The way you’re going to get a job is to learn how to use the online world to expand your network beyond the people you have already met. And then use the offline world to bring those online relationships to the next level. After all, that’s really what a job is in the new millennium: It’s an online hunt with an offline apotheosis.

So forget all those tips about getting a job by finding an opening (old-school job boards) or finding a network (old-school rolodex-based networking). The real way to get a job is to crowdsource it. Meet a lot of people and work together to support each other in the quest for work that helps them grow. In that vein, here are five for-real tips:

1. Seek out people who are managing their career instead of looking for a job.

When people ask us, who is in the Brazen Careerist network, we tell them it’s full of self-starters, forward thinkers, and people with outstanding communication skills. We don’t need a poll to tell us this because it’s so obvious: People self-select when they join Brazen Careerist because you have to be smart enough about your career to understand why you need a professional profile online and an ongoing, professionally focused conversation to make that profile work for you. After all, if you’re not saying anything interesting in the world, why would anyone interesting click on your profile.

2. Use your network to curate your world so the people you spend time with can surprise you.

This brings us to Brazen Careerist meetups. The offline meetups – makes total sense to me because I travel a lot. I travel, and usually I will ask Ryan Paugh to pick out a few people in the city that I should meet while I’m there. The people are always fun and enlightening, and while this does say a bit about Ryan’s ability to know who I’ll like, it also says a bit about who is on the network: Coolness. Trust me. There’s nothing I hate more than being trapped in a room with a total loser.

3. Ideas know no boundaries, but jobs are local. So move back and forth between your universe and your city.

These meetups are about finding who is in your area. (And maybe dating them if they are hot.) But we’d never set this stuff up if we were competing with Match.com because, well, if nothing else, we’d never get funded. Lack of focus. That’s what the VCs would say. Even though I’m pretty convinced that even the VCs go to work, on some level, to get consistent sex in their life, I am not going to write about that here, because Ryan will edit this post and it’ll never get through. Still I can’t resist a link to a post about how getting a good sex life matters than getting a good job. Okay. Link. 
You can’t say I’m not at driving traffic to my blog.

But that’s the thing. Each of you has a knack for something, and you will bring it to each other when you do the Brazen Careerist meetup. You’ll help each other with stuff you knew you needed, and stuff you didn’t even know you need.

4. Asking good questions matters not only online, but offline as well.

This brings me to a story about Ramit Sethi. He is so good at calling me to get advice. (Wait. Did you know he moved from San Francisco to New York to get better media coverage for his Earn1k? The guy is so driven.) Anyway, he always has a list of questions and he is on time and organized and fun. All things that make for a good advice session. But I have noticed that when he is asking questions, he makes me think of questions. And his questions make me smarter about what I should ask, and there he is, right there, to answer them for me.


I hope this is what the meetups are like for you. Ask tough questions that are at the very spot where you are lost. But do the thinking ahead of time to figure out where, really, is the spot you’re lost. Broad, philosophical questions are good. Like, does my job need to be meaningful to not make my life worthless. But specific questions will get you farther, like, should I let Ryan cut out the part about sex because it’s unprofessional or should I tell him that all career collaboration has sex as an underlying theme. Oh. Wait. That was a broad philosophical one. Which is my problem. By the way. I get stuck on the very broad, in-actionable questions. That’s why I need to do collaborative career management. What do you need it for?

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The post A Note from Penelope: How to get a job without applying appeared first on Brazen Life.

The best thing that you can do for your career is to get a strong set of mentors. University of Virginia found that people with three mentors are more likely to get a promotion than someone with fewer than three. And studies from the University of California – Santa Cruz found that almost every Fortune 500 CEO can name a roster of mentors who helped them along the way.

The problem is, where do you find good mentors? It’s hard to know who gives good advice and who will take time to care about helping you. On top of that, once you find the right person, it’s difficult to know what questions to ask.

During the past couple months fellow Brazen member Rich DeMatteo from Corn on the Job has been helping us compile an eBook that will help you overcome the hurdles of finding mentors. The chapters in this book come from some of the top human resource bloggers on the web — big thinkers and do-ers and people who we at Brazen look to for trends in hiring.

Some topics these leaders will cover include …

Marketing Yourself Based on the Value You Will Bring

Your value proposition has to be out there, consistent and recognizable to all that see or hear about it. If your mom, spouse, best friend and dog can’t explain what you can do in 20 seconds, go back to the drawing board to figure out how to better communicate your employment value. ~ Lance Haun, Rehaul.com

How to Build the Relationships that Matter

You don’t have to attend stuffy association meetings to network. Some of the best conversations I’ve had were with people at social events or just hanging out with other professionals. When people are relaxed, they’re willing to share. You don’t become another face in the crowd. Relationships start to form. ~ Sharlyn Lauby, HR Bartender

Why a Job is NOT What Ultimately Will Make You Happy

Unfortunately, the trick to getting a job is actually surviving the job search and realizing that it’s just a job. If your life lacks meaning, a cubicle and a tacky ‘business casual’ wardrobe from the local mall won’t add depth and value to your
life. ~ Laurie Ruettimann, Punk Rock HR

Ultimately, what you need to know about this eBook is that its entries come from the heart. Each contributor has taken the time to write advice to you just to help. It’s a compendium of good advice from people who care. And as your career progresses, you should aim to have people like this in your life — they are the types that affect change not only in their industry, but in the lives of the people they meet.

