Ian Christie's Bold Career Blog

LinkedIn: Profile visibility and conversion (part 1)

2013-02-22T20:51:18Z

I recently received this nice looking notice from LinkedIn. My initial reaction was to be pleased and pat myself on the back. Hey, my profile was top 1% of most viewed profiles in 2012! Sounds great. However, with 200 milion users and growing, that puts me in the company of well, another 2 million minus 1 users. So, clearly, some perspective is called for. With LinkedIn’s enormous growth over the last few years, I imagine that millions of users are only minimally engaged.

The publishing of this metric did get me thinking about LinkedIn profile visibility and furthering our professional goals. First, what drivers can be used to increase your LinkedIn profile visibility. And second, to what end? What do you want to happen when someone views your profile? What kind of conversion metrics make sense, if any.

I will talk more about these two topics in upcoming posts.

On work life balance - a raw read from Merlin Mann | 43 Folders

2012-05-23T02:57:49Z

In the Inbox of my DevonThink Pro Office app, I keep a Read/Review folder to which I post articles and sites to, well, you know. I just came across this. It isn’t that new (April, 2011).

This articles deserves to be posted it because it is awesome. And the writer, Merlin Mann, is well, awesome as well. Specifically, Merlin gives us the raw, honest truth as he comes to a Jerry Maguire type epiphany in the moment that working on his book contract ain’t what he wants to be doing.

If you struggle (who doesn’t) with being tugged between the expectations to / commitments from others, the work you really want to do, and where / with who you really want to be, then Cranking | 43 Folders will speak to you.

It did to me. Seriously. Read it.

Choose the good boss when making a job decision

2012-05-05T21:42:11Z

I came across great career advice the other day, backed up by research. I have unfortunately misplaced the source. The advice was as follows:

When you are choosing whether to align yourself with a job opportunity or not (new job, promotion, project), and in particular when you have some choice, pay careful attention to your prospective boss. And when trying to choose between two similar roles, you are far better off going with the person who your best judgment suggests would be the better boss. Even at the expense of a bit of a cash differential.

So, how do you know if the person is a “good boss?” I gave a bit of thought to this and present the following advice:

Use LinkedIn, or ask them directly, to find out something about their career history. Does this person have a career trajectory that suggests they are effective and successful?
Looking again at LinkedIn. Does he/she have a healthy amount of recommendations in a 360-sense….boss, peers and subordinates. Recommendations from subordinates that support this person’s interest in developing his/her people while not absolute proof, can certainly be very valuable evidence.
Has your prospective boss worked for a fantastic boss? Like attracts like.
How much leadership experience does your prospective boss have? While little experience is certainly a flag, it need not be a deal killer, all things considered.
What do the company / organization names say about this person’s brand? If you see employment brands that shout well-managed, strong people cultures, that is a good sign (making assumptions about their hiring thoroughness and criteria for someone to stay and thrive in that world)
If you have relationships in the market, use old-fashioned (and discreet) asks among contacts to get a sense of the person’s abilities, style and character. Again, LinkedIn might point you to shared connectsions.
What do you need to learn in the next stage of your professional development and what can you learn from this person?
Trust your gut - in particular the squeemish, nervous, spider-sense side of you. If something doesn’t feel right, walk away.

Any additional ideas from your experience?

My article on US Yahoo home page

2011-06-16T22:54:17Z

A few years back, I wrote an article that seemed to resonate with people. The title was Stop Undermining yourself at work. Delighted to find out yesterday that this article was featured yesterday on the US Yahoo home page. Pretty cool. If you’ve stopped by as a result of that article, welcome. Glad to have you here.

6 Articles on the Holidays and Career Reflection and Planning

2010-12-24T17:21:51Z

Over the years, I have posted some thoughts and ideas on managing the holiday experience, some of which has been published on Monster.com and other career / job related sites.

Thinking it might be of use to highlight them as a collection, here they are for your reading pleasure. If you find yourself with the intent and / or time to do some career management / planning during the remainder of the holiday season, these articles may provide some guidance or inspiration.

Reaching back all the way to 2005 (yes, I was blogging then), an intro to my Career Development During the Holiday Series, followed by something I called the Social Phase, then the Reflective Phase and finally the New Beginnings Phase.

And of course, some thoughts about achieving Holiday Balance in a very busy and demanding period of time, as well as some personal reflections on achieving a state of clarity and rejuvenation from time off work.

I hope you find these articles of value to you.

Rebuilding my voice

2010-12-10T20:22:44Z

I imagine that singers, actors and writers have experiences that cause their “voice” to dampen. Or they simply go through phases where they aren’t ready or able to produce their art.

Site Journey to Wordpress and Back Again

2010-09-25T18:02:08Z

If you visited the site over the last 2 weeks, you may have notice a very different looking site and a few blog posts updating on a migration to Worpress from the Squarespace platform. Having tinkered and tried things out on Wordpress (which is a fine platform), I have decided to come back to Squarespace.

Wordpress is a fine platform, and I have a couple of mini-site ideas up my sleeve that I may use it for, but in the end, it felt like far too much tinkering and tooling when I have a fantastic platform here at Squarespace. Yes, there is a fee here, and Wordpress is free, but the upcoming changes I want to make seemed to be more directly accessible via my current site than the rebuilt of an entirely new one.

So, my apologies for the messiness and the confusion (if you even noticed).

Happy Saturday to you.

Inviting to Connect on LinkedIn? Give Context. Please.

2009-04-23T18:26:28Z

Here are some familiar words for users of LinkedIn.com…

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

Nine times out of ten, the LinkedIn connection invitations I receive come with the default text above. Granted, it is the fastest way of sending invitations. And when you and I know each other well, perhaps no more is needed.

For everyone else - loose connections, a person I met once long ago, or strangers, it will not do.

Give me some context, please. Why would you like to connect? What can I expect from our connection?

There are two really important reasons to give some context.

Resume Boot Camp Launched

2009-04-21T21:19:17Z

Resume Boot CampHere is some decisive action as a follow-up to my post last week.

Resume Boot Camp is a new program I have designed and configured for those of you who have put some hard work into your resume but would like to validate / check / fine-tune your document. This is a fast and cost-effective way to ensure your Resume is prime-time ready.

The first Resume Boot Camp starts this Thursday, April 23 and runs to Tuesday the 28th. The next Resume Boot Camp will begin in early May.

They are Just that Into You

2009-04-20T23:51:03Z

My website is hosted on the very cool Squarespace platform and I can’t say enough about the folks behind it. Interestingly, the Squarespace folks posted what I thought was something noteworthy. It seems that they have just hired someone, a web developer / designer / blogger / twitterer, by the name of Jonathan Snook, and well, they are pretty excited about it. Apparently, this is something they have been trying to make happen for quite some time. And now, he is on board.

Think about it for a second. Shouldn’t we all aim to be this wanted and welcomed when we sell or loan our talent to someone new?