I Can Has Senior Producer?

Very, very, very rarely do I wish that I had stuck with web programming for a little bit longer. This is one of those times. As posted on MyCareer.com:

Executive Producer (M5)

I'm looking for a Senior Project manager / Senior Producer to work with my outstanding client who is a well known and highly regarded organisation pioneering some of the most innovative and in-depth communications strategies in Australia.

Due to massive success the Production team requires the services of a Senior Producer to support the production team in online, print, marketing and digital media initiatives.

O'rly you say?

Ya'rly!

If you are a 733t project manager or senior producer, with mad skills (over 9000!) from the delivery of flawless web projects, as well as the Real Ultimate Power of performing under pressure and delivering spectacular results then this is the role for you.

For this senior level role you will be involved in:

  • Supporting and guiding business strategies
  • Manage Producers, Designers and Developers on significant projects
  • Deliver agreed outcomes throughout the Project lifecycle
  • Implement new developments throughout the business portfolio and ensure business agenda's are met
  • Engage with all facets of the production process.

You will demonstrate:

  • Experience working within the internet, media and print industries
  • Exposure to formal Project Management and methodologies such as Agile and or Prince2
  • Articulate, concise communication skills with the ability to assert a point with empathy
  • The ability to work from both a strategic angle and a creative one
  • Good technical understanding of web design and development as well as print production and media environment skills and knowledge
  • Strong time management skills

Communication and interpersonal skills will be just as important as having the following experience and education:

  • Tertiary qualifications
  • An absolute minimum of 5 years experience in a Project Management or producers role in a web based environment utilising Flash, .Net, ActionScript and Adobe products. Seriously, save the Internet some bandwidth by not applying if you don't have a significant web background.
  • Previous experience managing the code grinders and the colouring in types.
  • Strong scope management
  • Excellent judgement on best action to take
  • Excellent documentation skills
  • Best practise knowledge in Project Management practices
  • Excellent time management skills

Put on your robe and wizard hat if you have knowledge of:

  • Developing solutions in .NET and 3D modelling
  • Games development
  • Managing Production Shoots

A passion for the web is essential, my client represents the best in Melbourne and we are only looking for the crème de la crème of the marketplace. You MUST attach a compelling cover letter to your application for this role. 

*sigh*

MBS MBA FAQs: Career Prospects

Every couple of weeks I get an e-mail from someone looking to do an MBA from Melbourne Business School. I get asked lots of different questions in these e-mails but the ones I get most often cover admissions advice, post-MBA career prospects and the MBS careers office, and what my impression of MBS is now that I'm in the job market.

I've been meaning to blog about my replies to those e-mails for a while now but have only just gotten around to doing so. Here then is the first of those blog posts, this one covering career prospects and questions about MBS' Career Services Centre.

Q. What is the Career Services Centre at MBS like?

A. It's pretty good and it's getting better. To give you an example: Back in 2006, when I started my MBA, the concept of an "MBA internship" was relatively new in Melbourne (and maybe even in Australia where internships and apprenticeships are generally 6-12 months long and are often something you do after your undergraduate degree). My MBA intake was the first to have an internship built into its program and, of the 30 or so people who wanted to do an internship, only 12 managed to get one. Things have improved drastically since then: of the 50 or so people who wanted to do an internship this year, over 45 got one. Most of that is thanks to the Career Services Centre's efforts of the last couple of years.

The Career Services team is pretty impressive, too: they have a general careers consultant who can help you figure out what you want to do with your life and a bunch of industry specialists who really know what they're talking about. The industry specialists also have great relationships with all the big companies in their designated industries. They also have a coordinator and general manager, both of whom know pretty much everything that's going on and are a valuable resource in themselves.

The Centre also runs weekly career-related workshops (which are invaluable), holds a two-day residential careers/leadership training session (which is awesome), and manages the relationships with all of the companies that recruit from MBS (see next question).

Q. What kinds of companies recruit from MBS?

A. All kinds, including some of the biggest, most successful, and most well-known companies in Australia and the world. There are on-campus recruitment sessions/presentations held throughout the year and here is a list of some of the companies that held one during my last term there:

Q. How do MBS students get/find their jobs? What kinds of jobs do they get, how much do they get paid, and which countries do they get these jobs in?

A. For details on all of this, read MBS' graduating class survey for 2007. The data for the 2008 survey hasn't been collected year (that should happen next month) and I'll blog about that once the results are in.

