Sell Yourself Into That New Position With a PowerPoint Presentation

Once you define your market plan, you need to take that professionally formatted resume and turn it into a flashy PowerPoint.

Craft a presentation that makes a "WOW" statement about you, your accomplishments and your goals. It has to be a presentation that, as the individual views it, will gain and keep their interest. But it must be short enough and to the point so interest is not lost, but in depth enough for them to see the value you can bring to the team.

Don't forget to include a few pages, allowing a tweak to a specific company. A little something that ties you directly to them, the industry and the job that you are targeting.

Upon completion, there are several ways to use your presentation. The greatest thing to remember, is that it can be used as an attachment to e-mail. Target the companies that you want to work for, tweak the company info segment in your presentation and send it to the email address of company executives and known hiring managers.

In many cases, you can send it along with your resume when applying for a position, but to be perfectly honest, I doubt that it will be viewed much this way. More often than not, your resume is printed out and anything other than possibly a cover letter, or T-chart, will remain unprinted. But, it can't hurt. It just might gain enough curiosity to be viewed and shown to many key people in the company.

Another use for the PowerPoint is to post it within Your LinkedIn profile utilizing the SlideShare presentations tool. (slide presentations also help your LinkedIn climb to top billing by Google, after you have your rating @ 100%)

I've also heard about an individual that loaded his PowerPoint presentation onto a laptop and used it during his interview. A salesperson is comfortable with doing this, but you should be as well. After all, as you search for your next career move, you have to sell yourself. The sooner that you are at rest with this concept, the sooner you will land that next position with confidence.

You can also post the PowerPoint on your career search website. You can either Google and get a free one (be careful that one like this doesn't add a lot of sexual or dating advertisement, which certainly wouldn't help you land that job). The safer way is to invest a small amount, like ten bucks for a year from someone like "GODADDY.COM" Then get someone as you network, to help you with setting it up. You can usually buy a domain with your name as the domain. Then, this info can be included in your resume header and in your LinkedIn.

One more thing to think about would be a resume video. This also can be e-mailed and included in your career search website.

Invest a little time, even if you need to get a few folks to help you. Maybe suggest a network group workshop to get this project under way.

I hope this helps. It just may be that one thing that stands you out above the other applicants, to land your next career position.

LinkedIn Top 10 HOT Business Generation Tips - New for September

Once you land that job, continue your networking through LinkedIn. There are many ways that you can use your contacts to generate new business. Remember, people like to do business with people that they know.

I attended a webinar earlier this week, put on by Dean DeLisle. I'm sharing his presentation with you. I hope this provides a little insight to additional uses for LinkedIn, well after job search is over and you are successful in that next position.

CONTINUE BUILDING YOUR LINKEDIN NETWORK. IT CAN BE YOUR NEXT GOLDEN KEY IN OPENING THE DOORS TO NEW BUSINESS & CULTIVATING SUSTAINED BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS.

Linked In Top 10 HOT Business Generation Tips - New for September

View more presentations from Dean DeLisle.

LinkedIn Tid Bits

Just a few little things that make a difference with sending link requests on LinkedIn.

These are a collection of the messages that others and I write when requesting to be LinkedIn. I'll throw out a few ideas and let you combine and customize as you wish or as the situation warrants.

A real time saver for me is that I have these written in a saved .DOC file. I copy and past from that to LinkedIn.

You should always conclude each request with a Thank You, your name and your e-mail address. Your phone number is not real important at this point, unless it's a hiring manager or someone that you would like for them to contact you via phone.

~~~~~~
Do you accept invitations? If so please provide your e-mail address.
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I got your note wanting to connect. Thus, I am sending you an invitation.

If you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
~~~~~~
Thanks for saying that you accept inventions. I would like to connect with you.

If you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
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I saw you on LinkedIn & I would like to connect with you.

If you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
~~~~~~
It was nice meeting you at (insert where you met individual) & I would like to connect with you.

However, if you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
~~~~~~
(Insert reference name) suggested that we connect.

