January 2, 2012 by Sandra Rogers.

Dear Readers,

I’m very excited about 2012 because I’ll be going back to school for my doctorate in Education.  This has been a dream of mine for many years.  I’ll continue to work full-time while I’m attending school.   Subsequently, our organization is looking for volunteer or interns.  If you’re interested in blogging for us about the job hunt, please send me an email.  Additionally, we have several social media platforms that will need tending, such as our twitter account, YouTube channel, and weekly e-newspaper.   While these don’t take up much time, they need to be consistently updated with fresh and reliable content.

We had an intern this past year from The University of Alabama, and she was very helpful.  It also made me think the intern tasks through, so if you volunteer, I have explicit instructions and tutorials ready for you.  Social media evangelism is the current job title for the work that you do to promote something you really believe in online.  The job perk is that you can telecommute—that is you can complete the work online from your home or coffee shop.  We can arrange virtual meetings via Skype to plan.  Basically, the rest of the volunteer work would include reading emailed directions and  logging into our social media platforms to tweet or blog about job opportunities and advice.

As you may have read from my past blogs, we focus on the use of social media as a career tool.  We’d love to hear your stories about the use of these tools for landing an interview or job.  Any takers?  I surely hope so.  Also, don’t forget about all the resources we have shared on our 20-page website: http://brokebutnotforlong.org/1.html.  One of our ideas for an outreach project is to host Job Clubs and invite speakers or demonstrate how to use social media for the job hunt.  Would you like to host a Job Club in your area?  You are welcome to use our website’s resources and informational blog to share with job seekers.  Just let us know.

Thanks in advance for your consideration!

Sandra Rogers,

Founder

sandra@brokebutnotforlong.org

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November 8, 2011 by Sandra Rogers.

Have you googled yourself lately?  What does the Internet search reveal about you?  As a 21st century educator, I’m building my online reputation with one search engine optimization (SEO) keyword, blog post, tweet, or online project at a time.  In fact, I’ve been wanting to blog about personal branding for some time because blog posts achieve higher SEO status than static websites.   Personal branding is something that most HR leaders profess as essential in today’s job market.   With the plethora of free and simple Web 2.0 tools, it’s fairly easy to create your own online brand.  Currently, I’m developing one for my new company, Teacherrogers Consulting.  Since my name is common, I created my own personal brand—Teacherrogers.  If you google “teacherrogers,” you’ll find all of my online projects and activities.  

Personal branding for a 21st century educator means showing your work online, posting your teaching philosophy, tweeting resources, and engaging in some type of “open” learning and/or teaching environments.  Open environments refer to the various free professional development sessions that I’ve been involved with as an e-mentor.   My e-portfolio hosted on WordPress is my attempt to share my work online with potential employers, students, and peers.  I personally believe that sharing my teaching philosophy with others challenges me to revisit my long-held ideals about teaching.  In fact, it’s a work-in-progress on my to-do-list now instead of somewhere in the back of my mind.

To further identify myself on the Web, I started using my full name: Sandra Annette Rogers.  Nowadays, it’s important to not only put yourself out there, but evaluate how others perceive you.  As for social networking, there was definitely a titanic wave of enthusiasm for Google+;  however, I’m playing it safe on the shoreline to see where the the  first wave riders end up.  My first instinct about Google+ is that it’s a bit too labor-intensive and redundant.  Moreover, I’ve already established many online bridges for personal learning networks (PLNs).   I’m willing to build new ones; I just don’t want to start from scratch!

Are you on the shore or riding the wave when it comes to personal branding?  Perhaps you joined several online learning communities and then never went back to complete your profile or never really got involved.  All these attempts will remain online forever plotting your digital pathway, so make sure you cull your online image from time to time.  Set up Google Alerts on your name or any other phrase; these alerts are sent to your Gmail account.  Let me know if you need any help.

Best Wishes,

Sandra Annette Rogers

P. S. I succumbed to the intrigue of Google+.  I’ll let you know how it works out for me.

Note: This article was previously published on my eportfolio blog on WordPress: http://teacherrogers.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/personal-branding-for-the-21st-century-educator/

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October 4, 2011 by Sandra Rogers.

For the past two years, Blogging4Broke has been hosted on WordPress.com through our Web host, 1and1.com, but this blog isn’t widget-aware.  I’m a tech savvy individual but have been unable to add any special social media networking widgets (tools) to this site.   Hence, I really look forward to utilizing all the Blogger.com widgets to make my new blogging platform a powerful place for our readers to share their photos, links, ideas, and feedback.  Even though we receive over 6K unique site visitors to this blog on a monthly basis, there has been very little interaction with our guests on it.  My goal is to use Blogger to attract followers and engage in conversations about effective and innovative job hunting. 

