Ask Liz Ryan Community Blog

Ask Liz: Replace boilerplate resume language?

2009-09-25T14:39:00.001-07:00

Liz,
Can you make some suggestions on how to replace the Ten Deadliest Resume
Phrases?

Cheers,
Keith J. Robbins

Hi Keith,

Great question! Boilerplate resume phrases like "results-oriented professional"
are sitting on a shelf, ready to be inserted into your resume and 1,000,000
others. When we decide to replace them and upgrade our resume to a human-voiced
style, we've got to find specific language that talks about what we've
accomplished on the job, in context, and in as relevant a way as possible for
our next employer. It's more time-consuming to come up with these examples and
find words to convey them, but it's worth it!

Your resume-writing process begins with your job-search direction. If you don't
know what you want in your next job, your resume is going to show that (and
that's not good). It's got to be crystal clear to the reader the moment s/he
picks up your resume, what you want and why you're beautifully suited to that
sort of position.

Here's an example. Let's say you've done Customer Support, Sales and Operations
Management over the years. That's excellent. Yet, there is no job called "Mixed
Customer Support, Sales and Ops Manager." That is not a useful branding choice
for us. That's a solution in search of a problem. Perhaps a very, very small
business would have need of all three things at once, but in that case, a
stronger branding choice would be "I'm a startup COO."

We've got to pick a job-search brand that speaks to actual talent needs in the
marketplace. That may require more than one resume. The traditional "I have
Finance, IT and HR experience" is worse than useless, because we're saying that
we're neither fish nor fowl - we really don't know what we are. So, we can't
write a resume until we have a handle on our job-search brand. Once we get the
branding squared away, we can think about resume language.

Let's say that you want to be an in-house PR person for a small or medium-sized
services firm. You have been successful getting PR for services firms in the
past. Of course, you want an employer to know that you're sharp, savvy, a
self-starter, etc. However, you don't want to use those dreadful, done-to-death
words (sharp, savvy, self-starter) to get those attributes across! Let's tell a
story, instead, and cover the same ground in a human-voiced way:

=================

Ever since I began covering business stories for my college newspaper, I've been
fascinated by storytelling in business and its power to shape audience behavior.
I'm a PR manager for professional services firms whose strong suit is crafting
stories that have gotten my clients profiled in TIME, USA Today and Forbes.

================

Does this job-seeker stoop to say "Excellent communication skills?" Heck no! His
or her skills are demonstrated right there on the page. This resume summary has
five attributes its boilerplate predecessor lacked:

1) A personality! We already have a tiny feel for the person behind the
language.
2) A branding choice. This job-seeker says "I'm not all things to all people.
I'm a service-firm PR person, and I love it!"
3) Evidence of success (no murky "proven track record of success")
4) Zero 'praising adjectives' - words like strategic, multi-faceted, and
talented - that suck power out of our resumes; and
5) A story! What's more compelling than a story? We can almost see the young
reporter flying around the college campus, tape recorder in hand. Will this
branding choice appeal to all employers? No way. Some employers will be
horrified by the job-seeker's conversational tone. That's good news! This
job-seeker wouldn't be happy in those environments, in any case.

When we adopt a human-voiced resume approach, we've got some major thinking
(about direction and brand) and some writing to do, but the result - a strong,
human-voiced resume - will vault our job-search results to a new level, I
predict.

Thanks! Liz

Does Attitude Influence Job-Search Success?

2009-02-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

Liz Ryan: Does attitude influence job-search success?
Liz Ryan, For the Camera
Monday, February 9, 2009

BOULDER, Colo. — Dear Liz,

My job search is going well so far, I guess. I joined a job-search networking group that has weekly meetings. There are several very vocal, negative people in the group who basically spoil the experience for everyone else.

They use our meeting time ranting about how the job market stinks, every employer stinks, and the world is a cesspool. (I'm not exaggerating.)

The kicker is that when I try to turn the conversation to more positive topics I get criticized for my naivete and called "Pollyanna." I briefly left last week's meeting and when I came back in the room, one man was saying "What happened to the hippie girl?" (He meant me).

I guess I'm a hippie because I believe that intention is important in a job search or anything else I'm trying to accomplish. When I talk about positive intention and attitude in this group, I get mocked. So what's the point of going? Still, I hate to quit because I feel I have a positive influence on the less cynical members of the group.

What do you advise?

Thanks, Lauren

Dear Lauren,

First, I'm happy that job-search groups exist; most of them are fantastic resources. The YWCA Career Center offers awesome job-search support, so you might check with them. I'm sorry your group is such a downer.

My advice is to bolt. You need all the positive energy you can get right now. This group sounds like an energy-sucker if there ever was one. Don't stick around just to support the less-cynical members; they can find you if they want to.

Maybe you and they could create a new group, together! Let the doom-and-gloomers rant at one another. We can have compassion for people in that state, but we don't need to spend time around them.

As for hippies: I hail from Northern New Jersey, possibly the most cynical place on earth. I have zero doubt that intention and attitude have everything to do with success on a job search, a Mt. Everest expedition or the quest for a scientific discovery.

If attitude isn't everything, it's pretty darn close. We can -- and sometimes need to -- vent. "Man, this job-search thing is hard. Listen to this awful thing that happened to me last week."

We need our supportive friends to say "What a bummer! Now, let's talk about this week." They'll help us up, and we'll dust ourselves off and confirm our commitment to see the project through -- the job search, the mountain climb or the scientific discovery.

I deal with naysayers in my work occasionally, if by "occasionally" we mean a million times per day. I get letters that say "What's the point of job-search advice? Companies stink, life stinks," etc.

The good news is that I also hear from hopeful people like you -- folks who are game to try stuff, then try it, and find that it works. I feel sorry for the ones who've thrown in the towel. I don't know how to convince them that attitude matters. They'll learn it for themselves one day. As for you: plant yourself in fertile soil, and then blossom! You'll do more good that way than by trying to swim against the cynical tide.

Best, Liz

Liz Ryan is the CEO of Ask Liz Ryan, a Boulder human-resources and career-development consulting firm. She can be reached at liz@asklizryan.com.

The Really Great Networking Conversation

2009-02-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

The Really Great Networking Conversation

Writen by Liz Ryan

By now, you'd have to have lived in a cave in Afghanistan for the last decade not to know the importance of networking. Whether you're job-hunting, or growing your business, or just striding into the exciting world of networking, you need to know how to talk. And listen. But beyond "how did you hear about this event?" how do you start a worthwhile networking conversation? It's not so hard - you just have to focus on the OTHER person.

The first and biggest rule of making networking conversation is that it's a conversation, not an audio broadcast. Don't deliver an aural business card, in other words! What's more annoying than a conversation like this:

YOU: (Spotting the nametag that says SALLY JONES on a nearby woman's lapel) So, Sally, what do you do in your business?
SHE: Oh, we're a full-service marketing firm, delivering great results for clients across a wide range of industries. We do branding, marketing, advertising solutions, web design, collateral materials, annual reports, and full-color printing. We work closely with our clients to find breakthrough solutions to tough problems. We value every client as a friend. We...
YOU: Got it - I'm afraid I forgot to feed the meter. (Exit stage left.)

See? Just because you're face-to-face with a person at a networking event doesn't mean that you're willing to listen to a non-stop marketing spiel. You shouldn't have to. And neither should anyone else. Just like in the sales arena (and networking has something in common with sales, in that you're selling a person on the value of knowing you), you should spend more time listening than talking.

Let's try that conversation again.

YOU: Hello Sally, what does your business do?
SHE: Oh, we're a really wonderful small marketing firm. I'd love to tell you more about us. But -- let's start with you. What do YOU do?
YOU: Well, I'm a technical search consultant.
SHE: Terrific! What sorts of assignments do you specialize in?

See what's happening now? It's a conversation. No one feels the need to jump out there with an uninvited commercial message. You will each learn interesting things about the other in a two-way exchange. Now you have a base for networking, and for finding ways to help one another.

The second big rule for creating networking conversation is this: find out as much about the person behind the business card as you do about the business. After all, we are more than our professional selves. The world is full of real estate people, for example. Some of them are worldly and insightful. Some of them are pretty dull and uncreative. How can you tell who's who? Ask them!

Here are five questions for networking conversations, that get beyond the obvious "what do you do for a living?" arena. If I'm meeting you at a networking function, I want to know what drives you. I want to know what you do when you're NOT working, and why you choose to do that thing. I want to to know what you think about. Are you my kind of person? Am I yours? That's what builds relationships - mutual interests.

Let's face it, most of the people we randomly meet at networking get-togethers aren't in a position to buy our services (or find us a job, or help us with our goals) this very minute. What's important is that these folks remember you, and like you, and will stay connected to you over time. It's a person-to-person connection you're after - not a business-card-meets-business card one!

So, here are the five questions:

1) How did you wend your way into the [technical search] business?

Stories are the spice of life, and the key to a person's character. It's fascinating to hear how people make their ways through careers - much more interesting, often, than a simple description of what they do every day. Dig in to the story!

2) So, where do you think the [technical search]industry is going? What trends do you see shaping up?

Want to understand the quality of a person's thinking? Ask him or her for an analysis of the current industry scene.

3) Where are you from?

This little question is my all-time favorite. If the answer is "Pittsburgh," of course, you don't let it sit there - you find out about your new friend's early life in Pittsburgh, and where he went after that, and how he ended up here in your city. Probe! The fun of meeting new people is mostly in learning about the different choices (different from your own, that is) that people make in their lives.

4) What's your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Here again, the key is that when your new acquaintance says, "Herpetology," you don't say, "Cool." You ask questions! Think of your brief conversation as a mini-interview. Why herpetology? What is herpetology again, anyway? Lizards? What kinds of lizards do you like? Don't they get mites? Ask, and listen! That's how relationships are created.

Here's the bottom line, when it comes to networking: people do business with people they feel connected to. It's more important to make a true connection - by learning that, say, we both have sets of twins and love the opera - than to make a flimsy one, based on the fact that we're both in the printing business (and have absolutely no other shared interest or conversational 'spark'). Business, thank goodness, is populated by people. It's human connections that make things happen.

Practice asking questions and then practice something else: clapping your mouth shut and listening. For some of us, that's a new business skill. The benefit? Priceless.

Liz Ryan is a workplace expert, former Fortune 500 HR executive and founder of the global online network Ask Liz Ryan.Reach Liz at liz@asklizryan.com

Dealing with a Slow-CoWorker

2008-09-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I've recently stepped into more of a management role on my team and
the junior member is having a problem getting deliverables out in a
timely manner. I'm not sure if she is having trouble prioritizing her
duties or if she just works at a slower pace (we don't work in the
same office, so it's hard to keep tabs), but she delivers
administrative materials (reports etc. that are quite simple to pull
together) much later than I would anticipate and occasionally misses a
deadline altogether.

I want to talk to her about this without sounding like I'm harping on
her or putting her down. I've heard similar (and snarkier) comments
about her work from other colleagues, and I want to talk to her about
this before she is seriously reprimanded. Any suggestions for starting
a discussion that is helpful rather than negative?

Thanks
Jenn

(NOTE FROM LIZ: The question mark for me in your message arises from the combination of your use of the term "more of a management role" in describing your own job and your use of the subject line "dealing with a slow co-worker" [co-worker, that is, versus subordinate]. It matters a lot whether or not Miss Slow Poke works for you, or doesn't. It's the crux of the issue, in fact. Managers can give feedback that colleagues, even folks stepping into management-type roles, just can't.

There are two immediate questions: a) Does this dawdler work for you, or not? and 2) does she know whom she reports to? If it's not crystal clear to her that you are her manager, I'd talk with your manager before making any overture at all. In some organizations and cultures, it would be highly appropriate for a not-quite-manager to do so, and in others, it wouldn't. The fact that she works in a different office is certainly germane. It may be that, if she doesn't actually report to you, your manager will be the best one to address the issue.

Let's say that you are indeed this employer's manager. Before you talk with her about the issue, you'll want to establish a basic manager-and-subordinate conversational glue over several chats. Those talks could happen over the phone or in person, and might sound like "So, Jane - since we're new working together, I wanted to understand more about what's up with you and how I can help. What are you working on now? How is it going? What can I do to move things along for you? How do you like to communicate - over the phone, via email or IM?" It takes a while to establish rapport and to earn a new team member's trust. [New to your team, I mean.] Before that happens, I wouldn't touch the on-time performance issue. If the trust isn't there, she's likely to feel criticized rather than supported. Any of us might feel bad if one of our first conversations with a new boss revolves around the speed at which our work gets done.

So you'll lay the groundwork first, over a few weeks' time. That time investment is warranted since you're looking to change behavior while building an important relationship. At some point, Jane may bring up the speed issue herself. If she doesn't, you'll have your opening when she says something like "I think Sales may be vexed with me for being late on the X15 report" at which point you can interject "How can I help?" The trust is the key - more listening than talking, at first. Once Jane sees you as a mentor, you'll be able both to determine the nature of the problem and to help her solve it. This will be a great learning opportunity for both of you. Best of luck! yours -- Liz)

Members Describe Our Online Community

2008-09-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

We asked our members to share their descriptions of our online community. Here's what they said:

Hi Liz,

Back in June I wrote a blog post about this group, called I Get By
With a Little Help From My 25,000 Friends.

I referred to ALR as: "my virtual community -- an online networking
group with 25,000+ members, run by HR guru Liz Ryan. The group,
appropriately called Ask Liz Ryan is an amazing resource that provides
a forum for both personal and professional support. No matter what
the question -- health issues, career development, travel advice,
negotiation skills -- the Ask Liz Ryan community is there to respond."

Hope this helps. The post is here: http://tinyurl.com/6gxlbu
Amrita

I'd say we're a work/life balance networking group. : )

Lori

I belong to an on-line networking group where we discuss a variety of
professional and sometimes non-professional topics. We exchange advice
on a variety of topics from job-hunting (including resume brush-ups)
to job-related issues, travel, medical, family and technical issues.
It's a virtual water-cooler moderated by an H.R. professional who
chimes in with really good advice.

How's that?

Maryan

I say that we're a caring, helpful networking community that
communicates through a yahoo message board about work, life, work/life
balance, or the intersection of work and life. Or something like that.
And I add your credentials and that you, and the members, are
fantastic!!

Vicki

Rolodex for Sale?

