Thinking About Personal Branding

Since posting about personal branding the other day, I've been mulling the subject over. It's easy to see why people are writing about it - there's something seductive about taking communications strategies conceived for big organizations and applying them to our own, individual needs.

If I wanted to be cynical, I'd say this is just another example of marketing-culture creep: We should all be thinking of ways to spin ourselves into the best possible light. But I tend to be more retro than cynical, so I think personal branding isn't about spin so much as it's about communication, in this case having a clear view on what kind of person you are and how you want to be perceived.

Notice that I included "what kind of person you are" in that sentence. If we're going to talk about personal branding then we've to get comfortable with the notion we're the product, and that we want to convey the depth of our product's quality to the people we meet. Or, to remove the product-speak, we want others to perceive us as qualified, talented, decent - the kind of people it's good to do business with, or hire, or promote.

This means there's got to be substance in your product. We're not selling breakfast cereal, after all. If you want to develop your career, you've got to think about doing good work - and pursuing the kind of work you want to do - before you begin planning your communications or job-search strategies. We all know people who think about positioning themselves first and backing up that positioning later. These are the people who convey the impression they've got expertise they don't, in fact, possess. In my experience, they tend to talk fast and brusquely brush back anyone who questions them. Some of them flame out - at some point their technical ignorance, or their inability to get actual work done, catches up with them.

My point: Thinking about personal branding is all to the good. But be sure to build your brand on a record of solid work.

Should You Blog?

Visibility and Web-savvy are useful when job-hunting. So, should you merge those goals by starting your own financial Web site or blog? In most situations, experts say no.

Read the full story.

Facing the Tough Stuff

What do Steven Jobs, Howard Stern and Terrell Owens have in common? They've all been fired. While at the time it seems devastating, most people rebound after termination and move on to new opportunities. One thing is certain: To get your next job you'll need to answer questions about why you left your last one.

Read the full story.

A Site for Women

Damsels in Success is a networking site for women that emphasizes sharing experiences and advice. It covers a lot of topics, many of which you'd expect to see - such as the glass ceiling - but many of which you wouldn't - like happiness and men vs. women. Why wouldn't I expect to see such things? Because often, those are the topics that business-oriented sites gloss over. The site's highly designed but easy to navigate, and goes out of its way to break through the Web's anonymity by showing you a fair amount of detail on those who are participating.

Damsels in Success

Communications is Worth Something

In New York and New Jersey, compliance demands and Wall Street's merger and acquisition work is driving the need for accountants, Myra Thomas tells us. But the real demand is for those who can communicate:

Especially where big deals and M&A work are involved, CPAs need to be very sharp and must come across as highly polished when offering recommendations to clients. Great presentation skills and a smooth delivery can go a long way. "Companies are looking for accountants who are excellent communicators and can effectively convey technical concepts to diverse audiences, including individuals who may not have a financial background," says Dawn Fay, regional vice president in New York City for Robert Half International.

Also, computer savvy is driving the field more than ever. New York area accountants need to be especially savvy on this end, as they deal with some of the largest, more complex, and global firms in the world. "Information technology skills, especially proficiency with products such as Microsoft Excel and Access and enterprise resource planning systems, are highly valued," says Fay.

See Myra's story here.

Speaking of Strategy...

On his blog Cube Rules, Scot Herrick notes that talk about Personal Branding - which "says, in essence, that each of us have a personal brand that is being associated with ourselves whether we like it or not and we should work on developing our own brand" - is only as good as the execution that follows it:

You see, to really create a personal brand, you can’t just stand around thinking about it, plotting it out on your piece of paper, and coming up with the five things to do to create the brand.

You actually have to go do them. And that’s where we fail.

Scot calls Personal Branding one of the "great themes out in the blogosphere right now," and though I wouldn't go that far, I will say I've been hearing more and more about it. That quibble aside, his point is well-taken, and applies directly to your efforts at career management. Bosses - present and prospective - like nice presentation, sure, but the quality of your work is important too. You want to develop a personal brand that emphasizes your thoroughness, your technical and business knowledge, your savvy and your attention to detail.

Personal Branding is About Doing [Cube Rules]

On Camera?

