IMAs Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career

Fall 2011
IMA, the association for accountants and financial professionals in business, is pleased to release a compilation of career-focused Strategic Finance articles, Secrets to a Successful Accounting Career. IMA is your one-stop source for professional development and career enhancement. This report will help you redefine your career path options and provides specific, actionable career advice. Strategic Finance is IMAs award-winning, monthly publication and provides the latest information about practices and trends in accounting and finance.

Reaching Your Career Goals Personal Branding: Create Your Value Proposition Building Skill Excellence Take Charge of Your Online Brand
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CAREERS
By Mark Morgan

Reaching Your Career Goals

It wont be long before we will say goodbye to 2011. How is progressing? your career management plan

his is the fifth installment of our six-part series aimed at providing the framework for building a successful career management plan. Weve explored the components and application of the four pillars: networking, leveraging self-awareness (situational assessment), skill excellence, and personal branding. As 2012 comes into view, it still isnt too late to build a career management plan. An effective plan will optimize application of technical and relational skills within your current work environment as well as provide a solid network and foundation should circumstances require you to launch an external job search. In August, we discussed how personal branding combines with your technical and relational skill sets to create a powerful personal value proposition in the workplace. Your value proposition will differentiate you with decision makers in the organization so you become the candidate of choice for opportunities and assignments. Now lets examine building a strategy to target and achieve long-range career goals.
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Breaking Through One Step at a Time At some point in time, everyone starts at the entry level of an organization. From there, skill application and development combines with network connections and softskills acumen to significantly influence your path and trajectory. Having a vision coupled with wellplanned strategy is essential for you to be selected for role opportunities that build an internal knowledge base and business acumen required for higher-level roles. The majority of senior-level executives in a functional area arrive in their roles via a shared career path. Its important to identify the underlying roles and processes that drove their progression and then plot a high-level view of the experience and organization support you would have to gain in order to arrive at a targeted level or area of the organization. The main factors driving success in your organization most likely will be tied to gaining experience within certain functional areas and geographies and working with certain key functional leaders. This sounds obvious, but you must take ownership for managing relationships and acquiring the development necessary to gain access to

the roles you need to move up in the organization. Evaluate the pillars of your career management plan, and assess if you are building the network, skill excellence, selfawareness, and personal branding to compete successfully. Consistent and Persistent You wont always be first in line for roles needed to move up in the organization. Understanding and acquiring the technical requirements for targeted roles, consistent demonstration of skill excellence in current roles, and taking ownership for building relationships with the decision makers will significantly increase your career momentum and prevent stagnation or stalls. Table 1 highlights the key competencies for job levels and how the factors within the pillars of your career management plan should evolve and mature to satisfy them. The emphasis and mix of required technical and relational skills changes with each level of progression. Some people will rise through the organization quickly, some will plateau at a certain level, and some will leave the organization. The combination of technical skills developed and soft-skills tools from your career plan will optimize your success within your

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Table 1. Career Progression Path and How to Influence Success Job Bands: Key Competencies:
Strategy Vision Integrity Leadership Facing skills Tactical delivery Influencing skills Accumulated technical expertise Delegation and staff development Breadth of experience Depth of perspective Trust Timeliness Leadership qualities and fit with company Quality of insight Integrity Commitment Relation building and conflict resolution Professional growth exhibited Aptitude Analytic skills Innovative thinking Maturity and fit with role Adaptability

Career Plan Evolution:

Network: Experts and advisors to provide insight and support Skill Excellence: Commanding presence Self-Awareness: Master of grasping situations and maximizing outcome Branding: Face of the function Network: Well connected within the broad organization and profession Skill Excellence: Superior technical skills and knowledge base Self-Awareness: Organizational maturity and ability to bring closure to issues Branding: Partner of choice Network: Map influence sources and build relationships with impact Skill Excellence: Continuous development and knowledge growth Self-Awareness: Ability to build relations and manage perceptions Branding: Demonstrate capacity, quality, innovation, and delivery Network: Gain traction in the organization Skill Excellence: Aptitude and accuracy Self-Awareness: Gain insight and prepare Branding: Demonstrate initiative and ability to apply skill sets with quality results