2008-08-25T05:45:00.001-07:00

Dear Liz,

I had a weird situation arise in my business last week. I'm a
marketing consultant. I help companies increase traffic to their Web
sites and beef up their advertising and PR efforts. I also write a
very popular blog on marketing and public relations. I earn my money
helping clients, but, like most people, I donate a bunch of time to
people who need help with things, from getting a break in marketing
to figuring out a complicated marketing issue.

Last week I got a LinkedIn invitation from a woman I know slightly,
in California. We worked on a project years ago when she worked for a
vendor and I was an in-house marketing guy. The day after we got
connected on LinkedIn, I got a long e-mail message from her. In her
message she said she had a friend who'd been dying to meet me. Would
I take five minutes and talk to him on the phone? I wrote to say:
Sure, have him call me.

The next day the friend (we'll call him Evan) calls me. It turns out
that he's an entrepreneur, who is about to launch his product.
Throughout the call, he kept saying how grateful he was that I took
the time to talk to him.

"It's no problem," I said, "since Terry says you're a big fan and you
read my blog."

There was silence.

"Er," Evan said, "Terry is the one who told me about you. She's my
publicist. She's trying to get me interviews with a number of media
types, and she told me she'd gotten me an interview with you. Your
blog is influential and will drive a lot of people to my site."

It seems that the lady, who called herself my friend and asked me to
do a favor, is working as a publicist and basically sold her slight
relationship with me to this guy as one of her publicity services. I
didn't say anything to the guy, but I thought that move was in bad
taste. I didn't write about the guy on my blog (his product has
nothing to do with the things I write about).

What do you think I should do: Forget it? Tell the lady off?

Thanks,

Walther

* * *

Dear Walther,

Ouch! That is a bad story. It stinks to learn that someone you
thought you were helping as a friend turned out to be making a buck
on the back of your good nature (if a good nature has a back). Tacky!

I'd get the message across to the lady. I'd say: "Evan is a charming
guy, although his product isn't right for my blog. Congratulations on
your move into the publicist arena. I added you to my list of PR
people -- please send any future pitches to pitches@mywebsite.com."

The lady is going to have a short career in PR if she thinks she can
earn her keep by selling her personal contacts to her clients. It
would have been honorable for her to state her intentions up front.
Since she didn't do that, I'd put this anecdote in the Once Bitten
Twice Shy file and be grateful the lady didn't rope you into dinner
with her client.

Cheers,

Liz

Putting Your Own Stamp on LinkedIn Invitations

2008-08-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

This is old - I wrote it in 2005 - but it might amuse you, still.

As the networking site LinkedIn takes off - with over 4.2 million members as of December, 2005 - users are starting to tire of the standard "boilerplate" invitations (the ones that members use when they want to invite their friends to "connect" on LinkedIn). So, to switch up the verbiage a bit and have some fun, here are some customized LinkedIn invitations in the Styles Of...

VALLEY GIRL

I'm like, totally using this LinkedIn thing, and it's like, everyone's doing it and if you're like, not connected, you're like, so not even ANYONE. So I'm all "let's connect," and you like only have to hit this one button and stuff, so like do it, and let's GET TO KNOW SOME PEOPLE!!

THE SOPRANOS

So boss,

You want we should connect, a what? Dis guy, behind da guy, he knows a guy and he wants we should talk to dis guy, in Jersey, so get connected over here and we'll do dis ting. Bada bing, bada boom. Click on the link. Fuhgeddaboutit.

Paulie "Links"

HAIKU

The unconnected person waits for the invite: connection. It's here. Join us!

OLD TESTAMENT

And so it came to pass that the word spread, and the blessings came down upon the people, and spread throughout the nations. And the prophet said, "Let us connect," and one unto the other they connected, they of the first degree and of the second, and lo, all the degrees thereof. And so the people connected, one to another, each according to his needs and his unique selling proposition, and it was good.

MOOD SWING

I can't tell you if you still like me. I know you're busy, so don't be mad at me for asking, but do you HATE ME or what? I'm sorry. It's my fault. I'm such a loser. What is your problem? Why are you such a jerk to me?

Do you want to CONNECT? Only if you want to. Probably you don't. It's okay. You hate me. I can tell. Do you want to connect though? Click on the link. Okay, don't. Just be your arrogant self. Die.

RISQUE

I saw your profile and I must say, it's spicy...you seem like a person who knows a lot about....life. You're so --- accomplished. You've got that smoky air of success about you. I read your profile over and over and tried to picture your resume, and believe me, I did, and I couldn't sleep afterwards. And people are attracted to you, it's obvious. You've connected with a lot of people, haven't you? There's something dangerous about you. I want to connect with you RIGHT NOW - can you feel it?

MOTHER GOOSE

Higgledy piggledy, my LinkedIn
Bring your whole address book in!
Austin, Boston, Rome, Berlin,
Globally, mobile-ly, my LinkedIn.

MOM

Oh hello dear,

Is this how you do this? Tell me if you get this. Am I doing this right? I want to invite you to - what? This is so complicated. Honey, I just can't keep you with all your fancy websites and gadgets. I have to be honest, the digital camera you bought your father for Christmas in 1999 is still in the box. You're such a bright boy. We're so proud of you, sweetheart. What about that girl you mentioned at Aunt Janet's 80th birthday party, are you still seeing her? I don't mean to pry. There was something I was supposed to ask you - oh yes, do you want to click with me? Clink? Link? Or whatever it's called. Connect. Oh yes, that's it. How silly, to connect with your mother! Do you still listen to Earth, Wind & Fire? You loved them in high school.

Love,

Mom

Simple Summer Pleasures

2008-07-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

What is your simple, summertime indulgence? My friend Tamara gets together with friends on Friday nights to hang out near (even in) the creek.

What do you do in the summertime that you can't do during the rest of the year? We're not talking about vacations, but "small fun" that can happen during the week, over lunch or any time.

Share your summer fun idea with us by leaving a comment!

Ending the Endless Networking Conversation

2008-06-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

As much as you'd like to be sociable when attending job search networking events, you don't have unlimited time to spend with the wrong sorts of networking-event attendees. Please note that when I say "wrong sort" I don't mean people who can't necessarily help you in your job search or people who aren't flashy dressers or people who seem to be several levels below you professionally. These are all wonderful people to spend time with.

I'm not suggesting that you become a networking snob.There is a wrong sort of person to be stuck with at a networkingevent, and that's the person who cannot stop talking about him- or herself and who literally or figuratively pushes you into a corner from which you find it tough to budge. This used to happen to me all the time when I first started attending networking functions.

I'd notice that three-quarters of an hour had gone by and I'd been stuck in my conversational corner the whole time. If you ever saw the John Candy – Steve Martin film "Planes,Trains and Automobiles" then you know the sort of conversationalistI'm referring to.

To read the full story, jump here.

Cheers - Liz

I Learn from Bill

2008-05-25T11:25:00.001-07:00

I read this post on the Yahoo!groups blog. This post talks about the Cleveland Park neighborhood discussion group in Washington, DC. Bill Adler is the chief moderator of the group and in this blog post, he talks about the group and its moderation philosophy.

Fascinating stuff! When I met Bill at Yahoo! last month, he said "I'm glad to see you have more rules for your group than we have for ours." His comment got me to scurry back and re-read my posting guidelines. Yup, all of them are important for us - each posting guideline comes from the scrapes and bruises that list-moderation experience provides.

The biggest difference between the Cleveland Park moderation and Ask Liz Ryan moderation is that we always write to let a member know if we're not planning to post his or her message. We post almost everything. Most of the messages are wonderful and warm and thoughtful and smart. Some of them are, hmm, not especially smart or useful at all. I still post them, if they don't violate a posting guideline. In the Cleveland Park group, the moderating view is that if a message doesn't add anything to the conversation, is poorly written, or shows a poor grasp of the group's mission, it doesn't get posted.

Wow. I am impressed. I couldn't moderate this way, but I respect Bill's worldview.

If I didn't write to folks and tell them "I'm sorry that I can't post your message, as it attacks another of our members, in the phrase 'You don't sound like you know Jack about marketing, to me,' I'd hear from the member in two hours, demanding to know what became of his post. The Cleveland Park moderators would simply delete that post. See, if I did that, I'd be deluged with mail from our members demanding to know what happened to their posts. As it is, I get a message or two a week from someone wanting to know why a given message didn't get posted.

Sometimes the tone is affronted and a bit accusatory. "I'd be pleased to know what you found unacceptable about my message, and by what whim you deleted it," is typical. Er, um, nothing, is the reply from me, and here's the page on the archive where your message can found, as it was posted last week. Hmm. Sometimes our member writes back to say "Oops." Then I write back to say "Have a great week!" with a smile emoticon. More flies with honey, and all that.

The big issue with list-serv moderation is the balance between letting people say [write] what they want to, and keeping the rest of the members from reading drivel or self-promotional stuff or meandering mush. I like Bill's guideline that says that free-of-information posts don't get posted. We already have about 23 posting guidelines for our group, but that information-free guideline is a good one. I always wince when I post something that says "you could try that cigar shop on Monroe Street, I forget the name, and I'm not sure it's still there."

The theme throughout the Cleveland Park moderator guideline is that the group is not a public forum but a members-only group, with privileges and obligations, like any community organization. This is a good mental model for me. Years ago, I settled on the model of a spectrum for online discussion, running between two extremes. At one end of the spectrum is a telephone pole in an alley, where anyone could walk up and post a garage-sale notice or a flyer about a lost cat or a notice that rat poison will be applied in the alley on Monday. At the other end of the spectrum is a pulpit or a podium - a channel where the communication is all one-way and 100% managed. I would say "Our group should be halfway down the spectrum between the telephone pole and the pulpit."

As time goes on, I find it appropriate to shift the focus slightly down the spectrum, away from the telephone pole in the alley and toward the pulpit or podium. This is for the members' benefit, as [in my estimation] the desire to allow a fellow member to express his or her in-the-moment reactions is outweighed by the desire of most of the members not to read junk.

People don't want to read drivel. They don't have time. What is a moderator's duty to keep empty fluff out of a discussion group? I think that is important. We moderators aren't natively more thick-skinned than other people, at least I'm not; we react to criticism like anyone else. When someone writes "How DARE you decline my post?" we shrivel - I do, anyway. We second-guess ourselves. Then we go back and read the post, the one that says "I am soooo happy Bcuz my cat likes the new littr Im uzing." Does the community want to read this? We have to make a judgment call: no, it does not.

The photo of baritones marching on the field is unrelated to the subject matter of this post - but it's colorful. My son Mac is one of those marching baritones. Go Fairview!

The Worst Resume Language Ever

2008-05-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

We are on a mission to rid our members' and readers' resumes of boring corporatespeak. I need your help compiling a list of dreaded boilerplate resume phrases. If we can start by advising folks to get these terms out of their resumes, we'll go a long way toward eradicating the scourge of shoot-me-now resume proliferation. Add your favorite empty resume phrase to the list below, by leaving us a comment!

TERMS TO GET OUT OF YOUR RESUME, PRONTO

Results-oriented professional
Bottom-line orientation
Strategic alignment
Cross-functional teams/initiatives
Consistently met or exceeded expectations/targets/quotas
Value-added
Proven Track Record
Interaction with all levels of staff
End-to-end solutions
Raising the Bar
Client-focused deliverables
High-leverage
Strategic Business Partner
Creative problem-solver
Where my experience and skills will be valued/an asset/gag/horf/hurl

What did we miss?

Disappointing Interview Experience

2008-05-08T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a question and answer from today's conversation on the Ask Liz Ryan online community:

Hi all,

I was in an interview for a job that was very close to my background and a great fit. I heard from numerous agencies that wanted to represent me because of the match between the job and my qualifications . I showed up to the interview and met with several people which went extremely well and I was pumped up for this position until I got to the lastin terviewer - the hiring manager.

The hiring manager was very hard to read and extremely new to management (and the industry). This was OK because I like teaching and helping people grow in their fields. The questions she was asking were not pertinent to the position and her questions were very textbook (i.e. Strengths/Weaknesses, where do you see yourself in 10 years, etc). The kicker was when she answered her cell phone during the interview several times and would apologize after each time. She then proceeded to ask about a certain methodology that I have not heard of in 25 years in the industry. I was honest with her and admitted that I have not heard of this "methodology" but would be willing to learn.

I did not hear from any of the people I interviewed with but I was able to call an exec from another part of the company. He stated that the hiring manager received a "lukewarm" recommendation about me from someone she knows. I have been bouncing off the wall trying to figure out who would give me a poor recommendation because I have always left on great terms with all of my employers. How should I react to this besides calling her and asking about the feedback on me so that I can learn from the experience? She obviously needs to learn interview etiquette but I need to cope with this type of behavior because I am sure it will happen again (hopefully not)
Thanks in advance for your response.
K

NOTE FROM LIZ:

Dear K, how frustrating for you!

It is a funny thing about our reputations. When we hear something upsetting like this - that someone may have given you a 'lukewarm' endorsement - it can drive us crazy. But the rest of the time, when we're just walking around living our lives and being distracted by all the things that we must attend to, we're not focused on what other people
think of us - and that's good!

We'd go crazy in short order if we stopped to wonder what this one and that one and the other one thinks of us!

You had a squirrelly interview with a not-very-sophisticated hiring manager. Then -- such a coincidence! -- you hear that, inexplicably, that same manager was given a lukewarm recommendation concerning you. You were not impressed with the lady when you met her. You can bet your last dollar that, as hard as you may have tried to conceal it, the lady picked up on the fact that you weren't blown away by her leadership excellence. I'm betting she got no lukewarm recommendation on you at all, but was lukewarm on you all by her lonesome, having ascertained that you weren't going to be the docile underling she was hoping to hire.

I think you dodged a bullet, and should move on and give thanks and forget about the reference that may or may not have been given. In any case, there's no way to figure out who may have said what, and it's a wonderful test of our personhood, from time to time, to figure out that we don't really give a shiz what some unknown person said or didn't sayabout us, anyway.

My guess is that the more impressive folks you met on your round of interviews are having private conversations already on the order of

"Can you believe Marjorie passed on that terrific candidate K - I would have hired her in a heartbeat!?"
"Yes, well, you know Marjorie - K probably demonstrated an above-average intelligence or a detectable self-esteem level, and either of those things would have crossed her off Marjorie's list in a New York minute.":-)

Liz

Cheep! Cheep!

2008-04-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

It is great to save money, and there's nothing like a recession to give you the energy to drive -- I mean walk -- a little farther or expend a little more elbow grease to save a few bucks. Here, Ask Liz Ryan community members share their favorite money-saving tips. Leave us a comment!

