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Job seeking and the strategies and preparation involved in the job search can be expensive.   Let me clarify that the frugal job seeker is one whose money conscious yet very strategic in how they manage their job search and the tools and resources they choose to use and invest in.  Like any marketing campaign, it is important to select and manage your resources.  If done carefully, you can effectively prepare and market yourself for under $500.  Money well spent.  In my own experience, the frugal yet strategic job seeker can lessen the amount of time in the job search by 25-50%.  From a finance management perspective, this is a phenomenal return on investment.  Here are some insights.

Personal Branding Consultation.  ($300) Just like a real estate home stager, a personal branding consultant can get you off on the right foot.  Home stagers provide an unbiased opinion and are trained to highlight your home’s strengths while downplaying its weaknesses.  Most consultants and career coaches including myself are willing to provide a personal branding and marketing consultation for perspective clients.  Xceptional HR provides a basic career package of a resume, cover letter, reference check, and intial consult for $300.   By meeting with an expert, you can get a feel for the market, have custom designed marketing materials, and a sense of direction that highlights your strengths and downplays your weaknesses.

Professional Business Cards.   ($50) Professionally designed business cards are essential for job seekers of all backgrounds.  I recommend using a design company to help you design your business cards instead designing and printing them yourself.  It is important to include your contact information, your professional website or LinkedIn profile url, as well as a memorable tag line or description that differentiates you from the rest.  Using color appropriately is also important.  A business card can be a difference maker that shows companies and professionals that you are serious about your professional job search.  For the seriously frugal job seeker, Vista Print offers 250 free business cards and has templates and colorful backgrounds that you can take advantage of.

Professional Dress.  ($125) A great suit and accessories can make a lasting impression.  Purchase items that you can mix and match to get the most bang for your buck.  For the ladies, purchase a nice suit that includes pants, skirt, and blazer.   Use different accessories like scarves, jewelry, and also blouses for different looks.  I encourage men to do the same with ties, cuff links, and dress shirts.  Department stores like J.C. Penny’s, Kohls, Target, and also thrift stores offer professional yet affordable options.  When making a clearance or thrift store purchase, you can have your suit tailored to fit your body type at an affordable price.  I once purchased a $350 suit at Nordstroms for 75% off.  I had it custom tailored for $75 and walked into an interview looking like a million bucks.

Networking Events.  ($25) Use Social Media sites LinkedIn Groups, Meetup.com, Wimgo.com, FaceBook events, and your network to find free networking events.  $25 includes the cost of gas to attend these events.  Since many of these events are Happy Hour Networking events, order a water with lime to save on the cost of alcohol while ensuring that you are professional no matter what the circumstance.

Like many other HR professionals I found myself unemployed during one of the worst economic crises this country has ever seen.  It has been a rough eight months of uncertainty – leads that didn’t pan out and hopes crushed – but I kept my head up and moved forward.  Luckily I recently landed myself a new job!

A lot of people have asked me what I have done to keep myself busy over these past eight months.  I worked a few jobs to make sure I could pay my bills, but  I didn’t stop there.  I knew that I had to do something to make me stand out from a crowd of thousands of other highly qualified HR professionals who are in a similar position.

With that said I decided to capitalize on social media to develop my personal brand.  (You hear a lot of great information on this topic by Dan Schawbel on his “Personal Branding Blog” so check him out if you can.)  What could be more perfect than an avenue to market yourself to a multitude of people across the globe?  Best of all…it’s FREE!    I started with Facebook.  Policing your profile for inappropriate comments, pictures and information from friends is essential!  Also, consider taking precautions by making your profile private or limiting what the public can see.  These are easy options available to you under the “settings” tab.  You never know when a potential employer could be viewing your profile.  After tackling a cleanup of my Facebook profile I began to share it with professional colleagues.

LinkedIn was a bit easier to set up as it is a professional networking site, whereas Facebook is considered more personal with professional networking becoming more frequent.  Your LinkedIn profile is essentially an online resume that you can continually tweak.  Know that there are limits to the amount of information you can include in sections of your profile, meaning characters.  You don’t need to put everything on your profile, just enough to make you look enticing to a potential employer.  If you have positive relationships with past managers and colleagues see if they will leave you a recommendation of your work.  Include a picture but make it professional and make sure you can actually see your face – crop it if necessary so it is a head shot.  Join common interest groups and contribute to conversations.  Lastly, solicit feedback from other HR professionals but be able to take constructive criticism!

