I’ve been part of the Help a PR Pro Out (HAPPO) team for awhile now, and I get a ton of value from my involvement in the organization. I use social media every day for personal and professional reasons, so being part of an organization that helps connect job seekers and employers through social media has been very rewarding.

Arik Hanson, Minnesota PR pro and HAPPO co-founder, started a new initiative last year called The HAPPO Report, a weekly e-newsletter that’s sent to more than 250 PR pros/communicators across the Twin Cities. It includes relevant jobs, upcoming events, posts from the last week and a featured job seeker each week.

Thanks to Arik’s support, The HAPPO Michigan Report will launch very soon and will contain the same content (but specific to Michigan, of course). If all goes as planned, the first e-newsletter will go out before the end of February. It will be biweekly and will hit your inbox on Wednesdays.

Sound like something that’s worthy of adding yet another e-newsletter to your inbox (c’mon, you know you want to!)? You can subscribe now. If you have an available communications position, are hosting an event and want to share it in The HAPPO Report once it launches or would like to be a featured job seeker, feel free to contact me.

If you want to know what else the HAPPO team has in the works for 2012, Arik shares the future of HAPPO and what you can do to help in this recent post.

Before I get too far into this post, I want you to understand the distinctions between these two definitions:

Confidence – Belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance

Arrogance – Offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.

See the difference? I’ll assume you do. Now make sure you don’t show arrogance when you’re meaning to show confidence. On to the post…

I’ve been noticing something in my life a lot more lately that has helped contribute to success. Once I started paying closer attention to this trend and noticing how it influences outcomes, I knew I needed to share it so others could hopefully replicate the process.

I’ve noticed that when combining strategy with confidence, the chances of success increase dramatically. Will the result always be positive each and every time you combine strategy with confidence? More than likely not. But I’ve experienced successful results enough times to make me believe the chances of getting a win rather than a fail with this combo is highly likely.

Anything You Want by Derek Sivers (founder of CD Baby) is the kind of book that fits perfectly with my life these days. You can read it in one sitting, and it will probably take you an hour tops.

But don’t let the small size fool you. It’s packed with powerful wisdom and advice that you can apply to both personal and professional aspects of your life. This sentence from the back of the book sums it up nicely:

Must reading for every person who is an entrepreneur, wants to be one, wants to understand one or cares even a little about what it means to be human.

Anything You Want is part of Seth Godin’s The Domino Project, which Godin recently announced is ending. Luckily, if you decide after reading this post that you want to buy it, the book will still be available on Amazon.

Who doesn’t love a big win? I’m calling you out if you say you don’t! It’s hard not to love rewards for hard work. To add some context to the discussion, when I say big win, I’m referring to:

• Landing a new client when you’ve worked long and hard on the proposal.
• Overcoming a challenge you’ve been working to get past.
• Achieving an important goal.
• Landing a new job or promotion that takes you to the next step in your career.
• Completing your first half-marathon (or, if you’re like me, you aim for 5Ks and consider those a big win!).

The list goes on, but you get the point. Most people would consider those big wins.

But do we always have to aim for such grandiose achievements? What happened to relishing in the small wins that eventually add up to a big win? Oftentimes, we fail to recognize and reward those small wins because we’re constantly fixated on something bigger and better. And believe me, I am included in all this “we” talk. I wanted to write about the importance of acknowledging small wins as often as we acknowledge the big wins because I’m not doing it enough.

Having an “always want more” attitude is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because people with that quality never settle for anything shy of great. They always push beyond the set boundaries, and they are never, ever complacent. When they accomplish goals, they barely let themselves soak up the rewards before they’re moving on to the next thing because they constantly aim to churn out great results. Employers want this type of mentality in their employees.

I originally published this post on my agency’s blog, but I wanted to cross post it here because it’s very much in line with the topics I discuss on this blog.

I debated whether I wanted to write a resume and cover letter suggestion post because the topic is widely covered, but my recent experience proves that job seekers still need advice on how to successfully land an interview.

Identity is hiring an assistant social media strategist, and I’ve received several cover letters and resumes in the past week or so. I’m disheartened to say that only a select few stood out because job seekers are still making the same mistakes. Some are common mistakes that could easily be avoided by having two or three people review materials before sending them over to a prospective employer. It’s been awhile since I had to review resumes, so along with some of the common mistakes, I’m also seeing some new additions to resumes that do absolutely nothing to help the job seeker secure an interview.

Taken directly from my current experience, here are seven cover letter/resume mistakes and how to avoid making them:

1. Making grammatical errors. I know it’s tough out there in job-hunting land. And I know everyone makes mistakes. But it’s absolutely essential to make sure your cover letters and resumes are flawless when you submit them for an available position – particularly for a communications related job where excellent writing skills are required. Like I mentioned above, make sure at least two or three people (it helps if they are strong writers) review your cover letter and resume before you submit them. It can also help to print them out and read them aloud versus trying to review/edit on a screen. Please understand how crucial this is. I’ve heard from several people that they’ll put cover letters and resumes directly in the trash if there are any grammatical errors.