Vice President
Executive Director Senior Director

Director
Associate Director Senior Manager

Manager

Senior Analyst

Analyst
Entry Role

current organization or help you, if necessary, to find a better fit in a new company. Play to Win A career management plan is your personal business case to assemble a resource base, assess the landscape, and create professional equity in the place where you invest the majority of your life. Your network is your advisory board; self-awareness enables you to take an objective view of the landscape; branding is your marketing plan; and skill excellence is your face to the customer. Professional equity will be created in proportion to the quality of the components of your career management plan and how well you are able to align them with the drivers of the career ladder for
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your organization. The workplace is a very competitive arena, so its critical for you to know where you want to go in the organization and clearly understand the rules of engagement for how to get there. Then you must decide if youre willing to make the commitment, sacrifices, and efforts required to earn the opportunities and fit into the culture. If not, then its best to leverage your diagnostics and career management plan to exit and find a place where the job opportunities and cultural fit are more compatible. In evolving and maturing the elements within the pillars of your career management plan, remember these essentials: NetworkMaintain a solid base while building an upward

presence. Remember that the five people you associate with most at work will have the greatest influence on your future. Skill ExcellenceContinuous learning and growth. Focus on acquiring the skill and experience foundation necessary for roles two levels above your current place in the organization. Self-AwarenessDont overplay your strengths. Adapt style, and modify delivery to complement the culture and ensure fit. Practice your elevator speech. Exercise good listening skills. Personal BrandingQuietly and steadily distinguish yourself through quality delivery that adds incremental value to the client. Anticipate, innovate, and excel at execution.
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A career is a marathon, not a sprint. The hills get higher as you progress, so you must prepare for the climb. Its never too late to build a career management plan. Tomorrow is another day at the office where your ability to network, interact, demonstrate skill excellence, and show your personal brand will be tested against your peers. Anticipate, innovate, and excel in your execution with the help of a solid plan. SF Mark Morgan is a finance professional and founder of The Hypernicon Group, a management consulting firm assisting clients in achieving strategic, process and organizational excellence. He is also a member of the IMA Global Board of Directors and IMAs Eastern Connecticut Chapter. Please contact Mark at mark@thehygro.com.

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By Mark Morgan

Personal Branding: Create Your Value Proposition

Building your personal brand a positive impression on the decision makers in your organization and build your professional presence. the right way will let you make

ow is your 2011 career management plan progressing? The first of our six-part series on career management appeared in the January 2011 issue. Now, more than half the year has evaporated. What progress have you made to structure and initiate the actions necessary to build your competitive edge in the workplace? The first three installments focused on building the pillars of an effective career management plan: networking, leveraging selfawareness (situational assessment), and skill excellence. In this issue, well explore the fourth pillar: personal branding. Weve already explored building skills excellence and leveraging the soft skills of networking and selfawareness. Personal branding weaves these three components into a personal value proposition for the workplace. Your personal branding efforts will differentiate you with decision makers in the organization so you can become the candidate of choice for opportunities and assignments.

Essence of Branding As accountants, were taught that, in principle, goodwill is the intangible value paid for an asset above the book, or pure, value. That intangible value, or branding differentiation, becomes the ongoing quality associated with the asset. Branding success means building value for the quality of your work and differentiating your future value potential. No organization has a perfect career development and successionplanning process. Most decision makers view the organization from a distant, elevated platform. Even though companies promote the fact that they have a successionplanning process, its a hard fact that opportunities and assignments are awarded to people management knows, likes, and trusts. Your personal branding efforts weave your soft and hard skills into a portfolio that establishes ongoing conversation about you within the circle of decision makers. Personal branding speaks to your unique selling points and values within the competitive landscape of all other brands and is often the source of first impressions for decision makers. Every day we all see examples of personal branding efforts in the

