In this age of Web 2.0, what better way to stand out than to forego the job-search sites completely and pound the virtual pavement yourself…?
My friend Chris Clarke, who writes at StudentPR, landed himself a tasty position at the Ontario office of Thornley Fallis Communications almost single-handedly through his blog posts.
Kevin Mireles, a former Mitchell Product Manager, a few months ago re-launched FindKevinAJob.com–a site styled as a Monster.com knockoff–after a brief stint with a garage startup that fell flat. At the very least, the site positions him as a creative thinker, self-starter, and someone who is kind to pets.
Kevin is a self-described adventurer-turned-journalist-turned-marketer (he once biked from Buenos Aires to Caracas, during which he had multiple near-death experiences, including two knife fights (sans knife); he is now (like many of us) a homeownerus-domesticus minivanicus. He has a wife and three beautiful girls and two female cats (“As a result, despite my best attempts, I’m always color coordinated when I leave the house.”)
So how’s it been going?
Kevin says: “It’s been moderately successful in terms of actual job leads and not successful in terms of job offers–which is my primary success criteria. However, I have had a few people contact me about positions as a result of seeing the site, and in a couple of cases I was called in for interviews for positions I probably wouldn’t have been interviewed at all because of the site.”
What’s most interesting, Kevin says, has been his struggle with how to position the site–sure, it’s funny, but he’s also dead-serious in trying to find a job.
“What’s funny is that while I’m incredibly good at helping other people identify their key value props and communicating their message clearly and crisply, I struggle to figure out my own message,” Kevin says. “I actually had a breakthrough today that’s so incredibly basic, it’s not funny. Essentially, I need to tailor my message to the potential audience and focus on the most likely market.”
Among other things, he needs to “make the site more interactive and push the content to people…rather than making users click on the references link, I need to have rotating quotes on the homepage so that visitors have more of a reason to keep reading and clicking.
“[And] I need to figure out how to make the site truly viral. I’m thinking of opening it up to all Kevins so that any Kevin can add their resume to the site.
“Besides getting a job, my goal is to get the site mentioned in a major publication so that I can get my 15 minutes of fame.”
Done.
Thanks Ann,
However you forgot to mention that Kevin is a self-described Swiss-Army Knife with over 10 years of experience developing and marketing software and media products. He has done everything from developing multiple Web applications generating millions of
dollars in the real estate, mortgage lending and insurance industries to creating and implementing marketing strategies for emerging technology companies.
Besides crossing the Andes and the Amazon on bicycle, some of his claims to
fame are leading the transition from desktop software to software as a service at two companies, overseeing one of the earliest commercial Web-services implementations, and coining the term “Sudden Paycheck Detachment Syndrome”.
http://www.buzzwhack.com/buzzcomp/indsu.htm
Kev
P.S. In the week since we talked, I’ve decided to focus my efforts on three primary markets:
1. Emerging companies that need a generalist who can do everything from market research to product management and demand generation to sales support.
2. Agencies specifically looking for creative talent (Crispin Porter + Bogusky give me a call!)
3. Interactive news companies. I love using technology to create new ways to engage readers. Not many people have my hard-core tech background and newspaper experience, as a result many of the ideas I proposed 8-years ago still haven’t been executed. (Read my article on leveraging newspaper archives as just one example http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002423282)
So if you’re looking for somebody with the creative and high-tech experience, give me a call!
Ann I think you are going to see more and more bloggers using their blog in their job search in the coming months. It’s like I’ve said all along, you can read a candidate’s blog and get most of the information you would want to learn from a first interview, before you ever meet them.
An online friend of mine got a job partly because of his blog, and I know a few others that, like myself, have gotten job leads because of employers reading our blogs. It’s really a great networking tool.
The link to the article on leveraging newspaper archives for revenue and readership isn’t working for some reason. You can also access it at http://www.findkevinajob.com/Archives.htm
Kev
Mack — Agreed. Makes total sense.
Ironic that on the flip side, so many bloggers have been fired for the same…well, chattiness.
(Wonder if there’s ever been a blogger hired and ALSO fired because of his/her blog? Now THAT would be a claim worth making…!)
P.S. Here’s the correct Editor & Publisher link, FYI:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002423282