However, if you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
~~~~~~
Glad we are connected.

Please let me know if I can help you in any way.
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I'm looking forward to expand my network with mutually beneficial contacts. I would like to link with you professionally.

However, if you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
~~~~~~
Through a LinkedIn search, your name came up. I'm looking to contact (insert target person's name). Wouldyou mind introducing me to them?

However, if you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
~~~~~~

I REALLY LIKE THIS NEXT ONE

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It was nice meeting you at (insert where you met individual) & I would like to connect with you.

However, if you prefer not to, please select "Archive" instead of "I don't know this person", and accept my apology for the interruption.

I'm currently looking for key contacts within these or similar companies: FORD, DELTA, KOHLS, BANANA REPUBLIC, TARGET, and CHICK-FIL-A. Your time and assistance is greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be introduced to any of my direct contacts.
~~~~~~

I hope this helps you make a few key connections through LinkedIn.

Please share other ideas with me so I can consider them for a future posting.

Is Your Cup Half Empty or Is It Half Full?

Does your career search have you bogged down because the unemployment rate in the area(s) that you are searching is at or near double digits?

Snap out of it right now! Grab yourself by the scruff of the neck and get active in your search. You are a valuable asset to a company somewhere. Maybe not today, but certainly tomorrow.

YOU WILL LAND THAT NEXT JOB!

Even if the unemployment rate is as high as 12%, remember this; 88% are employed. Is your cup half empty, or is it half full? People are leaving companies, for personal reasons, health and for retirement, every day. Employers are letting select people go, in hopes of finding you, a better, more reliable employee, for the same money.

Government employees are, and will continue to retire at an astonishing rate, as our government employee sector is older than our private sector. Maybe you don't want to work for the government. That's alright, the replacement employees for our government will be coming from the private sector, so that creates an opening in the private sector where you are searching.

Companies are doing less advertising through the job boards. Research the companies that you wish to work for. Google them, then go to their company job or career site. Look them up on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. That's where you will find the jobs.

Okay, so you did all of that and came up empty. Maybe you did check yesterday, but did you check today?

This may be hard to understand, but the experienced job pool will completely dry up as early as the Spring of 2012. No, I can't wait that long either, but I just wanted to put it in proper perspective.

To coin a phrase and book title by Robert H. Schuller, "Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!"

I pray that we both find that job that we are looking for, and soon!

Using Social Media Tools to Enhance Your Job Search

I found this slide presentation on LinkedIn SlideShare Presentations. Tom Carbonaro does of pretty good job of defining the various online network media currently available. He outlines the importance of branding yourself to rise above the numbers and carrying that brand through all media. Then he explains the importance of tying it all together. I hope you find it as enlightening as I did. Have a little fun marketing yourself through the various media available to you. They're all just a few keyboard strokes away.

Are You Using LinkedIn?

I've found LinkedIn to be a very resourceful tool. It's arguably the best professional networking tool in today's cyber world. It is extremely useful for networking and locating key individuals in your career search.

Once you land that job, it can be a very useful tool for researching and making contact with key folks within a company that could possible help make that sale.

Linked In, if used to it's fullest extent, can provide a place for you to input your past job experiences, like to groups and sub-groups of interest and keep up to date with what folks are doing in your network.

Several limiting switches within the site will provide you with the level of information that you share to both network and out of network people.

My personal recommendation is to link only to people that can be useful, or that you may be able to provide information and support to, that you know and trust.

There are folks that will link to anyone and everyone. They are referred to as LION people, which is an acronym for Linked In Open Networker. These folks generally will have the word LION in their name title in bold capital letters.

If you are not linked in professionally, I suggest that you do so with out further delay. It can be a powerful resource for you. If you are currently in job search, please understand that rather than spend the big bucks on the job boards, human resource people are turning to LinkedIn for applicants.

You can simply go to www.linkedin.com (but come back and visit or follow my blog)