Ken White
From the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. This is Leadership & Business. The weekly podcast that brings you the latest and best thinking from today's business leaders from across the world. We share the strategies, tactics, and information that can make you a more effective leader, communicator, and professional. I'm your host Ken White. Thanks for listening. The end of 2016 and the beginning of a new year. This is the time many professionals decide to take the plunge and change jobs, and it's a good time to do so. According to monster.com, December, January, and February are excellent months to apply for and secure a new position. If you're considering an employment change in the New Year, we have two experts on the podcast today to help you make all the right moves. First, Dawn Edmiston is a Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing here at William & Mary's Raymond A. Mason School of Business. Dawn works with professionals, clients, and students to improve their personal brands. In addition, she helps people utilize social media strategies in their job searches. Phil Heavilin is Executive Director of the Graduate Career Management Center here at the Mason School. Phil works with countless companies, organizations, and job seekers. He also serves as a career advisor to MBA students and other professionals. Dawn and Phil join us on an extended episode of the podcast today to discuss how you can find the job of your dreams in 2017. Here's our conversation with Dawn Edmiston and Phil Heavilin.
Ken White
Well, Dawn and Phil, thank you for joining us. We're actually recording when are we about the eighth or ninth of December, and for people in an academic setting, this is such a busy time, so thank you for spending time with us. It's great to have you here. Phil, I'll start with you. You oversee the Graduate Career Management Center here in the Mason School of Business at William & Mary. You're constantly working with MBA students and Master's students looking for work. The end of the year search what's it like? Why do people seem to start a search at the end of the year? What's going on with people?
Phil Heavilin
Well, the first thing I would say is that don't take a holiday from your job search. This is a time period where many people will take some time off and maybe go on vacation, which is great. You need that. But if you're either actively seeking a position or really want to make a transition, this is a time to really double down on those activities. On the employer's side, many recruiters, many organizations are trying to fill positions by the end of the year. Maybe they're reaching trying to hit certain numbers. And so, recruiters are very active during this time period. And so you want to take advantage of an opportunity where you have many job candidates who are taking themselves out of the market temporarily, taking a break, a hiatus, but you have recruiters who are actively seeking candidates. This is a great opportunity you double down, get some applications out, reach out to recruiters during this time period. You're really going to put yourself at an advantage where during other times of the year, it's just not the same thing.
Ken White
What about the new year after the New Year? Is it a completely different cycle and setting, then?
Phil Heavilin
You're going to have another ramping up on recruiting activity right at the beginning of the year. And so if you take advantage of, you know, around the holidays where you're doing that outreach, you imagine that people are starting back up January 1st who took that break. They're trying to make some inroads where you've already made them with some of these companies. So it's really important to take advantage during the holidays whereas before or the new year to really get those inroads in with those recruiters.
Ken White
So I have a job. I like it. But I think I might want to look for something else. Is there a checklist or questions I should ask myself before launching a search to make sure I'm actually doing the right thing?
Phil Heavilin
Yeah, something I've mentioned before on a podcast and with clients that I work with is make sure you understand what you're trying to get into rather than what you're just trying to get out of. Really taking stock of what it is that you're doing right now, what is it that you like. What is it that you don't like? Because that's usually the driver for people when they're they're out online, and they're looking at job postings, and they're applying to things on the side. It's usually the dislikes that are driving that activity. So really understanding what that is so that when you make that next move, you're not just duplicating, you're not just getting into a similar situation. So, for example, typically, it's the relationship with a supervisor that's driving people to change jobs. So maybe when you're looking for a new position, and you maybe get deep into the process, really understand who it is that you're going to be working for.
Ken White
Right.
Phil Heavilin
Ask your potential colleagues what it is like working for this individual. You get a lot of good positive feedback, as are opportunities for growth. Making sure that those questions are answered before making that big move into a new position.
Ken White
Is that one of the top reasons that people look at the relationship with the supervisors is not as great as it can be?
Phil Heavilin
That's correct. It is the top reason why people transition out of their current employment.
Ken White
That's number one. So good for supervisors and leaders to know about and good for those possibly seeking a new position. We here and in, the three of us, deal a lot with millennials, many of them just I'm going to go online and apply and apply and apply. Is that the one and only way to do it? What's the best way?
