Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Be Remembered and Be Referred

As we all know, blogs continue to multiply in geometric fashion. I don't know about the rest of the world, but it is all I can do to follow a few. The general criteria I use is probably not unlike how most people make choices about what they read:

1) the subject matter is of interest,and

2) the writing is stimulating and "interesting" to read. In other posts over the past several months, I have noted some of those that happen to appeal to me.

One that I have bookmarked in recent times is Amitai Givertz's blog which he calls Amitai Givertz's Recruitomatic Blog.

I have no clue where he found Rob Robinson's resume, but I'm glad he did.

When it comes to proactive career management, at ExecuNet we talk a fair amount about "being remembered and being referred." Most of us try to accomplish this goal by doing a whole host of things including making sure that our resume makes us stand out from crowd.

Amitai thinks the Mr. Robinson's resume is "One Hell of a Resume" and while I am sure that there are those who might or might not agree, it is definitely different and, especially since Robinson is a "marketing guy" I would be very surprised if it didn't resonate with a number of folks.

Check it out. Would this make you want to pick up the phone?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But does the glitz, get in the way of the message? Long on style; Short on the usp? imho! He didn't "ask for the order". But then I'm just a Big Turkey aka technologist that's unimpressed with glitz.

Anonymous said...

First, Dave:

Thank you so much for the kind words and for your appreciation. I am glad you like my blog.

Second, Reinke:

You could be right but then again, you could be missing the point. Attached to his presentation, Rob also posts his traditional resume. I would argue he should have put it in a format that might be easier to process, not a PDF, but even that it not that issue.

The point is his profile online was found and is now being distributed, discussed and promoted. I would encourage you to look beyond the glitz and consider the candidate. You can find his traditional resume under the attachments link.

Happy New Year to you both.

The Edge said...

"Call me anything you want just don't call me late for dinner."

His site works for me - and as a result he's on my radar.

In Robinson's case, the message is his brand - that of a top notch sales and marketing person whose experience has been shaped by a specific professional endeavors and who will bring specific skills to his next employer. Reinke refers to himself as "...a Big Turkey aka technologist that's unimpressed with glitz" which is why this approach won't work for him - on either side of the desk. But I'll bet you a few routers that a dynamic presentation of the network he built along with project management results might do the trick.

Here's where the career counseling business is finally beginning to evolve; Dave knows this because he's been peripherally mired in the outplacement business for far too many years - the "templatizing of resumes" (I made up the word). Outplacement counselors are entrusted with helping people find new jobs yet cookie cutter the presentation for each person (they're so good at using a hammer that everything begins to look like a nail). The fact that Mr. Robinson's neighborhood looks different is more than enough for a good recruiter to take notice. In fact, if a recruiter doesn't smile and want to call RR, then I'd wager they aren't much of a recruiter.

In the end, it's all about the brand you want to project: Do you want to be in the middle with everyone else or do you want to stand out?

If you think Ami's blog is fun wait until you meet him in person.

Wouldn't it also be interesting to have several of us bloggers together to talk to members about blogging and what candidate blogging means to recruiters?

Dave Opton said...

Steve,thanks for adding your comments. Well taken as usual, and certainly it is about what these days we all call brand.

While I didn't say anything about it when I first posted this, the other thing that impressed me about what Rob did was it delivered a message about risk taking;something that corporate America talks about all the time, but does precious little, in the minds of many, to really encourage.

Anonymous said...

As an avowed character (lol) you know that I believe in the a person not losing a sense of themselves in business. In fact, this abrogation of the self - the company man - is the most foolish the business world has EVER done. I want personalities - let leadership manage them - because they are the reasons why ideas happen.

Rob was subtle - but not too subtle. I wonder if his formers employers are listening.

Dave, I expect to see more writing by you in 2007. I'll stop by and show you tools that make it much easier to blog on the fly...

Happiest of New Years to you personally as well as the entire Execunet team.