Keep in mind, though, that 2007's "average" starting salary of AU$105,211 doesn't actually tell you much because it doesn't capture the massive difference between graduates starting in, for example, C-suite positions and earning over 150k per year and graduates working in non-profits and earning under 70k per year. This is problem with averages.

What you can do to supplement this data is to look at industry-specific salary ranges as reported via salary surveys conducted by these four recruitment firms:

Notice how salary averages change across cities and industries and how they vary among the surveys themselves.

Q. What are the chances of using the MBA to switch industries?

A. It's never easy to switch industries but the MBA is a great degree to switch with. That said, unless you work really hard, are incredibly persistent, and get a little lucky, you are unlikely to get your dream job in your target industry right after you graduate (particularly if you want to get into something like investment banking!). Instead, you'll probably start at a lower-than-expected position in your new industry and will then work your way up to your dream job. This, by the way, is compared to the position someone from that industry would start at if they went and did an MBA and then came back. However, once you do make the switch, you're likely to move up the corporate ladder (i.e. to your dream job) quicker than someone who doesn't have an MBA.

The best part: you have tonnes of resources to help you make the switch. This includes not only books, elective courses, and industry clubs, but also your classmates, faculty members, Career Services staff, and alumni.

The most powerful industry-switching tool available to you, however, is your MBA internship. Assuming you manage to get one in your target industry, you'll not only get some industry experience on your resume, you'll also get networking contacts, lots of news and information about that industry, and maybe even direct contacts in companies that you might want to apply to for a job.

Q. What does it take to get a job in management consulting?

A. Lots of hard work, a love of numbers, the ability to see the big picture and the interconnections between elements, and the right (i.e. management consulting) attitude. The advantages you'll have

in being an MBS student include:

  • You'll get taught how to do all of this
  • If you like it, there are numerous electives you can take that will teach you how to do it even better
  • MBS has great relations with all of the top management consulting firms in Australia. Indeed, many of its lecturers have worked in those firms in the past.

That said, there are two things you have to be ready for.

  1. Consulting firms will only hire you if your grades are really high (i.e. top 20% of your graduating class high) and, even then, only if you do really well on their case interviews (which are never easy).
  2. Only one or two people get into any of those firms in a given year and there are lots of smart people at MBS who want to get into management consulting so there's plenty of competition.

In other words: the prospects are great if you work really hard, do lots of preparation, and get really good grades. If not, your prospects are still good but it might take longer and may be harder to get in.

Finally, the Career Services Centre and the student-run MBS Consulting Interest Group will guide you in all of this.

On to other topics...

Those are the most popular career-prospect questions I tend to get. I'll move on to other topics next time but if there are any other specific questions you want me to answer on this topic, please let me know and I'll cover them in a subsequent blog post.

I Have a Job!

So I haven't been posting much recently. Why? Because I have a job! Indeed, as of last Wednesday, I am the Online Coordinator (OC) at Linfox.

Linfox, for those of you who don't know, is Australia's second-largest logistics and supply chain company, earning over AU$2bn in revenues last year. It employs over 16,000 people, owns over 5,000 vehicles, has over 1.8 million square meters of warehousing space, runs 2 airports, and operates out of 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Yes, it's big. Not quite as big as Deutsche Post, of course, but it's getting there. Oh, and it privately owned. (More fun trivia on Linfox in a future blog post, perhaps...like how it transported eight elephants last year and how, every year, it does all the logistics for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.)

Based in the Communications department, the OC's role has two main components:

  • Project management: maintaining the new intranet portal and soon-to-be-re-launched Internet site
  • Internal consulting: helping departments use online communications more effectively

This job is also an excellent next step for my career: it puts me well on my way to becoming a more senior level web strategist/consultant and the Linfox brand is great for my CV.

Why am I concerned about how this job will look on my CV when I've only just started it? Because I'm on a three month contract so, two months from now, I'll be back to looking for another job and preferably a permanent one. Why, then, did I take a three month contract job? Because Linfox and the OC role were not to be missed. Opportunities like this do not come along often and I'm really happy to have been selected for this one.