Phil Heavilin
That's a strategy. That's a strategy. If you don't like getting out and networking and meeting with people and just want to apply to job postings, and you really do have to apply literally to thousands, it can be a numbers game at that moment. And that's actually more difficult than networking because people try to manage their job search and try to manage the positions they've applied to. It's just a nightmare because you have an excel spreadsheet with hundreds of companies on there. You really have to. That's part of it, but you really need to get out and just meet with people and the holidays, whether it's pre-holiday or the new year. There's great opportunities to get out and meet people in your industry. There's always a typical networking events which kind of put people off. People feel uncomfortable going in networking events. They feel uncomfortable meeting new people, especially if you characterize yourself as an introvert, but there's other opportunities like volunteer activities where maybe you get attached to an organization or a cause that you really believe in, and so really the byproduct becomes meeting people. And I don't. I've met many people just through my volunteer activity and what you have is now you have something in common with everybody who you're meeting in that in that activity because you all are there. You have a shared interest and a shared goal trying to contribute to this organization, so immediately you have something in common, whereas if you're going to just a general event, networking event, the whole goal is to find someone who has something in common, and so you go through this period of awkward back and forth small talk with the whole purpose of trying to land on something you had an interest in.
Ken White
Dawn, I know you work with clients 18 all the way up in terms of age and experience, and I know you spent a great deal of time talking to them about networking. Networking season beginning a bum rap lately. People are saying don't network, make conversation instead, make friendships, and so forth. How do you position networking, and how do you try to share tips and ideas with people with whom you interact?
Dawn Edmiston
I really like Phil's opening statement that you should never take a holiday from a career search. In fact, I would take that analogy one step further and say that you should give yourself the gift of opportunities of networking of reflection, and the holidays are a great chance to do that. We live in such a hectic environment where it is react react react, and we need to take a moment to reflect. And the holidays are an ideal point to be able to do that. And as we go through that reflection process and as we start thinking about the things that we can do to further contribute our time and our talents. Networking is a critical element of that. And it does at times. In fact, when I was in graduate school, one of the greatest lines I ever heard at a conference was networking is not a negative word.
Ken White
Right.
Dawn Edmiston
And I have often thought about that because I'm an introvert. I'm an introvert by nature. It is very difficult for me, and I know that my students and clients would never believe that, but by nature, this is not this. Even this podcast is not what I would choose to do. However, I am passionate about marketing and passionate about personal branding, and I understand the value of networking. And to Phil's point, if we can think creatively about networking and what works for you, then move forward in and through those channels. And with that, too, we had a brief conversation just before the start of this podcast about how digital technologies allow the introverts and all of us to be able to connect with other individuals. So I was just having a conversation with students about a conference that they are attending during the holidays. And I said to them have you looked on LinkedIn for those individuals who are speaking.
Ken White
Right.
Dawn Edmiston
Have you tried to connect with them in advance because that can help when you approach them at the end of their session and acknowledge what they've shared, and share with them how you value their insights? And that's yet another positive relationship moment. And know we have plenty of those opportunities through digital technologies.
Ken White
There seems to be a lot of discussion, books, articles written about don't treat it as or don't go in and say I'm looking for a job but instead say I'm looking for advice or could you help me. What do you think about that approach?
Dawn Edmiston
No doubt about it. I mean, in a focus, I've said again and again the focus should always be on the other individual's needs because if you are meeting their needs, they will eventually appreciate your value and that that's really where the focus needs to be. We should not be starting with I statements. It should be what you need and how can I contribute to those needs. How can I bring value to you as an individual or as an organization?
Phil Heavilin
I would go piggyback off that and say that when you're reaching out to these people, ask for advice, ask for insight that's you're going to trigger something that's just part of human nature, and as that, we intrinsically we want to help other people. We do. And when people come to us seeking advice and insight, and it's something that we can give. Oh, I know that topic. I feel comfortable sharing that information. That is incredibly fulfilling for that person to be able to meet the need of the individual who is coming to them asking for advice and insight and through that exchange, what you're doing is you are establishing a rapport and establish a relationship that it may be something that turns into a professional opportunity, but it might turn into a mentorship or something down the line. So if you can use that a word advice and that be the goal objective of that initial contact is asking for advice and insight that can launch you into a whole variety of different directions with that person.