What's That Rag You're Readin'?

2008-02-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

We posed the question "What is your favorite business tip?" and got a tepid response -- I think the question was too broad. That's my bad - should have been more specific. Here is an easy one. What magazines do you read? Business, life, fitness, sports, fashion, knitting - you name it. Here's my list, to kick off the conversation:

The New Yorker
The Week
Time or Newsweek, interchangeably
Vanity Fair

Nothing too spicy there! Perhaps I'll pick up some good stuff from you. Leave a comment and share your magazine picks!

Valentines Day Revisited

2008-02-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

I understand why people get crotchety about Valentines Day. If you're not in love, or not part of a couple, what are you supposed to do besides getting crotchety?

On St. Patrick's Day, everyone can put on a fake Irish accent if they like and go for a beer. Valentine's Day doesn't work that way.

What will you do to reclaim St. Valentine's Day this year? Does the huggy-kissy-face nature of the Valentines Day holiday bug you? What's to be done?

Share Your Favorite Business Tip!

2008-01-10T10:45:00.000-08:00

It is a new year and a great time to share some business wisdom!

Please add your favorite business tip -- a tool, a book, a handy remark, a problem-solver of any kind or a condensed version of your business philosophy - to our trove. Leave a comment below!

Why Bother with LinkedIn?

2007-12-29T13:53:00.001-08:00

I ask people to join LinkedIn, and often they say "I don't want the spam."

So I say "You won't get any spam." And they say "But I'm not job-hunting."

And I say "You don't have to be job-hunting." Then we go back and forth for awhile.

It's a bit of a challenge to get my own friends to see the forest for the trees, sometimes. When Monster.com was new, the big idea was to post jobs online. As an HR person, I can tell you, Monster is a pretty awful place to post jobs. You get KILLED with unwanted resumes from job seekers all over the world. I truly believe that Monster.com is the reason that HR people no longer respond to online job seekers - and sometimes offline job seekers - with any kind of response.

Anyway, over time HR people and recruiters figured out that the real value to Monster is the ability to search the candidate database (for a fee). Maybe some of the same thing is happening with LinkedIn. What seems like the obvious benefit to membership may not be the key feature for a lot of users. See what you think about this LinkedIn primer that I share with my friends.

Your profile itself is a great value to joining LinkedIn. I get great, useful contacts from my profile appearing on LI, and of course it's free.Even if you're not job-hunting or doing business developing or searching for contacts yourself, it's a great thing to be able to be a conduit for your friends. They really appreciate that service that you can provide for them.

Just the reconnect- with-an-old colleague bit is a godsend: where else can you do that online?LinkedIn is the google for individuals who aren't high on Google rankings. That means anyone who's in a corporation but not senior enough to appear on the About Us/Management Bios page (although of course, those execs are often on LinkedIn too); anyone who is a partner in a consulting firm but perhaps not often in the news or otherwise mentioned online; and zillions of other people whom you'd have trouble finding if it weren't for LinkedIn.

Let's say you have a business meeting with the VP of Marketing at a major corporation next week. If it weren't for his profile on LinkedIn (say, if you were having this meeting three years ago), how would you learn where he went to school, where he worked before his current job, and other details about him?

With the help of his LinkedIn profile, you're a zillion times better prepared for the meeting.

Now let's say that VP of Marketing is behind the curve and doesn't have a LinkedIn profile. No big; you find another connection of yours who works at the VP's current company, and ping her for some background. See? LinkedIn to the rescue again.What are other uses for LinkedIn? Leave a comment and fill us in. Thanks!

Movie Time!

2007-10-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

End of last week, my friend Brad wrote to me asking to compare our favorite movies on Facebook. "Compare movies with your friend" is a Facebook application, one of zillions. Anyway, coincidentally, the very same day our member Nancy mentioned that she has a list of 50 great comedies that she shares with our friends. We're hoping to see Nancy's list below and your favorite movie choices, as well. Spill!

Two Out of 26,000 Ain't Bad and Thanks to Therapists!

2007-10-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

We have 26,000 and some-odd members in our Ask Liz Ryan discussion group, so I shouldn't really be stressing, I guess, about the fact that I've had to unsubscribe two of them. Still, it's the worst part of a group owner's job. Our group has been around for six months, so we're averaging four involuntary-unsubscriptions a year. Obviously the percentage of total members who get unsubscribed is very low. Still, it's no fun.

Of course, I have unsubscribed countless spam machines, and I don't count those.

There are only two members that I can say with reasonable certainty are human, that have been unsubscribed. One woman had a very, very hard time not disparaging the other members. In every post, someone else in our group was called ill-informed, unsophisticated, ignorant, etc. It was too much. We went back and forth about it. She insisted that I post her flame-y messages. Always, in situations like this, the complaint is "you're censoring me!" Yup, I am. You can't trash the other folks in the group. In the end, I had to unsubscribe her.

The other person was a gentleman who had an alarming habit of throwing around pop-psych advice, but egregiously, oppressively, despite tons and tons of coaching from me. Example: a member writes that she isn't sure whether or not to leave her job. His reply: clearly you have Condition X. Stop coddling yourself. Stop being a baby. Etc. Another person writes that she wants advice on some parenting techniques. His advice: so, the baby is just a plaything to you, eh? On and on. It was too much. The size of the communication gap between him and me became apparent when I wrote to him for the umpteenth time, reminding him that we can't post messages that attribute our members' everyday issues to diagnoses of random Disorders and Complexes; that day, he wrote back "Call me to discuss. Your members need my advice." Err --- riiiiiiiiiight [puts pinky to corner of lips in Dr. Evil impression].

Anyway -- here's who has helped me a lot -- a number of therapists and counselors in our group! I wrote to some of these wonderful folks for advice with these thorny issues, and got incredible advice back from them. They helped me see that the ongoing challenges with one or two of our members often have nothing to do with understanding our group's posting guidelines, or careless editing. Some folks evidently really really need an outlet like our group, not for information- and advice-sharing, but to admonish people the way those two unfortunate former members used to do. Doing that fulfills a need for those people - however, it''s not so good for the rest of us. Live and learn. Still, I'm thrilled with our batting average. Speaking of which -- how 'bout those Rockies?!?

Miss, Mrs. or Ms?

2007-09-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

Dear folks -- we had a handful of posts on the relatively straightforward topic of whether and when to use Mrs., Ms. or Miss in business and personal life, before this post came in (the top post, below) and changed the conversation somewhat. Rather than get into a feminist/anti-feminist thing on an already busy email group, I moved the conversation over here to our blog. Got something to say on the topic? Let us in on your thoughts! Leave a comment, below.

I wonder is a woman who calls herself Mrs. really defined by her husband. Maybe she's just a confident woman who defines herself not just by who sheis alone, but also by who she is in relationship to others.

My investments in the most important parts of my life (my faith, my career, my marriage, and my children) make me who I am and express the real me. I don't ever want to be labeled for a lopsided, selfish, me only person. And for many that's what Ms. means. I want to be known as balanced and rounded, and as more than just what I've accomplished. I want to be known for my individual accomplishments, as well as those I nurture in others.

And that's why I proudly sign myself as Mrs. whenever I use an intro. And in many cases I just use Nannette. For after all, I am a whole and unique person, not any title.

Just my two cents, for what it's worth,
Nannette

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I'm enjoying this thread...
I actually find value in the assumption made by many telemarketers that the
female answering the phone is "Mrs. Whatever." I'm not married. "Mrs.
Whatever" was my mother and is my sister-in-law so I can honestly tell the
telemarketer that there is no one by that name at this phone number. Oops!
Wrong
number! :-)
Ms. Barbara "Whatever"

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Just to present an alternative view:
I am going to be very happy once I change my last name
to Bailey, it's a helluvalot easier to spell and
pronounce than Reznikov! I may be unmodern (for
reference, I'm turning 30 this year), and I have no
particular attachment to my last name.

And I don't really care what salutation is used on me, as long as
it's not "Mr.", I'm a lot more pissed off when called
"Linda", "Lisa" or "Lena" by inattentive people.
Although, I agree with the members that I'm not keen
on possibly being referred to as "Mrs. Husbandsfirstname."

Lina

I've been married to Mr. Wonderful for half my life, but I have been Ms. Santiesteban for all of them. We get pretty funny mail - addressed to Mr. Santiesteban or Mrs. Wonderful. We each have our own bank accounts and credit cards, and we split the bills, which come addressed to whichever of us pays it. One day I pulled up in front of the dry cleaner and my husband ran out in a Boston monsoon to pick up the suit he needed for a meeting the next day. A moment later, he's rapping on my window asking "I forget - WHO are we at the dry cleaners?". Priceless.

Marilyn

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I have to say I really enjoyed this one. I was a firm believer in Ms., but once I got married, I have to say that I smile when people have called me Mrs. I do have to add that my friends are the only ones who have used it, not sure how I would react in any other situation yet.

As for how to address invitations and such, I had this conversation with my Mom at my high school graduation and with some people for my wedding invitations. I've been told it's incorrect, but I address invitations to Mr.and Mrs. John and Jane Doe. I have a problem with a woman being addressedonly as Mrs. her husband's name. I think even if you address her as Mrs. on her own, you should use her first name. I know it's not the right etiquette. But, even if you take your husband's last name, you don't lose your first name! Just my thoughts on a topic I thoroughly enjoyed

Tricia

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Hi,

I'm going to opt on the side of being different. I have been married
for twelve years and love being identified as Mrs. Ms., I've always
understood to be neutral for a person who chooses it.
If a person chooses to be identified through marriage please tell me
what is the crime? If they want to flaunt (as I do) the Mrs. and are
happy doing so (especially younger women as the original writer
mentioned) who are we to complain and how is this harming any of us?

I'd never been referred to anything else really other than my first
name. I usually signed with my first and last name. However, one
day during the course of the marriage I chose to sign Mrs. Tisha
Jones (whether it was the correct term to use or not). It pleased me
and gave me a sense of satisfaction.

Someone said "I'm sad to see that we have gone somewhat backward,
because women are increasingly choosing to define themselves by
marriage." This statement stood out to me. We define ourselves by
whatever we want to define ourselves by (Careers, ambitions,
whatever). If most of us were to purchase a Porshe we would
definitely broadcast that choice by driving it to and fro mostly for
the purpose of being seen and we would also be proud of our expensive
car and would want people to absolutely remember the fact that I have
this grand car but it's wrong to broadcast my choice of marriage by
wearing Mrs.?

If a younger woman chooses to be called Mrs. what has that to do with
you? Do what YOU want to do and leave them to do what they want to
do.

Signed,
A younger woman who is happy and confident to be identified as Mrs.
Tisha Jones

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I was born in the sixties, in the Northeast, and like many of my peers kept my name when I finally married (in the eighties). I am not a Miss, as I ammarried, and I prefer Ms. to Mrs. "Mrs. H--------" to me refers to my mother or my grandmother! On the other hand, one of my many roles is that of Mrs.

I am married. My husband and I have two kids, and I gently correct the teachers the first time by saying I am it's H--------, but if they forget, or can't cope I'm big enough now to let them call me Mrs. (husband's last name). At first I was offended. Names are really important. They are a label we bear in this world. And we bear many names - the loving names our families called us, our nicknames from childhood, the name we start work with, and more.

At one point I probably shared the dream of "finding Mr. Right" and being"Mrs. Right." I remember writing my name with the last name of a boy I had a crush on. But he didn't return the feeling, and that's the last time I ever really thought about changing my name. Fortunately my husband (who is Mr. Right for me) respects me as an individual, and would have been very surprised had I wanted to change my name.

But it worries me to see so many women choosing to follow what resembles the path that my aunts and my peers fought so hard to free themselves from. We all have the right to a choice, both as individuals and as families. But to see strong, capable, well-educated women decide that "having it all" means having kids, the SUV, the coffee with the toddlers at Caribou or Starbucks (I went in this morning for a coffee at a time I'd never gone before - I thought it was a playgroup!), managing the house, AND having no financial independence is scary to me. What happens if "the worst" happens? Lives change, husbands die, or marriages need to be changed for the sake of either the individuals or the children.

I am self-employed. When the kids were babies, I had them in daycare, andthe hours I spent with them were precious and intense, but I was able to work full-time. Since they've become school-aged (now one is in high school and one in middle school) I have cut back my hours because I find they need me more. They need me for, say, seven minutes - but some unpredictable seven minutes in the hours between the end of school and the end of the "normal"work day. So I structure my life to be there for those seven minutes - or ten, or twenty, or two. And I'm very lucky that the choices my husband and Ihave made are able support that decision. So perhaps I'm not as independent as I want to be - right now.

That's a sacrifice I make willingly. I CHOSE tobe a parent, after long and hard discussions on the pros and cons, so I seethat as one of my jobs for this time in my life. But I ALSO choose to be a professional, because without that ability to use my talents to help others in their work I feel less complete.I've learned lessons from my own life and from the lives of others. My mother-in-law divorced as her sons were in their late teens, and essentially started over without anything financial to show for eighteen years of hardwork at a marriage.Another benefit to my having my own last name rather than my husband's is that I am treated in the work force as the individual that _I_ am.

My husband has moved into politics, starting at the local level and now serving our community in our state's legislature. By having a different last name, I do not have to worry about how my husband's politics do or do not reflect on me. I don't have to explain his politics to my clients, because they do not (at least in the initial phases of a client-consultant relationship) need to be aware of him.

Fifty years ago it was the rare woman who could do what I do - blend a happy marriage, in-person parenting, and a profession. I am grateful to thefeminists that went before me to fight to prove that women are capable of doing whatever we put our minds to and have the skills for.
Anonymous

++++++++++++++++++++++++

As I mentioned in a previous post, I did not get married until I was 32. My birth family name was my last name professionally for 10 years before I was married, and I did not want to give up the identity I built in the first 32 years of my life. Growing up in a large family, never leaving Denver, and working in just two industries (telecom and software), my birth family name was(and is) important to me. However, when we married, my husband and I anticipated having children, and we thought it best if everyone in our household had the same last name.