Of course, what this means for me in a practical sense is that I have a great deal to do in the short time that I'm here. Fortunately, having come off the MBA program at Melbourne Business School, I should be able to handle the speed, pressure, and volume of work quite well. (Thanks, MBS!)  Meanwhile, the role will also give me the opportunity to apply all that I learnt from courses like E-Commerce, Information Strategy, Brand Management, Managing People for High Performance, Negotiations, and Leadership.

So here I am. Let the, er, online coordinating begin!

Stop Writing Cover Letters...

Phil Rosenberg wrote a great article in Social Media Today called Stop Writing Cover Letters and You'll Get MORE Interviews.

He argues that it's your resume that needs to include key words from job postings since it's those that get placed into recruitment databases and, as a result, searched. Cover letters, meanwhile, don't even make it to the database so there's no point in putting keywords (or, according to Rosenberg, any effort at all) into those. In other words, resume search engine optimisation (SEO) for job description keywords is crucial. In fact, that is precisely what will get you through to the interview stage.

He has a point and I wonder how true this is for Australian companies and recruiters. It sure sounds plausible enough. That said, this is not going to stop me from writing cover letters. Doing at bit of SEO work on my resume may get me past the first cut but I'm pretty sure my cover letter will have a bigger role to play in subsequent stages. The resume SEO tip is really useful, though.

What Community Managers Get Paid

The Community Manager role is still relatively new and somewhat hard to pin down:

  • Does it fall under marketing communications, PR, brand management, HR, internal communications, or IT?
  • Is it an operational, tactical, or strategic role?
  • Should the person be a junior, middle, or senior level employee?
  • Will the role be managed by one person or by a team (e.g. manager, moderator, tech person)?

Because of its newness, the confusion surrounding its place in the organizational hierarchy, and the many different ways in which companies are engaging their customers and employees, this role is handled in different ways by different companies.

However, increasingly, the Community Manager role is becoming an entirely separate job position. That is, as social media has increased in usage, importance, relevance, and impact, community management tasks can no longer be simply added-on to a communications person or marketer's job description.

Okay, Now What?

But now that companies are creating these roles, they want to know how much they should pay Community Managers and, more fundamentally, what the job position's ROI is.

The latter question is harder to answer and, even if you work through the numbers, sometimes the best answer is "If you don't have someone dedicated to engaging your customers or employees, you will get left behind." Which is much like the answer to a question that a lot of companies were asking themselves in the 90's: "But why should we have a website?" :) 

Of course, all this depends on how strategically important customer interaction is to your company. Theoretically, the more important customer interaction is -- and assuming your customers are increasing their social media usage -- the more you should be investing in a social media manager.

Theories aside, however, Connie Benson recently conducted a social media-based survey on what Community Managers are being paid these days and how companies are arriving at that figure. She wrote that all up in a blog post which concludes that, in the US, Community Managers are paid anything from US$60,000 to $110,000 (about AU$64-117k). Presumably this variation represents the amount of strategic importance placed by companies on customer engagement and the social media usage of customers.

What About Australia?

However, based on the few (and far between) community management-type job openings I've come across over the last few months, I can safely say that the Australian salary range for Community Managers is significantly lower. That's mainly because social media still doesn't figure in most Australia companies' strategies. Oh well.

Hmmm...I wonder how much Telstra's Now We Are Talking site or its competitors' Tell The Truth Telstra site pays its community managers :)

I Can Haz Dream Job?

I would move to Seattle for this job:

I Can Has Cheezburger? is looking to hire a moderator to work in our Seattle office (Lower Queen Anne area)! You too can works for Happycat!

Moderators screen all submissions, moderate comments and help our users with the dangerous world of lolcats. This is a paid part-time (or possibly full-time position). Due to the nature of the site, moderators work non-standard office hours. You will be joining our team of 3 moderators in enjoying all the fun the Web can offer.

We’re looking for someone who lives in Seattle with a great sense of humor, a deep understanding and love of the Internets and a strong work ethic. Cat ownership is not required.

If you’re interested, email us your resume and/or cover letter at lol@icanhascheezburger.com

*sigh*

[Via Yahoo! News, via Digg]

Benchmarks for Social Media Experts

Great post yesterday by Chris Brogan: What I want a Social Media Expert to Know. Great comments too.

To expand on his post: What a social media expert should also know is that the answers -- if you re-frame Brogan's list as a set of questions -- can be different in different situations, with different companies and industries.