Ken White
So if you're looking for a job, go ahead and apply online but make sure that networking must be a part of that. But as Dawn said, don't treat it as a negative. Treat it as an opportunity, a way to meet people, a way to build relationships, and the fact is most people would love to help you, especially if there's a connection right an alma mater, something you both like, the field, whatever that happens to be, and it may not be quite as tough as maybe some people make it sound.
Phil Heavilin
It's tough in the beginning.
Ken White
Yeah right.
Phil Heavilin
We get through a few and what you actually find is that there is a certain rhythm when you meet someone for the first time. There's always initial small talk kind of banter going back and forth, and maybe you identify something that again you have in common, and so you'll find that there's a rhythm to that exchange. And the best way to be successful in that kind of an engagement is to prepare for it. To go into it, whether it's an event or going into or maybe you reached out to someone on LinkedIn and said hey can we schedule 15 20 minute chat and they respond. People are frightened that someone will actually respond to them. I mean, they're frightened. And so when they actually say yes, then having a set of questions half a dozen or so that tap into that person's specific career path. What do they like about that industry? What do they like about that company? And so having some questions established ready ahead of time that's going to give you a little bit more confidence knowing what it is that you're going to actually address with that person, and then you're going to find that there's a rhythm. And then the subsequent conversations you have with people can be easier and easier and, dare I say, fun.
Ken White
Yeah great. So let's back up. I mean, if we were talking about networking, probably the first thing most people will work on when they're seeking a new position is their resume. There don't seem to be necessarily a hard and fast rules. What do you tend to advise people in terms of resume?
Phil Heavilin
Resumes are important to keep up. For one thing, it's difficult, especially if you've been in a position for a few years and you've had some great accomplishments, to then go back a few years after your accomplishments and try to remember the details and then structure, you know an accomplishment statement within your resume that is a good reflection of what you did. That can be very difficult. So as you have these winds currently in your career and in your position, you have your resumé on your desktop on your computer, so you quickly get up there, and just maybe you're not wordsmithing it at that time but just get it up there on your current employment so that if you find yourself either having to transition out you already have something there to work from and you're ready to go.
Ken White
Yeah.
Phil Heavilin
It's got to be one page too. These recruiters they are breezing through these resumes in just a few seconds. So making sure that's one page. It's not a biography. It's just enough to get you the interview. That's what a resume is for. It's just to get you the interview, so giving them everything that you think that they need and that they're looking for. That's the content of the resume.
Dawn Edmiston
And that's actually the most important point at the end. Is what the employer needs from you. It is not a reflection of what you have done. They are not concerned about your titles or your credentials. They want to know about the experiences that you've had and the insights that you've gained from those experiences that you can contribute to the organization. And having that mindset is critical, and Phil's emphasis on preparation before you are seeking advice those are critical success factors. Having an understanding, you do not have to have a specific knowledge about your exact dream job. However, you do need to know where it is that you want to direct your focus, and you can do that through aspirational job searches. The holidays are also wonderful opportunities to do aspirational job searches. Print out two or three positions that you do aspire to achieve even if you're living happily ever after in your current role. And look at what is required to succeed in those roles and then be certain that you are using that language to describe your experiences, whether it's on your resumé or your LinkedIn profile or in conversations when you are networking with others.
Ken White
We'll continue our conversation with Dawn Edmiston and Phil Heavilin in just a minute. Our podcast is brought to you by the Center for Corporate Education at the College of William & Mary's Raymond A. Mason School of Business. The Center for Corporate Education helps companies and organizations from all over the world by creating and delivering business and leadership development programs. If your organization is looking to get to the next level, contact the Center for Corporate Education to discuss how we can create and deliver a program that specifically fits your needs and gets results. For more information, visit our website at wmleadership.com. Now back to our conversation with Dawn Edmiston and Phil Heavilin on landing a new job in the new year.
Ken White
Older workers, how far back do you go on a resume and on a LinkedIn profile?
