I love to read. Books, magazine articles, blogs, tweets, the format isn’t important to me. What counts is the content. I regularly read something that really resonates. Yesterday was one such day.

Two quotes struck a chord with me. The first was from Apple Supremo Steve Jobs;

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith”.

This really hit home, for a variety of personal reasons, but hit home nonetheless. It came at the right time, was in the right context and gave me a sharp jolt of re – focus with respect to the circumstances I was faced with.

Within minutes came something else. This time Mark Twain hit all the right notes and summed up for me something that I deeply believe to be true yet had lost in the fog that becomes the “stuff” we all have to do, day in, day out;

“What work I have done I have done because it because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn’t have done it”.

Result? A sharp re – focus back to the bigger picture of what I want to achieve. A quick re – evaulation of what I was doing and my compelling purpose, my “why” came sharply back in to focus.

I felt compelled to share these pearls of wisdom if only because they struck at the heart of something that is really important to me but that I had forgotten amongst all the “stuff” swimming around in my head during my day.

We all need a little reminder from time to time of what it is that we are here to do. Of why we are doing it. Yesterday was one such day and I am grateful for it.

A year ago I blogged on this very issue –

Never Burn Your Bridges

My point was simple. You never know when your paths might cross in the future, when you might need to leverage that relationship, when that connection might work to your advantage.

It would appear based on the revelations of former Chancellor Alistair Darling over the weekend and indeed from the memoirs of many a Politician over the years that the one area where this advice is not heeded is Politics.

History is littered with politicians who see fit to trash just about everyone with whom their paths crossed once they have moved on. Darling is no different.

I am no fan of Gordon Brown (indeed I am very public and clear on my view that he is quite simply the worst Prime Minister of my lifetime) but you should never trash your former colleagues (unless, of course, it is to sell copies of your book). Think about what it says about you to a potential future employer.

Keep your opinions to yourself, keep your dignity intact, keep your head held high and move on.

There is a right and wrong way to do things. Fired over the phone is firmly in the ‘wrong’ camp. It’s inexcusable.

This from Mashable

Carol Bartz’s Memo to All Employees: I’ve Just Been Fired

There are a number of issues here that I find appalling. Regardless of your views on Carol Bartz performance, firing someone over the phone is cowardly, no matter what that person’s role in the organisation. To then allow employees to find out their Boss has been fired via an email sent from her IPad smacks of a poorly thought through, poorly executed dismissal.

What does this shambles tell you about Yahoo! What impact does this have on the Employer brand? Is this the kind of organisation you would want to work for?

Every organisation has it’s share of ups and downs. Yahoo! is no exception. Regardless of the performance of share price, your top or bottom line, how you deal with your people is crucial to your long term success. If the performance of the Yahoo! Chairman in the debacle that has been Bartz dismissal is anything to go by, they have more tough times to come.

How Businesses Use Social Media for Recruiting

I would strongly recommend a read. The data comes from a survey conducted by CareerEnlightenment.com

33% OF THOSE COMPANIES SURVEYED REJECTED A CANDIDATE BASED ON SOMETHING THEY FOUND THEY DISLIKED ABOUT THEM ONLINE.

This infographic comes hot on the heels of my post yesterday (timing is everything) Who Are You? So, have you checked your online profile yet? What do you think about what you see, read, hear? Would you hire you?

92% OF MANAGERS USED OR PLANNED TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO RECRUIT IN 2010.

And last but by no means least in todays’ links comes this report from Proskauer on Social Media in the workplace.

44% OF COMPANIES TRACK EMPLOYEE’S SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN AND OUT OF THE OFFICE.

These numbers will increase. So, what does your online brand say about you?

The proliferation of social media affords us the opportunity to develop a brand that we can showcase to the world. Such an opportunity has never before been available. The impact on your career, positive or otherwise, can be immense.

So what brand do you want to portray? What do you want your online presence to say about you? How do you want it to represent you? What platform are you using to portray it?

The chances are you don’t have just one online identity, you will have many. Each will offer a slightly different insight in to you and your brand. We all make our own rules. For me, Facebook is close family and friends. Linkedin is for professional and business contacts. Twitter is a great way to communicate messages and as a consequence develop my online brand, to engage with people all over the world that I might otherwise never have met and indeed to create business opportunities.

This blog is my mouthpiece, my opportunity to share my thoughts, views, learning, experience, with anyone who want’s to listen. Or indeed to form an opinion on me, good or bad.

