Giving someone a helping hand or extending a random act of kindness just because you can is more important than ever. With announcements of thousands of layoffs a regular feature on the nightly news, generous giving of time and advice to aid a job seeker may be an act of kindness that will come back to benefit you someday.

In the spirit of compassion and the Pay It Forward attitude, the Career Bailout Program was initiated by William Arruda of Reach Personal Branding early in January 2009. Initially created for laid off workers in the banking and financial industries who were hard hit, it has been expanded to include anyone who was laid off or downsized due to the recent economic downturn. The complimentary career services package includes a resume review, Online ID evaluation, and 360Reach personal branding assessment.

As one of the 14 Certified Personal Branding Strategists who has volunteered for the Career Bailout Program, my belief in the “just because” philosophy has been re-invigorated. Thom Singer in “Two Quick Starbucks Stories” relates how this attitude of “just because” recently impacted his life. Thom’s examples show that a simple gesture of kindness, no matter how small, can make a huge difference for someone who may be having a rough time or who needs a dose of spirit-lifting. The word-of-mouth endorsement his daughter enthusiastically conveys to everyone she sees is worth a lot of advertising dollars to Starbucks. Even more important, the episode serves as a positive role-model for her about the impact of giving from the heart to a stranger.

In many cases, we would all probably like to help others – if only we knew how and it was not too difficult. How to Pay It Forward can encompass little things like paying attention to others and really listening for how you might help. Being nice and demonstrating that niceness and likeability will not only win you soul satisfaction, it might just bring into your social / job search network someone who could help you someday. Small gestures can lead to big pay-offs! Or, you could do it….just because.

Cross-posted by Susan Guarneri at Career Goddess Blog

Deep Recession. Financial Industry Collapse. Taxpayer-financed Bailout. Consumer Spending Down. Nine Months of Job Losses. Worst Financial Outlook since the Great Depression.

Even the most positive among us might feel deflated by the current newspaper headlines. With all the talk about the challenging economy, the failure of financial institutions like Bear Sterns and Lehman Bros and the multi-billion dollar financial services industry bailout, it would be easy – even for an optimist like me – to get caught up in the doom and gloom. But negativity is really a state of mind and it is counter-productive, especially if you are a job-seeker. It’s all a matter perspective. As Winston Churchill once said “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Here is the first installment of three articles focused on the positive. Through these words, I share with you essential mindset shifts that will help you put on the rose-colored glasses and see through the ubiquitous negativity so you can be successful in your job search.

1. Re-live Past Wins

One way to keep negative thoughts away is to fill your mind with memories of past successes. When you remind yourself of how you rose above a challenge to accomplish something impressive, you have no room in your mind for negative or counter-productive thoughts. Make a list of all your accomplishments – large and small – so when you catch your mind wandering into downer territory you will have visual reminders of what you have achieved.

One of my clients made a screen-saver with keywords relating to some of his greatest accomplishments. After ten minutes of computer inactivity, reminders of what makes him incredible scroll across the screen. He told me that every time he would glance at his computer and see one of those words or phrases, it would make him smile.

What’s your greatest success story?

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller

2. If You Can’t Get Out of It, Get into It

My Friend Todd Wetmore said this to me once and I have never forgotten it. Every time I hear myself saying “I have to …” I think of what Todd said and change “I have to …” to “I am looking forward to …” To me, this means finding a way to make every situation an opportunity for enjoyment or growth.

I recently “had to” travel to the middle of nowhere (really the middle of nowhere – no cell-phone service, the address of the hotel was not even in the GPS system of my rental car!) to deliver a personal branding presentation and workshop. Being the most urban person I know, I was less than thrilled about driving three hours to a place without people, traffic or noise! In fact, I was dreading it. And then I reminded myself that this was going to be a totally new experience for me. I focused my energy on the excitement of working with a new client for the first time – Johnson & Johnson. I changed “I have to go to the middle of nowhere” to “I am really looking forward to getting to know this new client.” It made the journey from Manhattan to nowhere much more pleasant.

What are you looking forward to this week?

“Optimist: A person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness.” Mark Twain quotes

3. Visualize What You Want

That which you focus on expands. Although it may be easy to lament the tribulations of getting no response to dozens of submitted resumes or the miserable interview experience you had, thinking about how hard it is to find the ideal job will prove you right. It will be difficult. Frustrating. Painful. You will feel the impact of every rejected resume, excruciating interview, or phone call saying they selected someone else. Instead, you must keep the future in your mind. Visualize yourself at your new job. Know what it looks like, feels like, smells like. Make it visceral; keeping the end in mind will help you navigate the job search process with ease and fortitude.