Dawn Edmiston
Well, to Phil's point again, I think it's important that you think about the employer.
Ken White
And what's relevant to them.
Dawn Edmiston
And what's relevant to them. Yes. So I would not say that, you know, go back 20 years if you had started in that career field and perhaps had transitioned into another industry and now are interested in moving back. That foundational experience can be very important.
Ken White
Right. And it could actually be wrapped up in a sentence if you want to say I had one career, now I'm in this one sentence can cover that old career just sort of let them know.
Phil Heavilin
Yeah, that's right.
Ken White
Yeah.
Phil Heavilin
And oftentimes you're you have to fill out a pretty extensive job application for the employer, too, and so they're going to ask for a little bit more detail.
Ken White
Right.
Phil Heavilin
So the resume again it's a marketing tool. It does not have to have all these specific details from 25 years ago. It's just not necessary.
Ken White
It seems like we've been talking about LinkedIn for 50 years. It hasn't been around quite that long. Some people get it. Some people don't. Dawn, you do a lot with executives and professionals in LinkedIn. I guess rule number one if you don't have a profile, for crying out loud, you don't exist.
Dawn Edmiston
In most cases that's, that's true. Yes. I mean, LinkedIn is now in excess of 400 million users worldwide, and it is a great platform for networking. I will share that there are always exceptions.
Ken White
Sure.
Dawn Edmiston
If, for example, in your particular field, it is more important for you to have a creative portfolio or other aspects. Yes, and that's where your focus should be first. However, I will share that LinkedIn has become quite robust as they've evolved and now have the opportunity. One of the initial challenges with LinkedIn was you were taking a one-dimensional resume and simply importing it into your LinkedIn profile.
Ken White
Right.
Phil Heavilin
Yeah.
Dawn Edmiston
And again, to reinforce a point I made earlier, it is not about the titles that you've held or the credentials you've earned. It really is about those experiences. So if you can share examples of your work, whether it be projects that you presented, videos that you've developed, LinkedIn is a really powerful place to be able to do that. And it's free and it still tends to be one of the first search results that will appear on any of the major search engines. And that's the only thing that you are doing to develop a personal brand that is a very good place to start.
Phil Heavilin
When they look up Dawn online, and her LinkedIn profile is going to be on the first page of Google. I saw a statistic. I think 93 percent of people do google searches don't even go into the second page.
Ken White
Sure.
Dawn Edmiston
Yes.
Phil Heavilin
So LinkedIn it's going to be right there in the first pages of the google search.
Ken White
One of the things, Dawn, I think a lot of people at least many executives that I interact with really struggle with is this the professional summary know LinkedIn for those who know it or don't you have your photo you've got your resumé your title and so forth. But we have this opportunity to write a commercial, for lack of a better term about ourselves. But some people really struggle with writing the summary. How do you guide them?
Dawn Edmiston
We do. It's hard.
Ken White
Yeah.
Dawn Edmiston
In fact, in a senior-level undergraduate course that I teach at the College of William & Mary, we've now developed this concept called the perfect pitch and perfect pitch videos, and in 60 seconds, my students need to deliver their perfect pitch. And if you look at the summary sections now on their LinkedIn profiles, many elements from those perfect pitch scripts are now appearing in their summary. It's a narrative to allow you to connect with potential employers. I think it's very important again that the focus is not entirely on you. It's a summary of the experiences that you can contribute to others. So as you are developing that summary, you need to think about what it is that you want to do. I also encourage students and clients to think about LinkedIn as a forward progressive media channel. Do not think about it as a reflection of what I've done in the past. So, for example, if you're looking to transition careers, your LinkedIn profile should be a reflection of the values that you will bring to that future career, not a reflection on what you've just done in the past. I just have a client who has been an accountant for more than 20 years wants to move into marketing for financial services. So we're literally reflecting on everything that they've done in the past 20 years that can also be perceived in the marketing communication role, and that could bring value to them in this financial services market. And that's that's important to consider as you develop the summary section and as you develop the bullet points that explain the contributions that you've made to past organizations that you will bring to future employers.
