What You Missed at Mediabistro’s 2010 Career Circus
On Wednesday, Mediabistro hosted its second annual Career Circus, featuring invaluable advice from today’s top career advisors, entrepreneurs and media professionals. We live-tweeted the event @MBJobPost (follow us!), but for those who couldn’t make it in person, or cringe at the thought of back-scrolling through tweets, here’s a roundup of what went down.
Allison Hemming, owner of The Hired Guns; Michelle Madhok, founder and CEO of SheFinds Media; and Pamela Mitchell, founder and CEO of the Reinvention Institute took the stage first, creating a powerful panel on Creating a Blueprint For a 21st Century Career Strategy.
Hemming focused on why bad careers happen to good people, and offered her take on being the master of your own destiny. Some of her sage advice:
- Make an impact early
- Collect relationships as you go
- Seek mentorship from trusted people
- Don’t quit your job just because you can
Madhok was one of our favorite speakers of the day — she was funny, engaging and full of spirit. Her presentation used benchmarks in her career path to explain her 8 Mantras to Grow a Business:
- Make your mistakes on someone else’s dime
- Forgiveness rather than permission
- Feel the fear and do it anyway
- It can’t hurt to ask…and you should ask
- 80% of success is showing up
- Luck is where preparation meets opportunity
- If you don’t know what to do, do something
- It’s not possible to know what’s possible
Mitchell is a worldly woman, who has dabbled in several industries over the years. Besides being relentless about asking people how they got where they are, her best advice was:
- Progress begins when you stop making excuses
- Don’t get comfortable with being uncomfortable
- Get started before you know what you want to do
Next, the seminar shifted to career management. David Gaspin, director of talent acquisition at Conde Nast; Sharon Jautz, director of human resources at Asset International; and David Bass, executive coach at Right Management took the stage. While everyone was a proponent for social media, LinkedIn seemed to be the most-backed site from many of the day’s speakers.
Gaspin spoke about figuring out what you really want to do and then getting the skills to do it. Once you’ve taken a class and applied your new craft, it’s all about evangelism, he said. Tell the world what you’re all about and use social media to market yourself.
Jautz brought up the concept of the elevator speech — how would you explain what you do to a stranger in the time it takes to get from one floor to the next? Make sure you explain what you’re passionate about and perfect that speech before you embark on shameless networking. “Touch your job search at least four hours a day,” she said. “Make lunch dates, meet people and say yes to every invitation. Let everyone know you’re looking for a job.”
Bass said it’s important to have structure in your job search, to have a plan. He talked about change vs. transition and how you can’t have one without the other. “In the moment of gathering strategies, don’t forget to take the time to look inside and think about the transition you might be going through,” he said, adding that it’s important to know your story. Be authentic, forward-looking, positive and reflect your new thinking, he added.
Next, author and career expert Lindsey Pollack and digital media entrepreneur Rebecca Watson got on the mic to talk about building meaningful public profiles and good social presence. Pollack stressed that being active on your online accounts is key. “Everyone is Googling you,” she said, offering the following LinkedIn tips:
- Fill out your profile 100%
- Have a strong headline and summary
- Customize your connection requests
- Actively update your status
Pollack also said to choose your social media platforms wisely, relying on crowd-sourcing. However, to be truly successful, you’ll need to take a “clicks and mix” approach, combining online strategies with in-person efforts. Great advice.
Watson focused on taking public risks and gaining exposure by commenting on blogs and news articles; starting your own blog; speaking at events and meet-ups; introducing yourself to speakers and experts; and following your career heroes on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Make sure your profiles are clean (no photos of you partying or being less than professional) and try to package yourself creatively. From her employer point-of-view, Watson also offered what she called her “immediate no-nos”:
- Resume typos, poor grammar
- Generic intros/cover letters
- Asking what jobs are available
- Applying from a different city with no explanation
- Inappropriate photos online
- Not sending a thank you note after an interview
- Not asking the interviewer questions
Carley Roney, co-founder of The Knot, Inc. closed out the seminar with her standout presentation, inspiring everyone with her passion and business savvy. What’s the key to her success? “Be willing to dive in and do things,” she said. Roney actually went to school for film, and although the creative field seemingly has nothing to do with business, Roney begs to differ. Here are her top 10 tips for being a 21st century entrepreneur:
- Be a producer. You have to create the entire vision and execute it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, you have to pretend you do.
- Be persistent. You have to have the guts to keep at it every day, thinking of new ideas constantly.
- Trust your gut. You have to have a vision and an instinct and be willing to go for it.
- It’s all about the brand.
- Declare victory. Find out what you’re the best at and say you’re No. 1 at it.
- Marketing is everyone’s job. Every person in an organization is critical to the messaging of that organization into the world.
- Prioritize. Find your road map.
- Just do it!
- Listen to your customers.
- Follow your passion. Be passionate!
The event was a great success. If you missed out on this year’s Career Circus, check out photos here and stay tuned for information on next year’s seminar. Want to learn more about yesterday’s speakers? Visit Mediabistro.com/careercircus.
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