Give yourself some time each day to daydream. Get comfortable, take some deep breaths and concentrate on your future – your new job. What will you be doing? How will you spend your time each day? With whom will you be working? How will you contribute to your team? The clearer the picture becomes, the easier it will be for you to stay focused on future.

What does it look like at your new office?

”If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.” Peace Pilgrim

William Arruda is the coauthor of Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand and the founder of Reach, the global leader in personal branding. You can learn more about him at www.williamarruda.com.

Social networking, whether online or face-to-face (offline), has gained a top spot in effective job search and career management strategies. In fact, it seems every day social networking articles and new social networking sites and groups proliferate. You may be asking yourself, “Do I really need to be in all of these communities or accept every invitation I get? How can I be smart about using my time and energy?”

Rather than guessing, listen in as Liz Lynch, author of Smart Networking: Attract a Following in Person and Online (McGraw-Hill 2008) shares her perspective and social networking insights on the Reach Branding Club teleseminar “Smart Networking: Strategies for Getting 24/7 Results without the 24/7 Effort” on Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 12 noon EST. Learn about:

• smart networking vs. hard networking (as in a lot of work)

• overcoming your networking fears and misperceptions

• combining in person and online networking to boost your results

• mastering the “art of the ask” to get the help you need when you need it!

Liz Lynch is the founder of the Center for Networking Excellence and has a career background in many Fortune 500 companies such as Goldman Sachs, Disney, and Time Warner. Her concepts and strategies have connected with a global audience in six continents through her speaking engagements, print and audio products. The universal appeal of her message and her books are testimony to the pervasive power of social networking.

Register for the Smart Networking teleseminar / interview with Liz Lynch and William Arruda, founder of Reach Communications to learn how Smart Networking is different and more effective than what you are presently doing.

My personal recommendation: Ms. Lynch’s Smart Networking book should be on everyone’s “must-read” list. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about social networking, you are in for a surprise. For example, can you identify the gaps in your network and develop a plan to fill them? Her Smart Networking One-Page Plan is elegantly simple and superb!  Do you know why and how to be more likeable? It’s in the book, as are a multitude of specific actions you can choose from to accelerate your social networking capital and get the results you need.

Cross-Posted at Career Goddess Blog

In the past, paralyzed by the present or ploughing ahead?

It is certainly not a great position to be in – either fearful of losing your job or being downsized. I know, I have been there twice myself, once in the last major recession in the late 80’s and the first time from one of my first sales jobs – the whole salesforce of over 200 was let go in one meeting – now that was an experience.

There are usually some immediate reactions when the axe falls or is about to fall and these are all normal human reactions to what is a stressful time – so here are some thoughts and actions to take that will help:

1.Help more, judge less

With so much negativity floating around it is easy for that to rub off and you start to judge people and make negative assumptions about them and even wish them ill fortune.

Take the reverse approach and offer to help more, who can you introduce them too? How can you help them with their job? When you genuinely give then it will come to you as well as you seek out help and assistance.

One of my continuous actions is to help – particularly those who are going through what I have, if there is any way that my experience and learnings can help others avoid or minimize what might happen to them I am there to offer that guidance.

2.Focus on the future

I know I hear you saying – well that’s easy to say and a lot harder to do. Absolutely. But when it all boils down there really is nothing you can do to alter the past, it is gone, happened, you cannot change it – it’s history. However you can certainly affect the future and your place in it, so spend your energy looking forward. I am sure this current crisis offers way more opportunity than we are being led to believe – we just have to believe it ourselves.

3.Take responsibility

Can you honestly say that everything you did and said were right? Probably not, so take some responsibility for your behaviour. Even if the downsizing’s I experienced could not be avoided, there was probably things that I could have done differently that might have had some influence, so I take responsibility for that and try to ensure that it does not happen again. . One lesson I learnt after my first downsizing was always have an up to date resume and to go interview once a year – for practice and to know my market value, so when the second time came I was ready and taking action.