Are video resumes a fad? Blogger Ryan Healy thinks so, and gives three reasons:

• Looking good on camera is a learned skill
• Written communication is a more important
• Most jobs never require you to be on camera

All good points. To me, the clincher is still that most U.S. business worry they're setting themselves up for discrimination actions if they actually see the candidate while doing their early screening. At least one commentator replies that Healy should "let recruiting attempt to evolve," but I don't think much evolution's going to go on here until the EEOC gets involved

Video resumes are a short-term fad [Employee Evolution]

Common-Sense Networking

Ruth Gatling's approach to networking belies the notion that more is better. After opening a business in New Jersey, she found she could attend at least one networking event every business day until she reached the point of overload. Rather than try to keep it up, she became more strategic in her approach, going to fewer events to get to know people more personally. So, her guide posts became:

Familiarity: ...(S)eeing the same faces time and time again is the best way to get to know people. Few people do business based on a single encounter. We want to take the time to become familiar with each other. What’s the best way to do this? Keep going back. I may not go to a lot of events, but the ones I go to, I go to religiously…

Participation: ...to really reap the benefits of networking I get involved. Any organization is essentially a business and running a business requires manpower. My top two networking organizations are BNI (Business Network International) and NJAWBO (New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners). Contributing my time and expertise to the operational aspects of these two organizations has helped me to develop strong ties with other participants. These ties have turned into excellent business opportunities…

Commonality: We all tend to seek out like-minded people. Whether it’s political viewpoints or food preferences, we find comfort in the shared experience. Some of my comfort zones: Women business owners, small business owners, moms, yoga fanatics...

Yoga fanatics and business? Well, yes and no. No, Gatling's not in the yoga business. But, yes, having something in common eases conversation and leads to any number of connections closer to her field (which is administrative services). "Unless I’m at a business networking function I rarely enter into a conversation with business at the forefront of my thoughts. But it’s always in the back of my mind," she writes.

This is a common-sense approach that can apply to most any kind of business, and at most any level. So much of what you read about networking exhorts you to go out and connect (I've done a fair amount of exhorting, myself), but Gatling focuses on making sure your efforts are well-spent.

Her article appears in the National Networker, a site that bills itself as "both a newsletter as well as website portal for all Networking activity throughout the United States." Full disclosure: It was founded by someone I met in a networking group but have come to regard as a friend, and whom I've found to be a thoughtful business coach, Adam Kovitz. If you're interested in networking, I do recommend signing up for its e-mail newsletter. Sometimes, it can be a bit overly rosy about the joys of networking, but for those who need ideas and encouragement, it's a good read.

One Business Woman’s Experience in the World of Networking [National Networker]

More on Media

Here's what Vintage Foster e-mailed me when I asked why an accounting firm like Armanino McKenna would create a unit devoted to media and communications. As I wrote yesterday, Foster is teaming up with Armanino after years spent as a business publisher.

The world of cost-per-thousand and traditonal approaches to marketing has changed. The models are different, the formulas are different.

Combine that with the fact that traditional public relations has been more art than science and you have a marketplace in need of a real help. What we see is as an opportunity to mix legitimate communications know-how with the analytical skill set that has made Armanino McKenna the powerhouse.

Fair enough, but it's still got me thinking. Armanino is known as an innovative firm, and in a state with as much media going on as California, this could the kind of move that puts its full range of services in front of a host of new prospective clients. And, to a certain degree, consulting is consulting, whether you're developing media strategies or business strategies.

I'm leery of communications strategies that are developed purely by numbers, which is the first thing that comes to mind when you say "an accounting firm is getting into media consulting." After all, media-by-spreadsheet is the kind of approach that has made broadcast television everything it is today. But I don't think that's what's going on here. By many accounts Foster has done well running newspapers in tough markets, and a combination of heavy trend analysis guided by a communications hand could probably come up with interesting strategies. We'll see.

Armanino McKenna Delves into Communications

California accounting firm Armanino McKenna has brought on a publishing industry veteran to form a communications and media consulting firm.

The publisher, Vintage Foster, was publisher and chief executive of the East Bay Business Times from 1999 through 2003, and of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal from December 2003 until now. The new firm, Armanino McKenna Foster, will operate as a division of Armanino McKenna. In addition to offering branding, marketing, advertising and other communications services, it will provide non-media services such as recruitment and workforce diversity consulting. Managing Partner Andy Armanino said the new unit allows the firm to "marry" its business expertise with "innovative and effective communications support."