The social media expert might not be able to answer the questions correctly -- and with a high degree of certainty -- in all those situations but at least s/he should know (a) that there will be differences, (b) where to look to find the right answers for that situation, and (c) if there are no right answers, make a pretty educated guess as to what they will be.

I know this to be true, by the way, because I've worked both on external-facing web portals and internal-facing intranet portals and some of the answers to Brogan's questions are vastly different in those two cases.

Still, like he says, social media experts should have answers to all those questions. In fact, I'd expect a good social media job interview to cover most, if not all, of these questions as well.

Job Rejection Follow-Up

So far, I've applied for three jobs and have received one rejection. As any good job applicant will do, I followed-up with the recruitment agent who handled my application to see why I got that rejection.

The Feedback

I wanted to know: did I not get the job because (a) he didn't think I could do it or (b) there were other, more suitable candidates for that position?

So I e-mailed him a couple of quick questions and got a rather encouraging reply. He said I wasn't far off the mark with the skills requirements but that the client had wanted someone with significantly more experience in that specific area.

This is good news because it tells me that my job application targeting is generally accurate. However my lack of explicit communications experience might be an issue, especially when applying for more senior management roles.

Lessons for the Future

What I need to do in future applications, then, is be clearer about the fact that, while I don't have formal, job-title-based communications or relationship management experience, this is something I've actually been doing for years. After all, you can't be a good consultant, teacher, or trainer if you're not proficient at both relationship management and communications. I guess I need to explain and, preferably, demonstrate that a little better.

What I should also do is phone recruiters soon after I've submitted my application (a few days later, maybe). That might help me catch and correct any perceived shortcomings before they reach application-rejecting levels. It's also good to put a voice to the applicant who, till that time, has existed only as a chronological listing of skills and experiences on a piece of paper. 

All in all, the follow-up was both encouraging and very valuable. Here's hoping I don't have to do too many more! :)

Living a Dangerously Unhealthy Life

To follow on from the Death by Blogging post I wrote earlier, read Jason Calacanis' post on What the New Your Times' "Death by Blogging" Story Got Right. It's long, but it's worth a read.

He writes:

The New York Times sees the common thread amongst these folks as blogging, but that's a superficial assessment. The truth is the common thread amongst these four individuals--and it's kind of shocking the New York Times missed this--is they were all entrepreneurs.

The Times would have been better off blaming entrepreneurship over blogging. Of course, there are tons of healthy entrepreneurs out there who are not dying, and a certain number of men between 35-60 die from stress on a regular basis, so the story's premise is flawed from the start.

...

... however there is one thing the New York Times did get right: the human species inability to deal with stress.

I know where Calacanis is coming from because I've been there myself.

Back in 2005-06 I went through a really difficult period in my life: my mother had just died (less than three months after we discovered the cancer), I was having a hard time at work (one of my colleagues had left and I was stuck doing his job which, at the time, was way over my head), I was working evenings and weekends on a second job (finances were an issue and I enjoyed the second job much more than the first), and I hadn't gotten the scholarship I needed for my MBA (though I did, thankfully, get it in the subsequent round). All this coupled with a mostly unhealthy lifestyle (specifically, no regular exercise) and very little drumming (which is a great stress reliever) left me burnt-out and bordering on depression.

Interestingly, it was the hard time I was having at work that prompted me to go for an MBA in the first place so at least one good thing came out of all this!

Things have changed since then (life is simpler when you're a student anyway; especially when you're on an international student's budget!) and I like to think I've learnt a few valuable lessons on how not to live along the way. Ironically enough, the MBA has taught me a lot about how to live a more balanced life as well [1]. And now the jobs I'm applying to and the life my wife and I intend to lead are both going to be of the more balanced kind. And though I do enjoy (yes, actually enjoy) the occasional 60 hour work week, I know that it should be a deadline-approaching exception to the norm.

So thanks, Jason, for that blog post. I needed it to remind myself about what is important in life. Others need to hear that kind of advice as well. Let's just hope everyone listens.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[1] I learnt this primarily through some teachers and one of my career counsellors. A heartfelt thanks, then, to Gavin Lister, Amanda Sinclair, John Onto, and Brian Gibbs.

My Job Application Philosophy

As we're learning in my Corporate Strategy course with Geoff Lewis at Melbourne Business School these days, corporations should constantly be asking themselves two basic questions:

  1. Are we really adding value to the businesses that we own? 
  2. Would some other corporate owner be able to add more value to these businesses?