Ken White
So have your profile have a professional photo. We all know that and really take time to have it other centric or employer-centric summary. Any other new tools that LinkedIn has introduced? Is there video?
Dawn Edmiston
Yes, you can embed video. One of the most important tools, and I know that you have both heard this from me before but give yourself a gift during this holidays if you have not already personalized your LinkedIn URL. That is the single most important tactic that you can take because, to Phil's point earlier where, if you were to search for Dawn Edmiston, even though I have my own domain named dawnedmiston.com. The LinkedIn profile because it is personalized is still typically the first result that appears.
Phil Heavilin
I always tell my students and clients that every morning I log into my email, and then I immediately open up LinkedIn every single morning because, to me LinkedIn the breadth of activity that you can engage in on LinkedIn, whether it's developing and nurturing your personal brand, your personal profile. The job opportunities that are there setting up job alerts that are relevant to what either you're doing now or what you want to do in that next step. The ability to mine for contacts for informational interviewing or networking, I think people are bought in that it is essential, but just in case there's a few doubters out there. LinkedIn is absolutely essential on a variety of different fronts.
Dawn Edmiston
And I do encourage networking building to the 500 plus. That's the critical point within LinkedIn once you reach 500 plus that that appears on your LinkedIn profile. It seems to have a certain credence in the marketplace. However, it is important to have contacts and connections that are valuable to you.
Ken White
Right.
Dawn Edmiston
Because they are now, that is the content that you will see in your LinkedIn feed, and that is how other individuals will potentially associate you. They will look at who you are associating with and getting a greater appreciation of your interests of your experience. But in particular, I do think that LinkedIn has become more powerful at curating content as well as creating content. Now that you're able to do LinkedIn publish posts.
Ken White
Right.
Dawn Edmiston
We really have no need to do professional blogs because LinkedIn now serves that purpose, and with a touch of a button, I can reach thousands of individuals where I would have never had that outreach those outreach opportunities in the past.
Ken White
For those who don't know that. Yeah, you can. Everybody with LinkedIn profile doesn't have to be a premium account. Any kind of LinkedIn profile, you can create thought pieces, opinion pieces, instructional pieces, write them, you can add a really cool graphic or a photo if and I'm telling you I am horrible at technology, and I can. It's so simple to do this. It is very, very simple to add the photo and write a piece and push it out, and it's not only to your connections, is it? It can really have some legs because your connections can then share it.
Dawn Edmiston
Yes.
Ken White
What do you recommend to professionals about posting and about writing on LinkedIn?
Dawn Edmiston
First, you should start with what you know and very often, I've had the privilege of also teaching undergraduate and graduate students at the College of William & Mary, and recently in the online MBA course that I taught several of the students their posts relative to market research tools for a particular assignment were so good that I told them that they needed to share those insights on LinkedIn.
Ken White
Great.
Dawn Edmiston
And because other individuals would want to know about those market research tools and the value of those tools to their organizations or to their individual success. So I would start with what you know.
Phil Heavilin
Absolutely, I would concur. Definitely write what you know, and question for Dawn how important is it to have someone maybe who's within the industry or close colleague maybe take a look at it before pulling the trigger.
Dawn Edmiston
Yeah.
Ken White
Yeah.
Phil Heavilin
I think everybody is so nervous about putting something out there.
Dawn Edmiston
And one of the other good things about doing that is then you also have an individual. Once that article is done, you can ask them would you be willing to share this across your social media channels. Yes. I mean, getting that feedback getting that insight, that's invaluable.
Ken White
And it doesn't have to be that lengthy, and actually, if you're not a journalist, it's pretty easy to kind of figure out the formula. Five tips to this or three highlights about this I think if you'd like to post one of the best ways to learn to read others who do it well, look at the daily feeds from Entrepreneur magazine, Fast Company, Bloomberg Businessweek. All of those have really, in fact, some of them even tell you right up front three-minute read, five-minute read, and then you kind of get the idea, oh I get it. The main idea may be back it up with two or three points and then and then wrap it up. Is too often? Can that be an issue? I'm posting twice a week or once a week. What do you think in terms of how often someone should publish on LinkedIn?