2. Leading with education. A prospective employer doesn’t want to see where you graduated from at the top of your resume. Your work experience is most important, and you should always lead with that before education. You’ll hear varying opinions on this one, but I’ll argue that education should be the last section on your resume. Experience, professional development, skills and honors/awards sections should come before education. Yes, it’s important to see that you graduated with a degree related to the job you’re applying for, but professionals know that you truly develop and refine skills once you’re working in the industry. The classroom can only take you so far.

3. Making your cover letter and resume too long. Please don’t make your cover letter an entire page single spaced. I got a few of these, and I zoned out at about the third paragraph. Also, don’t summarize your entire resume in your cover letter. That’s not the point. Use your cover letter to highlight some things about you and your experience that prove why you’re a qualified candidate for the position. It also helps if you add some context in your cover letter to explain why you’re applying for the job (I learned about the position through X, or I’m very interested in working with a company such as yours because of X).

As for resumes, it’s not necessary to have a two or three-paged resume, especially if you haven’t been in the industry for a very long time. The position at Identity is for someone with one-to-two years of experience, and I’ve received several resumes that are way too long – mainly because they include jobs that don’t directly relate to the position. It’s great to show work experience, but if you are going on a second page to list a job where you didn’t develop skills you can apply to the position you’re applying for, leave that job off your resume.

4. Coming across as boastful or arrogant. It’s one thing to express confidence in your abilities, and you can successfully do this by using the right tone and selecting the right words in your cover letter. But it’s very easy to cross the line from confidence to arrogance, and you must avoid this.

Those in the social media space know that a frequently agreed upon rule is to not proclaim yourself as a social media expert/guru/ninja, or anything else along those lines. Even some of the people who I think could totally get away with calling themselves social media experts don’t do it! So when I read the cover letter of someone with less experience than me telling me that he/she is a social media expert, I immediately think that person is not a right fit.

Going back to the first mistake, have a few people read your cover letter to make sure you aren’t giving off a boastful vibe.

5. Not tailoring your resume to the job description. People from various backgrounds and with varying levels of skills have applied for my team’s open position. That’s great, but what’s not good is when people don’t show on their resume how their experience directly relates to the position. Even if your experience doesn’t exactly match what the job description is asking for, find ways to call out how what you’ve done in the past directly relates to the job qualifications. Don’t make a prospective employer have to Google stalk you in order to find out more about your experience. That should be clear as day on your resume. I had to do this for one applicant, and luckily I did because I found exactly what I was looking for online that should have been highlighted in the resume. Some employers won’t take that extra step, so don’t leave any opportunities for the employer to question your experience.

6. Including irrelevant information. Please don’t put your high school involvement on your resume. The only time I can see this being relevant is if you did something amazing in high school that is very directly tied to the job description. Otherwise, leave it off.

The latest trend I’m seeing on resumes is adding Klout scores. The Klout team has made several adjustments lately to make its scoring model more accurate and transparent, but that doesn’t mean it’s the Holy Grail of influence. It’s one factor out of several. And I don’t think it belongs on a resume – even for social media related positions. Your Klout score doesn’t tell me squat about your experience of using social media for business and marketing purposes. Klout is a highly debated topic, but my suggestion is to leave it off your resume and to find more substantial ways to highlight your influence through your work experience.

7. Having no relevant experience. I know, this seems like a given. Don’t apply for a job if you don’t have any related experience, right? Well, people aren’t getting this message. I received a handful of resumes from people who had absolutely no related experience. Our job description clearly spells out the type of experience we’re looking for, and we state that we need someone with at least one-to-two years of experience. So if you’re looking to break into the social media marketing field, you’re going to have to find an internship or a very entry level position.

I started on a discussion on Google+ about how people with not the right experience have applied for this position, and I received some valid points back about why people may think they are qualified enough to apply. However, zero experience is not an exception.

I truly care about helping PR/social media job seekers find great jobs, which is why I joined the Help a PR Pro Out (HAPPO) movement and am now the Michigan champ. I am not a jerk who wants to call people out for doing it wrong. I am simply trying to educate through experience so more job seekers stop making the same mistakes over and over again on cover letters and resumes. If you know of someone who could use this advice, please consider passing this post along to him/her.

What do you think? Am I being too harsh, or do you agree? Do you have additional advice for job seekers that I didn’t mention?

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Job searching is tough and tedious work. There are so many things you need to think about when you’re looking for a new job – how to craft interesting and tailored cover letters, how to highlight your most relevant job experience without over or under doing it, how to stand out among the competition and, above all, how to get the coveted email or phone response that leads to an interview.

