I took the day off from the corporate job to concentrate on my passion of helping professionals understand how social media can help them with their career aspirations. I started the day at the weekly Acton Networkers networking meeting in Acton, MA outside of Boston. Acton Networkers is a large and well-known professional networking group in the Metrowest of Boston. I was asked to present the topic "Employment in a Social Media World" in front of around 45 people. It was a well attended event and I met some great professionals and heard their 30-second elevator pitches. There were many with great skills whom just cannot find the right career opportunity and some folks have been out of work for years. It breaks my heart to hear that, thinking they have families and their livelihood at stake.
After hearing feedback from the crowd, I adjusted my presentation to be less statistics and more inspiring. I provided some great tips on how to use LinkedIN to make real connections but also made the session very interactive, so everyone there felt like they were part of the event. I encouraged them to use LinkedIN to build relationships since after all relationships is how the majority of people land their next great opportunity. I stressed to the group that we are in a different economy now. Gone are the days of living and dying by the company you work for, hoping that their supervisors drive their career success. Also, the days of applying for what jobs there are, via the old job boards like Monster, Careerbuilders are not so effective anymore. What is effective is taking advantage of what social media has to offer in relationship building. What is effective is driving your own career and making decisions for yourself. If everyone took the initiative to drive their own success, whether it is starting their own business or ensuring their skills are up-to-date so that they would always be in demand, less professionals would be unemployed. Of course, it sounds easier said than done, but if everyone took advantage of the social media tools, networking and relationship building they would always be in a proactive state in their career success.
I personally have been laid off twice ironically while I was in the midst of building my business, AIMC Business Solutions. I learned my lesson the hard way and I am hoping today, I was able to influence my audience to take advantage of their resource so we can all get the economy going in the right direction.