Brazen Careerist is honored to be able to publish this book of bright ideas. Thanks so much to everyone who contributed.

Click here to download your free copy of What I Know About Getting a Job.

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The post What Do You Know About Getting a Job? Check Out Our New eBook. appeared first on Brazen Life.

1. Play well on a team. You have an advantage over older workers in that you play well on teams. Even if you are the worst team player in your graduating class, you’re the best team player on a team of Gen Xers and Baby boomers. Gen X likes to work alone, and baby boomers like to lead. So, on a team, they tend to under perform. Projects that more experienced people would normally jump at are up for the taking in a team environment because people are uncomfortable. This is a time when you can shine, and do the majority of the work, so that management sees what you’re capable of. Also, show you have leadership skills. There is a shortage of Gen Yers who want to lead in a top-down, baby boomer way. If you can do that, baby boomers will label you a leader and give you bigger assignments.

2. Blog about what you want to do for a living. Do yo have a vision of what you can do that is not entry-level? Start doing it. You don’t need permission to be a big thinker – blog about your professional ideas and participate in professional conversations about those ideas on Brazen Careerist. Potential employers will look at your ideas instead of your experience and you will not look entry-level if your ideas are good. Also, there are plenty of examples where bloggers have established themselves as thought leaders with very little conventional work experience behind them. Some people on Brazen Careerist who have catapulted up the ladder with their blogs are Lance Haun and Cameron Plommer.

3. Focus on connecting with people instead of jobs. If you find a manager who really loves working with you, then he will want you to report directly to him. Find a mentor in a manager who is a bit above you in pecking order so that reporting directly to her would mean a leap over the entry-level. Having someone vouch for your outstanding work is the fastest way to move ahead in an organization no matter where you are right now.

4. Be a good salesperson. Here’s something to think about: Someone with ten years of experience is a lot more expensive than you are. So if you can convince someone you are qualified to do the same job as someone with lots of experience, then you’re going to save the company a lot of money. It’s a win for everyone – you get more money than you would have in an entry-level job and the company does not have to pay the salary they had budgeted for the position.

5. Focus on learning. You control the pace of your workplace education, no matter what job you’re in now, or if you’re unemployed. So learn as fast as you can, by reading and asking questions and making yourself an important part of a professional community. Brazen Careerist is a place where people come to learn and grow. No one is going to manage your career except you. But that’s good news because the great thing about skipping the entry-level track is that the people most likely to pull this off are those who manage their careers collaboratively, in a curious, growth-oriented, professional community like Brazen Careerist.

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The post A Note From Penelope: How to Skip the Entry-Level Track appeared first on Brazen Life.

So here are some ways to use your social-networking savvy to land the mentors you need right now:

1. Leverage your Brazen Careerist profile to impress people.
You can use Twitter to identify someone who would be a good mentor for you. But you need to get their attention right away with a link to something that gives a snapshot of why you are interesting. A blog is a lot to read, and a LinkedIn profile is not going to showcase your ideas. Your Brazen Careerist profile is exactly the type of information that a mentor wants to find out about you before they sign on. Also, one of the reasons that people mentor is to learn from the mentee. If you introduce your mentor to a place like Brazen Careerist you are helping the mentor to stay on top of their game as well.

2. Connect with other top contributors at Brazen Careerist.
Now that we have launched our Top Users page you can figure out who is making a major contribution to the network. These people will likely be leaders and people who are in the know, and these are great people to reach out to. At the beginning of your career, some of the strongest help you will receive is from people who are two or three years ahead of you. People who are ten or fifteen years older than you are can help with a lot of connections, but they often forget what it’s like to be at the beginning of a career. Also, the people who have the most knowledge about where the plum jobs are for twentysomethings are usually the twentysomethings themselves. After all, the CEO of GE is not taking part in hiring for entry-level jobs, right?

3. Ask good questions.
The best way to stand out is to ask good questions. The Internet makes answers a commodity, and conversations-based networking makes good questions more valuable than ever. So focus on questions. Once you meet someone, ask questions that are right for them — something they know a lot about that you are interested in — and then show the person how you used their help to learn more on your own. Self learners are the best type of people to mentor because they end up teaching the mentor as much as they learn from the mentor. Social networks that focus on conversation position you as a good potential mentee.

Be brave. Almost anyone will help you if you approach them with smart, concise questions. And the more you ask these questions the more invested in you a person will feel. You can only get better at asking for help by doing it a lot. If someone ignores you, nothing’s lost. Just move on to the next person. Getting mentoring is like getting a date. The more you try the better you get.

Want more? Join our new Mentor & Mentees network >

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The post How to Get a Mentor Using Social Networking appeared first on Brazen Life.