So, when I was married, I changed my legal name to include my family birthname/maiden name (Mueller) as my middle name, and my husband's last name (Borg)as my last name. My Social Security card reflects this, as well as my driver's license. I answer to Anne Borg or to Anne Mueller or to Anne Mueller Borg or to Ms. Borg (I was Ms. Mueller before I was married) or to Mrs. Borg at my kids'school. It is a solution I learned from a girlfriend who was married before me - it has worked well for both of us.My two cents...Anne

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On the topic of changing names when you get married. I didn't change mine as I grew up in a large family have a twin sister and felt it was part of my identity. My husband is British and said he didn't 'give a monkey's' either way. Some more traditional friends from Texas and here in England have told me that taking his name (and that you have a lifetime to get adjusted to it) and having a joint account are the things that make you feel you are in the marriage 'for real'. I would just say it's a case of courses for horses- everyone has their own approach. To my mind sharing a mortgage, a cat and your life together (especially as an expat) counts as a strong commitment in its own right. I am not particularly militant, just feel that after 32 years of life I am happy with the name I was given.Hope that makes sense.- CH

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As far as titles go, I just use Mrs. because I want people to know that I am married so they aren't wondering about that while I am talking. It is just a little 3 letter word that tells a story so I don't have to. Same reason I wear my wedding ring. I frequently sell to men and I honestly think it makes them more comfortable. That's all there is to that. I don't think there's anything wrong with using Ms. Depends on what you do and your personal preferences.

++++++++++++++++

How interesting this conversation has been! I've never considered myself a women's libber, but have always resented the Mrs. title--I didn't change my name when I married, and have had actual arguments with people about the etiquette of Mrs. Merril Scrip, as I know that is wrong (it was nice to havesomeone reiterate that).

Thankfully my husband finds it funny/useful when someone addresses him as Mr. Miller--as he enjoys abusing telemarketers.(beware!)Recently a friend was making room reservations and had a secretary completely bewildered by the fact that her husband had a different name--so obviously not everyone is up to speed on newer conventions. I'm just grateful that we have the options we do, even if we occasionally have to educate those we encounter.Ms. Merril Miller

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I prefer Ms. because I am proudly a feminist and it makes no difference inbusiness whether I am married or not. On the other hand, I took my husband's name and moved my maiden name to my middle name (I never had amiddle name before) - why? The honest answer is partly to please him - itwas important to him but also because my maiden name was constantly spelledor pronounced Perez instead of Perz by everyone I met. I just thought itwould be hard to butcher Rudd but my family gets called Rude all the time(maybe that has something to do with our behavior?? LOL)Dianna Rudd

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I've been puzzled over the Mrs., Miss, and Ms. thing for a while. The weirdest use of honorifics that I've seen are in the schools. They're very careful to only use Mrs. for married women. If a teacher gets a divorce,they immediately change her name to Ms. It's really weird. The kids all use Mrs. for all of their teachers but the office and other teachers are really compulsive about it. A friend of mine who did not take her husband's name and so can't be a Mrs. went to a parent teacher conference. When she met the teacher, she asked theteacher if she preferred to be called Mrs. or Ms. The teacher launched intoa rant that they were "honest" at this school and she was a Mrs. and she wasn't hiding the fact that she was married. Lois said it really set thetone for the conference.Of course, all of these are better than the nurses at the pediatrician'soffice who call me "Mom." I bite my tongue but often feel like saying, "Idon't remember giving birth to you."Jill McCauslin

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I took my husband's name when we got married. Usually,I go by Ms. but since I have a Ph.D. I sometimes amreferred to as "Dr.". I've seen mail come to our home,though, where they use my title of "Dr." but in theold-fashioned way with the man's full name so thingswill come addressed to us jointly as "Mr. and Dr. JohnSmith" -- I lose my name AND my gender!

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(NOTE FROM LIZ: Thanks for sharing that thought, Jessica. I'm curious, isthere a view that changing your name in getting married makes the marriagemore permanent? I'm struggling to see the correlation. Would love to hearthoughts on this...thanks all - Liz)

Liz, I know you closed the Ms. - Miss - Mrs. topic, so I will save those comments for the blog. On the view of whether a name change makes the marriage more permanent, Ihave definitely encountered this attitude. I did not change my name when Ifirst married because:

1. I liked my name as it was. It was cool.
2. I have built a solid career reputation under that name over the past12+ years.
3. I was too lazy to rush to the DMV, social security office, banks,etc. Who wants to stand in line unless you have to?

With that said, after our daughter was born, I changed my mind. Hey, we women have the right to change our minds! I wanted to have the same lastname as my daughter and husband. He's a progressive guy and would have been willing to change his name to mine - but he shares a first name with one ofmy brothers, so that would have been extremely confusing for everyone. :)And not to judge anyone else's choices, but hyphenating or creating a hybrid name wasn't for us.

So when I did make the change, I encountered comments from family members,friends, and even the clerks at the DMV and social security offices alongthe lines of "well, you finally decided to keep him, eh?" I knew all alongthat it was permanent - otherwise I never would have married him. Like you, Liz, I'm struggling to see the correlation. Angela McBride

+++++++++++++++++

Long ago a dear friend of mine made the following observation, which I will never forget: "Women HAVE no name." In essence, what she is saying is that your surname at birth is your *father's* last name, and then if you get adopted and take your new family's name, it's their name, and if you get married and change your name, your last name becomes the husband's last name.>> There are exceptions to this. When my husband's boss got married he took his *wife's* surname because hers was less "ethnic sounding" and he was rather the entrepreneurial sort.>> When I married, I did the hyphenation thing. It was forever an issue, because the "digitized world" seemed unable to DEAL with a hyphenated name, so all kinds of problems popped up.

It took FOREVERto get it straight with the Social Security Administration. I cannot tell you how many times my maiden name became my "middle name" or even first name (the hyphen lost or dropped or was unable to be "entered." You'd be surprised how many people don't know the word "hyphen," or who hear the word "dash" and think you mean "slash." After a time, I took to simply using my husband's last name because it was easier to "guess" the spelling, and I'd grown tired of the constant errors. Then I ended up with TWO last names "out there," which made it worse!

"Maybe you have me under _____... or it could be under _____ ." And then when I divorced, it was name "whack-a-mole" all over again to get everything straightened out. If you think the computer issues "don't happen any more": just couple of weeks ago on the corporate/international Volkswagen website, I tried to enter an email address that happened to contain a hyphen, and the system would not allow it.
Bottom line, there's no easy answer.

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One thing that is mostly missing from this discussion is the idea of having different names for different realms. A woman can be known as Ms. JaneMaidenname professionally. Socially, her formal name is Mrs. John Marriedname and she would introduce herself as Jane Marriedname. This has always made a lotof sense to me. In the professional realm, your marital status should be irrelevant, but socially, it's useful to be able to figure out which people are a family. Of course, if people do all their socializing with business acquaintances, the system starts to break down.(FYI, the "correct" title of a divorcee is Mrs. Maidenname Marriedname.)-- Karen Christenson

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"I am not sure what you might consider the "younger" generation, but I can tell
you women in their 30's still prefer Ms. to Miss or Mrs - even if they are married."
This is a very broad assumption. I'll be 34 in a few days. I strongly prefer
Mrs. I also changed my last name. Many of my friends also prefer Mrs. and
changed their names.

It's difficult to explain why I feel so strongly, but I chalk it up to the fact
that I am somewhat traditional. When I was growing up I was fascinated by the
fact that my mother was Mrs. It was like she had a "secret" identity and was a
different person before she was married.

To me it represents the unity of the couple - that they are now a family and not
just 2 individuals. I actually found it sad that my Dad didn't get to have that.
It also is a common bond with my mother-in-law.

I wanted to be Mrs. and I like being known as my husband's wife. It's an honor
and a privilege to be married to him. That's just how I feel and I don't it
makes me any less strong or independent of a woman and I resent the implication
that it does.

For me, Ms. has a lot of negative connotations and I don't like to be called Ms.
as all.

-Cheryl

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My first encounter with "Ms" came in the early 70's -- my unlikable 8th grade social studies teacher. Among my teenage rants I complained about having to call her "Ms," until my grandmother gave me quite a dressing down. My grandmother came of age just as women were first granted the right to vote. She considered voting a privilege and responsibility and she voted on every election day for almost 70 years until she was overwhelmed by Alzheimers disease. She earned a masters degree when most women didn't even go to college; she was an original and lifelong member of NOW. She lived her life proving that women were as intelligent and capable and qualified as men.

One of her biggest frustrations was watching women tear each other down instead of respecting each other. The lesson she taught me when I was 13 years old? When I badmouthed my teacher for choosing to be "Ms," it showed a lack of respect for all the women whose dedication and hard work created a world that gave me so many more choices and opportunities than they ever had. It showed a lack of respect for my grandmother.

I adored her and was appalled to have disappointed her, so the lesson struck home and stuck with me. Fast forward through the years. Today I have so many roles and so many titles. Depending on the situation, I can be Miss, Ms, and Mrs. My preference is Ms. Hetherington-Ward (yes, I hyphenated). But I'm also Mrs. Ward or Mrs. Somebody's Mom or Miss Liane or Miss/Ms/Mrs. Hetherington or any misspelled variations. I admit that I still occasionally bristle at being Mrs. William Ward, but as long as I'm treated with respect I can deal with it.

I have various roles in my tiny little company as well - President, Janitor, Engineer, Gofer, Policy Analyst, Receptionist, Designer, Bookkeeper, Manager, Owner, etc. No one title truly describes the complexity of my role in the company, just as no one honorific describes the complex real me. Titles are just shortcut words. They can't define us and don't limit us unless we let them.

Ms. Liane Hetherington-Ward, who votes in every single election, even the boring unimportant ones, just like my mom and grandma, both of whom I deeply miss
LHWard, Inc

Ten Ways to Advertise Your Job Openings for Free

2007-09-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

Small business people don't have tons of cash to spend on Monster and Career Builder, so here are ten ways to get the word out about your job openings - for free or nearly for free. This podcast shares a bunch of tips for spreading the word about openings in your shop.

Try a few of them and tell us what works!

Who Needs Reader's Digest?

2007-09-10T10:37:00.001-07:00

Kids say cute things -- your kids, your sister's kids, whomever - and they stick in our minds. We would love for you to share one of those kid-said-it stories with us (or more than one). Leave a comment to give us a smile.

Attack of the UAGs

2007-08-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

Unsolicited advice -- who needs it? We don't ask for it, but we get it anyway. Share your story of dealing with a UAG (Unsolicited-Advice Giver) and feel free to tell us what you said in response - or wished you'd said, if you had had more time to prepare for the attack before it came!

Leave a comment with your UAG story --- thanks!

What We're Reading

2007-08-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ay carumba! This blog has been out of commission for a few weeks, ever since Blogger shut us down as a suspected spam blog - but they figured out that there are only humans here, eventually. So, now it's time for us to weigh in with our current reading lists. What books are you reading now, and which have you just finished? Add a comment below and fill us in. Thanks!

Thoughts on "Sicko"

2007-07-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

Our members have had a lot of input on the state of healthcare in the U.S., and the current Michael Moore film, "Sicko." Here are the first twenty (of sixty-plus) posts to the Ask Liz Ryan discussion community, related to the topic.

As someone who has had to buy my own insurance since I got divorced and
am self employed (and even without a pre-existing condition), I can
sympathize. My rates go up year after year.....and I have had to
switch companies a few times to keep the rates somewhat reasonable. We
are now at the mercy of the big insurance companies.

But.......Michael Moore has a new moving coming out at the end of this
month called Sicko. We all need to see it and mobilize. The USA is #
37 in health care in the world.....behind even Costa Rica. He talks
about insurance companies who find any way to wiggle out of covering
you even when you have paid for years, if you get some serious illness.
Or refuse to cover the very test that may uncover a problem.

It is a horrible problem and is unconscionable that we have this
situation in this country. I understand that Democrats and Republicans
alike are cheering this movie.....even though Michael Moore has been so
contraversal in the past. We on this group have power. If we all do
something......perhaps we can make a difference on this issue!

****************

In my opinion, Michael Moore's "documentary" style fictional stories frighten
the daylights out of me. Very simply, the film "Sicko" promotes the ongoing
sadistic regime of Fidel Castro and he has the nerve to compare it to the U,S..
However, if you believe the system is better in Cuba than here - maybe you
should talk to the people who literally risk their lives daily in 90 miles of
open sea, in makeshift boats, their opinion of Cuba's treatment of its citizens.
Would anyone on this site go to Cuba for medical treatment of any kind; surgery
or psychological assistance? If you would, then believe Michael Moore's
propaganda. Yet, understand his own capitalistic goal as he profits greatly yet
does nothing to truly help Americans. It's easy to bash things. Our systems
have flaws. Yet any entrepreneur desires the same results of profits and a good
life. Say hello to Fidel's best buddy (literally), Hugo Chavez, while you're
taking your family to a Cuban hospital for their
annual checkup.

Rick

*****************
Hi Rick ~

Thanks for the information. I've been debating weather I want to see
"Sicko" or not. I'm NOT a Michael Moore fan but I've worked in the
health care industry for almost 25 years in one form or another and part
of me wants to see the issues he brings up. I'll be the first to say
that our health care system needs help but I truly don't think
socialized medicine is the solution. Has anyone else seen this movie?
If so, what is your opinion?

Judy

*****************

I certainly plan to see Sicko when it is released June 29. In fact I'm
gathering a group of friends to see it. However Moore highlights the current
dysfunctional health care system will bring further awareness about the
situation.

I've been involved in health care reform in Illinois for several years, and
no one in the USA, to my knowledge is promoting socialized medicine.
Unfortunately, there are huge misunderstandings about what constitutes
"universal
coverage."

In socialized medicine, doctors are paid by the government. That will never
happen in the U.S. Proponents of health care for all Americans will give access
to quality health care to all, in a system similar to the very efficient
Medicare.

People in the USA need access to health care. Our current system is based on
employer-based insurance which is terribly inefficient and discriminatory.

Beth

******************
Hi list

We just received an invoice from a visit my husband made to a Dr. back
in 2004. I don't think there is a "a rule of limitation as to when a
doctor can bill you for something." Seems to me just an indication of
how tangled up our healthcare system is. My only advice is to go back
and deal first with your insurance company, and keep the Dr. informed as
to that progress. That's what we're going to do! OH, and we're really
looking forward to the opening of "Sicko!" too!!!

