How would you like a job at Google?  Take a look at the infographic depicting the 9-step process.  Think that’s too many?  Google used to take 29 steps.

53% of workers are satisfied with their pay, down from 58% in 2005.

33% say they are seriously considering leaving their current organization.

49% are satisfied with their job security, vs. 55% in 2008.

34% are unhappy with their level of job stress.

9.1% U.S. Unemployment rate.

4.3% U.S. Unemployment rate for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

So here’s five tips that will help get you in the door.

1)  LEAD WITH A PUNCH! – If the position is seeking an event planner with experience in bar-mitzvahs, then lead off with a short one-liner that accentuates your expertise with bar-mitzvahs.  However, I would caution you from turning this one-liner into an “objective”.  Objectives are so very yesterday, not to mention self-serving.

2)  BE THE EMT! – Companies post openings because there is a business need/gap/seam/cavity/vacuum… you get the idea.  Your resume and application should be the CPR to the business’ heart-attack.  If you cannot propose how your skills will solve their problems, don’t bother applying.

3)  REMEMBER EMILY POST – Etiquette will get you everywhere.  Don’t talk about your age, family situation, health, confidential information from previous employers, salary, your former boss, and money.  First off, it’s illegal to mention or to be asked for any of that.  Second, it shows poor form.  Stick with the professional and pertinent data to include your experience, education, and endorsements (references).

4)  DON’T WRITE A THESIS PAPER! – For recent college grads, your resume should be a one-pager.  For those with less than five years of experience, keep it to two pages max.  For those with more than five years, a good rule of thumb is to include the last 10 years of experience only and no more than three pages.

5)  EATS, SHOOTS, AND LEAVES – Your grammar, punctuation and spelling must be without error.  Not… one…. single……. error!

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Danny Chung is a professional communications consultant and career coach with more than 2 decades of strategic communication and public relations experience.  His work has been on numerous news programs and television shows to include the New York Times, BBC, CNN, and The Fox News Channel.

1)      Set up a “professional“ Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, and a Twitter account.  Use the same username and password for ease.  Note, your username is often visible, case in point, Twitter, so use something short, sweet, and memorable.  “SexyGirl69@…” isn’t going to cut it unless you’re going clubbing.  Also recommend getting a head and shoulder picture in a professional setting with either a coat and tie, or a blazer and blouse.

This goes without saying, but what you write in LinkedIn needs/must be PERFECT.  Use all the tools available to provide as much granularity to your profile.

2)      Your settings for all three accounts should be open and accessible to all.  This means making sure everyone can see your entire profile in LinkedIn when you visit their profiles.  This means automatically accepting all “followers” in Twitter.  And this also means allowing all to see your page on Facebook.

This also goes without saying, but your “professional” Facebook should not have any photos from last weekend’s frat party or your antics at the last tailgating party.  These pictures should be of your work and perhaps a photo or two in a personal setting that shows you’re a well-rounded person with activities other than work.

3)      Last step is to begin looking for jobs that match your specifications.  When you find one, apply.  Please, please, please ensure you get someone else’s eyeballs on your resume before sending it out.  Your eyes will deceive you!  Have someone else check it.  After applying, search the company on LinkedIn and follow it.  Scroll through the listing of employees for keywords like “HR” or “Recruiter” and click on their profiles.  If they have a Twitter account, there will be a semi-blue box with a check mark and “Follow Me” in it.  Follow them.

This does two things.  The next time the recruiter checks “Who viewed my profile”, they will see your bright shining smile along with your successes.  When you follow them on Twitter, they will receive an email indicating that you are now a follower.

Now go get that job!

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Danny Chung is a professional communications consultant with more than 2 decades of strategic communication and public relations experience.  His work has been on numerous news programs and television shows to include the New York Times, BBC, CNN, and The Fox News Channel.

Here’s five quick tips to get you started on the path to a successful interview.