There are more, countless more. Don’t even get me started on Google+. Do you have time for yet another social network? The statistics would appear to suggest that we just can’t get enough of them.

Have you considered what your online brand says about you? Have you ever tried to google yourself? What does it say?

You can bet next time you are looking for a job, your prospective employer will have done their homework on you. Ask yourself what you want them to know? To see? To read? Consider this. Once it’s on the web, it’s always on the web.

Protecting your online identity is another issue again. How can you prove that you are indeed who you say you are? What do you do if someone pertaining to be you posts online pictures, tweets, blogs, comments in your name that are nothing to do with you? It happens.

My favourite blogger is Fred Wilson who pens the excellent Musings of a VC in NYC.

What I love about it is that he teaches me something new everyday. Despite the fact that I have never met Fred, I feel as if I know him, or at least have a sense as to the kind of character he is. His online presence, brand, identity is to me entirely compelling, not least because he is operating in a space that fascinates me. That aside I would encourage you to read his post

Identity, Authentication and provisioning them online

We have multiple online identities. That means a prospective employer has a choice as to what messages they accept around you and your brand. Check them out. Make sure you know what is being said about you online, by you, by your colleagues, friends, relatives perhaps even your enemies. My point is not to freak you out here, but to ensure that you are at least aware. Once something is online, it’s always online.

Earlier in the week Business Networking Strategist Andy Lopata wrote an excellent post on the subject of Business Networking

Do you come here often?

I would recommend a read, it will certainly provoke you in to thinking about your approach to networking. I was prompted to comment and decided to elaborate further on my response to Andy here;

The focus on building relationships is crucial to successful networking. Unfortunately “What you do” might just be the best way of establishing some common ground in the early stages of business networking. The important thing when asking the question is to take a genuine interest in the answer, to listen intently and ask the questions you need to ask to establish in your own mind the likelihood of the connection to which you refer.

In my experience if you approach any form of networking purely from the basis of what’s in it for me then your chances of developing long term, mutually beneficial, successful working relationships are virtually non – existent. Focus on what you can give, not just what you can get.

Take a genuine interest in people, who are they are, what they do, how they do it and the challenges they face. You are then far better placed to shape your answer as to what it is that you do that might be of benefit to them. Don’t jump in too early, don’t be in a rush to interrupt when you see a potential buying signal. Take your time and take an interest. It is a far more effective way of achieving networking success.

If the connection simply isn’t there, despite your best efforts, then move on politely and engage with someone else in the room. Take confidence from the fact that many in the room will be as nervous as you and despite how it may appear, the majority will not know each other as well as you think when you first walk in.

If you have a networking success (or horror!) story to share then let me know in your comments and lets share them with other readers. The beauty of blogging is such that we can all learn so much from sharing in the experiences of others.

We have all been asked at networking events “What do you do?”.

I recall at one particular event being struck by how ill conceived and muddled my answer was going to be to that very question. “Errr, lots of things” just wasn’t going to cut it with this guy. Somehow I could just sense it.

That taught me a lesson. Next up, “I’m a Recruiter”. That tends to evoke any number of reactions, ranging from “aagh, so you are the scumbag that keeps trying to poach my staff” to the highly offensive “I thought people trafficking was still illegal”. Change of tact required.

“I’m an Executive Recruiter”. Same thing, just a posher term. Try “Headhunter” and that really gets people’s interest. For some reason this tends not to evoke images of wild cannibals. Instead this is likely to elicit a more considered response, along the lines of “I need to know you as you might just be the person to unlock the door to that dream job that changes my life. Do you have a card”.

I sharpened the saw just a little and honed my response yet further. Figuring I needed a compelling purpose to really grab peoples attention, I went simply for “I change people’s lives”.

Compelling? Yes. The kind of response to provoke a discussion? You bet. Is the person you asking the question now asking themselves if you suffer from delusions of grandeur? You can be sure!

Think about it, however, and you will see what I am saying is true. As a Recruiter, you have the ability to fundamentally change a life. Someone approaches you looking for a new job. They are thoroughly disillusioned, disengaged, disenfranchised, at work. Thoroughly miserable. As a consequence of your actions, you are able to introduce them to a new employer who treats them well, engages them, motivates and inspires them, invests in them, develops them, opens up a whole new world of opportunity to that individual and unlocks potential that was just waiting to be released upon the world.