This is fascinating to me, and I've reached out to Armanino McKenna to ask what made them think to move into communications consulting. It brings the notion of "strategic consulting" among accounting firms to a new level.

About Professional Associations...

We got a letter:

My boss wants me to join his professional association. It's a big financial and time commitment, and I'm not sure I see the benefit. Am I missing something?"

Well, yes, you are.

Read why.

Cover Letters: Not Extinct, Just Evolved

The paperless world of electronic job boards means you don't need a cover letter any more, right? Well, actually, no.

So you can just send your cover letter as an attachment with your resume?

Again, no.

But you can send the same cover letter for every posting you answer?

No, no, no. And once more for good measure: No.

While the medium has changed, the message is still the same: Cover letters - even electronic ones - have to be carefully constructed, well-written, error-free, customized to the criteria of each job, and addressed to a specific person. Avoid fancy typefaces, crazy ink colors, exuberant punctuation and emoticons. Sound well-educated (but not pompous), professional (but not uptight) and enthusiastic (but not chatty).

No one said this would be easy.

Read the full story.

For All to See

MSNBC is running a story about whether employers should check out the online profiles of prospective hires on sites like Facebook or MySpace. Nothing new there. The article ploughs the old ground about whether what's posted is somehow "private," and whether the snapshots of you being stupid after chugging 17 bottles of beer in 35 minutes - or whatever - should be held against you. In the comments, a lot of users argue that what you do in your personal time is no one's business but your own, and that the right to privacy encompasses the snapshots you posted your very own self on a public site.

Maybe it's not about privacy, though. Maybe it's about judgment. I mean, we can argue about what's private and what's not all we want, but at the end of the day if you post a picture for everyone to see, people are going to make judgments, whether we like it or not.

Job candidates getting tripped up by Facebook [MSNBC]

Work or Not?

There's an interesting discussion going on over at The Wall Street Journal's "The Juggle" blog, based on a post examining whether one should keep juggling career and family - and shouldering all of the accompanying stress and general misery - or just give it up, stay home with the kids, and have a more focused life. From my scan of the comments, most of those joining in seem to be in the "I'd-stay-at-home-if-I-could-afford-to" camp. As one woman, an attorney wrote:

If someone paid me to stay home full-time, I’d do it in a heartbeat. While I enjoy my work and take pride in what I do, I am much more proud of the wonderful child we are raising. But for me, that choice is simply not there.

And there's this telling slip:

I think about this everyday from the money I wake up because the very first question my daughter asks everyday is if I have to go to work today.

What's also interesting is how many people are concerned about re-entering the workforce after they take time off to raise a child. Despite all the talk by firms about wanting to get these people back, there's still a lot of fear out there.

Tempted to Quit and Stay at Home [WSJ]

Calif. Program Targets Industry CPAs

An increasing number of CPAs have been filling leadership roles in California's non-accounting firms. Yet traditionally, most programming from the state's leading accounting organization has targeted CPAs at public accounting firms. Now, the California Society of Certified Public Accountants thinks it's fixed that.

The full story's here.

About Long Job Searches

I was talking today to a partner in a small but busy CPA firm about this post, and about the trouble some people seem to have with landing new jobs. I posed the question: Why, in this market, when so many firms are having so much trouble finding qualified people to fill accounting roles, is anyone having difficulty finding work? He zeroed in on a few possibilities:

• All the talk of high demand is causing people to expect unrealistic compensation packages. Especially at smaller firms, "pay comes out of the owner's or partner's pocket."
  
  
• Older candidates often wait for "the ideal" opportunity, passing up the chance to take other positions they may regard as being either beneath them or simply not a perfect fit.
  
  
• Some candidates wait too long. My friend wonders about some resumes he sees, where the candidate has been without a job for several years. Surely, he thinks, something must have been offered up during all that time. If not, what's it say about the candidate?
  
  
• Finally, some people are just bad employees. A huge red flag is the number of jobs someone has held over a period of time. Does your resume list three positions in four years? Probably, anyone reading it is asking themselves what your problem is.

