So, we just started a new project at work, a big, America-wide “Sales Talent” Recruitment project for one of the largest Gaming & Entertainment Groups in the world. As a number of contractors join our team from different parts of the continent, to facilitate the “ramp up” for this project, the immersion of web 2.0 into our industry has become painfully obvious.

I’M LOGGING IN

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, are now our de facto “communities” and recruitment pools. Monster and CareerBuilder are yesterday’s news, and not a single one of my peers even suggested we post or mine for candidates there. We are using HodesIQ to manage our posts on the 50 or so job boards that we use, and track all applicants, MS Sharepoint to compile all common documentation (i.e. job descriptions, interview questionnaires, etc.), Zoho.com to manage all project related interaction within the project team, and Outlook to communicate with co-workers outside of the team. Due to the widespread use and regional instant messaging biases, I use MSN Live Messenger to instant message one half of my team, and Yahoo Messenger to ping the other half of the team. To simplify our weekly meetings, my Project Manager suggested that we should all get webcams and host web conferences in Windows NetMeeting….

I’M LOGGING OUT

I thought web 2.0 is supposed to make our lives easier…I take 15 minutes of every morning just to launch every project related tool…And easily spend 20% of my time simply staying on top of all the resources…What happened?

Why couldn’t there be one clear winner in all of this? Sure competition breeds innovation…but, this is insane!

Fist, I am sorry. When Frank (co-blogger) first decided to start this site, we had committed to regular entries to the site. It seems that when the market was slower, it was easy to ensure 2-3 entries per week. Being in the industry, there seems to be a correlation between market action and frequency of our blog postings. I know, it is not really an excuse but rather, a testament to how the last economic downturn has affected our effectiveness. Practice makes perfect, but a slow economy means that many of you, and me included, are slowly losing their edge.

Like every professional (insert your sport of choice, here) player whose skills seem to progress from “above average” in the pre-season to “almost god like” in the Playoff season, we too are susceptible to losing our edge in an economic downturn.

As we now ramp up again, (yes, the market is turning), the dullness of some of my less practiced skills are becoming painfully obvious (time management being one of them). The good news: a good dull blade can be easily sharpened, very, very quickly, while a bad blade…is just a bad blade.

So, if you are still looking for work, I promise you that you have lost a bit of your edge. Here are some ways to get your A game (or at least B+) back.

1. Practice, practice, practice: volunteer, or offer to do some Pro Bono work for a local charity – sharpening your core skill set. Hint – pick a role that will allow you to develop your “strongest” skills.

2. Read. Yes, read. Read those industry journals that you never had time to read before. This will keep you abreast of the newest strategies, methodologies, technologies in your industry.

3. Find a hobby. Not just any hobby, but one that allows you to keep working the skills that are most important in your career.

4. Develop a “work related” routine. If you have been taking the opportunity, as you look for work, to “sleep in” and “slack”…STOP IT! If you had to wake up at 6AM to go to work, then wake up at 6AM to start your job search. Does a day in the “typical life” of the “employed” in your industry have a tight deadline culture? Then set yourself timelines in your job search. Schedule your day, EVERY day, Monday – Friday. You will thank me later when you finally get a job and have to transition to a day job.

5. Attend speaking engagements, conferences, industry/professional support groups. This will allow you to continue associating with like minded individuals, allowing you to “keep your head in the game”.

That should help…for starters. Anyone else have any good recommendations

Let’s say you are a recruiter and you have been searching for prospects (contact information) on LinkedIn. The likelihood that a matching profile would be in your network is unlikely at best unless you are uber connected like me (not bragging, I just have no life). Most likely, when you find a profile of someone that you are interested in contacting, what you usually find is a job title, a company name…and “PRIVATE” in the contact name.

PRIVATE

“PRIVATE” profiles are people that are outside of your network. So, what may show up as “PRIVATE” in your LinkedIn search will show up with a first and last name for me, or for someone else that is connected to that person. So, if you find someone in your network that is “PRIVATE”…you’ve been slacking…keep on networking and remember to add more people (check out my previous posts for some insight).

But, of course, just translating what this means would not really make much of a blog! So here’s a work around for all the unconnected users out there.

HINT OF THE DAY

Google has provided us with a different solution… a quick and easy way to assist you in your networking needs. The search is called an X-Ray search and it is basically is a google search command that allows you to use the world’s top search engine to specifically target a LinkedIn user.

How does this work? Easy. This is the basic formula – site:www.linkedin.com”jobtitle”

Example: Go to www.google.com, and in the search window type the following:

site:www.linkedin.com “Top 5 Connected Canadians. toplinked.com 12,000+” (with quotes)

The only hit that will come up is my personal profile. From there you will be able to get the contact’s name and maybe more (might have to do some digging for email address/phone number).

BOOM!

So, in the future, if there is someone you would like to speak to quickly, the google X-ray search is an excellent shortcut to finding a contact name. It gives you access to all 45 million + profiles on LinkedIn and best of all…IT’S FREE!