Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about finding your way in a tough job market, networking, learning to lead, when to avoid setting goals, and mixing personal and professional.

From Anita Bruzzese: 8 tips to help you find your way in this tough job market
“You may not think you have a superpower, but if the only way you’re looking for a job is by applying to companies or job boards on the Web, you’ve just become invisible.”

Wally’s Comment: Yep, unemployment’s still going up and that means more competition for fewer jobs. Here are some tips on how to make the best of it all.

From CareerBuilder: How to Network without Being Phony, Lame or Desperate
“Let’s face it: Even when you’re on top of the world, chances are good that the idea of networking sounds like a big, fat drag. You can probably think of 100 other things you’d rather do — like cleaning the blades of your ceiling fan. But if you’re one of the 14.9 million people who are competing for what seems to be a handful of jobs, your confidence has probably taken a hit. So now is probably not the time to be meeting anyone new. In fact, now is not the time to get out of your pajamas.”

Wally’s Comment: Standard go-to-a-mixer-and-hand-out-as-many-cards-as-possible networking doesn’t work for most people. Even worse, most of us hate it. Here are some ideas about how to get the benefits of networking without the silliness.

From Management Excellence: Don’t Wait for the Title to Start Leading
“The time to start leading is now, long before anyone has bestowed the title of leader on you. Much like the famous trio of Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Woodman of Oz-fame, they didn’t really need the Wizard to bestow a brain, courage or a heart, and you don’t need someone to anoint you as a leader before you can start learning and practicing.”

Wally’s Comment: If you think you might want to follow a managerial career path or avoid the “Boss Trap,” you need to start experimenting to figure out if leadership is for you. Art Petty suggests some ways to do that.

From the Change Blog: Want to Change? Stop Setting Goals
“One of the most widespread ideas in the world of personal development is SMART goal-setting – it seems to have seeped into every self-help, business development and corporate training program out there. Just in case you’ve somehow managed to avoid attending these workshops – or more likely slept through them – SMART is an acronym for a set of criteria that people are encouraged to use to get really clear on the outcome they’re aiming for when they’re setting goals, because this increase your success in achieving your goals.”

Wally’s Comment: This piece challenges the usually unchallenged assumption that the only road to any kind of change requires a stop at goal setting. Cath Duncan references one version of the SMART acronym in her post. DePaul University professor Robert S. Rubin “examined the first 40 Web sites that contained information about SMART goals, which included a full range of sites from fitness information, to state agency planning manuals, business articles, and university counseling centers.” There were enough different meanings for each of the letters to form almost 9000 different versions of the SMART acronym.

From the Talent Revolution: Your Private Life and Your Professional Life are the Same Online
“You’ve heard it before: Much like a work-related function versus a happy hour with friends, there are different rules of protocol with a LinkedIn interaction (professional) versus a Facebook interaction (personal). In fact, according to this recent poll, 43% of people believe personal and professional social networks should be kept separate. Good luck with that!”

Wally’s Comment: It was way back in 1999 when Scott McNealy made his famous statement: “You have no privacy. Get over it.” He was talking about the line between public and private in the Information Age. Since then, even more lines have blurred. Jon Gillespie suggests that you lead a life with lots of parts and it’s only natural that the online version of that life will blend them. So what do you do about that? Here are Jon’s suggestions.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 8:41 am and is filed under Managerial, Tools and Strategies for Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.