And if it turns out that we're actually making one (or more) of our businesses worse off by owning it, then why aren't we divesting that business?

I know it's a bit of a stretch but, at a very fundamental level, my job application philosophy is based on a similar concept. When I look at a job opening, I ask myself:

  1. Can I really create value in this role -- both for the company (can I do this job well) and for myself (do I want to do this specific job)?
  2. Would someone else be able to create more value than I would?

If I am able to convince myself that I can do this job, I want to do this job, and I can do this job better than most others, then I apply for it. If not, there's no point: I'll just waste my time carefully crafting an application that matches my background, skills, and experience to the job requirements; I'll waste the time of the recruiter who'll assesses the application; and, at the end of it all, I won't get the job anyway.

In fact, a couple of times I've liked a job opening; started writing an application cover letter that justifies why I should get that job; realized half-way through that I can't or shouldn't do this job (i.e. I can't justify it); and stopped.

Of course, all this is a bit of a simplification since a lot more thought does go into each job application decision that I make but, fundamentally, that's the thought process I follow.

FYI, among the other things that I take into consideration are: learning and career progression (short term and long term); company culture and values; company fundamentals (financial state, market position, etc.); details of the role that I'm applying for; and so on.

The View from the Other Side

The good thing is that my philosophy nicely complements the three things recruiters are looking for in an applicant:

  1. Can you do the job? If yes, you get to the technical interview stage.
  2. Will you do the job (and do it well)? If yes, you progress through the technical interview stages to the management interview stage.
  3. Do you have a good 'fit' with the organization? If yes, you get a job offer.

My philosophy, then, gets me to work through a lot of this stuff before I even start my application. To give you an idea of how this works, here are some jobs that didn't make it past one of these hurdles:

  1. An internal communications job that required a lot of Knowledge Management theory and experience (that too with the latest KM tools and practices). I didn't think I could do this job.
  2. An external marketing job that had a good bit of online community work but a much bigger focus on print stuff, media liaison, and event management. I knew that others could do this job better than I could.
  3. An interesting external marketing and community management job that was to be filled by a junior person (with 1-2 years of experience) and in area that I have absolutely no interest in. I didn't do an MBA to get an entry level job and I don't want a job in an area that doesn't excite me (or, at the very least, one that I have a passing interest in).

In other words, when I do actually apply for a job, I am convinced that I am the right person for it. Which, I guess, is a good thing.

Any thoughts, comments?

At Least the Numbers are Encouraging

According to the McKinsey Quarterly article How Businesses are Using Web 2.0: A McKinsey Global Survey:

Asked what might have been done differently to make the previous investments in Internet technologies more effective [forty-two] percent say they would have strengthened their companies’ internal capabilities to make the most of the market opportunity at hand.

That would mean hiring people like web strategists and community managers...w00t!

Also according to this survey, companies in the retail, high tech, and telecommunications industries had the most respondents say that they were planning to increase investment in social media over the next three years.

Oh, and they're using them as much for internal coordination as they are for customer interaction.

This bodes well, at least in theory. Now to put it into practice and get myself a job...(yes, I'm using blog posts like this as a motivation tool!)

Social Media Presentations

One of the (many) things I'm doing these days is exploring the social media space in a lot more detail.

I've actually been a part of numerous Internet-based communities over the years so I know a great about social media already [1]. I also keep up with the latest news, trends, and studies.

Still, if you're not working on something full-time, you miss out on a lot of stuff -- like when you read the news article or blog post about the study instead of the actual study itself. So these days I'm doing some more research.

Among the many cool things I've found is this bunch of presentations on social media on Slideshare.net.

There are some that give you an overview and lots of information about social media:

There are some presentations that talk about social media from a marketing and branding perspective:

There are some that give practical advice on using social media:

And then there are some that talk about social communities:

There are many more, of course -- just click on one of the tags to see more on that topic -- but these are the ones that I found most useful (so far).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[1] When I sat down to think about it, I realized that I've been an active Internet community member for over 13 years! Here are some relevant milestones:

