Ian Christie Interviewed on TV for the Business News Network

If you happen to have access to the BNN - Business News Network in Canada on Tuesday June 5th, you can see me in a taped interview at 8pm ET. Or, shortly after airing, it will appear at BNN.ca (click on the Workopolis TV button on the left).

The host, Bruce Sellery, did a great job of getting me to summarize my Getting Market Ready concept as it relates to job search.

Inverse Correlation

One might reasonably assume that a significant number of days elapsed between blog posts and newsletters means that nothing is happening over here at BoldCareer world headquarters.

That wouldn't be the right assumption, but it is understandable.

Fact is, we are busy. Very busy. Serving clients. Creating new ways to serve you. And building some infrastructure to serve you better.

But, this blog has been dark of late. And I have lots of things to share and write about it. So, I will get at it.

Just wanted to check-in. Hope you are well.

Get Career Tips, Advice & Inspiration Delivered to your Mobile Phone

BoldCareer's insights, tips, advice and inspiration on career development, job search, career change, resumes, interviewing and work is now available on your mobile phone via text messaging.

My good friend, the ever-energized Pete Smyth, founder of iamota.com and his talented team have developed a way for site owners to send various types of content to mobile phone users via text messaging. Nice.

Subscribe to Mobile Alerts:

So, if you live on your phone and would like to get a short excerpt every time I post to this blog, you can subscribe to a Mobile RSS alert simply by clicking the link above, or the link permanently displayed in the right column of this page. (Note to Mac users: The link works on Firefox, Camino and OmniWeb for Mac, but not Safari yet.)

Career Boosting Tip #5: Develop Your Top 20 Relationships

Did you think I had given up on this Top 100 list? No way. Just resting. Really.

Remember back in Tip #3 - Mine your Inbox for Contacts, I talked about working through your email archives to keep track of your contacts. Well, here is the follow-on. It applies, of course, to your universe of contacts, not just those people hanging out in your Inbox.

1. Make a list of your best relationships…not necessarily your best friends mind you. I am talking about professional relationships. Those people who know you and who have the power to help your career along. Like who? Well, if you know The Donald, great, but in the real world, think about..

• Individuals within your organization who are 1 or 2 levels above you, within your department and outside of it. You need to have some kind of exposure, or relationship, or at least the very real possibility of creating one over time.
• Peers within your organization who are on the move and in a non-competitive area.
• People who fit the above description but who are external to your organization. Again, you need some kind of contact or relationship with them.
• People whose opinion, input, coaching, and advice you really value.

2. Prioritize your list. If you have more than 20 names, focus in on the Top 20. The people who might be in a position to refer you to new opportunities, assign/hire you to career expanding work, go to bat for you, introduce you to someone interesting, etc.

3. Now, get thinking about how you can be useful to these people. For in-company relationships, it is often about doing great work, delivering on what you promised, and communicating and interacting at their level. Perhaps you can now or in the future refer quality people and companies to your contact. You might be a conduit of information. Get creative. Even if nothing occurs to you, the idea is to reciprocate.

I know. You may be thinking that this all sounds a bit mechanical. Here’s the bottom line. Your whole career can be made by just a few key relationships. Those key relationships may be within your grasp right now. Even if they aren’t, building your networking / relationship building muscle is an important skill.

Launching a Blog Series: 100 Career Boosting Tips

Okay. I am putting it out there. I was thinking over the holiday (well a little bit anyway) about the next spurt of blogging activity. I wanted a theme. And in my usual fashion, I came up with something biggish.

How about a 100 Tips on boosting your career? Sound good?

Okay. My pulse just went up a bit as I put that out there, but hey, we grow when we stretch.

100 short tips on boosting your career. Coming up.

My loophole…no deadline. But they are coming.

Tune in and share the series with friends.

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