I Need Your Help
After many years roaming down the path of entrepreneurship, I have decided to seek a bigger opportunity with an established company. I am no longer with my former firm, Command Partners, and am actively looking for a new professional challenge.
I am asking for your help. I’m hoping to expand my horizons as much as possible. I would greatly appreciate your referrals about job opportunities you hear about, particularly in the following areas:
- Marketing—Ideally senior level positions and especially in the digital marketing realm (my specialty)
- Social Media—This has been a passion and a special area of expertise for the past several years
- Public Relations—I have extensive PR experience and served as president of PRSA Charlotte in 2009
My goals include:
- Finding a position that allows me to put my breadth of experience and skills to work for a well-established, respected company
- Landing a full-time position, though I am open to extended contract work
- Staying in NC (if possible) though I’m willing to relocate for the right opportunity!
How I Plan To Help YOU
In exchange for your reading my occasional updates and passing along promising leads, I want to do what I can to help you and others.
I’ll be honest. I haven’t actively looked for a job in more than 12 years. But I’ve been approached by countless job seekers, most of whom went about their search the wrong way (in my opinion). So I’ll be using my enewsletter and my website (https://www.brandonuttley.com) to share my own ideas and tips on how not only to get a job, but how to grow and utilize your connections in meaningful ways. I’ll also share my favorite social media and productivity tools. You can also get a lot of great information from the Marketing Squad podcast, hosted by Nathan Richie of NR Creative Group and me.
A Few Observations
- I know that my new job likely won’t come from Monster or some other job board. Instead, it will come from you or someone else I know or that you know. Connections matter more now than ever.
- Most job seekers I’ve encountered were like hit-and-run drivers—that is, they contacted me once and I never heard from them again. I’m not going to make that mistake. You’ll be in the loop.
- Tools are worthless if you don’t use them. I’ve been amazed at how many job seekers have neglected to use all the incredible, largely free tools available to them. See below for a few great starting points.
- To be open to possibilities, you have to truly be open. I have seen many, many people disappear during their job search, whether from embarrassment or fear or something else. Starting with this email and my presence on plenty of social networks, I am putting myself out there.
- Zig Ziglar said it best: “You can get anything you want, as long as you help enough other people get what they want.” Too many people just ask for help and don’t reciprocate. I’ll do my best to do otherwise. I believe in the principle that you reap what you sow.
Is there anything I can help you with?
An Inspiring Example
My friend Corey Creed of Hippo Internet Marketing reminded me of the awesome “social job search” that email marketer extraordinaire DJ Waldow of Waldow Social conducted awhile back. It’s still a tremendous example of the power of networking, email marketing and social media to help you land a job (or in DJ’s case, get inspired to start your own firm).
Here’s the post that DJ started with
Here are the results 45 days later
Finally, here are his comments three months later
Tools You Can Use
I’m starting out my job search with some excellent platforms.
LinkedIn
By now, the power of LinkedIn should be obvious to most people, but sadly I still find some unwilling to join or spend the time to make connections. After many years of reaching out to others and in turn accepting most requests, I have more than 1,500 connections there alone (not counting my followers on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere). That is a much better starting point than the famous Dunbar’s number, or the estimated 100-230 individuals with whom any of us can maintain strong social relationships.
My Own Domain Name
I used GoDaddy to register www.brandonuttley.com. It’s easy and cheap to get your own domain name (less than $15 per year, and other services cost even less). I encourage everyone to do this—it makes a great gift for young people before they enter the job market! Even if you don’t plan to use it for your website, it will allow you to set up a better, more professional email address.
My Own Email Address And Website
I created my own email address (brandon@brandonuttley.com) using Google Apps. This is a fantastic service for just $60 per user/email account per year. It gives you not only an email address tied to your domain, but tons of storage space in Gmail, plus your own Google Docs (similar to Word and Excel in the cloud), Google Calendar and more services.
If you are serious about your job search, use your own domain name and not a generic Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or other address. This is especially important for anyone in the marketing world, where first impressions count.
I used Google Apps domain management features to point my domain name to Tumblr. I’ve used WordPress many times as a blogging/site platform, but I had lots of issues with security (more on that in another post). This time around, I found a great free Tumblr theme for my site, another bonus.
Email Campaign Management Software
MailChimp was my service of choice when it came to hosting this newsletter. It’s free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. After that, it remains very low cost, depending on the number of subscribers and volume of emails.
Anyone worth their salt in Internet marketing knows that email is still the reigning champion in terms of how most people prefer to get information, as well as what converts best. I’m a little stunned that I’ve never personally seen a job seeker use email as a significant part of their search. What better way to spread the word and keep your contacts informed?
Social Media Sites
Of course, I’ll be very active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+, just to name a few. I’ll discuss these and more in future posts and emails.
Until Next Time, Thank You
I’m grateful for all the help you can give during my search. If you’d like to get regular updates along with useful information I’ll share, please subscribe to my email list.