Dawn Edmiston
Yes, there is definitely a limit. I have actually removed connections because they just are constantly in my LinkedIn feed, and LinkedIn, unfortunately, that's one of the attributes that they do not have at this point. Unlike Facebook, for example, where you could limit what you see from certain individuals. LinkedIn does not seem to have capabilities at this point. So it is similar to Twitter. You just continue to watch. Watch the feed build, and that can be difficult. So I would state that if you're an individual, posting once or twice during the week could be powerful. I do not post that often. I do certainly share that often. I make a valiant effort to be engaged. I think it's important to know that you don't necessarily have to be creating content to be engaged in these environments as well. So if I see something as usual that Dean White, you know, shares or Phil shares, you most likely have seen me share it to my constituents as well because it's relevant to the environment in which we live, and I know it's relevant to the connections that I have. So you do not necessarily have to simply create content to be effectively engaging through LinkedIn and other social media channels.
Ken White
And an easy way, I think to be involved in LinkedIn is to endorse others for their skills. Right. So you know Phil, I'll go into his profile. I'll click on leadership, and he then gets an endorsement from me, and I think that's a great way, and you see that. What a wonderful way to connect with other individuals. What about I'm talking to a number of professionals who say I seem to be getting a lot of invitations from people I don't know, and man, that takes time. Do I know this person? Did I meet this person? There's no introduction. It's just connect with me.
Dawn Edmiston
So there are so many points in that statement that need to be.
Phil Heavilin
Yes, quality contacts are very important. I remember when I was a new professional, I was happy when anybody.
Ken White
Yeah, right.
Phil Heavilin
I don't know who you are, but by golly, you're in my network now.
Ken White
You have a job you're in.
Phil Heavilin
Now because, you know, for a variety of reasons, and I work with a lot of students who, you know, I want to connect them with my network. I'm much more interested in quality connections who if someone that comes to me and says to me oh, I see you're connected with so-and-so on LinkedIn, you mind maybe making an introduction? I want to be able to confidently say yes because I know who that person is. I've had some circumstances where someone asked to be introduced to someone in my network, and I don't really remember who that person was. And so I realized, okay, I need to really begin to vet the requests that come through to me.
Ken White
So when you're making a request because all three of us get several a week from people we've never heard of, and there's really nothing written in the box, it just says, let's connect. So when you're making the request.
Dawn Edmiston
So that's another limitation of LinkedIn. There are certain parts within the LinkedIn environment where you connect, and LinkedIn sends an automatic invitation.
Ken White
Right.
Dawn Edmiston
Do not do it.
Ken White
Right.
Dawn Edmiston
You always want to send a personalized note with your invitation. In fact, when I speak now at conferences, I do feel because I speak on personal branding and marketing communications that, there might be individuals who want to connect with me afterwards and follow my work. And so, I just simply ask them, please, when you send the invitation to connect. Just let me know that we met at this event, and I would be glad to accept your invitation.
Ken White
Yeah, so simple. Hi Dawn we met after your speech at the conference loved it. Would you mind connecting?
Dawn Edmiston
Yeah.
Ken White
Other than these blanket. Very strange. And I've actually run into people I have, in fact, met, but they didn't put it in the invitation, and then you say no thank you. And you know you've offended somebody and so forth, and Dawn, you were talking about the number of connections too. The 500 is the magic number or that that sort of, and those are connections people who ask you to connect and vice versa, what to do in terms of LinkedIn and social media if I'm not searching for a job. The person is really happy.
Dawn Edmiston
You should not change what you do. I mean, the time to start building these relationships is now when you do not necessarily need them but could still value them.
Phil Heavilin
Absolutely your connections you have to nurture whether you're actively searching or not. And I think many people are always passively looking for new opportunities or at least open to new opportunities as you want to maybe be open to that. But I think absolutely you have to continue to nurture, update, like, share, communicate, post so that if you do find yourself in the unfortunate situation where you have to tap that network, it's already developed, and now it's a matter of harvesting rather than trying to grow.
Dawn Edmiston
We had an executive recently deliver a guest lecture here, and they said that graduates will now have between 16 and 32 different positions in their career.
Ken White
Yeah.