4. Seek learning

There are always lessons to be learned even in adversity, the most successful people have usually had hardship and failure many times over before finally getting it right. My second downsizing taught me that I needed to leverage what I was good at and to make a complete career change and I ended up in medical devices and ultimately National Sales Manager of a biotech company – with no degree and no science qualifications.

5. Expand reflection

It is a fine line between positive peer support and the misery club so you have to be extremely careful. But getting together with like minded people in a similar situation can help with recovery and faster action moving forward. Collectively learning and supporting can be a powerful combination if handled right.

6. Watch your temper

I know I was angry the first time I was downsized, the package was generous which helped cushion the blow but bottom line was my ability was being questioned (or at least I thought so at the time). Don’t overact – take time to cool off and reflect, it is nearly always a sound business decision and a cost of doing business that things have happened the way they have, its usually never personal – so don’t get angry and make it so.

7. Know when to speak

Sometimes saying nothing, even if you are correct, it might be the right thing to do – it could be a bad news meeting where you are surviving (for now) or in your termination meeting, or even at an interview with a prospective new employer – do not think just “am I right?” – but also “is my contribution going to help the situation or the people involved?” – Sometimes not and better to be silent.

Reconnect with Recruiters. You don’t have to be in active job
search to be in touch with an executive recruiter. Remind recruiters with whom
you’ve worked of who you are and what you have to offer – and seek their advice
on what is happening in your particular industry or job function. They have
their fingers on the pulse and can give you a perspective you couldn’t find
anywhere else.

Remember, it is those who are prepared for the recession who
will sail right through. Others will have to endure the choppy waters. So get
your ship in shape now and make a concerted effort to ensure the desired
outcome. Just reading the tips in this article isn’t going to make them happen.
So, take some time now to add these items to your do-list so you’ll be in the
best possible position should the looming recession impact your job.

#1:  Bolster Your Brand
#2:  Build Bridges
#3:  Grow Your Google Quotient
#4:  Walk to the Water Cooler
#5:  Get Active
#6:  Create Career Karma
#7:  Start Counting
#8:  Redo Your Resume
#9:  Call in a Career Coach

From the article Ten Steps to Recession-Proof Your Career by
William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson

Call in a Career Coach. Every great athlete has a coach; you
should too. From helping you excel in your current position to enabling you to
find the ideal job elsewhere, career coaches are critical to turning a good
career into a stellar one. Invest in a career coach now, before the pink slip
shows up on your desk.

#1:  Bolster Your Brand
#2:  Build Bridges
#3:  Grow Your Google Quotient
#4:  Walk to the Water Cooler
#5:  Get Active
#6:  Create Career Karma
#7:  Start Counting
#8:  Redo Your Resume

From the article Ten Steps to Recession-Proof Your Career by
William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson

Re-do Your Resume. The time to get your resume, bio, and
cover letters in order is at least six months before you hear you have been put
on the layoff list. And to make sure yours stands out (from the stack of others
touting similar credentials and experience) hire a qualified professional
resume writer. They are well worth your investment.

#1:  Bolster Your Brand
#2:  Build Bridges
#3:  Grow Your Google Quotient
#4:  Walk to the Water Cooler
#5:  Get Active
#6:  Create Career Karma
#7:  Start Counting

From the article Ten Steps to Recession-Proof Your Career by
William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson

 

Start Counting. Measure the value you bring to your
employer. Whether it is increased revenue, reduced cost, improved efficiency,
increased sales leads, or reduced attrition, find a way to quantify your
contribution to your organization and to the company overall. And be sure your
manager is abundantly aware of this.

#1:  Bolster Your Brand
#2:  Build Bridges
#3:  Grow Your Google Quotient
#4:  Walk to the Water Cooler
#5:  Get Active
#6:  Create Career Karma

From the article Ten Steps to Recession-Proof Your Career by
William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson

Create Career Karma. Now’s not the time for a ‘me me me’
attitude (as if there is ever a time for total selfishness). Helping others
recession-proof their careers is one of the greatest karma-building actions you
can take. Remember, what goes around comes around. If you build great karma
now, goodness will come back to you at some point when you truly need it. To
get a daily dose of karma building advice, register at
http://www.reachbrandingclub.com/career_karma.php

#1:  Bolster Your Brand
#2:  Build Bridges
#3:  Grow Your Google Quotient
#4:  Walk to the Water Cooler
#5:  Get Active

From the article Ten Steps to Recession-Proof Your Career by
William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson