You’ve heard all the horror stories about ways social media can hurt your career — even get you fired.
That picture of you golfing that’s posted on Facebook the day you called in sick to work. The tweet where you ripped on your boss.
But surely there are ways to enhance your career by using all the new media that abound.
“Social media is so popular right now that you should and can definitely use it to advance your career,” said Tim Dugger, president and owner of Career Cafe. “Depending on the position, companies could actually be looking at the sophistication and knowledge of the way you use social media.”
Here are four ways to take advantage of new media in your career.

Blog, blog, blog.
One of the best ways to prove yourself in your career is to have a valid, functioning blog. It should have content relevant to your career and a positive spin on the profession you are in.
“It’s very similar to academia, where it’s publish or perish,” said Karl Ahlrichs, a human resource consultant “That biog? It makes you more useful to any employer.”
If you are in real estate, blog about home improvement If you are a financial planner, blog about retirement planning. It can be consumer-oriented information or more inside-the-profession “shop talk.”
Just be careful not to blog about your employer or your specific job without first clearing it with your boss.
“A blog is the way to form relationships using social networking, and relationships become currency.” said Ahlrichs. “They become valuable.”

Get linked on LinkedIn
So you think this professional networking site is so old news? Not even close.
“LinkedIn is strongly mined by recruiters when they are searching for people,” said Dugger. So be sure to get your profile up to snuff with as much career-enhancing information as you can, including professional references.
If you are searching for a job, ifs also important to include LinkedIn on your resume.

Use Facebook wisely
We all know employers may be checking up on workers via Facebook. So why not make them proud?
Include organizations you volunteer for or support. Write about examples of your skills, such as how you got along with a co-worker yesterday or an example of your solid customer service.”Drop little stories of how you were a team player,” said Dugger.
He also warns to be cautious on Facebook. There shouldn’t be a bunch of partying photos of you day after day. And it might be wise to limit the number and types of friends you accept
“If you have 1,000 friends, is that a good thing or a bad thing to employers?” he said. “A thousand contacts can come off kind of superficial.”

Be careful what you tweet
You just won an employee award? You just reached your sales goal?
It’s best not to jump on Twitter and tell the world. It comes across as boastful and arrogant, experts say.
While it might seem harmless, this Twitter phenomenon that lets anyone say in a few short sentences what they are doing at the moment really has little use in a career.
If you have a compulsion to tweet about your profession, make it less about you and more about the career itself.

Average Duration of Unemployment

Unemployed Persons by Industry and Class of Worker

Employment Situation Summary Table A

My candidate (we’ll call him Mark), shows up for his interview at 11:00 in the morning as I had instructed him, and quickly senses something was wrong. After about 15 minutes the Director comes out in the lobby and tells Mark that he had his interview scheduled on his calendar for tomorrow. He realized he had told “the headhunter” (me) to have Mark there at 11:00 today and it was his mistake. He apologized profusely to my candidate but indicated that unfortunately they were right in the middle of a big meeting with a client and Dan couldn’t break away from that. They would need to reschedule his interview.

Now Mark had driven about 4 hours for this job interview and could have projected anger or frustration. But instead, he kept his cool and said something that was magic to their ears. What came out of his mouth was, “How about if I go away for a couple of hours and have lunch. I’ll do a little site seeing. If I come back at 2:00, would that give you enough time to complete your meeting?” Brilliantly simple. Brilliantly effective. Here’s why.

In 20 seconds Mark had demonstrated…
1. Empathy – he quickly digested the situation.
2. Composure – he kept his cool and didn’t react negatively.
3. Tolerance and forgiveness – he accepted someone’s mistake and apology.
4. Adaptability – the ability to “think on his feet.”
5. Problem solving skills – he offered a solution that was win-win for everyone.

In 20 seconds Mark had saved the day. He allowed my employer and his potential future boss to “save face.” He saved having to take another vacation day for himself and the red flags that sometimes go up when someone is taking multiple single days off from work. He even saved the mileage and meal costs the client would have incurred for a second trip for Mark.

