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What do you find when you “Google” your name? Do you come up on page 1 or is that someone else with the same name? Do you come up on page 2? Any of the pages? Does “digital dirt” come up (like your recent FaceBook photos showing last weekend’s beer party)? Is this what you would want a potential employer to see? Because like it or not, employers and recruiters are checking you out. Your online presence, or lack of it, IS INFLUENCING the powers that be in their hiring decisions.

So what should you do about this? Set a goal of building your online presence. A great place to start is with LinkedIn.com, a popular business networking site that today’s recruiters are using to sleuth for candidates. There is extensive information online about this site, as well as books, blogs, and workshops.* Creating a profile on this site can help you get onto page 1 of Google – no charge. You can also check out industry blogs (use technorati.com to search for blogs by topic) and comment intelligently on them – this raises your Google presence and can help promote a positive image. You can also create your own blog, just be sure you are writing things that demonstrate expertise in your field of interest – or at least that your blog does not add any more personal “dirt” to the blogosphere. If you do any public speaking or publish an article – even in the opinion section of the newspaper - it can lead to a Google note about you on page 1 of a search.

How to get rid of “digital dirt”? Well, like any dirt, you either remove it or sweep it under the rug. So, you may want to consider removing some FaceBook pictures from last week’s keg party. Also, learn how to use the privacy controls on these sites. And finally, the more you “add”, the more you build your presence. So get moving and see what you can do to influence others!

* Resources:

• My favorite books on this topic is “I’m on Linked In, Now What?” by Jason Alva, and “Career Distinction, Stand Out By Building Your Brand” by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson
• Favorite local guru is Howard Yermish - linkedin.com/in/hyermish

Let’s consider things from their point of view. When a candidate has considerable experience at a higher level than a given job opening, the employer wonders why this person wants the job and suspects all types of problems: Is the candidate having some difficulty getting a job at the right level? If so, maybe she just wants this job “in the meantime” but will leave as soon as the right opportunity presents itself? or perhaps the person would work out well initially, but become bored quickly and will leave for a more challenging position? The employer also often assumes that the candidate is used to a higher salary and is going to be a problem during salary negotiations. So, now can you begin to understand their hesitation?

What can you do if you are hearing the “OQ” comment? Assure the employer that you are “fully qualified” not “overqualified.” Be sure to address the concerns that they may be thinking. Your cover letter should highlight your enthusiasm for the opening and the desire to be productive for that employer. Check your resume – be sure you “downsize” the focus on your more senior level achievements and highlight contributions at this particular level instead. During the interview, convey how you can hit the ground running. Bring up the fact that you are looking to be paid fairly for the level of the position and you realize that your prior compensation was for a different level of responsibility. Do your homework to see what it is they need and address it. As always, wishing you the best of success!

January 21 2009 - Even Joe the Pipefitter must look askance at some of the moves made in corporate America when faced with a string of bad news. (Sorry… I just can’t use “Joe the Plumber”, a guy who didn’t pay his taxes, isn’t certified as a plumber, and has tried to cash in on his 15 seconds of fame which - amazingly McGraw Hill has turned into a book while making great authors wait for a contract.)

Mistake #1: Become reactive and reactionary
There is truth in the old saying “Respond in haste. Regret in sorrow.” This is also known as the “ready, fire, aim” approach of leadership. When leaders fail to gather the information and critically assess the long-term impact of decisions, severe errors are made. Consider the Big Three auto executives who knee-jerked their way on private planes to ask for a handout without ever having a plan. Now that’s a bonehead mistake.

First, stop any action and breathe. Think long-term strategy. Be cautious. Be proactive. Test out the decisions by saying, “If this… then this…” so you can try it on for size.

Mistake #2: Huddle with only the corporate folks
First, answers are often found at the floor level, not at the ceiling. Involve everyone in the search for efficiencies and innovations. Engage everyone in a common vision and mission. Besides, if managers tell employees what to do, you’ve taken away all sense of responsibility and ownership. How refreshing to have the Obama team now posting discussions on the internet and seeking input from a variety of people with differing viewpoints. Building transparency goes a long way for building trust and making us all feel we are part of the solution.