workplace. There are people who dress in a unique ways, behave in unique ways, and bring their crusade for a cause to work each day. This type of branding distinguishes and raises awareness but does little to speak to their quality of work and potential for future value. Although personal branding is far more about substance than appearance, your appearance is still a very critical element of branding success. Appearance should communicate that youre a positive fit with the company culture and that your presence, as viewed through the lens of the decision makers, can consistently be counted on to be appropriate. Branding based on unique appearance and behavior often requires a person to demonstrate a greater amount of quality work and substance in order to overshadow the first impression created by their unique dress and behavior. Unique appearance and behavior usually wont stand the test of time and will become a caricature rather than a lasting positive impression. Most companies have adopted business-casual dress environments, with some opting for casual dress on Fridays or even full-time casual. You should adopt the guidelines, fit into the culture, and wear clothing at
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the high end of the scale. Spend the extra money to buy good-quality clothing that demonstrates respect for the workplace. Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert and author of many books on the workplace, noted in an interview that as hard as it is to accept, dressing like your boss is still the best way to get ahead. Weave in the lessons from the self-awareness pillar (March 2011) to evaluate how to maximize the impact of your appearance branding and fit in the company. Remember, most decision makers view the organization from a distance, and appearance is a large part of their first impression. Brand Your Work Product Weaving hard skills into your personal brand is essential to creating positive conversation around your analytical contributions. Each company has a style and format for written communication. How you format your work product is more important than whats in your content because the decision maker will never appreciate the quality of what youre contributing if he or she isnt positively attracted by the presentation. Master the slide formats, presentation style, and font characteristics your key executives are most comfortable seeing. Borrow and study old slide decks for format and style. Preview your work with key stakeholders in the organization where you will ultimately submit your material. Demonstrate that you value their input by reflecting the feedback in the final product. Executives are more impressed with someone who demonstrates respect and value for their time by
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providing exactly what they need vs. someone who tries to impress them with volumes of information. Be concise and organized. State the issue clearly, and recommend a solution early in the presentation; then follow with an appropriate amount of detail and narrative. Always do a quality check of your work for spelling and word use, and be certain the little things that could derail you like page numbers, dates, and confidential designationsare in place. Quality work that meets the analytical need and is formatted properly will always find its way to higher places in the organization than it was first delivered. Technology and Building Relationships In the Stone Age, pre-Internet corporate world, people exerted great efforts to make contact, gain an introduction, and ultimately earn an in-person opportunity to make a first impression. Now LinkedIn and Facebook have become the networking door openers. Both internal and external decision makers immediately turn to your LinkedIn profile when your name crosses their radar. Its far easier and safer for them to gain insight to who you are before offering in-person meetings to explore what you are. Then most will turn to Facebook to see if your personal profile complements how you portray yourself in your professional profile. Your professional profile on LinkedIn should include a recent photo, accurate professional and academic history, and a crisp view of your past accomplishments, strengths, and career aspirations.

A good professional profile is built with vibrant, concise, and forward-looking wording. Your Facebook profile should complement your professional profile. Weve all heard stories of Facebook pages that have torpedoed and sunk careers. Dont be one of them. If you havent yet built your social network profile, read the first article in our series, then start establishing relationships with people who can be a resource to your career development. The networking pillar (January 2011) requires you to build an influence map of key stakeholders. Use LinkedIn to get connected to as many of the key stakeholders and decision makers as possible. Dont force yourself on a person who has a profile with very few connections. But a person whose profile and connections reflect openness to invitations is fair game to approach electronically. Building Personal Relationships Remains Critical Having a person as a LinkedIn connection is only a statistic. Keeping your name fresh with them is essential. This requires occasionally dropping a brief note to people on your connection list to bring them up to date on your professional activities, inform them of something interesting you read, or pass along a link for a site they might be interested in viewing. Its essential to build personal relationships with key stakeholders and decision makers. Be conscious of and take full advantage of each opportunity that might afford contact with a high-value target of career influence. Be
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aware that technology has actually created major hurdles to break the ice, have conversations, and build relationships. Relationships are built most successfully in small increments of interaction. Offsite meetings and conferences are key opportunities to gain access to high-value targets on your influence map. Breaks and common areas are the prime places to successfully interact with a highvolume target on your influence map. What do you see most people doing during breaks or when standing by themselves? They have their face buried in their BlackBerry or are texting on their phones. What does this communicate? They arent open to conversation and dont want to be approached. If you are staring at your BlackBerry or are texting, then you have a wall between you and others that negates the prime opportunity to be approached or initiate conversation where you most likely will pick up valuable nuggets of information that could open the doorway for building a relationship. So appear open and approachable. Initiate conversation while demonstrating appropriate courtesy. Remember, decision makers give opportunities to those they know, like, and trust. When youre attempting personal interaction with a key stakeholder or decision maker, respect the atmosphere and situation. Dont force your way into a group or conversation. Use the lessons from your self-awareness exploration (March 2011) to understand how to leverage your personality strengths and make situational
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modifications to optimize results. Attracting people who can help you succeed is critical to building your own brand. Your character personal and professionalis defined by the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. Successful branding requires you to make choices. Surround yourself with people who can have a positive influence on building your character, and spend your time doing activities that lift you in incremental steps toward becoming who and what you want to be. Execution Is Even More Critical Change and excellence guru Tom Peters introduced The Brand Called You concept in 1997 in his writings that describe getting ahead in the corporate culture as the Age of the Individual. A huge component for successful personal branding is preparation for execution excellence when the opportunity presents itself to interact with a high-value target on your influence map. Theres no replacement for hard work and effort in preparing for successful interpersonal interaction. Preparation requires study, planning, and practice. A threeminute conversation with a decision maker most often creates an unchanging view of your fit and potential. This may not sound fair or even logical, but its true. Therefore, be prepared. Weve all heard about having an elevator speech ready for the time when a decision maker unexpectedly opens the door to a relationship by saying tell me about yourself. Preparation and practice will make what you say smooth, concise, and polished. These critical