But ultimately, maybe the thing Mark had gained the most from his 20 seconds was the upper hand. By being flexible, he had put himself in the position where they now “owed” him. Of course that was never verbalized. But clearly, the obligation had been placed upon my client to extend Mark extra consideration and courtesy.

So what happened you ask? What do you think? Mark showed up back at the plant at 1:45, was hustled in to the conference room, and walked out at 4:30 – job offer in hand. They cancelled the other previously scheduled interviews. And the lesson? All events are neutral. How we react to them determines our future.

Real life stories from Tim Dugger’s “Secrets of a Corporate Headhunter”

Industry experts urge job seekers to finely tune their resumes by keeping them up-to-date, tightly worded, easy to read and – most important – easy to understand.

“To determine if you’ve written your resume in a clean and logical fashion give it to a teenager,” said Tim Dugger, president of Career Cafe, a career coaching and consulting service in Indianapolis. “If they can understand what your job is and what you’re looking for, then you’ve probably written something that the average person is going to comprehend as well.”

Take time to update
Kristen Shingleton, president of New Focus HR in Noblesville, advises candidates to prepare ahead of time and not try to update or assemble a resume at the last second,
“If someone is actively looking and searching for a position, everything needs to be up-to-date,” she said. “If you’re in a more hurried situation to get a resume sent out. then you’re putting yourself at more of a risk of forgetting something.”

A thorough resume polish and shine can only brighten your employment outlook. If s critical to update simple things such as contact information, job titles, dates, responsibilities and educational or certification opportunities so they aren’t overlooked.

“As your tasks and responsibilities in your {current} job expand, you need to get them on your resume,” Shingleton said. “Whether you’re promoted, demoted or even if it’s a lateral move, this is all important information to include in your resume.”

What’s resume-worthy?
Shingleton and Dugger both like to see resumes that quickly and concisely convey employees’ duties in previous roles and how they contributed relevant work those positions. Resumes should reflect accomplishments without overstating the ordinary.

Dugger said he’d rather see two or three “wow” items when reading about a job seeker’s accomplishments than eight or 10 tasks that water down the candidate’s credentials. The wow factor is the litmus test of an effective resume.

Technology might have changed the way employers receive and review resumes, but it’s as important as ever for them to be effective and well written. The perfect resume has never been written, but the perfect resume would be exactly as long as it takes to cause someone to go, ‘Wow, 1 want to interview this person,’ “Dugger said, “And not one word longer.”

Just as spring cleaners are getting rid of the dust, dirt and sludge that winter has wrought, job seekers should do the same. Keeping your resume clean and free of outdated and unwanted information can help you spring into a new career.

by John Adams for Custom Publications
Contact Custom Publications at indypubswriter@indvStar.com.

Coming UP! “Why Your Job Search Isn’t Working And What To Do About It”
With “Pete the Planner” August 23, 2010

“Starting a Company in this Economic Climate”
Panel discussion March 23, 2010

How is the Financial Crisis Affecting You?
March 10, 2009

“Tips and Tricks for Finding a New Job”
January 8, 2009

In just a few days everybody will line up at the job search starting line. The gun will be pointed (hopefully up), the starter will shout those magic words “Ready, Set, GOOO!!!”……… And a few people will shoot out of the starting blocks, down the road and over the horizon. They had a plan.

However from my experience, the minute the gun goes off, the vast majority of job seekers are going nowhere fast. They’ll stand up, look around in confusion and say “gee, I’m not really sure where I’m going. And even if I did know where I was going, I don’t know how to get there.”

Meanwhile, the prepared folk are far ahead of the stumbling pack. They prepared, they have a plan and they’re executing right now. How far behind are you? Call me or email me if this sounds like you. I can help. And meanwhile, get your sneakers ready. You’re going to be using them soon.

Good Fortune!
Tim