  • I got very active on Usenet back in 1995 when the Internet first became affordable to the general public in Pakistan (ah, the good old days of Windows 3.11, Winsock, Netscape 2.0, and 2400 baud modems!)
  • I started my first mailing list in 1996
  • Also in 1996, I became very active in network gaming, IRC, as well as many other mailing lists
  • My first stint as a server administrator, webmaster, and message board owner/moderator came in 1997
  • By 1999, I was training people on how to use the Internet and was giving presentations to the local ACM chapter on computer network security basics [94kB PPS file]
  • In 2004, I created my band's website and message board (which was a really fun community to grow, by the way)
  • Also in 2004, I started evangelising content management systems and other web-related technologies to the development sector; in fact, here's a presentation I gave on open source content management systems [503kB PPS file]
The next milestone is being played out now; that is, I started my first sustained blog in 2007 (after having gotten rid of my first, let's-see-what-blogging-is-all-about blog about 3 years ago!).

RealEstate.com.au's Simon Baker in Smart Company

Simon Baker, CEO of RealEstate.com.au and MBA graduate from Melbourne Business School (MBS), was recently featured in Smart Company. In a Q&A with Amanda Gome, he talks about how he's spent the last seven years turning RealEstate.com.au around.

The article provides some excellent insight into entrepreneurial strategy, particularly for an e-commerce company. For example:

Basically we’ve got two ways you can grow this business. One is through organic expansion – throw up a new website and then start from customer number one. The other is through acquisition. Now in 2005 we weren’t 100% sure which was the best way to go. We were, in terms of expansion overseas, babes in the woods, so what we said was ‘well let’s do something simple’.

He also talks about people, culture, and other HR issues. Overall, it makes for a fascinating read.

Running/Working in a Startup

Jason Calacanis wrote a really good post called How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips). And, while I don't agree with him on all of his tips -- like "Buy Macintosh computers" or "[ask for 10-30% off] from each of your vendors every 6-9 months" -- it's a really good list.

His basic point is: Don't focus on "stuff" that is needlessly expensive or will take you away from the work you've set out to do. For example, "Outsource accounting and HR", "Use Google hosted email", and "Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs". Focus instead on people since your money is better spent on them. That is, let your people work when they want to, where they want to, in the way they want to and throw in some perks that make the work environment really cool. For example, get them all second monitors and get "an expensive, automatic espresso machine".

Working in a Startup

As you'll read in Calacanis' post, there were some complaints about tip #11 which said "Fire people who are not workaholics...".  This happened mainly because he didn't clearly explain what he was trying to say and so people naturally assumed that he meant the worst. What he meant, of course, was that you should fire (or, better yet, not hire) people who are not passionate about their work and are not willing to work hard because, really, you can't run a proper startup with people who are there work in a nice, cushy job. 'Cushy job' and 'startup' simply do not go together.

I say that from experience because I've worked in startups for most of my life and have found that (a) as a startup-oriented employee you don't get true job satisfaction and (b) as a startup owner/manager you can't run a startup properly until and unless everyone there is passionate about the work that they're doing. And if you're not willing or are not wanting to work odd hours or weekends, or do all sort of tasks that were never part of your  original job description, then maybe the startup life isn't for you.

To give you an example, my job as General Manager (Islamabad) and SAT/GRE/GMAT teacher at The Princeton Review, Pakistan was really hard. I did GM work during normal working hours and my teaching work after 3pm for the SAT courses, 6pm for the GRE/GMAT courses, and on weekends for all of the courses. And if it hadn't been for semi-flexible working hours, almost complete freedom in how I ran the place, a office-purchased laptop, and so on -- basically, a 2004 Pakistani version of the perks that Calacanis talks about in his post --  working there would have been a lot less rewarding. (Of course, it helps that I love teaching and it appears to be something that I am good at.)

Now, I don't know what kind of job I'm going to doing six months from now but what I do know is that, if I end up working for a startup, I had darn well better be willing to put in the 'hard yards' (as the say here) to my job done. And if I'm not willing to do that, then I shouldn't have applied for that job in the first place. And, in that respect, Calacanis hit the nail on the head: fire the people who aren't willing to do that. At the end of the day, it really is that simple.

Web-Enabled Job Hunting

Sarah Perez from ReadWriteWeb posted an interesting article called 'The Resume, Rebooted: A Look at Web-Enabled Job Hunting' in which she covers the latest in dynamic, multimedia-enabled, online resumes.