-Angela

*******************
Yes, one of the horrors of being self employed. The first thing you
have to do is find out the laws in your state - for example, in NJ,
with the worst laws in the country, it is ILLEGAL for individuals to
join group plans (you read that right). Individuals are considered
high risk (?) simply because they are individuals and MUST buy into
the high risk pool. Premiums are $400/month, the deductible is
$10,000 (!!!!!!) and the copay is - 50%!!!!! Oh, and in their wisdom,
last year they decided not to cover chemo. So I haven't had insurance
in 7 or 8 years, which I know is really bad, but who wants to pay for
that?

Chances are you don't live in NJ and can get a much better deal. Your
best bet will likely be through an industry assn, several have been
mentioned. Compare that with Blue Cross/Shield, and you can check the
web, I think it's einsurance or something like that.

Coincidentally, I just saw the movie Sicko. Highly recommended, and
your should write your representatives at both state and national
level to DO something about this disgusting mess, where one's health
depends on where one works. You can mention that prisoners and
illegals are provided free, state of the art care, and anyone elected
to Congress has free LIFETIME health coverage. So if they think it's
so important for them, what about us? I've told mine if I ever need
care I will either commit a minimal crime or declare myself an
illegal (it's against the law for the hospital to verify status or to
call the police!)

Who invented this system????

Vicki

************************

Yes, the health care situation today is really disgusting. Even if you have
insurance it seems that the insurance companies are denying things after you had
the procedure done saying that it was denied due to be experimental or not
medically necessary. I am sitting with a $1300 bill now for having a migraine
and the doctor gave me an injection in her office. The insurance company said
they do cover that procedure, however in my case the doctor's notes don't show
that it was medically necessary. (Mind you I've been having migraines for 10+
years).

SICKo is a movie that everyone should see. It really opens your eyes. In the
UK, Michael Moore interviews a doctor and makes a joke like - so you work for
the government, you must drive a beater and live in bad conditions. The doctor
said, actually no, he's doing very well (the next seen they show him in his Audi
and his $500,000 home). The point is, the doctors will still be doing well
under a social system. The most interesting point he made is that he gets a
BONUS each time he can show that he helped someone stop smoking. The government
obviously realized that smoking has something to do with increased healthcare
costs...so why not give doctors incentive to practive preventative medicine.

I was sick to my stomach after watching this movie. If I am ever in a
situation of having to pay for medical procedure that requires me to take out a
reverse mortgage on my house...I am going to find a way to go to Cananda, UK,
France, etc. I'd likely stay there! The state of our healthcare system is
pathetic and the fact that those in power get healthcare for life is one of the
reasons they don't care including our President!

*********************
I haven’t yet seen "Sicko," but I just had to respond to say that the medical
situation in the UK and other countries with national health is not as rosy as
it might appear.

My husband is British, and my mother-in-law has atrial fibrillation. I won’t
go into all the details here, but it has taken a shockingly long time for her to
get treatment in the UK. She lives in Cambridge and has access to the best of
the British medical system, in theory. In reality, she has chosen to go
"private" to get treated more quickly. Cardiologists in Britain work for private
insurance on the side. Instead of waiting 6 to 9 months to get an
echocardiogram, by paying extra, she got seen in 2 months. The doctors were very
hesitant to put her on the medication she needs—every step has been a pain in
the butt!
In the meantime, my sister is an internist here in the U.S., and she has been
shocked at the laxity of treating this serious condition. The new medication
typically used to treat AF in the U.S. is not even used in the UK. Instead, she
had "electrocardioversion" after several months, and although it lowered her
heart rate temporarily, it is now sky high again. My sister tells us that they
don’t do electrocardioversion much any more here, because they’ve found that
it’s not effective.

The scare with such a high heart rate is that she could have a stroke. They
don’t seem to be taking this very seriously at all. It took weeks to get the AF
even diagnosed, and they are being very sluggish about treating it.

It has been extremely frustrating! I totally agree that the health care crisis
in the U.S. is out of control, and we need some kind of solution. But national
health might sound good in theory, but in reality it’s not all it’s cracked up
to be.

Marie

****************************
I saw it this weekend and, boy was I moved. The ending when they take the boat
to Guantanomo Bay is pretty incredible but I heard that Cuban doctors in Miami
protested this and said that it glamorized the Cuban healthcare system.

I wanted to start a dialogue about this movie because the issue of Healthcare in
the U.S. is bad and it just seems to be getting worse.

1. Does anybody have experience living in countries where they have socialized
medicine? If so, was it a good experience? Do you think it would work in the
US?
2. Anyone that saw the movie -- what did you think?
3. Does anybody know of a way that I can personally get involved in healthcare
reform -- any organizations, groups, or politicians that I can contact?

Thanks!
Jenifer

********************
I haven't lived outside of the US but my parents lived in London for a
couple of years in the mid 90's. As I'm sure everyone here knows, they
have socialized medicine but they also have private insurance for
people who can afford it.

My parents chose to have private insurance after getting the run around
by a doctor in the socialized system about having my Dad see a
cardiologist so he could get some medicine prescribed to him that he
had been taking for several years in the US. It was an extremely
frustrating situation: he needed his medicine but couldn't see the
doctor he needed right away. When one of us tried to bring his
prescription into the country, the airport security confiscated it
saying that he'd have to get a prescription in England.

They threw up their hands, got some private insurance and got to see a
doctor right away.

Nancy

***************************

I don't have any personal experience, just an anecdote
from an ex co-worker. He was living in Canada and he
and his wife had one of their children while living up
north. I remember he told me once that they were
lucky that she happened to give birth on the day that
the doctor who did c-sections happened to be working.
He said it was great if you had to see someone to get
an antibiotic or something. But he said the preferred
the peace of mind going through the other deliveries
here in Chicago to the other benefits up there.
-- Chris

**************************
My experiences with the Canadian health care system were terrible. It
was easier to cross the border and pay for care in New York than to deal
with the hospitals and doctors in Canada. Let me tell you that the
cheers of joy when the Canadian Supreme Court ruled the ban on private
health care illegal last week were loud and far-sweeping.

My understanding from my sister is that even post-Blair reforms to the
NHS of England, public health care is awful beyond all imagination.
She's stated her desire to go to County General in Chicago (flight time
included) before ever using the public system in England. For those
outside of Chicago, County's ER has waits up to 12 hours for service
some days (ER fans should know they do no exaggerate the problems at
County).

Joe

**********************

Hi Jenifer,

tell me: what do you mean by „socialized” medicine?

I am brought up and live in Germany and our system sure works different than
yours. I was very close connected to M.D.´s, surgeries, hospitals and this
health-system for many years, but luckily I was never connected to take any
medicine.

I know how it worked in the 70´s and today: 30y. ago M.D.´s worked for
patients to get them healthy, well and leave for good while today the
direction turns more into “keeping patients” and selling surgeries like
“products” to customers (patients).

Ask me questions if you think that I can enrich your topic.

Kind regards,

rita

****************
You need to badger your state and federal reps - remind your
congressional people that they seem to feel they need free,
guaranteed, lifetime (i.e. it continues when they're out of office,
and we taxpayers foot the bill) fabulous coverage, why don't the rest
of us? There is a bill, S406, HR 525: The Small Business Health
Fairness Act. Tell them to support it. There is also the Health Care
Access Resolution, and the Health Care that Works for All Americans
Act, sponsored by S. 3063 Senators Wyden (D-OR) and Hatch (R-UT). And
write to the presidential candidates and tell them you are voting on
this issue!!

Check out moveon.org. They are taking up this issue. In NJ there are
groups like NJ citizen action, do a websearch for something like
health insurance activism, or affordable health insurance, or
universal h.s. and your state.

It's never gonna change till we MAKE 'em change it!!!

Vicki

****************

Dear friends,

one of our members writes:

I lived in Denmark for 2 years and experienced socialized medicine.
While they have one of the only working national electronic medical
records it is incredibly basic. I heard others describe the medical care
as being treated by someone who was dressed to go camping. It was very
casual and non-comprehensive. Choices of prescriptions (and I'm not
saying we don't sometimes over do it here) were minimal to the point of
oddity for an American. Want a medicine that you have 20+ choices for in
the states - try 1 or 2 there.

Most people I knew had to pay for additional medical insurance &
additional pharmaceutical insurance & put money into groups to get into
senior care. And you can only get these as a healthy person because you
don't get to start jobs that ignore your existing medical conditions and
the like. It was expensive tax wise to pay for this and because you
still had to buy additional insurance.

My mother in law still lives in Denmark. She has gone from a local
hospital to one 2 hours away to now having to travel 3 hours (and you
can get almost anywhere in the country in 3 hours) for cancer treatments
monthly. Her brother gets dialysis. He's going to have to move because
they are centralizing that service to the hospital where my mother in
law normally goes (but cannot now for her treatments) and he'll have to
move closer because his treatments are several times per week and the
drive is to long.

I happen to work in health care now - in a region that has some of the
best healthcare in the US. It's a shame what is happening in other areas
of the country but it certainly can work better without socializing
medicine. We are leaders in our area in patient safety. It's an
expensive business to be in while reimbursements from what socialized
medicine we have (medicare) being reduced all the time.

To get involved encourage your community leaders to learn from the top
communities in the country. Encourage health care to learn from outside
of the industry and from each other. It's all important and can make the
difference. I stand on my soap box against socialized medicine and have
since long before I worked in health care.

I haven't seen sicko yet but am certainly curious.

SH

**************
I have a friend that grew up in Montreal and after relocating to Chicago
complained non-stop about our healthcare system. She told me what marvelous
care the doctors gave her in Montreal which is surprising considering the
stories we have heard in the US of how messed up their system is.

Before we relocated to the US (many moons ago) I almost died in Athens, Greece
because the doctors wouldn't take my appendix pains seriously. They sent me
home twice. The third time that same day my desperate parents took me in a taxi
to one of the "better" clinics where they too were dismissing me until I
couldn't stop throwing up green bile. Had they waited another hour I'd be dead.
Years later, I was stunned to hear that my boss died in one of their hospitals
while on vacation. He was admitted as a special favor to a high ranking general
friend of his and they were promised the best care. He wore a pacemaker but a
simple case of the flu turned nasty quickly when they left him in a cot in the
hallway. He died three days later after much suffering.

Another friend of mine that lived there for 15 years needed surgery a couple of
times and that is when she found out about the "envelope" system. Doctors are
not above essentially extorting money from patients. They advise that if the
patient wants them to perform the surgery they must pay X amount in an envelope
that goes to their pocket. So much for a free healthcare system. We may
complain that it is bad in the US but it is much worse in other places. The
doctors in Cuba are right to complain. The last case that I sadly heard about
is my own grandmother. She fell and needed surgery and if not for my aunt
always ready with the "envelope" to grease their greedy little palms, she
wouldn't have gotten any care at all. As it was, they dismissed her case
because as they put it "she's in her 80's and what do you expect?" The last
month of her life they experimented because they couldn't explain the mysterious
fever she had. She had all the classic symptoms of a
in-hospital staph infection. After she was in a coma for a week, she passed
away.

Greece is a beautiful country and a nice place to visit, but when it comes to
the healthcare system they seem to have forgotten ethics and the Hippocratic
oath which is a shame since it originated there. The government is cracking
down and after several stings has prosecuted some of these doctors, but the
system overall needs a rehaul. Anyone that tells you otherwise, is either lying
or ignorant of what really goes on in the big cities. The medical care they
provide is sub-standard to put it mildly. I'd take the issues the US has any
day in comparison to what goes on there. At least in the US, you know you are
up a creek without a paddle if you have HMO or no insurance coverage. But, you
can walk in to an ER and chances are fairly good you will get emergency help at
least. What you get in countries with "free" healthcare is not really free if
the ultimate cost is your life plus the "envelopes." Sorry for the ranting
here, but I am so tired of hearing people praise
healthcare in other countries when they have no real idea of what goes on. We
do need alot of help here in the US with our system and a major overhaul would
be a good start. But, let's not believe the grass is truly greener on the other
side either.

**************
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I came to this
country from the UK over 20 years ago and my family still lives there. From
what I know of their experiences the quality of healthcare can vary
enormously. My father, who is retired and has Alzheimer's, receives the
latest in medicines, plus home visits from healthcare and social workers,
and visits to a first rate specialist physician - as part of his National
Health benefits. Another friend who has cancer has nothing but praise for
the level of care he is receiving. However, a cousin who is a doctor
specializing in mental health complains about her case-load and the quality
of care she is able to give her patients in the time allotted.

I guess my point is that, like here in the US, the quality of care can vary.
However, here it varies depending on whether you can pay for it or not -
there it depends on availability of resources for everyone. In the US, If
you have health benefits or can afford to pay for healthcare yourself, you
can have access to some of the best care in the world. If you don't have
money or a job that provides benefits, you are out of luck. As a result
many of the weakest members of society - the very young, very old, and
chronically ill do not seek health care until they are in crisis - and as a
result end up costing everyone money when they receive expensive, emergency
care that they have little or no means to pay for.

Many nationalized systems emphasize prevention. Well-baby care and
well-elder care can mitigate the need for crisis care if it is provided free
of charge. The health insurance companies in this country have no incentive
to provide preventive care because people change jobs (and hence health
plans) often enough for the companies not to see an actuarial benefit from
prevention.

There are horror stories of long waits for procedures in both systems, but
it seems to me that with the vast resources of the US, we could be taking
care of everyone for a lot less than we are paying now to take care of only
those who can afford it. For every patient who is waiting for an operation
in Canada or the UK, I'm willing to bet that there is a similar number in
the US waiting for their insurance company to decide whether or not to cover
a procedure, or perhaps waiting until the pain becomes unbearable to decide
to go to the emergency room where they will lose their savings and their
home to pay for their care.

Neither system is perfect, but I do feel that, if the US really wanted to
create a healthcare system that covers everyone, we could learn a great deal
from the successes and the mistakes made in other countries. Unfortunately
the health insurance industry in this country is a huge political lobby - it
employs more people than the medical profession, which is kind of sad. So
long as healthcare is controlled by these for-profit companies, we, the
patients will continue to be commodities.

We have the means to do it right - why are we not doing it?

OK, that's my rant for this evening. Stay healthy everyone!

Sharon

*********************
I believe the point behind the movie is that the working poor have no insurance
options and therefore cannot even receive preventive health care. There are so
many people in this country who make too much for medicare/medicaid or other
state-sponsored health care that they go without. In most countries with
"socialized" or "national" health care, there are doctors/medical facilities
that offer private services and these services are paid for by those who can
afford it or who have some type of supplemental insurance that covers these
expenses.