There are countless books, articles and blog posts that give advice on how to land that perfect job. But, three friends of mine just found new gigs, so I thought some practical advice from people who just dealt with the job seeking process would be of value to anyone who is currently or thinking about looking for new employment.

All three of them happened to get social media related positions, but their advice is not limited to the communications/digital industries. Nor is it limited to people who are aggressively looking for a job right now. I think their different perspectives are very interesting because while Erica and Kyle were very active about their job hunts, Becks was more passive. It’s interesting to see how their different situations and activities eventually contributed to them finding awesome jobs.

Read on and learn from Erica Moss, Becks Davis and Kyle Stuef:

Where did you just get a job, and what is your position?

EM: I accepted a job as social media and outreach coordinator for the Masters in Nursing program at Georgetown University.

BD: I’m the community manager at Autoweek magazine, a publication under the Crain Communications umbrella.

KS: I just started a job at Ignite Social Media in Birmingham, MI. I’m working as a community engagement specialist for the Chrysler brands, primarily focusing on Jeep.

What was your process for finding a new job? Did you reach out to friends, search LinkedIn, send out several resumes and cover letters, or were you more passive with your search?

EM: After about a week of getting settled here in New York City, I started pounding the pavement, so to speak. I targeted a handful of companies that I was excited about the prospect of working for and sought out job openings that matched my skill set. Before applying, I turned to LinkedIn to see if I had any connections to these companies through my contacts. More often than not, I did, so I asked for introductions, which immediately adds to your credibility as a candidate. I also attended a meetup held by one of the companies I was interested in, which gave me direct access to those making the hiring decisions and helped me decide whether I thought I’d be a good fit within the organization. It also didn’t hurt that I told anyone and everyone who would listen that I was job hunting, which helped to keep me top of mind whenever someone heard about an opening in my industry. Facebook and Twitter also were great vehicles for outreach and making connections.

BD: I was more passive in my job search. A few friends and some of my network knew I was on the market for a new position. I did update my LinkedIn profile and spent more time growing that network.

KS: I did all of the above. I wasn’t as aggressive publicly as I probably should have been, but I was hitting the phones and private messages to my network almost immediately. I could not have done this without having a “street team” of people out there with their ears to the ground. I got tipped off to this job opening a few days before it was posted publicly, so I was able to get a small head start.

Did you do anything different or creative to make yourself stand out during the job hunt?

EM: I think two things that helped differentiate me in this job search were 1) I had a story to tell, and 2) I had a strong point of view about what I wanted. I firmly believe that each job you hold, for better or worse, helps you to continually grow and decide what your priorities are, and I felt like I had a firm grasp on that while I was searching. This helped weed out opportunities that perhaps weren’t a good use of my time, but also helped me present a strong, cohesive narrative about who I was and what I was looking for. I think I also had a memorable story, in that I had gotten married in May and moved to New York from Michigan, which always sparked questions from my interviewers about how things are different here and what my experience in Michigan had been like.

BD: Since I wasn’t really on the job hunt, no. However, everything I had been doing for the last two years came into play. I built a website and a community from scratch. I became involved with projects such as TEDxDetroit and cofounded a few smaller endeavors. I had been using social media to build these projects, and that led to credibility.

KS: I made sure that everything I was putting out there was as consistent as humanly possible. It may have been my branding background kicking in, but I wanted to make sure that each interaction with me digitally felt the same, and that it felt exactly the way I needed it to in order to find a job that was the right fit for me.

One thing that I thought was a no brainer actually turned out to be something that a number of interviewers took notice of: a QR code on my resume that pointed to my LinkedIn profile. Not only did it make the job of checking me out digitally a little easier for the higher-ups, but I used a bit.ly link for the code that allowed me to track how many scans I was getting. It was a little way for me to see how effective my resume was in reaching the desk of the (hopeful) decision maker.

EM: Patience is a given, but you really do have to work hard at it while you’re job hunting. You’ll follow paths that seem really promising but then never pan out for one reason or another, and sometimes you’ll be pleasantly surprised when that cold lead gets warm again. I’d also advise job seekers to make sure that they’re presenting the same story across all of their social networks. I made a concerted effort to make sure that my LinkedIn profile matched the resume I was sending out (yes, sometimes employers do compare them!), and I also made sure any employment information presented on my Facebook page was up-to-date and accurate. This is also a good time to make sure things like your phone number and most active email address are reflected on your profiles to make it as easy as possible for prospective employers to contact you. Lastly, try to narrow your search as much as possible, first targeting those companies that resonate with you and your goals, and then reaching out to those people you already know who might be able to facilitate an introduction to key players. Added bonus: It often eliminates the need for a cover letter if you score a sit-down with someone based on a mutual connection.