introduction opportunities rarely arise in a scripted and structured way. Unpolished rambling during this career-critical three-minute window will require a ton of cleanup effort and can result in irreparable damage. Learn how to execute for excellence to optimize the interaction opportunity. Be polite and professional. Stay away from questions that are personal and overly social. Let the high-value target ask the personal and social questions, then always gauge their ego factor before you answer. Executive ego will get ruffled if your answer migrates the conversation toward anyone but themselves. Be prepared to ask leading questions that are timely and relevant, and give answers that put the conversation back in the executives control. How to Play to Win The workplace is a very competitive environment where positive differentiation is critical to attracting the attention of decision makers. Dont try to recreate the gold standard. Study what is working and excel at delivering to that standard through your personal branding efforts that draw from the other pillars of your career management plan. SF Mark Morgan is a finance professional and founder of The Hypernicon Group, a management consulting firm assisting clients in achieving strategic, process and organizational excellence. He is also a member of the IMA Global Board of Directors and IMAs Eastern Connecticut Chapter. Please contact Mark at mark@thehygro.com.

August 2011

Building Skill Excellence

It takes a variety of skills to functionally throughout the whole organization. Honing your technical skills is a large part of your success. succeed in your job and cross-

ow is your 2011 career management plan progressing? The first of our six-part series on career management appeared in the January issue. If you initiated an activity scorecard, you should be close to accumulating 1,500 points for the plan development and networking activity you have completed. In the March issue, leveraging self-assessment explored the causeand-effect relationship between you and the work environment. When you do this exploration, you can achieve a level of self-awareness to better manage relationships and improve the projection of your skill set to the organization. Its never too late to build a career management plan around the four pillars outlined in January: situational assessment, networking, personal branding, and skill excellence. An effective plan will optimize application of relational and technical skills within your current work environment and provide a solid foundation should circumstances require you to launch a job search.
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Part three of the series focuses on the skill excellence pillar by discussing key components for building a skill set, growing professionally, and demonstrating performance that will optimize value in an organization. While the self-awareness portion of your career plan is built around the soft skills required for interpersonal success, the skill excellence pillar is built around development and demonstration of the hard skills of functional and technical expertise. But skill excellence isnt limited to education and functional training. How far your skill excellence drives your career success is determined by how well you can exercise those skills to influence the understanding, quality, and delivery of business results. Take Ownership of Your Skill Development Finance and accounting positions in corporations are staff and functional in nature or are line and technical-support oriented. Examples of staff and functional roles include the controlling, reporting, treasury, tax, audit, and compliance groups. Line and technically oriented roles support the various lines of business, such as sales and marketing, supply chain, and

research and development (R&D). Simple reporting of numbers wont create value and sustain your presence in an organization. Demonstrating ownership of the access to financial information under your responsibility and how it relates to the delivery of the business results will ultimately determine the value created and lead to opportunities for career growth and advancement. Ownership is demonstrated by improving the timeliness, quality, and utility of the information reaching the client group. Linking your data and analytical contribtions to improve the work stream for the client group creates value. Your contribution to an organization is measured equally by both what you do and how you go about delivering your work product. Building a skill set that will advance career momentum requires demonstrating aptitude, ownership, initiative, innovation, and continuous growth and learning. See Table 1 for some examples of how to do this. Each individual must own the effort to build his or her skill set. Career management requires a continuous learning process for functional skills and knowledge of the internal business process as