Out of all the social media applications out there I must say that Twitter is my favorite.  It takes a while for most people to get the hang of Twitter but when they do it’s a breeze.  You need to ask yourself some questions before you take on this application.  Why do you want to use Twitter?  What kind of persona do you want to maintain?  For me, I decided I would use it mostly for professional purposes.  I believe the most important portion of your Twitter profile is your “one-line bio.”  This is what defines you and what most people will look at to determine whether or not they want to follow you.  Include things that are important to you.  For example, my one-line bio currently reads “Creator/Editor of HRGumbo.com, blogger, HR pro, social media nerd, Prez Big Bend SHRM, Tech. Dir. HR Florida.”  You need to be selective as you have only 160 characters to get your persona across.  Tweet – a post on Twitter is commonly referred to as a tweet.  You’ve got 140 characters to say something – pose a question, make a statement, recommend someone, link to your profile on LinkedIn, etc.  Develop your own rules for who you follow – you don’t need to follow everyone!  I follow people who are in the HR field, others who have common interests like philanthropy or people from where I have traveled/lived.  Just because someone follows you doesn’t mean you need to return the favor.  I currently follow 323 individuals and no I do not know most of them.  However, at one point or another we connected or I found something they said to be interesting, making them worth following.  If you are not sure who you should follow, feel free to follow me or look for recommendations via #followfriday. 

The idea is to create a buzz around who you are and what you do.  Take the initiative to explore these social media applications.  Don’t just sit back and watch, get involved.  Share your opinion to a discussion in a LinkedIn group.  Become a fan of a organization on Facebook.  Follow an HR blogger on Twitter and retweet (repost) something they said you find interesting.   

With a strong reputation in the business community as my foundation I have been able to develop a personal brand in the world of social media.  Although I may not be some big named business guru I am learning and helping to educate others while working my way up the ladder.  My last piece of advice is to connect with successful HR colleagues that have gone above and beyond like Kris Dunn of The HR Capitalist or Mike VanDervort of The Human Race Horses.  Use resources like Fistful of Talent to read about hot HR topics, learn other viewpoints, share, comment and discuss.  Reach out and ask for advice, it can’t hurt.  I reached out to HR pros like Michael Long of The Red Recruiter and Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR to ask for advice and to share ideas.  It has paid off and these friendships that I have developed may come in handy along my career path.  There are so many resources out there available at your fingertips.  Find some way to make you stand out above all other candidates and make the most of your unemployment!

What would you do to make the best of unemployment?  How would you or do you make yourself stand out from the crowd?  Please share your suggestions!

What a whirlwind of a week it has been here in Orlando, FL.  I’m beginning to get used to a 5:00 am wake-up call, although this one seemed like it came in even earlier after the Vegas Night festivities!  Up and out the door by 6:00 am to meet up with my buddy Michael Long of Red Recruiting to set up for his “rise and shine” session “Twitter for HR and Recruiting.”  It was awesome to see such a large group of attendees for such an early session.  Michael touched on the basics of Twitter like retweets and direct messages and then went on to discuss search capabilities perfect for recruiting.  The audience was fully engaged and asked lots of excellent questions.  A big shout out to Michael for giving us some face time as he was pulling double duty – attending the HR Florida State Conference as well as the Disney Institute.  Check his blog out for full coverage. 

The last general session began with the announcement of the 2009 HR Florida Volunteer of the Year, Lori Goldsmith, SPHR.  Lori has tirelessly been the voice of certification since her early days in HR Tampa, and has continued to be the face of certification for HR Florida. Along with volunteering her time serving the HR Florida State Council in that role, she volunteered to step in as the program chair for the 2009 Conference when the previous program chair stepped down.  Lori is a professional. She embraces the HR Florida State Council mission and values while continuing to improve on her skills and assisting others in improving theirs.  Congratulations Lori!

Following the award we welcomed Battlestar Galactica’s Admiral William Adama (aka Edward James Olmos) to the stage for a keynote address on diversity/race relations.    After joking with the audience he launced into one of the most intense presentations I have ever witnessed.  Everyone watched intently as Olmos described “race” throughout history.  “There is only ONE race – the human race.”  He also referenced his lively presentation at the United Nations on the same subject.

As this was the last day of the conference, it was the shortest with sessions ending at noon.  While attendees were checking out of the hotel and traveling back to their homes across the state our conference team was debriefing and beginning plans for the 2010 conference.  In a year that has been so troublesome for so many we did not know what to expect when it came to meeting our goals as an organization.  Countless organizations across the country have had to cancel their conferences due to projected poor attendance and financial difficulties.  With this in mind the council made an effort to be optimistic – and I am sure glad we did.  As one person put it, “We are in spitting distance of reaching our goal!”  Not only did our team sell out the expo hall, we also secured sponsors who went above and beyond to make this event such a success.  On top of that our attendees were amazing.  I had multiple conversations with exhibitors and sponsors who echoed the same sentiment – the attendees this year were the best they have ever seen.  Engaged and invested, not here just for the swag.

2009 HR Florida Conference Team

What began as distant goal last year ended today with one of the best conferences the HR Florida State Council has ever put on.  From a behind the scenes perspective this has been one of the largest and most demanding events that I have ever been a part of.   So much goes on that the average attendee is unaware of.  I have to give kudos to an amazing conference team led by an incredible leader.  Without them we may have faced similar hardships as many other organizations.  We stepped up to the plate and hit a home run!  It has been an honor to work with each and every one of them.  Until next time…