1) Dress the part – who is it they’re expecting? How do you want to be portrayed? If you’re portraying a college student, pjs and flip flops may be fine. But if you want to demand respect, dress the part in a fitted suit, sport coat, or button-down shirt. Oh, and please ensure it’s pressed.
2) Have three messages you want to disseminate, then say those three messages repeatedly throughout the interview. Even “gotcha!” questions can be responded to with your message. Something like “Not really sure what you’re getting at, but did you know that company x has generated an increase of 1000%?”
3) Know the format of the interview. Will you be in the studio? Will the interviewer be in the studio with you? Is it a satellite/remote interview? Will you be able to see the reporter? Will there be a delay? Who else will be on at the same time? Etc…
4) Record the interview. Re-purposing electronic media is an excellent way to maximize your marketing dollar. Don’t expect the network to hand over a copy of the segment – do it yourself, then immediately air it on your social media sites.
5) Follow-Up. Did the discussion stir any pots? If so, address the issues discussed in the Op-Ed. Discuss it online and clearly articulate your position/stand. This will only increase your exposure and capitalize on the segment.

Good luck and don’t forget to rehearse.

http://usat.ly/headscarvespark

The buzz this morning is arrest of a dozen or so Muslims who insisted on keeping their headscarves on during an amusement park ride. The park policy is that ALL head-gear, regardless of whether it’s a yamaka, a ballcap, or a headscarf, is to be removed during the ride for safety reasons.

Why is it that more and more people who come to the US have a mis-belief that our nation is based upon freedoms and rights regardless of impact?

Yes we have freedom of speech, but that gives no one the right to yell “fire” in a public place. When your actions impact my rights, you no longer have a clear cut right.

When the park manager asked the headscarf-wearing patrons to remove their head-gear prior to getting in the ride, he had EVERY right to do so. He bears the burden of responsibility when it comes to the safety of their patrons. If you don’t like it, you don’t get to ride.

As a Marine, I’ve traveled the world and have accommodated and adjusted my habits, lifestyle, and rights to that of the host nation. My Marines and I have always attempted to assimilate and be respectful. However, it seems more and more visitors and immigrants to the US seem to feel that they have every right to throw their weight around in our ring of political-correctness.

Of all the problems this country faces in education, one of the most complicated, heart-wrenching and urgent is the dropout crisis. Nearly 1 million teenagers stop going to school every year.

The impact of that decision is lifelong. And the statistics are stark:

The unemployment rate for people without a high school diploma is nearly twice that of the general population.

Over a lifetime, a high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate and almost $1 million less than a college graduate.

Dropouts are more likely to commit crimes, abuse drugs and alcohol, become teenage parents, live in poverty and commit suicide.

Dropouts cost federal and state governments hundreds of billions of dollars in lost earnings, welfare and medical costs, and billions more for dropouts who end up in prison.

It’s well known that lawyers who represent themselves have fools for clients. Politicians and other public figures who try to handle communications crises without assistance are no better off.

The latest example is Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), the glib, up-and-coming lawmaker who admitted Monday afternoon that he had repeatedly lied to his constituents – and the country – in denying that he tweeted a lewd picture to a female college student in Washington state. In a tense and tearful news conference, Rep. Weiner said he has in fact sent multiple inappropriate messages to other women too, but that he had done nothing illegal and would not resign.

Huffington Post Political Editor Howard Fineman noted on MSNBC immediately following the news conference that the congressman was ill-prepared to face the clamoring journalists. Standing before reporters for more than half an hour – with not a single colleague or influential supporter by his side – he said his wife knew about some of the women, he didn’t know if any were under-age, and that he was unclear about whether he engaged in phone sex. According to the pundits, he “opened up new lines of inquiry” likely to eventually force him from office.

“He needed crisis counsel and it looks like he is trying to handle this himself,” noted Fineman, a veteran journalist who has covered scores of scandals in his three decades as a newsman.

As a former journalist myself, I too thought Weiner was showing all the signs of a do-yourself crisis manager. He made the mistake of underestimating the media and overestimating the instincts that made him a rising political star. But like a star player who doesn’t believe he needs a coach, Weiner boldly took on the news media with classic defensiveness and poor messages.

At times during the ordeal, he sounded like former President Richard Nixon, blaming others for his woes and dodging questions. Weiner’s memorable “I can’t say with any certainty whether that picture was of me or not,” will be remembered in the same breathy as “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”

Today’s social media networks – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and millions of blogs – have accelerated the game to the point that no single person, no matter how talented, can formulate and execute a crisis strategy capable of withstanding the relentless and instantaneous scrutiny public officials face in this Age of Instant Transparency.