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By Mark Morgan

Table 1. Building a Skill Set

Skill Fundamentals: Aptitude Examples of Actions to Build an Effective and Holistic Skill Set Relate functional responsibility to overall business processes, drivers, and P&L goals. Identify data sources, and master use of systems to acquire necessary information for analysis. Contribute perspective beyond the boundaries of your function to the development of client business strategy. Build a map of the functional, matrixed, and client lines of your role. Identify the key deliverables for each group. Map the business and reporting processes supported by your role. Validate with functional and client groups. Map the data flows, analytics, and reporting responsibilities for your role. Link to timelines and client needs. Match the delivery of information and analytics to the style and needs of the client group. Bring opinion and analytics that improve decision making and drive actions toward higher margin returns. Relate financial data and performance against competitors while identifying underlying drivers of difference. Improve data flow from systems into analytical models, then into management reports linked to business key performance indicators (KPIs). Create modeling that improves utility of forecasts and facilitates client visibility into cause-and-effect alternatives. Propose methodologies that simplify process workstreams, which results in increased efficiency and reduced costs. Earn assignment on special project team for key strategic issue or team executing a key tactical initiative. Shadow operations group or sales force for period of time to build understanding of key commercial processes. Take temporary assignment outside functional area to better understand business process and operations. Increase familiarity with business segment and industry issues through intense reading of periodicals. Attend trade show with operations or commercial group to understand technologies and market developments. Take advanced study courses (MBA), and obtain professional certification (CMA (Certified Management Accountant), CPA (Certified Public Accountant), CIA (Certified Internal Auditor)).

Ownership

Initiative

Innovation

Growth

Learning

well as the external factors impacting the business environment. The corporate culture recognizes and rewards those who take personal responsibility for managing the development of their skill set and professional growth.

Demonstrate Ownership, and Influence Data Quality Those in finance and accounting roles are the primary owners for assuring that the acquisition, processing, and conversion of data occurs seamlessly and in a timely,

accurate, compliant, and transparent manner. Though IT platforms produce standard reporting, the finance professional must aquire expertise to access the source data and enhance the transparency of the data through custom reports
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written in software such as Excel. Custom reporting should provide details for the drivers of the underlying activity of the business. Effective ownership enables the functional leaders of the business to focus on their core responsibilities while operating with reliable data flows and optimum data availability. Visibility, contribution, and value to an organization are increased through taking ownership for minimizing data issues impacting the performance of the business process flow. The conversion of data into useful information requires the financial professional to connect analytical delivery with the overarching business processes, the underlying drivers, and the decision process of the business. Skill excellence that delivers impact is demonstrated through taking ownership for the management of data and driving the quality and reliability of the end product that reaches the client group. See Table 2 for examples that demonstrate taking ownership and delivering impact. Create Value for the Client The business environment operates in a constant state of change. All finance and accounting professionals earn their place in an organization or seat at the table with their client groups by being engaged and active professionals. The constant change and challenge in the regulatory, reporting, and economic environments require ongoing initiative to align professional skills and services with the business process in a manner that influences business results. Job postings for finance and accounting professionals across the major Internet sites frequently reference business partner as a critical characteristic of senior positions. The concept of business partner is the underlying essence of value creation for finance and accounting roles. Business partner is client recognition for the critical need to bridge ownership of data management and analysis to go beyond reporting figures to bring insight that helps steer the course of decisions. Joel Barker introduced the requirement for business to accelerate the speed of change and explore new solution paradigms in his 1992 iconic book, Future Edge, written at the time information technology greatly advanced our access to data. Fundamental advice from Barker for reaching new levels of achievement is to anticipate, innovate, and excel in execution.