Yes, NHS is not ideal and each country has a different option on what is
covered, waiting periods (not ideal) for non-critical surgery, etc. However when
the option is to wait or not have any health care, I choose to wait. I believe I
heard today on the NPR program - Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Diagnosing U.S.
Health Care -- and 'Sicko,' Too that the UK has more GPs, so people are able to
see the doctor on a regular basis.
The guest was Jonathan Oberlander, a political scientist with an expertise in
health-care politics and policy, discusses problems with the U.S. health-care
system and considers how other countries handle health care. He also gave a
critique of Michael Moore's documentary Sicko. Oberlander is an associate
professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
[The program can be heard here: http://tinyurl.com/3664mh]

If the choice is going to the emergency room for general health care or having a
visit in GPs office under a nationalized system, I think many people would
choose the latter option. No one would be forced to use the NHS if they had
other coverage or if they could afford private practice. I believe the goal is
take care of those who currently have no options.

Just my .02c

******************

My experience with US health care has not been very good. I have a good
insurance policy (paid by employer). I live in Baltimore, so I went to
Johns Hopkins hospital for an annual physical. I was shocked to find
out the bill was $600, and I had to pay 50%. No test was done, just
blood pressure and general inquiry. I think it's terrible that health
care doesn't work like everything else in a free market economy. The
cost is hidden and it's hard to compare how much the same service costs
at different providers.
My main reason for that visit is that I wanted a referral for my 1st
mammogram. I was told I need to wait 6 months for the first available
appointment

Viadeo Not Ready for Prime Time

2007-07-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

I like to join new networking sites as I hear about them, to see what they're all about. But if they aren't ready for prime time, my first thought is "who approved the launch of this site?" For instance, I just joined Viadeo. Here's what I found:

1) The very first field was the title (honorific) field, and the
choices were "Mr." or "Miss/Mrs." I thought I had been teleported
back to 1965. Why can't they ask "what's your gender?" I left that
field blank.

2) Next I filled in some basic personal info, and that was confusing
because the first field was "year of birth" and the second
was "town," which made me think they wanted to know where I was born
(Pittsburgh). Turns out, they never asked me for a current residence,
which made me realize that they really wanted to know where I live now (Boulder)
via that "town" field.

3) Next, I stared at this list for about ten minutes:

You would like to use Viadeo to:

Find clients
Find new suppliers
Find new career opportunities
Recruit colleagues
Establish business partnerships
Find financial partners

Now, I know that plenty of networkers have a specific networking
purpose in mind, but what about the choice "I would like to meet
interesting people and see what develops from there?" Why isn't that
one of my options? That's a big turn-off. The last thing I need is to
join a site so I can be solicited for eight million fishy business
opportunities or dubious "partnerships."

4) Then, I came to a screen that said "[Person X] Invite You to Join
Viadeo." Holy cow! Either a person INVITES me to join, or a person
INVITED me, but in English, there's no way "Susan Smith Invite You"
will ever be correct.

5) Lastly, I took a few minutes to add my educational institutions to
my profile - or I tried to. I tried Northwestern first, and Viadeo
searched for another member from that school - they didn't find
anyone who graduated from the same program as me, so I had to settle
for a generic designation as a Northwestern grad. Evidently if your
program isn't in the database yet, or maybe if there aren't some
minimum number of users who graduated from it, it's tough luck for
you. Same thing with Manhattan School of Music. So even though I took the time
to add my school history, the site didn't accept it and it's not on my profile.

These social networking sites are cropping up like flies on a --
whatever flies crop up on. You'd think they'd have a quality review
before the big launch, wouldn't you? Supposedly 1.25 million people
use this Viadeo site. Personally, I'll wait until they work the bugs
out - or maybe not.

One Through Ten, You Are Fascinating

2007-06-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

In my recent interview with Scott Allen, Scott talks about a networking exercise (or a pre-networking exercise) of listing interesting things about yourself. This is great, but time-consuming! Here is a quick way to let other people -- in this case, your fellow Ask Liz Ryan discussion group members -- know more about you without investing quite as much time.

List the numbers ten through one on a sheet of paper and then, wrack your brain to come up with something significant about you that incorporates each of those integers. If you're stuck, you can throw in something random, like "SIX rhymes with flicks and my favorite is 'The Godfather.'"

Here's my Ten Through One introduction. Add yours as a Comment, below.

Liz By the Numbers

I was a corporate HR leader for a very long time, but TEN years ago (June 1997) I left my last corporate job when my employer, U.S. Robotics, was purchased by a company I didn't want to work for.

In 1993 I had twins, a boy and a girl, and in 2002 I had my youngest son; and I had three boys in the intervening years. So there's a NINE-year span between our oldest and youngest kids.

When I was growing up in western PA 'til age eight, and Northern NJ after that, I was sixth of EIGHT kids in the family.

I write a ton of workplace, job-search and networking advice. One column per week goes is syndicated to a national newspaper chain; one goes to my local paper, the Boulder Daily Camera, and the rest go to Yahoo! and Business Week Online. All in, I write SEVEN columns per week.

Since you can't say everything you might want to say in a newspaper article, I write SIX blogs. Some of them are Ask Liz Ryan, Practical Job Search Advice and a new one called Radical HR.

My husband and I have FIVE kids. Caty and Cormac are thirteen, Eamonn is eleven, Declan is nine, and Darrien is four. We also have five animals: a Coton de Tulear called Mojo, a Havanese, Magic, a cat, Coco, a rabbit, Gilbert and a guinea pig, Puffy.

Professionally I have FOUR activities. I'm a public speaker, a consultant, a trainer and an advice-column-writer (not counting the discussion community.)

Outside of work I'm a soprano. I focus on opera and musical theatre. I'm singing with THREE groups right now: Colorado Light Opera (in "Man of La Mancha," which opens next week); The Rocky Mountain Revels; and at St. Andrew Church.

I have TWO areas of zealotry, at work: healthy, inclusive workplaces and the power of people-focused networking.

So far I've written ONE book, Happy About Online Networking.

What about YOU? Leave a comment and fill us in ---

Moderator's Diary

2007-06-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

If you read this blog you probably know that we have a large online discussion group at Yahoo!groups. Our topics are Business, Careers, Networking and Life - kind of a wide range. But content-wise we usually do pretty well.

Our list grew a fair bit this week which means that the word is starting to spread. We are about a couple of months old now so people must be telling their friends about us - tremendous. Every day, among the new prospective subscribers (I have to approve the new members) there are a half-dozen would-be spammers. Every now and then, when the spammers' "Please admit me" message says something more profound than GOOD or HI, I take a chance, and universally, I mean like no exceptions, when I do that, the first post from that subscriber is MAKE BIG MONEY INTERNET NOW NO MONEY DOWN etc.

We have about 1000 members on our local Ask! in groups, but I feel bad for the nine people hanging out in Ask! in St. Louis or any of a number of small groups waiting for the conversation to start. They will have to tell their friends -- I just don't know that many people in all those cities.

Every day there are a few posts I can't post globally and the authors are usually fine with that news, but sometimes they're not so happy with me. But it's important that our group doesn't turn into a for-sale group or a global Freecycle.

We started a Member Offers database and it has five offers in it so far. Let's see, out of 28,000 members, that's like....one offer out of every way-lot-of-people. Maybe I need to do some more promotion.

I was scanning MyLinkedInPowerForum, a great email group devoted to LinkedIn and networking topics, and I was reminded of the kind of post I can't/wouldn't have on our Ask Liz Ryan group. It was a person writing "Connect to me, I'm the most connected Virtual Assistant on LinkedIn!" and another person wrote and said "I'll connect to you, I'm the most connected Six Sigma Black Belt on LinkedIn!" Ay carumba. They deserve each other. Give me strength.

So, Liz, is this your Job?

2007-06-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Since three of our members have asked me the same question this week -
- "Liz, is moderating this email group your full-time job?" -- I
thought I had better set the record straight. This is not my full-
time job! Moderating the discussion groups only takes a few minutes
per day. Although there are 40+ email groups in the Ask Liz Ryan
community, it is only the global Ask Liz Ryan group that
gets any volume of daily mail -- although our local Ask! in groups
are growing!

I'm a public speaker and organizational strategy consultant. I speak
to corporate groups, associations and universities around the country
on new-millennium workplace topics, leadership and networking. Many
of the folks in our group know me from past speaking, consulting and
training engagements. Others have read my workplace advice and
networking-advice columns on Business Week Online or the Freedom
chain of newspapers, or my columns on Yahoo! and AOL. Other folks
know me from the women's online network, WorldWIT, that I started in
1999 and led until launching the Ask Liz Ryan group in April. And
some know me as a very active online networker - my first book, Happy
About Online Networking, was published in 2006.

It is funny that this question about how I spend my time is arising
right now, as I am swamped with family stuff at the moment. My two
oldest kids graduated from eighth grade this week. I spent half the
day today registering them for high school. My next one finished 5th
grade and goes on to middle school next year. My youngest graduated
from preschool today. Our other son will stay put in elementary
school next year. So four out of our five kids are changing schools.

When I am not working, I sing opera and musical theatre. Right now I
am rehearsing for "Man of La Mancha" at the Colorado Light Opera. Our
Don Quixote/Cervantes is Patrick Mason, an incredible baritone.
Here's his bio...

I am a zealot for healthy workplaces and great communication at work,
for inclusive culture in organizations and for work/life arrangements
that make sense for employers and the brilliant people they employ. I
am an evangelist for HR, and/but jaundiced about the way I see HR
practiced in many organizations. So --- to sum up, the online
community isn't my full-time job. But it's a lot of fun, informs my
columns, provides tons of intellectual stimulation and has let me
meet the most insightful and resourceful people on the planet -- I
mean you!

Cheers -- Liz
www.asklizryan.com
www.asklizryan.blogspot.com
www.practicaljobsearchadvice.blogspot.com
www.boulder-blog.blogspot.com

Advice for Email Group Moderators

2007-06-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

With my girl Paris H. in jail and all, I'm sort of idle, so I decided to take up Dawn's challenge (it was more of a request really) on MyLinkedInPowerForum and put down on paper some guidelines for email discussion group moderators. It's funny because Vincent Wright (MLPF Top Banana) and I were just talking about doing this a few weeks ago.

Here goes:

EVERYTHING IN MODERATION

The very first thing you have to decide as a new or prospective email group moderator is, Just how moderated do I want my group to be? In my Group Owner's worldview, there are four basic moderation 'settings:'

1) Don't moderate the mail at all - let the conversation happen however it happens.
2) Don't moderate, in that mail that comes to the group is automatically posted, but moderate in arrears by advising members when they've posted something inappropriate. This is also called "list wrangling."
3) Screen the messages as they come through, but only for massive violations of the email-group's posting guidelines -- if no major rules are broken, post the message.
4) Read every message carefully before it's posted.

As you can see, there is an enormous philosophical gulf between approaches 1 and 2; but in fact, there's a big gap between 2 and 3, and also between 3 and 4. My groups (Ask Liz Ryan, 40+ Ask! in groups around the world, HRIL and HRColorado) follow approach #4. Group owners take a risk with approaches 1 and 2, because the amount of spam that comes through Yahoo!groups and other group-hosting sites. Still, I'd wager that there are more unmoderated Yahoo!groups than moderated ones.

Of course, the more closely you moderate, the greater the time commitment for the moderator. And there's no point in close moderation (approach #4) unless you're moderating to some standard -- which brings us to topic number two.

POSTING GUIDELINES

You don't have to establish posting guidelines for your group, but if you don't, expect to get a range of postings to your group that you may feel less than fully comfortable posting -- and expect the members who wrote those posts to get upset that their messages don't get posted. You may feel that the unposted messages are spammy, but the member who wrote them may not agree. Written posting guidelines are worthwhile because they help members to see what's acceptable and unacceptable for group conversation, before they're surprised by posting a message that gets rejected. I think it's respectful to members to take the time to create Posting Guidelines and publish them. But many groups go without them, too. Here are the Ask Liz Ryan group's posting guidelines.

MISSION?

If your group has a mission, why not shout it from the rafters? Like this:

The purpose of My Linkedin Power Forum is to help Linkedin users power up their networking in order to do business better.

Likewise, at Ask Liz Ryan,

Our mission is to support working people at the intersection of work and life.

Since you only want people joining your group who subscribe to the group's mission (right?) you may as well decide why your group exists and make that purpose public.

CHOOSE YOUR SETTINGS

Apart from moderated/unmoderated, you can choose to make your group archives public (and on Yahoo!groups at least, you must do this if you want to enable an RSS feed) or private. You can choose to allow attachments, or not. You can choose to make the list announce-only (that's really a newsletter) or a full discussion group. You can choose whether members can use web features like polls, databases and Links. (I can't imagine why you wouldn't, but you have the choice.) You can choose whether to make your group listed on unlisted on the Yahoo!groups directory.

Here's the bad thing: on Yahoo!groups, you can't set the digest length! This is rough on a busy group like Ask Liz Ryan that gets three digests on a typical day. The Yahoo!group digest length is about 25 messages. However, your members can choose the No-Mail subscription setting, where they don't get your mail, but they can read the messages from the Yahoo!groups website, and they can post messages of their own.

You get to decide whether replies sent to the list go to the whole group by default, or just to the individual poster. You get to decide a whole bunch of stuff, but it all only takes a minute, and most of the settings are change-able later. But if you choose to allow people to post without using email addresses, you'll never to be able to undo it on the same group. What I do is have people write directly to me when they want to post anonymously - then I just post the message for them. Takes two seconds.

NAME, ETC.

Your group will need a name. It will need a posting address too. If your group is called Capricorn Latvian Rhumba Knitting Society, don't make that the posting address - it's way too long. Let people post their messages to rhumbaknit@yahoogroups.com, or something else that's short and easy to remember.

You'll create a homepage for your group, and you'll add a photo for pizazz if you've got one. You'll choose colors for the Yahoo!groups homepage, and then you're set to go.

GO PUBLIC

Now, you have to let people know you have a group. Add your new group to your LinkedIn profile, send out a LinkedIn Profile Update to let people know about it (guess I might get around to that myself one of these days) and let the folks in your address book know about your new endeavor. Add a sign-up link to your site or blog (you can find those links under PROMOTE in the Management menu for your group) and of course, ask your initial members to kindly invite their friends. But the number one thing that will help your group grow is not promotion, it's content -- so make sure the content is useful and relevant on your list! For awhile, you may have to create much of the list traffic yourself.