And while she did cover social networking, she didn't mention the power of blogs, or even a personal website, in helping people get jobs...though, come to think of it, that could have been outside the scope of her article. Anyway, the jury is out on whether any of this online stuff does indeed help people in the general population get a job. I would, however, contend that, for people in the web world, having stuff about you online is crucial. And if that stuff by or about you is good and positive, that's even better. After all, on the web, all you often have is your online reputation.

Should You Get an MBA?

CIO published three interesting articles today:

  1. Should You Get an MBA? by Meridith Levinson
  2. 10 Reasons Why You Should Get an MBA by Thomas MacKay
  3. Six Reasons Not to Get an MBA by James Clark

As you can probably guess, the articles discuss the reasons why technology people -- specifically those who eventually want to be CIOs -- should or shouldn't get an MBA. Levinson writes in her introductory article:

With all the weight companies are placing on needing business-savvy IT leaders, IT professionals who don't already have the prestigious degree are considering obtaining it. [...]

[IT professionals worry] that not having an MBA will eliminate them from job opportunities and severely limit their prospects for career growth. [...] But many IT professionals remain resistant because earning the degree requires so much time and money. [...]

To help you figure out what's best for you, CIO.com invited two IT professionals to weigh in on the MBA debate — one on each side.

Since I am four months away from completing my MBA, you can also guess that I would tend to agree with MacKay. In fact, some of the posts I've written here have demonstrated what he talks about in his article:

An MBA teaches you to look at problems and opportunities holistically. It also provides analytical frameworks, such as risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses and strategic plans, that you can apply to any problem or opportunity you encounter, whether in or beyond IT. The business mindset that an MBA gives you becomes habit because you use those frameworks repeatedly in a rigorous academic environment, and you see how they can be applied in a variety of situations from one course to another.

Clark also makes some valid points. These include problems with the time, money, and effort required to complete the degree. He also talks about the difference between learning in an academic setting versus learning hands-on. "I get more out of doing than studying", he says. While that is true to an extent, I think sometimes the opposite is also correct. As I wrote in  my MBA application essays: "doing an MBA is [the smarter option for me right now] since I will be more focused, more determined, and will have prioritised my life around learning instead of earning." Of course, a prerequisite for thinking that was is to not be concerned about "earning" for the duration of your MBA.

In my opinion, the path you choose will depend on your natural business acumen, where you are in your career at that time, which company you work for, and what you preferred method of learning is. For example, you might have good natural managerial abilities, be working under a great leader or mentor, be working at a company that helps develop its employees' abilities, and be someone who learns quickly in a hands-on environment. In that case, you are not likely to need an MBA.

If your situation is different -- in some cases, even slightly -- the MBA might be exactly what you need. It's all on a case-by-case basis, I think. Recruiters know that as well, which is why not having an MBA doesn't eliminate you from the running for most managerial positions. On the other hand, having an MBA does tell your potential employer a bit about the breadth and depth of knowledge that you possess -- and that can't be a bad thing.

Job News Feeds, Fun Job Opening

Now that I've started to actively look for jobs, I've subscribed to keyword-based job update news feeds from Seek, MyCareer, CareerOne, and ITWire. However, since I'm still still four months away from finishing my MBA and most of these jobs have one month application deadlines, I won't be able to apply for most of them (for now, at least).

The point of subscribing to these news feeds 2-3 months in advance is, of course, to gather information about the market. That is, information about:

  • Companies: which ones are doing work that I'm interested in, what industries are these companies in, which ones are hiring, where (geographically) are they located, etc.?
  • Recruitment agencies: which ones hire people for the kind of jobs I want to do, which ones hire people for the companies I want to work for, etc.?
  • Jobs: what kinds of jobs are out there, what are the titles of the jobs I want to do, what kind of responsibilities do these positions entail, what experience and qualifications do these jobs require, how much do they pay, etc.?

Knowing all of that is crucial to thoroughly understanding the current and near-future job market. It's also important to learn about companies and industries that hire (and are hiring) people like me.

Fun Job Opening: Online Community Liaison at Lonely Planet

As I mentioned earlier, there will be some advertised jobs that I will find interesting but will not be able to apply to. From time to time, I'll post such openings to this blog and will then discuss them. By doing that, I hope to better identify the places where my interests overlap with current market opportunities. This will tell me which of my areas of interests are relevant to the Australian market, what my job prospects are in those areas, and so on.