Table 2. Taking Ownership and Delivering Impact

Skill Focus: Seamless Examples of Activities that Demonstrate Ownership and Influence Quality of Data and Analysis Assure that data availability enables business process performance and is aligned with creation of end product. Manage the development of required information submissions with minimum impact on client resources. Influence data flow and processing to achieve increased analytic and review time with client group. Relate the activities of your role to the timelines of the client group. Meet with the client group and discuss. Map data sources impacting your role. Organize monthly meeting to manage data flow and control timing. Manage data flow and reporting in a manner that is aligned and seamless with the client business processes. Build models and measures that provide sanity checks for data and highlight deviations requiring investigation. Assure allocation methodologies and expense timing are consistent between budget assumptions and actuals. Provide brief cover page to analysis and reports that identifies data sources and assures tie to ledger. Invest time to educate client group on internal financial policies and practices. Work proactively with the audit group to build compliance into client processes and data flow. Take initiative to self-audit processes and data flow. Prepare client group for audits. Educate client group on allocation methodologies and timing assumptions in budgets and forecasts. Build process discipline and data access to enable insight into client group in advance of final ledger. Provide analysis and reports with insight to link client performance with business goals and influence actions.

Timely

Accurate

Compliant

Transparent

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Table 3. Differentiating Yourself

Skill Excellence: Anticipate How to Differentiate Yourself in the Workplace Know your clients travel schedule and calendar. Plan your availability, and prepare accordingly to deliver. Bring reality into focus by identifying the gaps between current and required performance to deliver goals. Build multiple fact-based analytical scenarios with defined actions to provide client with opinion and options. Identify all sources of impact to operations, and construct disciplined reviews to control timing and impact. Establish global service centers in cost-effective locations to eliminate duplication and lower operating costs. Analyze price, consumption, and service model for all services to identify opportunities to reduce baseline costs. Network across the organization to understand business requirements and manage expectations. Establish shared incentives across the organization to fund new investment through reduced baseline costs. Quarterback execution to deliver business goals through converting analysis to tactical plans with measures.

Innovate

Excel

Achieving execution as a business partner and driving value creation requires a continuous cycle of linking functional expertise and analytical skills with a fundamental understanding of the business process to provide leadership that influences information quality, contributes insight, and drives expected business delivery. Achieving Differentiation Theres no standard formula for building, focusing, and leveraging skill excellence in an organization. Remember, as one of four pillars in the career management platform, skill excellence represents the hard skills in the overall portfolio each person must build. Organization and culture heavily influence the blend of hard and soft skills that must be practiced situationally in order to gain recognition in the workplace. See Table 3 for ways to differentiate yourself in the workplace. In hierarchical organizations with parochial culture, functional excellence is most often the domi-

nant driver of career success. In highly matrixed organizations with multiple dotted-line reporting relationships and a more open culture, soft skills are essential to gaining access and acceptance in order to demonstrate the harder skill set. Global organizations most often operate with distinct cultures within their headquarters group, operating regions, and functional lines that require flexibility, sensitivity, and adjustment in order to adapt to each situation. You need to assess the culture of your organization and make sure you have the right skills to succeed. SF Mark Morgan is a finance professional and founder of The Hypernicon Group, a management consulting firm assisting clients in achieving strategic, process, and organizational excellence. He is also a member of the IMA Global Board of Directors and IMAs Eastern Connecticut Chapter. Please contact Mark at mark@thehygro.com with questions and comments.
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By Janette Marx

Take Charge of Your Online Brand

Building your professional image rsum. Heres some advice for proactively branding yourself in todays digital world. involves more than updating your

ts a Web 2.0 world, and information about each of us is prolific and readily available to potential employers. In the accounting and finance world, its imperative that you know what that information is saying about you. If you arent creating your brand, chances are its already creating you. The good news is that taking control of this information along with other traditional job-search tactics, such as networking, can impact your career profoundly and positively. To establish your brand, answer the following questions: x What are my strengths and weaknesses? x What do I have to offer thats exceptional or unique from other candidates? What is my differentiator? x What am I known for? What do I want to be known for? x What are my short- and longterm career goals? Where would I like my next job to be, and what attributes will that employer will be seeking? x Have I highlighted my advanced degree and/or certifications?