Mistake #3: Cut. Cut. Cut.
No one EVER downsized their way to greatness. Wholesale termination of employees without thinking about the cost of underserved customers and too much work done by too few people or canceling the meeting without realizing that this is the time TO GATHER and candidly talk are just two examples of cuts that could have been done with a scalpel instead of a hacksaw. Substitute Jello for Jamoca Fudge and Two Buck Chuck for Dom Perignon but bring people together.

As for layoffs, if your organization or department can handle this-bring everyone together and spread out the facts. One very smart leader found that employees were willing to reduce work schedules, work half-time, and job share rather than have members of their team terminated. For more ideas, read Responsible Restructuring: Creative and Profitable Alternatives to Layoffs by Wayne Cascio, professor of management at the University of Colorado-Denver Business School.

Mistake #4: Go after new clients and customers
Unless your current customers have vanished because of poor quality or service, these can be your best source of new revenue. Ask how you can turn them into champions of what you provide. Make them feel special and valuable. I’ve noticed that my bank is now making every effort to thank me for my business, to call me by name, to answer any request with a “no problem” attitude. Sure, they should have been doing that all along but-better late than never. Besides, they’ve already got all my money in the safe. I think they’d like to keep it.

Mistake #5: Do more with less
We’ve been hearing this for years. In my consulting practice, I have often found that much of the “more” is work that provides no value at the end of the day. Scrutinize every process; get rid of the sacred cows and the egos. Translate every action into a dollar value. In one organization, we found that senior executives were tripping over each other to put their two cents into every PowerPoint presentation that was made. It was a waste of executive talent, made each project longer than necessary, disempowered the employee creating the presentation, and actually used up some $15,000 worth of senior management time!

BONUS Mistake: Buy into pessimism
It’s a huge mistake we ALL make when we let the news of the day finds us hiding under the covers, chopping up the furniture for kindling and searching for recipes made with bread and water. What we have here is an opportunity to really consider what is most important, to spend time at work that is meaningful, and to nurture relationships that matter. We have an opportunity to reclaim our reputation, our integrity, and our future. Not to do this would be our biggest mistake.

To condense the wisdom of a Hopi Elder, “This is the Eleventh Hour…and we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

© 2009, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Known as a powerful presenter and facilitator, Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE has been creating conversations that matter and connections that count since 1980. Executive Excellence ranks her among the top 100 thought-leaders in leadership development. Her newest book, Gifts from the Mountain, received the 2008 Ben Franklin book award. To hire Eileen as a speaker, coach or retreat leader visit http://www.eileenmcdargh.com.

Well, after a long tough winter (and this is coming from a guy who lived in Alaska for 20 years), spring is here which means it is time for a long-overdue EPG Connection Newsletter. Since it has been a couple of months since our last publication I have a few things that have been rattling around in my brain that I would like to write about. First, a story about branding.

About five weeks ago my brother Bill and I met for a business lunch with a couple of colleagues at Chickie’s and Pete’s original location in Northeast Philly. Now, if you know anything about C&P you know they are famous for one thing and one thing only… crab fries! If you have ever gone over to Citizens Bank Park to catch a Phillies game you have seen people standing in huge lines (usually missing several innings of the game) just waiting for a small order of C&P crab fries. People love the things, and C&P gladly serves them up. So, the four of us are getting ready to order lunch and as the other guys are happily ordering up pulled pork sandwiches, cheese steaks, and of course crab fries I am thinking to myself how can I maintain my latest stab at eating healthy. When all of a sudden I notice on the menu, way off to one side down on the corner of the page these words…Caesar salad. Thinking I am safe I order the Caesar salad, resulting in a very strange look from our waiter, and we resume our conversation. My brother made some comment about the guys in the kitchen having to search for that one head of lettuce they keep on hand for just such an emergency. After about 10 minutes our food started to arrive and the table began to fill up with mounds of meat, cheese and you got it… crab fries. No sign of the Caesar salad. However, just when I thought all was lost and that my order had been placed in vain my salad arrived. Romaine lettuce, croutons, some chicken, and piled high with you got it… crab fries! We all stared at my “salad” and laughed our collective butts off at my futile attempt to try to eat something healthy at a place like Chickie’s and Pete’s. Now, here is where the branding part comes in. To me, a company’s brand is a statement or reflection of what they feel they do better in the world than anyone else. And of course, Chickie’s and Pete’s feels they do crab fries better than anyone else in the world, so no matter what you order there you are definitely going to get a big pile of their “brand” on your plate. As a result, whenever you think of Chickie’s and Pete’s the first thing you usually think of is crab fries. Oh by the way… I ate every one.