BD: I absolutely hate looking for a job. Yes, you need to network and make yourself stand out. The easiest way to stand out is to build something yourself. If you don’t have a blog, write a guest post for someone else’s blog. Having a blog is a really good idea, though. Be active on social networks. Ask people you admire out for a cup of coffee.

KS: Treat the process like dating. Don’t be eager or needy, put yourself at ease and people will take notice. Once you’ve got the “first date,” or interview, remember that there are two sides to that big scary desk. You are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. Being a good fit, team chemistry and complimentary philosophies were all important to me, so I made sure to ask those types of questions at the end of the interview. If I knew that I couldn’t marry a girl who was a White Sox fan, I would make sure to ask that up front during a date. Figure out what YOU want, not just who will have you.

I have to give a HUGE thank you to Erica, Becks and Kyle for taking time out of their busy schedules to contribute to this post. You guys rock!

Can you relate to what Erica, Becks and Kyle shared? What other advice do you have for job seekers?

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I’ve noticed a growing trend in the way people respond to this simple question: “How are you?” And I’m very curious to know if anyone else has picked up on this trend.

Think back to the past few conversations you’ve had with people. When you asked them how they were doing, what was the response? I bet you got some variation of this: “I’m so busy that I don’t even know what to do with myself!”

This is the trend I’ve been noticing lately when I first engage in a conversation with someone, both in person and online. It’s rare if the “How are you?” or “How have you been?” question produces a response like “I’ve been great” or “All is well.” That type of response used to be typical. Not anymore. Now, the answer almost always has something to do with how busy the person’s life is, or how he/she just can’t seem to catch up on things.

Why is this? Are we all cramming our lives with too much work and extracurricular activities? Or have we simply become conditioned to automatically saying that we’re so busy – either because we truly feel like we are or because that’s they new norm?

Have you noticed how little kids have no reservations about being naked? They don’t think twice about stripping down to nothing and running around like free spirits…even if there are people around.

This is because they’ve yet to experience some of the raw feelings that many of us adults are hit with all too often – fear, embarrassment, vulnerability, inferiority, self-consciousness, etc. Little kids don’t have to worry about people judging them or feeling awkward when they’re exposed so openly. Baring it all is comfortable to them. But for many of us, there’s a huge sense of discomfort attached to being naked.

What if I told you embracing nakedness is one of the wisest decisions you could make in your life – particularly your professional life? Would you think I’m nutso? Maybe, but let me explain…

I’ve been referring to being naked in the physical sense, but let’s think about it now from a business perspective and why getting naked is a conduit to success. I just finished reading the book “Getting Naked” by Patrick Lencioni. It’s a business fable (which is a nice change up from other business books I’ve read because it tells a story) about shedding the three fears that sabotage client loyalty. If you work in any type of service industry where you manage clients (such as my field, public relations), this book will really hit home.

I’ve never cared for my last name. Even though it took until my late teenage years, I love and appreciate my very Italian and very unique first name (Nicolena, for those of you who only know me as Nikki). I always wished I had an awesome Italian last name to pair nicely with my first name. Not the case.

Stephan is not all that unconventional, but you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is for people to pronounce or spell. I’ve been Stephen, Stephens, Stefan…and everything in between. So you would think I’d be super excited to be less than three months away from snagging a new last name that is nearly impossible to misspell or mispronounce (MAL’s last name is Little).

It’s actually the opposite. All of a sudden, the thought of losing the last name I’ve had for nearly 27 years is terrifying. It’s like I’m giving up my identity. And with the social Web being such an integral part of my personal and professional life, my last name is also a huge part of my online identity. My last name is included on just about every online network or profile I’ve ever created. I’ve worked hard for the past five years to build a name for myself (or in other words, a personal brand, even though I still struggle with embracing that phrase). Now I’m steps away from giving up that name forever.

I know there are two simple solutions: Don’t take MAL’s name, or hyphenate my name. Hyphenating my name is not in the least bit appealing to me. So I’m left with the option of keeping my name as is.

There is no shortage of information available in books and online about how to be successful. Whatever it may be that you want to succeed in, whether it’s a career or personal aspiration, there are resources available to teach you about achieving success.

But I’ve been thinking more lately about what gets in the way of success – what you should completely avoid doing if you want to succeed. It’s much easier to allow ourselves to fall into those traps that prevent us from achieving greatness than it is to push through what’s holding us back. Sometimes these roadblocks are self-inflicted. Sometimes our environments or people in our lives are the perpetrators.

Regardless of the root cause, we’ll all come across barriers in the various paths we’ll take during our lives that cause us to lose momentum. Derived from my own personal experiences and what I’ve seen happen to others, here are five things to avoid: