the best at diffusing information.
Do you think Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund, Ben Casnocha, John Moore, Penelope Trunk, Mitch Joel, Brian Clark, Guy Kawasaki, Joseph Jaffe, Darren Rowse, Seth Godin, Jason Falls, etc… all achieved their success on Twitter by only building and maintaining strong relationships? No.

These people got into social media early and made themselves innovators and opinion leaders. In fact, anything they said was new and exciting! By maintaining weak ties and “droning” early adopters who would then pass this information on to their strong ties, these people have achieved an amazing amount of success. This becomes a growing cycle in which their views matter so much that they hardly even need to worry about making the effort to maintain weak relationships! All they have to do is respond to most of the people who casually tweet them and watch their messages diffuse rapidly.

Sure, some amazing bonds are created along the way and this is great because these people can support you emotionally, give you a trusted opinion, and inspire thought. But I believe that it is possible to create too strong of a relationship. Eventually, something will happen where you cannot maintain communication with that person for a couple weeks, for example, and you will let them down because of some commitment IRL (In Real Life). This creates a chain reaction of slips in mutual support and takes the “us” out of “trust” [just made that up!]. A relationship with sporadic contact is easier to maintain.

Again… Here is the early model of the Twitter network when we got started:

Over time we have grown through the early adopter levels, and we too want to provide the web with new and innovative ideas. I’m sorry to tell you, but if you want your ideas out there, you need to create some weak connections. This “weak tie” label does not mean that you do not care about these people, it just defines how much time, intensity and intimacy you devote to these interactions, as well as how much reciprocation you expect from these contacts. It comes down to who influences you and whom you influence. I realize that we were not the first ones to get into social media, so there are many people with a stronger influence than us and we should listen to what they have to say. We have embraced the fact that we have a role as both innovators AND as early adopters.

Shift Model:

Maybe this has been food for thought. Hopefully, some readers will realize that maybe they are spending way too much time interacting with a select few, which creates limiting cliques, while others may realize that it is good to seek out and respond to new people all the time.

Success in online communications takes strong critical thought, an open mind, respect, and checking your ego at the door.

*I found this article through Gavin’s blog http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/soc/2007/10/the-strength-of.html. Thank you.

Bryan is a Social Media & PR Intern with Jobsonica. He is passionate about marketing (strategy, account & creative), personal branding, and social media. My favorite thing about Bryan is how well he understands and practices the value of reciprocal relationships. He currently resides in Montreal, Canada.

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Did I simplify the argument to rouse a stir and amplify the discussion? I hope so. That was the intention, but the truth is I know a lot of people in this space (and others) that have received jobs without a traditional resume. Or merely as a supplement just to pass around to other constituents.

After going back and forth with one reader he finally said, “Well tell me what you’d do for one of these jobs.”

Here’s my response:

First of all, if they ask for a resume, obviously you have to give them a resume. If you know it’s going to straight the the HR person and get the impression they’ll look at, a typical resume is probably the approach. If you’re submitting a resume online — I’d personally do something really different or over the top.

(And I’ll admit I don’t know much about *developers. I suspect that, like engineering, doctors, etc. my strategy wouldn’t work nearly as well, if at all. It’s MUCH more applicable to any kind of activity that involves creative, right-brain work – either solely or as a big component of the gig. Not that developing doesn’t, but obviously you’d have to demonstrate the technical skill first.)

With the list you sent. Let’s pick one.

Let’s go with “Online Marketing Analyst” for Luggage Pros (as that’s pretty generic)

Who Would You Report To?

The first thing I notice is that you would report to the Sr. Marketing Director.

I familiarize myself with as much as I can about the company and Nick, the person I’d report to:

Since his last name isn’t there I’d try to find him via LinkedIn.

What Would Your Duties Be?

In reading the job description one of the things I notice is that many of their techniques are a lot of things that are still effective (Pay Per Click, SEO, etc.), but not quite as hot has social media marketing.

How Do You Demonstrate Value?

I might put together a proposal/plan, etc. explaining how I could use social media tools to develop a passionate community of travel enthusiasts.

Why? Travel enthusiasts need luggage and if Luggage Pros are the people that connect travel enthusiasts together they’ll be top of mind when it comes time to buying luggage.

In the proposal, which doesn’t have to be overwhelming I’d intertwine my knowledge of the skills involved in the job description, as well as, characteristics and skills I possess that I thought the company would value and appreciate.

The KEY to this approach is that if you start building these kinds of relationships way before you ever need the job you can spread what amounts to quite a bit of work out across a longer time period. Casually getting to know the person, a quick e-mail with a “have you thought about this,” or “I have a suggestion.”

How about all of you? If you wanted this job would you immediately e-mail your resume? What other techniques might you employ in this scenario?

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Why? Because they tell me virtually nothing about you that truly matters. How strategically do you think about complex problems? Would you be fun, interesting, inspiring to work with? I don’t care that you can hold a job, even it sounds cool. You could’ve been a cog in the wheel. You could’ve embellished.

Resumes go in big stacks. They don’t get read, if they do you have something like 15-20 second to impress someone with a piece of paper you probably spent too much money on and Times New Roman. Fah-get-about-it.

Resumes get your foot in the door. Guess who wants their foot in the door in this economy? That’s right. Everyone. And their mom. There are significantly better ways to get your foot in the door.

• Here’s one.
• Here’s another.