At Emerson Personnel Group we feel we supply our client companies with the best candidates, temporary or permanent, in the world. We can talk about our excellent customer service, our friendliness, our longevity or our high level of communication but at the end of the day what we do better than anyone else is provide the best possible candidate for each position we fill. That is who we are… and ultimately, that is what we are known for.

Okay, next topic; and this is related to what I just stated in the last paragraph. I am proud to announce that Emerson Personnel Group now has the added capability to assist our client companies in their search for excellent candidates in the field of Information Technology. By the same token, of course, we now have the concurrent ability to assist IT candidates in their search for an excellent company at which to work. EPG has partnered with John Barry who has 25 years of experience in the field of IT recruitment and is well-known throughout the region. John has hit the ground running and has already made some excellent placements for our team. Please give us a call if you have any questions about this exciting new addition to our service options.

I am going to wrap this thing up with a brief statement on the economy and a quick word of advice to hiring officials. First off, we are seeing a significant surge from our client companies in their need for temporary administrative personnel. I have written about this inevitability over the past several months and I am very happy to announce that what I have discussed in the past is now occurring in a big way. And, if history proves true, the demand for temporary administrative personnel will eventually morph into a surge in the need for executive search and permanent job opportunities. While this is very exciting news, it brings with it words of caution for companies who are in a hiring mode. Those words of caution are… make a decision! As the hiring climate heats up competition for the top candidates, it will only become stiffer. Additionally, it is typical for job candidates to be interviewing at more than one company at a time. So, the old saying “you snooze you lose” has never been more true. Simply put, if you meet with a candidate and feel they would be a great fit for your organization it behooves you to make an offer. I say this whether the candidate was supplied by Emerson Personnel Group, a competing recruitment firm, or whether it was someone the company sourced on their own. It is a simple fact that the best candidates will be scooped up quickly… especially in an environment toward which we are currently moving.

Okay, that is it for now. Bring on the spring and bring on the Phillies!

Now, those who know me will always describe me as a silver lining kind of guy, and with that in mind I’d like to propose that there were lessons to be learned from the brutal year we just put to bed. First, I believe many businesses learned a great deal about the advantages of running lean and mean. Excessive and/or unnecessary budget items were quickly rooted out with the result being a higher level of efficiency. Second, people I have spoken to became much more skilled at time management and tried to work smarter with specific goals in mind. And third, the whole concept of accountability took on new levels of significance and importance. These three factors/lessons will go a long way in contributing to the fruitful 2010 we are all looking forward to.

That’s right, you heard me correctly… I said the fruitful 2010. Believe me, this is not just wishful thinking. As I’ve written before, the staffing/recruiting industry has historically been a very accurate barometer for the economy as a whole. Very reliable data has shown that as the economy emerges from a recession one of the first areas of improvement occurs in the placement of temporary administrative personnel. Emerson Personnel Group has survived six documented recessions since 1971 and we have led the way to prosperity as the economy emerged from each one. It is incredibly positive news that the fourth quarter for EPG was our strongest of last year, most notably in the temporary administrative arena. The fourth quarter also saw our strongest surge in the direct hire/executive search component of the business. So, needless to say we are very excited at EPG and we have hit the ground running in 2010. Will it take the economy awhile to dig out from the past couple of years? Absolutely. However, the indicators mentioned above are all pointing in a very positive direction. EPG invites you to join us with an increased positive attitude and a long overdue heightened level of excitement for the year ahead. Let’s go!