One such opportunity was advertised on Seek today for an Online Community Liaison position at Lonely Planet:

The Online Community Liaison is responsible for defining and implementing editorial policy on Thorn Tree and Bluelist, along with playing a key role in ensuring an effective flow of communication between the community and the business.  Additionally, this position is responsible for defining and implementing ongoing policies around moderation along with performing some day-to-day moderation duties and coordinating the moderation team which currently comprises of Content Producers (each spending 1 hour per day on moderation), selected external users and any necessary casual staff/contractors.

Instigating and nurturing community contributions, providing input into the Online Community Strategy (in close liaison with the Community Site Producer and Online Publisher) and resolving issues to do with Thorntree and Bluelist online are also key responsibilities of this role. The Online Community Liaison needs to perform the functions of the job with empathy whilst at the same time maintaining objectivity and a sense of humour.

Though, in general, I am aiming to get a higher position within an organization (a management position, more on the strategy side; sort of like the two others mentioned in the second quoted paragraph above), I can so see this as a job that I would apply for. It's something that I would find incredibly interesting, there is opportunity for considerable growth within the company (both in this department and elsewhere; especially since it's a newly created position), and -- dude! -- it's, like, Lonely Planet!

Unfortunately, applications for this position close on 22 January and so I am well and truly out of the running. That said, I have now added Lonely Planet to the list of companies to watch out for (and I can't believe I forgot about in the first place!). I guess the subscribing to news feeds well in advance is already paying off.

My Immediate Career Prospects

In my third (and final) career-related post of the day, I want to say a quick word on my immediate career prospects. In theory, my career prospects are pretty good:

  • I have seven years of work experience, half of it in management, and an MBA from a highly ranked university
  • I have done lots of work on many different types of web portals (in multiple sectors) over the last few years, so this is an area that I know quite a bit about
  • I have worked in both technology and media companies and have worked for a lot of startups as well
  • The MBA has taught me a great deal -- especially in terms of core management, problem solving and analysis, business strategy, economics, marketing, managing people, e-commerce, negotiations, etc. -- and so I am a pretty well-rounded and well-qualified candidate in both technology and business

In practice, though, things are a bit different:

  • I don't have a lot of Australian work experience and this might count against me in the early, non-face-to-face stages of the job application process (till I can directly demonstrate my competence to my potential employer)
  • The MBA degree isn't highly valued in Australia except in certain industries; and media isn't necessarily one of them (in fact, in that industry, it might just count against me)
  • A lot of the jobs that I want to apply for are Sydney-based

Other things might initially be perceived by potential employers as being negative -- for example, they'll probably wonder about my English proficiency, my management and team-work skills, and my knowledge of business strategy -- but hopefully those will be quickly overcome once they talk to me and, to some extent, to my referees.

In short: for now, my prospects are uncertain. My challenge, then, is to somehow demonstrate my abilities to potential employers.

What Employers Look For

When employers look at potential employees, they judge them on three things:

  1. Can do (competence): Evidence of skills, experience, and competencies needed to perform the job. Potentially, this is my biggest hurdle in the early stages of the application process since I have limited Australian work experience, though the little that I have is quite good. However, half of my Pakistani work experience has been with American companies so it's not all bad. Note: you don't get to the interview stage till you convince employers (or recruitment agencies) that you can do the job that you have applied for.
  2. Will do (commitment, willingness): The right attitude, energy, and commitment for the job. To determine this, employers interview you. During that -- and particularly during case interviews -- they test both your can-do and will-do. That's often why there are multiple interview rounds.
  3. Fit (commitment and chemistry): The right compatibility and interpersonal chemistry with the team and your fit with the organization's culture. Once you reach the final stages -- usually, the management interview or when you get invited over for informal drinks with the team -- the employer has pretty much decided that you can and will do the job to their satisfaction. Now the task is to see if you fit well in the company...and vice versa. By the way, another reason for the multiple interviews with multiple interviewers is to determine whether you like your potential colleagues and whether they like you.

Of course it's not quite as simple as I make it sound here, but those are the basics.

As a candidate, then, I have to demonstrate all three of those -- my can-do, will-do, and fit -- to my potential employer. My resume, cover letter, and (should they Google me) this blog demonstrate my can-do; the cover letter and interview demonstrate my will-do; and the interviews demonstrate my fit. And, if all goes well, I get a job offer.

Let's see how things pan out over the next few months. As every, I'll keep you posted.