DON'T GIVE UP

My first email group, ChicWIT, launched on July 31, 1999, and two weeks later I was ready to give it up. We had 41 members and I was resorting to finding interesting-sounding job ads on other sites and posting them to ChicWIT, along with lame jokes and links to whatever I could scrounge up online. At the end of July we had 100 members so I decided to stick with it. Four months later ChicWIT had 500 members, and a few years later the ChicWIT group had grown to become WorldWIT, a global community with 80-some chapters and over 50,000 members. Now, I lead the Ask Liz Ryan community, a global discussion community made up of the "mother ship" Ask Liz Ryan group and 40+ local Ask! in groups around the world. Ask Liz Ryan is for men and women and covers workplace, business, networking and "life" topics. We have thirty thousand members so far. Perhaps you should join us.

If you have questions about email-group moderation, I would love to help. Write to me at liz@asklizryan.com. Thanks!

Ask Liz Ryan Community Survey Results

2007-05-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

1 Definitely a good idea. Might want 4 days.
2 I now ignore "langiage pet peeves" topics.
3 I'd even say post responses for a week (5 days)
4 3d Way too short. Blog = hassle. Staus Quo- GREAT
5 Good idea, but how about 5-7 days.
6 7-Days. Many don't read digests every day.
7 maybe limit to a certain # of posts instead of day
8 Good, if no responses after 3 days, allow repost.
9 Someone suggested a 5-day rule. I like that idea. 1
10 Make it five days--sometimes I am out of town
11 Good idea; post *all* responses to blog
12 OK, but it does depend what the topic is
13 Too short a time - maybe 2 weeks
14 I suggest seven days
15 Perhaps a 5-7 day limit, rather than 3? I think this is a great group - I'm glad

Additional questions:

8 Great group - I'm so glad it's here!
9 Is it appropriate or not to say "I'm interested in applying to X company - anyone have contacts there?" Or asking for another kind of contact - is that like asking for a favor from someone on LinkedIn who you don't know, or not? Thanks!
10 I would like to know what area of the world the women posting are from.
11 Can you advertise yourself/business or does it have to be presented in a certain type of format?
12 Is there a list of individuals and their industry by city/state that can be available to everyone? (providing that the individuals choose to be on the list)
Thank you.
13 Comment for above message: I received this notice via Yahoo! the [Ask Liz Ryan] group - Yahoo archives messages, others can search for help/answers posted. Why would you want to limit this? I would make others more aware of the message archive and recommend they check it for help from past members before they ask a question! Their question may be answered already or they may learn more on their from others who have discussed the subject previously.
14 I sometimes find the number of items in the list intimidating, so I skip it rather than trying to sort through which ones I might be interested in. It also would be helpful if people wrote more descriptive subject lines (especially if they're looking for something geographically specific). Thanks for asking!
15 I like idea #1 because the daily digest is huge sometimes and most of the topics are of no interest to me.
16 Great listserv!
17 FYI, You can post surveys directly from Yahoo!
18 Just wanted to express my appreciation for your handling the discussion group--I am sure you get constant accolades, but it's always nice to hear something positive. The discussion group seems very straightforward, and I think the guidelines you recently posted were helpful. It has been a significantly larger volume of e-mail than I was used to with WorldWIT, but I approach it by waiting until I have a little time and then devouring the digest(s). It's kind of like how I save the comics section of the newspaper! :-) (Even now, at 45, it's my favorite section...)
19 I am very impressed with the list as it stands. You've done a terrific job - thank you!
20 I enjoy the language pet peeves, recommendations on travel destinations, interview tips, asking for opinions on business issues, etc. By the way, if a topic goes on for longer than 3 days, does it deserve another life as its own blog??However, I think personal and parenting issues might be better discussed in another forum that would be moderated by a trained psychologist or licensed counselor rather than a "life coach". We all have the right to an opinion, whatever that may be. It's just that a licensed counselor might have a better, more tactful way of commenting on parenting or very personal issues. I've learned that suggesting gets better results than giving advice fosters better communication. I'd like to see that brought out more in the forum--it's just a suggestion :-)
21 Am enjoying it immensely. I think topics tend to drag on and enforcing a 3-day limit will improve the efficiency and keep the lines of communication open to new/interesting subject matter. One still has to cull down the list of 25 messages and I hope not to see any more 'language peeves:' if one can't say it in 3 days, is it really worth saying?
22 This group is great!! I actually like getting the posts individually because I like to save some of them in a folder for later reference. I don't find the heavy traffic to be an issue, at least yet.
23 Glad to hear from you all again. Missed you.
24 I love it and much better than chicwit. Thanks so much.
25 I posted something (request for immigration attorney - great response!), and my daughter, who gets individual postings (she didn't realize she could switch to digest) got the posting right away but it didn't show up in a digest until later - I think I'd already gotten the bulk of the responses before it was in the digest! No big deal, but it was kind of puzzling. Maybe that timing was an unusual exception. Maybe this is a technical impossibility, but I wish there was a way to look through the digest index and click on what you want to see - you still end up scrolling through everything unelss you can remember the numbers of the ones you are interested in - I usually forget the numbers once I've read about half of my choices, and that puts me back to scrolling evnerything. Thanks for being devoted to making this good! Are the local groups sent by email like the ask liz postings? Do have to sign into Google to get into those?
27 No
28 No, you're doing fine.
29 No questions
30 I'd suggest another possibility: having more than one list. One for business and work-related queries, one for "life" or "off-topic" issues. It would help to give more focus to the discussion .We've used this model for DC Web Women and it works very well. Thanks!
32 I like the idea that people use a signature line including where they are from. 33 is there a way we can group the topics that receive lots of attention (i.e. language pet peeve, negotiation, tricky questions)?
34 Just that I'm glad that you started this group - after 7 years on the ChicWIT list I was feeling a little withdrawal. :-) Christine in Chicago
35 Love the group--thanks for running!
36 What topics are off limits if any?
37 Just that it's an overwhelming volume of info, so i end up doing a very superficial (if at all) read at times. I've read the suggestions (read online, designate folder) but I'm not ready to do either yet. I wouldn't look online that much, and stuff would sit in the folder unread. At least in my in box it does get looked at... for now...
38 I love reading these emails but sometimes getting 3 a day is a bit much. Maybe it would be better to send one with a list of the topics that have new posts in them and a link to the blog. Then, the blog could have asterisks next to the newest items or some way to differentiate the new from the old. That way I would only see the topic once in one email and I could click on it if I was interested in following it in more detail.
39 Seems to me I had a ChicWit subscription that was much more technology related. The volume on the list as it is currently structured is too much - and occasionally annoying. (I'm subscribed to the Digest) If we could possibly "segment" the list by subject matter - I personally would find that helpful. Segments like, General, Technology, Career Advice. Or is that too complicated?
40 I enjoy having both a main and local group - thye seem to have takes distinct tones. I'm really enjoying the broader perspective of the "main" group while feeling like the local group is more like the old chicwit. I didn't realize how important this group was to me until the change (was a 7-yr member). Thank you for putting the group back together into its new form. :)
41 Enjoy the variety of topics and opinions
42 Why am I getting two versions of each digest now? I get the old hard-to-pick-through version, then your fab new links-within-the-email version.
43 Personally, I don't see the problem. I belong to groups with a lot more traffic. With a full version digest people can just ignore what doesn't interest them. Seems like (really) disorganised folks are punishing organised ones. People should also be asked to be more disciplined about their references - if they keep changing the name of a thread, it's difficult to follow, if you can't/don't want to read every single email.
44 I would like the option to opt-out of a subject of discussion. We have this on another list I am on, SYSters.
45 Love the group so far. Thanks for keeping the ChicWIT momentum going!
46 I'm curious about the number of people who have subscribed and where they live. 47 I think a 3 day rule would be difficult and time consuming to enforce. Also, some people may not read the messages for weeks, but could have something valuable to add. My thinking is that if multiple people are still discussing a topic, it must be of "some" interest. However, if two individuals are going back and forth on the same topic for days on end, I believe a moderator can step in and ask them to continue the discussion offline or on the blog. Otherwise, I think most topics will die when there's nothing left to be said :)
48 I just have to say that I really like this group. I didn't know there was a blog where we could post. This is definitely a great idea for those of us who would like to communicate regularly without inundating us all with dozens of emails. What a great idea! I've already gotten a lot out of this in just a few days time. Thanks so much!
49 I'm so glad that the WorldWIT community is being reunited! I'd really love it if each thread was posted (and categorized and saved) somewhere. It's tedious to wade through many responses for a topic that I'm not currently interested in. But, with ChicWIT, there were tons of topics that I'd revisit using the SEARCH facility. Was the best of both worlds! Thanks for the group, Liz!
None - great service
How to post anonymously or without an email account visible
What's the policy on job postings? Are you open to them? Is there a fee to post a job opening?

Ask Liz Ryan Community: What's the Story?

2007-05-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

I am moderating the Ask Liz Ryan email group and it is busy! Of course, when I moderate, I am not just approving messages (and editing them to take out the previous day's digest and other extraneous stuff) but also corresponding with members about changing their subscription settings, posting anonymously, adding links to our site, etc. So there is a lot of activity with that group. But so many people have asked me the same question, namely, What Is the Story Behind This Group?, that I thought it would be sensible to post the response here on our community blog. I wrote this answer as a fictional Q & A (between me and a fictional interviewer, or any one of the folks who has written to me with this question over the past few weeks).

MI (Mythical Interviewer): So Liz, what is the story behind the Ask Liz Ryan community?
ME: I used to lead an online community for women, called WorldWIT. It was great. But it closed. And a very large number of people wrote to me to say, "Let's keep the conversation going!"
MI: So is the Ask Liz Ryan group just a new version of WorldWIT?
ME: Not exactly. The Ask Liz Ryan group is for men and women. The topics are business, careers, networking and "life" - we cover a lot of ground. These are the same topics that we dealt with before. But the Ask Liz Ryan group is meant for discussion, primarily.
MI: Discussion versus what else else?
ME: Well, before we had a very large percentage of recommendation-type postings, and those are great, but there's a big difference between asking for (and receiving) recommendations for landscapers, and discussing a career change.
MI: So how do you manage both kinds of conversation?
ME: Our global Ask Liz Ryan group gets a bit of the recommendation-type traffic, but because its members are all over the world, it's easier to stick to discussion of issues there. So we view that as our discussion group. We know that people still want to find great service providers and share tips locally, so we deal with that by way of a set of local email groups (more on that below).
MI: Is there anything the group doesn't discuss?
ME: Well, we don't dish celebrities or share Nintendo cheat codes, at least not so far. We have had a few recipes and some incredible advice on job-hunting, business writing, working as an ex-pat, high school graduation gifts, and a zillion other topics.
MI: What does it mean when you say that an email group is Moderated?
ME: It means that every post is read by a human being (at this point, me) before it is sent to the group. That way, we don't post anything spammy or inappropriate.
MI: Do you get much mail that is either of those things?
ME: We get some spam, but it's machine-type spam for the most part, and then it's easy for me to delete the message and unsubscribe the email address that sent it to us. I have asked a few posters (gently I hope) to edit their messages so that I could post them, for instance, if they came across as disparaging to another member, or got a little adult in the content.
MI: For instance?
ME: Er --- next question, please.
MI: Who belongs to the group?
ME: Our members are corporate people. Attorneys. Consultants. Feng Shui practioners and Color Consultants. Writers. Artists. Government people. Not-for-profit folks. Academics. Students. Opera Singers. Everyone is welcome. Our members are all over the world.
MI: But if they are all over the world, do they really want to read a message from a person who's looking for a house-sitter in Miami?
ME: Probably they don't want to read about that, but that's okay, because we also have local groups like Ask! in Miami, where people can find those local house-sitters and business attorneys and chi-chi restaurants to take clients to. (I'm aware that I ended that last sentence with a preposition. :-)
MI: So some of the members belong to two groups, the global one and their local one?
ME: Yes they do, and it's nice, because they can tap into your local expertise pool for local issues and the global brain trust for the rest. The full list of local Ask! in groups is here.
MI: Do you do anything else besides moderate all these groups?
ME: I consult with organizations, I do lots of training workshops for employees and HR folks, and I'm a public speaker. I write workplace-advice columns for Business Week Online, and another syndicated column for a chain of print newspapers. I'm the Networking Expert for Yahoo! Hot Jobs, so I write for them too. You'll be shocked to hear that my company is called Ask Liz Ryan, too.
MI: Got a tagline?
ME: It's Your People Are Your Power.
MI: Back to the discussion group -- any funny stories?
ME: Only one, so far. One of our members posted to ask about a summer camp that her child is going to attend. Another member wrote back to say (and I'm paraphrasing): "The people I know who went there are in juvie or in jail, the camp didn't seem to do any good." That post gave me pause but it didn't violate any of our posting guidelines, so I approved it, although I was scratching my head....the original poster wrote back to say "I don't think we're talking the same camp -- the one I referred to is at Stanford University." !!!
MI: What does "juvie" mean?
ME: Juvenile detention schools, like reform schools. If you had an eighth-grader you'd know that term.
MI: Now let's get back to those posting guidelines. What are the group's posting guidelines?
ME: They are in a one-page document, linked from our group's homepage. Click on the link called Posting Guidelines to open the document.
MI: Aren't the Posting Guidelines pretty much just what a person would expect - no spam, no flaming and stuff like that?
ME: Most of our members would never violate any of our posting guidelines in a million years, even inadvertently. But there is one guideline that might not be obvious. That is, it's fine to reply off-list (privately) to another member, but only about the topic that is under discussion.
MI: I'm not sure I understand.
ME: Well, if someone posts to the list to say "I'm job-hunting," other folks can write to him off-list with job search tips, but they can't write to him to say "Job-hunting? Maybe now is a good time to re-fi your house!" See what I mean?
MI: Okay, that makes sense. Anything else?
ME: Our list is busy, so I recommend that people set up a Rule or Filter in their email application to grab those digests as they arrive in the inbox and put them into a folder. That way, they can scan the folder every day or whenever they want, instead of having two or three digests clogging up their inboxes every day. The other way to deal with the mail volume (so far, 2-3 digests per day, with 20-25 posts in each digest) is to choose the No Mail subscription setting, which means you won't get any mail in your inbox but you can check the postings online when you feel like it. And you keep your posting privileges, of course.
MI: What has been your favorite post so far?
ME: There have been so many amazing ones, but I must say, I was really touched by the suggestion of the quilt (made up of a child's favorite teeshirts and other things) for a high-school graduation gift. I had better start that project now, and the quilt might be ready for my four-year-old's high school graduation.
MI: No offense Liz, but that topic of high-school graduation quilts, it's just not very business-y.
ME: True. Is that a question?
MI: Business professionals are busy. They need hardcore business advice to get ahead, not graduation-quilt frou frou talk, don't you think?
ME: Our mission is to Support Working People at the Intersection of Work and Life. I'm a workplace commentator and consultant -- I talk about workplace issues all day long. I think you have make room for the "life" topics, too. Otherwise, why are we working?
MI: I don't follow you.
ME: Why do we work, if not to support our ability to have the lives we want?
MI: I have to run. Any final words?
ME: Don't be afraid to ask a question because it feels basic. Ninety-nine percent of our members would fall over laughing if they saw the way I use Excel. We all have different areas of expertise. If you're nervous to post a message, send it to me and I'll post it for you anonymously. And please tell your friends! They can subscribe to our group at the group's homepage, www.yahoogroups.com/group/asklizryan
MI: Okay, thanks.
ME: Thanks to you too.

