How Current Are You?
A recent report announced that 85% of Apple’s profits this year came from products that were not even thought of five years ago. I used to daydream about how much of his country George Washington would recognize today. Now I wonder how much of his nation Jack Kennedy would know!
But has our work changed, really?
As much as we have managed to drive a microchip into everything around us, from cats to cars, living out our lives in ways that only appeared in comic books 50 years ago, the basics stay the same.
Despite the changes, and maybe because of them, people still crave relationships. In fact, much of the technology today focuses on building and maintaining relationships. Take your average cell “phone.” Yes, we talk. But increasingly we send simple texts, longer written messages, pictures, and even motion pictures of us talking! Why? Because we are maintaining relationships with those who are important to us — at work or among our families and friends.
How is this a career step? How do you keep up your relationships with the tools at hand — old or new?
What Are Your Keywords?
If you’ve done any web designing, you know that “keywords” are the labels put “behind the scenes” of the web site so that search engines can index your site appropriately. That way Google and others know that when someone asks for “fundraising professional associations” that AFP (www.afpnet.org) will come right to the top. Of course, there’s a bit more to being found than having the right keywords in place to land at the top, but the right keywords are a great start (to see them, by-the-way, right click on a blank spot on a web page and go to “view source”).
So if you were a web page, what keywords would you have embedded into your code so that when someone sought you out for your skills, interests, and other traits, you’d come up high on the list?
I’ll bet that you can guess this week’s task: what are the top 10 keywords that describe what you bring to the table in your professional career? (And sorry, you can’t repeat the same ones again and again — and no shouting! (caps)).
Write them down. Test them on others. Then start living those words whenever you’re at work … and just like a top rated web page, when someone needs help in what you do, they’ll look for you.
Are You Familiar With Google AdWords?
I’ve known about Google’s AdWords service for a while, but recently a client asked me to ramp up their AdWords campaigns, and I needed to refresh my knowledge and get back into the game.
If you don’t know, AdWords drives those right-side-of-the-page paid links you see on a Google search. Organizations and businesses, like my client, pay when their advertisements appear whenever you type in specific words, like “fundraising” or “careers.”
The key to AdWords is the right combination of relevance and brevity. You need to describe your product or service in very succinct, yet attractive terms within the context of AdWords’ rules — such as no repeating words and no “all caps.”
So you probably see where I’m going with this … can you describe yourself in Google AdWords terms? Can you be succinct, yet attract enough interest for someone to “click through” and look for more information about you (such as asking you to tell them more about yourself)?
Don’t think that because it’s terse, it’s easy. Like writing children’s books, writing AdWords or describing yourself in terms that are easy to understand but short and direct is a very difficult task.
So your career action step this week? Next time you do a Google search, look to the right column on the page and ask yourself, if I were to advertise there, what would I say?
How Important is Mission to You?
In the last several months I’ve been blessed with opportunities to find several organizations staff members in either the development office or executive suite, and I’ve seen one major disconnect between job seekers and job offerers (offerers? well, you get it).
Today is a “buyers market,” and one thing that those that have the jobs want — as much as high skills and the ability to “hit the ground running” — is an undeniable, rock solid commitment to the mission they serve. Nothing less is acceptable.
Yet so many job seekers are just looking for a job, any job.
Yes, any unemployed development officer will tell you, whether you find funds for preserving panthers or coddling kids, the techniques are pretty much the same. That same job seeker will quickly point out that as a professional fundraiser, s/he can raise money for just about any mission.
Yes, true, but …
The NPO is right. Actually, by definition, the NPO is right because it has the job to offer. But it’s more than that. The NPO is right to want someone with a demonstrated interest in what they do — whether that’s feeding the homeless, saving forests, or teaching history. They’re right to think that nothing raises awareness and funds like someone committed to the mission.
How is this a career step? Like I’ve said so many times before: be very specific about what you want … right down to the mission. Just like prospect work, someone who is “kind of” committed to your mission may give you a token gift — or you may accept a token job, but when your interests match theirs, you get a major gift — and maybe a job of a lifetime.