After conducting an honest assessment based on your answers, you should be able to develop a statement thats both authentic and appealing to a potential employer. This is your branding statement. Think of it as a personal mission statement, and use it as the ruler by which you measure your branding efforts. Remember to keep it simplethe more you try to communicate, the more diluted your message will be. Assess Your Existing Brand Next, youll need to assess the information about you thats already available online. If youve set up accounts with any of the various social networking sites, those are a great place to start. Also, conduct a search on your name in various forms, including all of the nicknames you may have used in the past. Dont stop at Google. Search Bing, Yahoo, or even DogPilea search aggregator that pulls from various other search sites. Use a variety of search techniques to be sure you find content that may be buried just under the surface. For example, try searching on a common misspelling of your name or using your name in conjunction with common keywords to check for

information you suspect may already be available, whether negative (Jane Doe + misdemeanor), positive (Jane Doe + awarded), or neutral (Jane Doe + volunteer). Many companies are performing these types of searches before making a hiring decision! Youll want to update, remove, or disassociate any content thats inconsistent with your desired brand. For example: x Revisit the entry-level rsum you posted years ago on Monster, CareerBuilder, or other job sites. While use of these generalist job boards can be minimally useful in your search, your profile is still active, so you need to be sure its communicating the most up-todate information about you. While youre at it, post a revision date within the text of your rsum so that it will be clear to all who view it whether the information is current. x Use privacy settings for personal information as appropriate on social networks such as LinkedIn or Facebook. A word of caution, however: Nothing on the Internet is truly private. x Remove and avoid posting, to the best of your ability, any content that you wouldnt want
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According to research released by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in April 2011, 56% of organizations frequently scan LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other professional networking sites for recruitment purposes. Another 20% confessed that while they havent previously done so, they plan to begin using social media sites for recruiting in the future.

your manager, potential manager, or even the folks who report to you to see. Be sure that content on LinkedIn and other sites matches information on your rsum (i.e., dates of employment, company names, titles, etc.). Your Facebook page can have a large impact on how hiring authorities perceive you. That picture of you and your friends at a beach party may not enhance your ability to score that opportunity with your next employer. Disassociate content thats inconsistent with or will dilute your brand. In other words, you can continue participating in the personal-interest communities you enjoy as long as they meet the above criteria. Also, consider using an alias instead of your real name for those forums to keep your forum identity separate from your professional one. Tighten up and manage your circle of friends. Remember, you can often be judged by the company you keep.

Create Content Consistent with Your Desired Brand Going forward, measure every bit of content you post on the Web against the yardstick of your desired brand. If it doesnt promote your brand, then ultimately your brand wont promote you.
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Here are a few ideas to help you get started: x Join and participate in professional communities. Seek out the online communities of two or three highly relevant professional organizations. Join their network, add your name to their directories, follow and comment on their blogs, and even contribute content in the form of Web articles, if you can. With an audience of peers, timewise youll get the most bang for your buck here. x Create or enhance your profile on public directories such as Wink, Spoke, and ZoomInfo. x Stick to professional networking. While social network sites like Facebook are fine, opt to spend the bulk of your time and energy with professional networking sites like LinkedIn if youre after career growth. x Ask peers and colleagues to provide references and testimonials regarding your work ethic, quality, or knowledge and to comment on or share your blog content. x Determine how much effort youre able and willing to commit to blogging. With more than 100 million Web authors on the World Wide Web, successfully managing and promoting a blog can be intensely time-consuming. If you feel you must share your professional insight, opt for a microblogging platform such as Twit-

ter. While this can still take a great deal of time and energy, the overall commitment necessary to maintain this type of content is far less than that of a traditional blog. x Follow, comment on, and forward news from blogs, podcasts, and RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds. In particular, RSS feeds are critical to staying abreast of your industry, news about your company and its competition, and new jobs. Maintain Your Brand Now that youve managed to successfully create and/or redirect your brand, be sure to stay in control by keeping your brand: AuthenticNothing is more powerful than actually being who you claim to be. ConsistentRemember to continuously measure your Web content against your desired message. Publishing posts, pictures, or other content that isnt relevant will only dilute your message. RelevantThe Web is dynamic and ever-evolving. Be sure to continuously revise, update, and renew your information so your brand can evolve along with it. Again, in this Web 2.0 world, information about you is readily available to potential employers, and many of them are actively seeking it out to aid in their recruiting efforts. Embracing this trend by creating a brand thats consistent with your goals is vital to managing your career. SF Janette Marx is senior vice president of Ajilon Finance, a part of Accounting Principals. You can reach her at Janette.Marx@ajilon.com.

July 2011