Sounds like recruitment utopia, doesn’t it? So it should. It is a responsibility we should not underestimate, for we can change people’s lives for the better. Do the job poorly however and we can certainly make a life miserable. The very worst of recruiter behaviour, twisting a candidates arm to take a job they don’t want simply to make a fee has a wider impact that is too often forgotten. So there you go. We can change lives.

All of which got me thinking about the wider issue of effective networking. In yesterday’s Huffington Post, Business Networking Strategist Andy Lopata writes an excellent post on this very subject

Do you come here often

I would certainly recommend a read. It will get you thinking about just how to ensure you get the very best from your networking efforts, for it should be a feature of any job search strategy. Never a truer adage not what but who you know.

I’ll blog more tomorrow on my thoughts arising from Andy’s post.

Someone asked me a couple of months back what my idea was of my perfect day. I was ashamed. I couldn’t answer. It sure got me thinking. It got me thinking about the things I love to do and in particular those things that I love that I’d just stopped doing because being busy got in the way.

I’ve always been busy. Who isn’t? Rarely do I stop. Historically I would equate success and achievement with effort, gut busting effort and lots of sweat. That one question changed all that. I stopped to think.

Recently I wrote a bucket list. It wasn’t the point of the perfect day question, but it sure was the outcome. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. On that list are all the things I love to do or want to do and I’ve started doing them. Some of them are business related, some involve family, some involve enriching my brain, some enriching my body, all are enriching my life.

Am I getting time to get stuff done? You bet! I have never been more productive. So, what’s your perfect day?

Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit is being strangled

Her argument is spot on. The banks, even those majority owned by the tax payer, are punishing those that stood by them in the darkest hour by denying them the capital to fund the growth the wider economy needs to drive down unemployment.

I am not talking about lending to anyone. I am talking about lending to profitable, cash generative, viable businesses, the staple surely of any banking business model? Except for that was not the sensible approach some of the banking fraternity were adopting in the lead up to the financial crisis of 2008.

Polly Toynbee gives some excellent examples of just those such businesses who’s future prosperity is being strangled just the kind of short term thinking that drove us to the brink in 2008. Short term thinking then was about making a quick buck and to hell with anyone who suffers as a consequence. Now we see the same kind of mentality under a different guise. As long as we don’t suffer then to hell with the rest of you. It is so short sighted that they can’t even see it themselves!

Unemployment in the developed world is at unprecedented highs. Our politicians show little leadership and desire to solve what I am sure is a hugely complex issue. It will not be big business or banking that drives us through the tough times, it will be innovation, entrepreneurship, start ups, ideas that will create wealth and employment. Sure some you can boot strap, some you can drive revenues fast and get your customers to fund working capital, some just need the cash in the first place to get started.

From what I see and hear, there is money around, lots of it. The markets are not indicative in any way of the broader business fundamentals and very much at the mercy of the geo – political situation. Corporations have on the whole repaired balance sheets and sit on stockpiles of cash not seen in many a year but remain nervous and sitting on this cash could last for some time. We must find a way of improving liquidity in the economy.

The mechanism must be found to ensure the banks start to lend to viable businesses. If not unemployment will continue to rise. The method, legislation and political will must be found to make this happen.

If the banks won’t lend then the answer lies in the Angel community. Private investors. Those who have made money and are looking to make that money work for them. With interest rates at historic lows, traditional investment vehicles offer nowhere near the return that they might have done in the past, unless you are in gold which the the price of which this morning reach historic highs!

It may well be the case today that we need the banks more than they need us. History tells us that will change.

If you have your big idea, your passion and you want to see that come to fruition, then a private investor might be the answer. Regardless, if your bank won’t give you what you need, don’t give up. You are the future of the economy, the creator of wealth, of employment, of opportunity and prosperity. We need you more than we need them. Remember that.

Matthew Epstein – Google Please Hire Me

I am always keen to highlight the innovative ways, the lengths, that people will go to in order to get to where they want to go. There is much to be gained by way of inspiration from their efforts.

Matthew clearly, in his own words, wanted to join Google’s “product marketing team, bad”. He told them, in a very creative way.

He went the extra mile, put himself out, didn’t wait for a job to show up, he showed Google in the most public of ways just how creative and keen he was to join them. I have enormous admiration for his efforts.

What do you think? What has been the most innovative job application you have seen? Send me your examples, I would love to put together a series of the most inventive, creative, effective job applications.

Enjoy what’s left of your week and have a great weekend!