Dawn Edmiston
And knowing that that's true. You do not necessarily know where these opportunities when they will arise and but you always have to be available for them. I mean, you always have to position yourself so that you can take advantage of these opportunities when they're presented to you.
Ken White
So our listener who's seeking is doing a great job at work. And so now they've decided I'm going to look. They've got their resume together. They're out there network as difficult or as easy as that might be. They're on LinkedIn, any other social media, any other channels that they should be considering as they start this new year and looking for new opportunities or is doing working hard, networking, and LinkedIn enough.
Phil Heavilin
I think there's always opportunities to explore different avenues to maybe tap a network of people we haven't tapped before. And getting involved in professional organizations I think especially if you're transitioning into a new field that's a great way to start establishing people and professionals within that industry. So getting involved in maybe a local chapter of an organization, I think, is really important. To me if I had one piece of advice, is that you got to set goals. Once you're kind of ready to go and ready to move forward, really have set goals in order to know how to get to wherever your destination is because you don't have goals, you don't have direction, and direction is what gets you to that destination. So you've got the LinkedIn profile you kind of have an idea of what you want to do then set those goals in order to get where you want to be.
Dawn Edmiston
And be proactive about not only developing this personal brand presence but also in monitoring it and using tools such as Google alerts. You should definitely have a Google alert set for your name, for organizations of interest to you, for fields of interest to you, for competitors. Another great free tool is mention.com. I've actually found mention.com to be even more robust than Google Alerts, especially relative to social media. So I had a student recently post a very kind comment in a random blog about me. Thank goodness it was kind, but mention would have told me otherwise, and it appeared in my mention.com feed, and I thanked this student, and they were shocked that I would have had access to this particular blog because it was so industry specific. It was, in fact, it was a music blog, and this was her field of interest, and they were asking about individuals who had inspired her work, and I was very I was flattered to be a part, and I wouldn't have known about it had it not been mention.com. And a third free tool I want to mention is brandyourself.com. Another free tool, brand yourself, is especially good because it monitors what appears on your the first page first pages of your Google search. So again, having that professional online presence is important. Having those networks are important but monitoring the process is also a very important part of engagement.
Ken White
And final question Phil. Is there a certain amount of time have we've seen statistics, or have you seen anything that how long a job search might take? Does it vary?
Phil Heavilin
Very good question. It does, and the federal government does a lot of studies related to this, and it's a part-time job it really is. It can be upwards of 20 hours a week just from all the activities associated with what we discussed today. Establishing a profile on LinkedIn if you don't have one, reaching out to connections, reading content, getting up to speed on an industry, going on interviews, applying to positions this takes real tangible time for an active job seeker who might be still employed. That can be up to 20 hours a week that you're dedicating to that kind of activity.
Ken White
And it may take time for you to find that right job, but you got to keep doing the right thing and hang in there.
Phil Heavilin
You got to do it. I always say it's a marathon, not a sprint, if you can just commit to certain activities a week. Set those weekly goals maintain that activity because as long as you're doing the right things, it's going to happen, and it's going to work out.
Ken White
And that's our conversation with Dawn Edmiston and Phil Heavilin, and that's our podcast for this week. Leadership & Business is brought to you by the Center for Corporate Education at the College of William & Mary's Raymond A. Mason School of Business. The Center for Corporate Education can help you, and your organization get to the next level with business and leadership development programs that specifically fit your needs. For more information, visit our website at wmleadership.com. Also, we'd love to hear from you regarding our podcast. Please share your comments, thoughts, or suggestions with us via email at podcast@wm.edu. Well, thanks to our guests this week, Dawn Edmiston and Phil Heavilin from the Mason School of Business, and thanks to you for joining us for our final podcast of 2016. I'm Ken White. Until next time have a safe and productive week. And happy New Year.
The beginning of a new year is the time many professionals decide to take the plunge and change jobs. According to monster.com, December, January, and February are excellent months to apply for and secure a new position. If you're considering an employment change in the coming new year, our guests today will help you make all the right moves. Dawn Edmiston is a Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing, and Phil Heavilin is the Executive Director of the Graduate Career Management Center at the William & Mary's Raymond A. Mason School of Business, and they join us today to discuss how you can find the job of your dreams in 2017.