For Weiner, a seven-term congressman who was seen as a leading candidate to become the next Mayor of New York City, the collapse is all the more stunning because of the heights he had reached as a Party spokesman.

Standing alone at the lectern Monday, admitting his grievous lack of judgment and offering no concrete plan to move forward, Weiner paused.  “If you are looking for any deep explanation,” he said, “I don’t have one.”

Weiner could have done much better. With the right counsel, he would have.

Gene Grabowski is the Senior Vice President of Crisis and Litigation at Levick Strategic Communications, the nation’s top crisis communications firm. He is also a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog. Connect with him @crisisguru.

Read more: http://www.bulletproofblog.com/2011/06/07/the-dangers-of-do-it-yourself-crisis-communications/#ixzz1PROsCMW5

Fast forward to present day.
How many people do you know who are well-versed in our daily politics? Or for that matter, when’s the last time you voted? Or, if you did vote, what did the candidates stand for? Did you really understand the issues at hand?

The truth is most do not.

We vote for the most charismatic… The one who spends the most on negative ads…

It’s been said that our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, considered one of our most influential leaders of all time, could never have been elected president in today’s media-intensive environment. He didn’t look the part.

It’s easier to watch the ads and be swooned by the multi-million dollar ads than to actually read and research the candidates’ past voting history. We fail to see who these people really are. Rather, we see what is easy.

We are deceived.

Today, the leadership we vote into office lie to the American voting public with a pointed finger; they order our naval vessels in harm’s way to fire $100 million-dollar cruise missiles at empty warehouses in third-world countries to take the spotlight off of their indiscretions.

Today, we allow our leaders to allow a former Goldman Sachs CEO to the post of Treasury Secretary, only to bail them out a few years later. The fox tending the hen house? You think?

Today, we have a president who stood petrified while our entire nation and it’s government nearly came to a screeching halt. Several hundred thousand federal employees would have been directly out of work, in addition to the nearly 10% already unemployed… Not to mention the secondary effects on businesses dependent upon federal workers. Yet the president stood still.

Our leaders are more concerned with their next elections than with the welfare of its citizens. Why? Because we are so easily swooned and influenced.

We are today’s proletariats.

Too Big To Fail?

Do you truly believe that if we allowed GM to fall apart that a nation as innovative and hard-working as ours could not rebound? Lehman Brothers was allowed to fall for many reasons, none so clear as the fact that its CEO was not a part of Hank Paulson’s inner circle. But when JP Morgan Chase, Meryl Lynch, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and others began to feel the flood waters around their ankles, Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary of the United States and most recently the former Chairman and CEO of the same Goldman Sachs, had golden parachutes and balloons at the ready for them.

All this happened while the everyday proletariat was hit with record-high gas prices and a climb towards double-digit unemployment rates.

As house prices plummetted and foreclosures began spiking all over the nation, we are reminded of how this began. Mortgages were qualified at the cyclic rate with little to no regard for any capability for repayment. This was done with complete confidence of course, because mortgage brokers such as the now defunct Countrywide packaged and resold these mortgages as securities. Then they were resold again and again until they were re-leveraged 30 times over.

Thirty times over until this house of cards came tumbling down and the American people were saddled with a debt so great, that we are now facing our national deficit threshold. I.e., even China doesn’t want to lend us anymore money.

$14 Trillion Dollars Later

So here we are. A president voted in on a campaign of “Change”. Gas and milk prices more than double since he’s taken office. Unemployment still unhinged. Democrats and Republicans more stubborn than ever before. And a complete lack of leadership.

CONCLUSION

Our leadership has bailed out our corporate big businesses with dollars out of your pocket. By way of fallen house prices, higher gas prices, and continued inflation, we the proletariats are being robbed daily.

So as we face this next election ask yourself this: will you continue to be the child in this relationship, or will you take charge of our collective future together by demanding from our leadership, accountability and responsibility.

Ask yourselves why in the face of government shutdown, our congress was to continue receiving their pay? Why do our leaders continue to receive automatic pay raises every year while our military and federal employees face a pay freeze? Ask yourselves why we are relegated to the seat of responsibility for our leaders’ mistakes while they continue to reciprocate with big business on our dime?