Follow-up From “Never Look For A Job Again” Teleseminar

Netshare CEO Kathy SimmonsLast week I dialed into the teleseminar that I blogged about, remember, the one for $17? The title was “never look for a job again,” and Kathy Simmons is probably one of the best qualified speakers on the topic. As president and CEO of Netshare she has seen tens of thousands of CxO-level execs over the years, networking with them virtually and face-to-face. I was completely intrigued by what she had to share.

Here are some of my notes from that call:

  • People at work pay attention to the strategy of their companies while they neglect their personal career strategy.
  • average tenure of a CxO is 4.5 yrs (Chief Marketing Officer is 22 months! — CFO’s is 18 months to 24 months!)
  • Just as a company has to reinvent themselves, and have a plan, you must do this also! Every 3 yrs! (Jason: I had not thought about reinventing myself as a professional, the same way that I would reinvent a company based on the market and competition!)
  • It’s a lot easier if you are keeping up with this during your entire career.
  • You need to figure out how to develop a career plan so that you are the hunted, not the hunted!
  • It’s important to understand your personal brand, and who you are (Jason: these can be two different things)
  • You need to understand how to communicate your brand.
  • When you figure out your brand, then it’s time to network more effectively (with your brand – this is part of keeping your brand out there, and keeping yourself visible).
  • “It’s very hard when you are an employed individual to network” because you are busy all day.
  • Make sure you use social networking (Kathy specifically mentions LinkedIn)
  • How to care for and feed (nurture) your network? Send contacts an article that they might be interested in.
  • Don’t “bug,” rather “keep a friendship” … when you see something that someone might be interested in, send it to them.
  • Another great networking opportunity is by participating in trade association networking groups (Jason: on yahoo groups), and with Cindy Kraft’s CFO Forum.
  • Blog, write articles… anything you can do to keep your exposure out there as a subject matter expert, that is trememdously valuable…. because one of the things that has really changed in how recruiters look for people is they spend a lot of time on Google.
  • There is a lot of opportunity for finance execs in small companies, VC funded companies, etc.
  • Vendors are an amazing network! When you’ve been in a position for any length of time you will have a great network with these vendors (Jason: and customers, and prospects, etc.)
  • When you build so much visibility around your brand then opportunities come to you, you don’t have to find and chase them.
  • If you do it properly you open a whole new list of career opportunities.
  • You want to make yourself so exciting that the hiring manager says “I would be nervous if the hiring manager got ahold of this person!”
  • Cindy Kraft: “networking is always about giving to get”, and “the fastest way to burn out a network is by asking them for a job.”

CFO Career ForumThis was a great teleseminar – I wanted to be on the call so that I could hear what the industry leaders where suggesting. I’m pleased to know that a lot of what they said was stuff I have been thinking and blogging about, so I’m not too far off 😉

The call was put on by the CFO Career Forum. If you missed this one, you missed out. I’ll be announcing other teleseminar opportunities as I learn about them, so stay tuned!

3 thoughts on “Follow-up From “Never Look For A Job Again” Teleseminar”

  1. Hey Jason, great wrap up and excellent take-aways.

    Your seminar wrap up reminds me of a seminar that one of my friends is putting on. Not sure how many people in your audience are in sales, but Peggy McKee, the medical sales recruiter has a seminar tomorrow titled “How To Get a Job In Medical Sales Without Any Experience!”

    The seminar is tomorrow at noon EDT and might be of interest to your audience.. Register today by visiting http://www.jobinar.com -Carl

  2. Great wrap-up, Jason. Thanks!

    The bottom line is, if a candidate manages his career like he manages his company, he moves into the driver’s seat. Rather than reacting to the volatile corporate world, he can choose where he would like to go and when.

    Cindy Kraft
    the CFO-Coach
    http://www.cfo-career-forum.com

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