Ten Ways to Get Out of Neutral on LinkedIn

2007-05-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

LinkedIn has ten million users, but not all of them are making millions while they sleep and making fast friends with people around the globe. Some of them are scratching their heads and wondering what LinkedIn is good for. Here are ten ideas to get your LinkedIn networking going.

1) Download the LinkedIn toolbar. This is a big deal, because it plays to (what LinkedIn says, and what I believe) LinkedIn's real strength -- connecting you in a more powerful way with people you ALREADY know. (Open Connectors, don't all flame me at once!)

2) The LinkedIn toolbar tells you which of the folks in your Outlook Address Book are already using LinkedIn. Write to these folks (you can personalize the message) and get connected to them.

3) Next, go to the Colleagues feature (one of my favorite LinkedIn capabilities) and find people you worked with back in the day, at past jobs. Write a personalized note to these folks also, and connect to them.

4) Same thing with Classmates - that's your old school mates. Connect to people you remember from college.

5) Now, go look at your Profile. Chances are good that your Profile is out of date in at least one aspect, if not more. Update that sucker. Then, click on the teeny tiny button that says Forward, just above your name. You can send a message about your Profile Update to any or all of your first-degree contacts. Do it -- but be sure and write something human, like "I updated my profile to include my new volunteer post as VP for Membership at the Alchemists Society. What's new with you? I'd love a quick update on your latest projects."

6) LinkedIn should help you stay in touch with people in your network. There's not much value if you and your contacts sit around like lumps vis-a-vis one another. So, visit your LinkedIn homepage often to see who's doing what in your network. When you see that someone has a new job or has won or award or whatever, send him or her a congratulatory note.

7) Leave endorsements for people in your network. There's a networking value (as more endorsements boosts a person's ranking in any LinkedIn search) but also a human value. It feels tremendous to know that someone remembers working alongside you a decade ago and will say so. This is the human side of LinkedIn (thank goodness there is one).

8) Participate in LinkedIn Answers. I am afraid of getting addicted to LinkedIn Answers because it's always there...but a little bit of participation won't kill you.

9) Check out www.linkedintelligence.com to share current LinkedIn ideas and tips.

10) Lastly -- jump into your LinkedIn network by sending a Contact Request (different from an invitation to connect) to one of your second-degree ("friend of a friend") contacts. Pick someone you'd like to know more about, and reach out to him or her to say "Want to talk by phone?" If this is a fruitful contact, you'll immediately feel the tiny little bite of the LinkedIn bug. There are a lot of cool people out there. You just haven't been introducted to them, yet.

Collecting Bumper Stickers

2007-05-02T16:22:00.001-07:00

Now we are collecting our members' and visitor's Bumper Sticker* lines: the quick description of the "professional you" that intrigues your conversation partner enough to generate more conversation.

A Bumper Sticker is different from an elevator speech - it's shorter and oriented to prompting a question, rather than a full description of what you do in your business or your job. (If you take out your watch and count out 30 seconds, you'll see that it's an ETERNITY.)

*Mary McDonald suggested this Bumper Sticker idea. If you meet Mary and you ask her what she does, and she says "I help people do what they already do, only better" you may cock your head and ask "How do you do that?" That's the Bumper Sticker idea - giving just information to make people want to know more.

The Bumper Stickers here are phrased in such a way that they are quick answers to the question "What do you/what does your company/ do?"

Check back to see our members' Bumper Stickers as they accumulate here. Or leave your own in a comment!

I Reduce Stress for Job Seekers

Christine Dennison, The Job Search Coach
www.TheJobSearchCoach.com

We Tie It All Together

karikazo
Tying it all Together

We Put Heads in Beds

Lori Gedon
www.luxuryhotelmarketing.com

We Give Your Marketing Direction

Lara Fabans
www.Lodestone-sw.com

We Give You Thousands of Ways to Say Thank You

Carol Kantor
Business Builders

I Write What Other People Throw Out. And I Get Paid for It.

Nancy Solomon
Marketing Communications and Public Relations

We Help You Build Social Networks for What You Do and Who You Are.

Jeanne Hurlbert, PhD
www.optinetresources.com

We Help You Recreate Your Childhood -- or The Childhood You WISH You'd Had!

Cathy Smith
Flying Penguin Collectibles

My Website is to Job Seekers what SalesForce is to a Sales Professional.

Jason Alba
http://www.jibberjobber.com

We Help Startup CEOs Keep Their Investors, Their Employees and Their Compliance Types Happy!

Miki Saxon

I Help People Get Unstuck About Their Careers

Kristen Hallows

www.jobyoudeserve.com

Members Share Their Thoughts on LinkedIn

2007-05-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last week we asked the members of the Ask Liz Ryan email group what their LinkedIn experiences have been. Here's what they said:

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[LinkedIn] is how I got my job here in Dallas, 2 yrs ago when I moved from Chicago.--Adrienne
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I, too, use LinkedIn to keep connected to past co-workers and network withcolleagues. My personal feeling about LinkedIn is that if I don't knowenough about someone to offer a recommendation, I usually do not add them to my network.
Chris
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I'd love to know more about LinkedIn as well. I've been on there for awhile, and have linked to several people I know. But the other daysomeone I have never met asked to be linked to me. What's that about? Ilooked at her bio and she has worked in fields entirely unrelated towhat I do. It is unlikely that we would have any connections in common.How did she get my name and contact info? Is it available to anyone onLinkedIn? (I guess I need to start figuring out the system there!)

Cathy
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Cathy et al,

It's not at all uncommon to receive LinkedIn connection requests from peopleyou don't know. There is a relatively small number of people who useLinkedIn as a tool to "build" their network by the hundreds or thousands,rather than using it more as a record of the relationships you make anddevelop mostly in other ways. On the one hand, it is certainly people's prerogative to basically network as they choose. On the other hand, thevast majority of LinkedIn users do NOT want to receive connection requestsfrom people they don't know, and the widespread practice of thoseinvitations has been known to drive some people away from LinkedIn entirely.

LinkedIn used to require people to have your e-mail address in order toinvite you to connect, but no longer does. I have mixed feelings on this,in that eliminating that requirement does make it easier to reconnect withformer colleagues or classmates who you've lost touch with, but it alsoopens you up to more connection requests from people you don't know.I have a post on my blog about how to politely decline a LinkedIn connectioninvitation:http://linkedintelligence.com/how-to-politely-decline-a-linkedin-request

If you're new to LinkedIn, you might also find the whole Using LinkedIncategory on my blog useful:http://linkedintelligence.com/category/using-linkedin

Liz has also written pretty extensively about LinkedIn. A good startingpoint is her Top Ten LinkedIn Do's and Don'ts:http://linkedintelligence.com/top-ten-linked-in-dos-and-donts

Scott
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I've used LinkedIn successfully in a number of ways:

1) To reconnect with former colleagues, customers, bosses, schoolmatesand even a old boyfriend all over the world.

2) I'm in the midst of a job search and have used LinkedIn to a)sleuth a company's challenges and work culture, the future boss's style, etc. by getting introduced to former and current employees.I've managed to speak with around 15 people for one company indifferent functions and levels- the stories are similar which lendscredability. Another example is disqualifying a company- heardsimilar stories of ethical dysfunction and noticed that several LImembers in my network all had short tenures there (30 months or less).Have several more good examples. Sometimes you may develop aninternal advocate or find someone who may hand deliver your resume tothe hiring manager.

3) As a source of expertise for short quick questions and as a means of finding professionals.

Example, a friend needed an employmentattorney in a another state and by using my network, I was able tofind about 3 locally that she was able to check out.I also see a personal side- if going on vacation or exploringrelocation- can check out people in that location with similarhobbies/interests - you might make a local friend or get the scoop ofwhere to go/live/not live/dine/local culture/etc.Pro-LinkedIn,

Carol

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I have a LinkedIn account and lots of contacts but have never really figuredout how to "work" with LinkedIn. I would love it if someone who does have agood experience with it would explain exactly how they use that network.

Thanks

Carol
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Creative professional uses for LinkedIn:

Lisa, I use LinkedIn for several things. As a recruiter, I useLinkedIn extensively for referrals and candidate generation, no doubtabout it. But as an aspiring novelist, I also use LinkedIn to networkwith other writers, and to expand my publishing contacts. A goodfriend of mine is a digital artist, and she uses LinkedIn to make artcontacts around the world (galleries, creative directors, consultants,to name a few.)

The truth is that the internet and social networkingsites have made the business world much smaller, and anyone that is ina business with clients or employees will find sites like LinkedIninvaluable. For example, for your voice over contracts, you can useLinkedIn to find agents, radio station contacts, animation studios,and even other professionals that can help you find freelance work.

As another example, my former SO's brother-in-law is an artist for a major game publisher in Montreal, who has expressed an interest inworking for Pixar. I checked my network and have someone in my networkthat is a Senior Recruiter at Pixar. He has the name and contact information of that person for when he is ready to make the move. Yes,it is IT but it is also art. I think that the free version is probably fine until you start using LinkedIn enough to warrant the service and make it worth the money foryou.

Kristen
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I am relatively new to LinkedIn, but can offer one positive aspect ofthe site so far. Working for a relatively large company, it's hard todefine who enjoys online networking amongst your co-workers. OnLinkedIn it was so easy to find others at my company. This was veryencouraging and gives me a chance to communicate with co-workers Ialready know in a different setting on our own time. It also allows meto get to know other employees I have never actually met. In my jobdescription (Executive Assistant) there is no development plan otherthan what you create for yourself. Therefore networking with otherswithin your company from other departments or who work in verydifferent capacities is a big plus.

Kerry

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I've used LinkedIn to find old college classmates, to keep in touch withsomeone from Germany that I met in Seoul (we were both there on business andshared a breakfast together), and recently started partnering with someone Ifound again through LI (and have known well previously) -- so, all in all,it's a good tool. I like getting notes telling me that others' profileshave been updated - it's sometimes the only way that I know they've changedjobs!--

Thanks,

Mary

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Liz:

Thanks for asking the question. I have found that about half of thesolicitations I get are from people I know and the other half are fromthose trying to get me to sign up without knowing them, which is notwhat LinkedIn wants to encourage. I'm always surprised at these requests.I welcome any thoughts you have on the intent vs. the practice of howfolks use LinkedIn and look forward to hearing the experiences of thoseon this list.

Gail

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In response to Liz's request for LinkedIn Experiences, I would say that theprimary value so far for me is that I have been able to reconnect with formercoworkers, managers and employees from jobs I had way back in the 80s. It hasbeen very nice to reconnect and see how their careers and personal lives have evolved.I have not used LinkedIn as much for career networking since I am moving away from corporate work and more towards creative writing, acting, voice over andstand-up comedy.

I have an impression, which may not be true, that most jobs and opportunities that come from LinkedIn are more IT related. So I haven't used it as a source for finding work. This may be a mistake. If anyone else is in acreative field and has profited from networking through LinkedIn I will beinterested in finding out how it went. I still do quite a bit of technical (software specifications, user manuals) and marketing (product data sheets, adcopy, web copy, etc.) writing for former employers and other clients so I shouldprobably try and pursue that kind of work through LinkedIn.I am also now living in Paris and had not thought about using LinkedIn to findwork here so I just logged in and sure enough, you can search jobs in other countries and it shows you how many people in your network can help you at thatcompany. So I am glad Liz asked the question - it forced me to take another look at LinkedIn!I am still using the free service and have not upgraded to the paid service. I'dbe interested in knowing from those who have upgraded if this is worth doing and why.

Lisa

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I got my current job off of LinkedIn. The job was posted on LinkedIn. Ithen checked my connections and got a reference to a person in the company,the hiring manager. I have done this on a few interviews. I also looked uphis profile and read his background and tried to integrate into myinterview.LinkedIn is also good for career research. You can look up people'sprofiles and how they got where they did. It is very interesting.

I have also found old sorority sisters/college buddies on there. It has been atremendous tool.I have also helped others get into companies for business purposes.Just because you don't have a connection to the person, I would stillencourage people to possibly contact them. I haven't done it yet, but, Ihave thought of saying "I saw you on LinkedIn and know that you do XXXXX forYYYYY. Could we chat sometime about PPPPP."I hope this helps,
Heather
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I have used my LinkedIn network to keep track of former coworkers and toupdate them on my own job status. Lately, I've also used it a little tocreate a further connection to people I only know virtually through ourblogs or online conferences.I haven't gotten any jobs or contracts through it, but I expect that if Iwas doing contract work rather than my salaried job that I would try muchharder and therefore would get some monetary benefit out of it.

I have enjoyed the Q&A feature and have learned some interesting things fromthose conversations. The networked learning possibilities with the Q&A arevery intriguing to me, partly because I work in online education. I don'tlike the fact that so many people think that one interaction on a Q&A issufficient to justify a connection. When I have answered questions,especially from open networkers, they often use it as an opportunity to padtheir numbers a little bit. I don't choose to be an open networker whoaccepts every link I can get, and an open networker should be able to figurethat out from my profile if he or she would take 30 seconds to look.

Now I'm a bit curious though; am I setting my standard too high? How many ofyou would accept an invite based on reading 1-2 paragraphs from someone,either as a question or an answer? Am I being unreasonable to expect that weat least have a few messages or emails back and forth for dialog prior to aninvite?Looking forward to your ideas,

Christy

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