On Sunday, I was working on another startup’s plans and had a discussion with all of my partners about transparency and the Internet. It’s no different. As business leaders, they need to be out in front of the herd, need to have their presence known, need to have photos out there that people can see. They need to step outside their natural shell of being introverts if they want us to get funded and find resources.
If you’re unemployed, you need to do the same.
The company who I work for is hiring. You won’t find them at a job fair with large companies who are filling dead-end positions in their cubicle farms. You won’t find them scouring through resumes, either. You also won’t find them buying space on an online help-wanted classified site, either.
We find great candidates through our network of colleagues (including placement firms) and we research them on Google to see how they would fit into a social media company. It’s a great company. It’s a growing company. It’s an exciting company.
Specific to marketing professionals, skip the suit and tie and get your name out there. Press the flesh at local events, maintain a blog, volunteer to teach some classes for regional professionals, and contact your network and do some freebie consulting for them. Don’t sit on the couch waiting for the phone to ring.
If I were unemployed, I’m honestly not sure I want to work for a company who is still following the herd and lazily looking for the same candidates from the same online sites that they used a decade ago.
This is your time, your opportunity, to step out in front of the pack and make a name for yourself.