There comes a point, my friend seems to think, that you should take a job - even one that doesn't meet your idea of what your position should be - so that you can demonstrate you're still in the game and determined to work.

One other hint: If you're worried about pricing yourself out of the market and you're asked about your salary expectations, answer "whatever the position is budgeted for."

Recruiters Hunt in Association Directories

Joining a professional association for accounting or financial professionals may have an added benefit beyond networking and keeping up-to-date on industry trends: Recruiters are increasingly combing their membership lists of potential job candidates.

Read the story here.

So About Gen Y...

From the Australian Web site News.com.au:

THE jury is in on Generation Y and the verdict isn't good. Employers say Gen-Ys are short on skills, demanding, impatient and far from loyal, according to a survey.

The deep ambivalence of SME They don't define it, but I believe they mean "small-medium enterprise.) employers towards Gen-Ys - those born between 1977 and 1992 and now aged 15 to 30 - is revealed in the latest SME Opinion Leaders poll, a survey of 315 SME owners across the country conducted by SmartCompany in conjunction with Roy Morgan Research and Dun & Bradstreet.

Poor spelling and grammar and a failure to understand what constitutes appropriate corporate behaviour are the biggest bugbears, with almost 70 per cent of surveyed employers reporting dissatisfaction with their Gen-Y employees’ performance in those areas.

The communication skills of Gen-Y staff disappointed 48 per cent of SME owners.

But, it seems, Gen-Ys either don’t know or don’t care about their employers’ distinct lack of enthusiasm for what they have to offer. Almost 90 per cent of employers surveyed agree Gen-Ys are more demanding than other workers when it comes to advancing their careers, and 79 per cent say Gen-Ys are more likely to ask for a pay rise.

Getting behind Gen Y seems to be a fashion among deep thinkers and business media lately. I've heard senior recruiters talk about how important it is to adjust their approach to a workforce that demands more balance, more flexibility and more rewards more quickly. What seems to be a given, though, is that this generation will perform to the same standards as their predecessors - old people, like me at 47, who are apparently stuck in our ways and spend a fair amount of time worrying about the quality of our product.

The poll found that Gen Y'ers bring a lot of technical knowledge to their work, often bolstering the efforts of their Baby Boomer bosses. And the article goes on to suggest the way to get the most of these hires, and develop them into valuable employees, is to communicate with them - in their own language and through their own channels. Posting a message on the bulletin board - bad. Texting the message - good.

So I'm kind of split on all this. On the one hand, I think the business world could use some cultural change. I like balance, I like diversity and it seems the changing demographics of the work force are far more effective at pressing these issues than are fifty years worth of legislation. On the other hand, every time I hear of a job candidate showing up for an interview with a parent, or a parent talk about how they're going to call their child's boss because of a workplace issue - and I have heard these things - I wonder at what point Gen Y will stand on its own.

The point about communication is a great one, and ultimately the answer lies there. It's important that a firm communicate in ways its staff will pay attention to, and it's important for Gen Y hires to communicate effectively with their employers. Among Boomers, instant messaging and texting aren't always the first things that come to mind when they want to talk with someone. Someone from Gen Y who extends themselves to write a detailed e-mail, pick up the phone, or (gasp) talk to someone in person could end up with a whole range of new friends.

Why bosses hate Gen-Y [News.com.au]

Eye on the Horizon

Just as CPAs have caught up with the changes wrought by Sarbanes-Oxley, a whole new set of dynamics is coming down the pike. Tomorrow's auditors and accountants will need a skill-set both broader and deeper than today's professionals. Four skill clusters stand out in particular: technology, verbal and written communication, international experience, and the ability to apply international reporting standards.

Here's the scoop.

Sure, It's Quiet Now...

Here’s an article you want to show your boss before tax season. It seems that European companies pay a lot more attention to workplace stress than American firms do. (Of course, European workers tend to get more vacation time than we do, also, so this shouldn't come as a surprise.) Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline - UK-based, I should note - has created a program to handle stress among company teams that focuses on the actual source of stress, not just the symptoms of it. The result, according to The Wall Street Journal, has been significant reductions of work-related mental illness and mental-health-related absences, and a related savings of about $1.4 million during the years between 2003 and 2006.

Companies Aim to Combat Job-Related Stress [WSJ]