IF… IF you insist on sending a resume please keep these things in mind:

> Unless you’re in academia keep it to one page. Seriously. Nobody is going to read your second page. Whatever your explanation. It’s wrong.

> If it doesn’t pertain to the company you’re applying for a position at, leave it off. I don’t care if you were an awesome cater waiter, leave it off. Maybe it shows perseverance, and that’s great, but I want to know if you can sell widgets. You’re welcome to explain how being a cater waiter taught you the discipline you need to succeed a X company, just save it for the interview. If you get it.

> Throw an interest or two on there at the very bottom. Plenty of people will disagree, but I’ve found it to be an excellent conversation point if it’s something unique, potentially relevant, and/or aligns with the interests of the person interviewing you.

> If you’re a Junior in college or older, do not under any circumstances tell me that you were the captain of your football team. With a ton of context this could be valuable, but my initial reaction is that your graduating class was 11 people, and I don’t care. Student council secretary though, that’s a big deal.

> Be creative. If I was applying for a job right now, one where I thought I’d have to send a resume I’d break all the rules your business school tells you. I would make a huge Venn diagram with my specialties, the companies specialties, and how the two align to create something awesome in the middle. Yes, some would throw it away, but others would stop flipping through long enough to stop and take a peek. They’d be more likely to remember it. And who knows, my ideas might warrant an interview.

And a better alternative to a resume?

How about starting a blog. Then hiring managers can get a solid indication of your ideas, your thought process, how you communicate, how well you write, who you affiliate yourself with. It’s a much better measuring stick. Who knows, you might become a thought leader and end up on the other side of the interrogation.

What say you?

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Why Resumes are Lame –> http://bit.ly/3IVLq9

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You’ve got your foot in the door. That was the easy part. Now you have to bust your ass to prove to whoever hired you that they made the right choice.

By landing an internship, you significantly increased your chances of being hired on full-time if you prove that you have what it takes. For the record, in this economy, that entails working your face off.

Sometimes you have to welcome the boring, tedious, mundane projects. That’s reality. Put your head down and get those done and it will speak volumes about your character.

At SMC we have lots of interns. Ask Jackie Adkins why he was the one that got hired on full-time.

To reiterate, in this economy you can’t just put in your hours and be one of the crowd. Employers notice when you go above and beyond the other interns.

Learn the company well enough to make your own suggestions.

Target a few of the employees you suspect you’d click with and get to know them. People like hiring people they’d get along with. If two people are equally talented, it’s definitely a separating factor.

Don’t burn yourself out. Working hard is extremely important, but if you try to do 12 hours a day, burn yourself out and half-ass your way through 8, we’ll notice. And not only that, now we’ll know what you’re capable of doing. That leaves a bad taste in our mouth.

Don’t limit yourself to the company you’re interning with. Keep building your brand and exploring other options. If you’ve done awesome work, you can always leverage that for a recommendation and put your name in the hat other places.

Ask lots of questions. We’d rather you ask questions than use “I didn’t know,” or “I was confused” for not getting something done. Brownie points for figuring it out and executing on your own.

Most of us have interned at one point or another, some very recently. What additional suggestions do you have?

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How to be an Awesome Intern –> http://bit.ly/oX39M

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One such idea is something that I’ve had on my mind for quite some time now. I’ve witnessed people do some great (see: charitable) things with social media. David Armano helping Daniela and her family comes to mind, Chris Brogan encouraging his community to help out one charity a month, and many, many more. Well, my community pales in comparison to those guys, but I still wanted to find a way to contribute something to causes I was passionate about, causes you’re passionate about.

So here’s my solution:

As of today, I’ve re-launched my consulting services with a new twist.

25% of what I charge will go straight to the charity of your choice. If you don’t have a favorite charity, I’ll donate it cancer research, or the Acumen fund, or another organization benefiting our world.

My time is extremely valuable to me. In fact, it’s my most important asset so my services won’t come cheap (well I guess that depends on who you’re comparing them to.) That is to say if you want to give to a charity please just give, you don’t need an excuse. But if you want to use social tools to increase brand reach, brand affinity, and most importantly your bottom line and you’re serious about your efforts please inquire knowing full well 25% of your bill goes straight to charity.

Check out the services page for more details. (Yes, it’s barren right now, but if I didn’t “just do it,” it would’ve never gone live. I’ll continue expanding and refining it over the next couple of weeks.)

One day when I find a ridiculously wealthy woman that looks like Olivia Wilde and can tolerate me, maybe that number can go up to 50%, but in the meantime here’s what you can do to help me out. If you know of a personal brand, a small business, or even a big one that needs help learning how to integrate social media into their marketing efforts please pass this along.

Also, please keep in mind I will be taking my own advice. It’s very likely that depending on the scope of the work I will only take on one project at a time for the time being. This is nothing again you, or your project, work, etc. but if I can’t be passionate and get behind the work, or if we’re not a good fit I’m not going to take it on. I will however do my best to refer you to someone who can help you.

Finally, for a limited time only (I don’t know how limited or how long yet), I’ll make a special offer. Anyone who I decide to work with that doesn’t feel I provided them value at the end of a predetermined time will receive a full refund except for the 25%, which will still go to charity.

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Check Out Ryan Stephens’ Re-Launched Consulting Services w/ 25% Going to Charity — http://bit.ly/2jitz8

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