I look forward to this new adventure and can’t wait to visually see those thumb-nail photos of our followers on Blogger!  Here is our new address: http://blogging4broke.blogspot.com/.  I hope to migrate all of our best blog posts to the new site by the end of the year.


Your Blogger,


Sandra Rogers
sandra@brokebutnotforlong.org

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September 24, 2011 by Sandra Rogers.

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July 18, 2011 by Broke_Intern.

by Linda McIntosh

A very interesting article entitled “Pulling off the Ultimate Career Makeover,” from the July 4, 2011, issue of Fortune, emphasizes the importance of personal reinvention in today’s economy, where career changes are becoming the norm.  The article highlights the stories of five people in various industries who lost their jobs because of changes in business paradigms or layoffs.  Rather than becoming victims to their circumstances, these people took control of their situations and reinvented themselves through “learning by doing.”  Their success stories reveal several strategies for changing careers.

1. Pare down your expenses.  When David Kahn, former Blockbuster franchise owner, realized that his business model was no  longer viable, he downsized his home and vehicle.  He recommends going “into survivor mode.”  After a short stint as a Subway franchise owner, Kahn founded Yogurt Mountain and owns 35 stores.
2. Reevaluate your skill set.  Tom Murray, formerly a strategic development and communications director for a Best Buy subsidiary, charted what he likes to do as well as what he is good at in order to determine his next job move.  This exercise released him from being industry specific.  He now works for PointB, a consulting firm.
3. Exploit the power of social media.  When Mike Merrill was laid off from his job as a sales executive at NetApp, he immediately began reinventing himself through blogging and social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.  Merrill eventually landed his current job as director of marketing for ReachLocal, an internet marketing firm, after an employee saw one of his presentations on social media.
4. Consider contract employment.  When the dotcom bubble burst, Mae Tai O’Malley lost her job as an attorney.  She began performing legal work on a contract basis and created her own firm, Paragon Legal, which provides project-based legal assignments in other firms.  Her business model is reshaping the legal industry.
5. Update your technical skills.  When mystery writer Paul Levine realized that the sale of used books on Amazon would severely diminish his royalty income, he accessed Amazon’s “Direct Publishing” page to learn the art of e-publishing.  Levine bought the rights to his out-of-print books and now e-publishes both his new works and his formerly published books on the internet.

Of all the strategies explored in the article, exploiting the power of social media was the most important strategy for making a career change.  The “Social Media as a Career Tool” page on the www.brokebutnotforlong.org website is an excellent resource for personal reinvention.  In fact, the website provides a myriad of information about job searching in today’s market.  Additionally, they have a newly formed group on LinkedIn.com to engage job seekers in discussion of the use of social media.

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May 30, 2011 by Sandra Rogers.

Dear Readers,

We created an electronic newsletter based on my twitter list of professionals in the following areas: HR career advice, military/veterans,  mental health, physical disabilities, financial education, internships.  Additionally, it includes US and international job boards from a wide range of sources, so check it out! This e-newspaper will update daily!  You don’t have to have a twitter account to read it.  Just subscribe to the paper, and it’ll be sent to your email account.   The newspaper is called the Employment Social Network.  It’s hosted on a free, Internet platform called Paper.li.  Here’s the link: http://paper.li/Broke4Jobs/1306417300#.  This e-newspaper becomes part of our social media outreach which includes a 21-page Web site, this blog, and a twitter account.

Paper.li is another positive way to use social media for the job hunt.  This is an easy way for our organization to share our list of reliable resources from the one thousand individuals and institutions that we’ve been cultivating since January of 2010.  We painstakingly cull every list we post for professional purposes.  For quality assurance, we even went over the list—all 1000—and deleted any that didn’t meet our mission of finding you a job.  This is our first newsletter and in keeping with our “Going Green” ethics, we are pleasantly pleased with the eco-friendly outcomes.  Plus, it looks very professional!  Let us know if you have some twitter accounts you’d like to recommend that we follow.  You can find us on Twitter @broke4jobs or simply leave a message below.

Best Wishes,

Sandra Rogers

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April 26, 2011 by Sandra Rogers.

When I incorporated this nonprofit, BrokeButNotForLong, I wasn’t thinking about going green.  Instead, I was thinking about the low-cost possibilities of providing reliable job information on the Internet for the unemployed.  For around $300 a year,  our organization is able to host our Web site on the Internet.  Of course, there are numerous volunteer hours that go into building the 18-page Web site, not to mention the ongoing maintenance.  Luckily, I’ve been able to recruit a few other volunteer bloggers.  By utilizing social media, we’ve been able to be eco-friendly on the job everyday!

Besides the other legal costs involved in maintaining a non-profit, 501(c)3 charity, we’re able to exist as a virtual company with few expenses.  I didn’t realize that we were a green company until I started getting twitter followers from other green companies and university projects! For example, the University of Southern California is following us on Twitter @broke4jobs. Twitter has proved to be the most powerful outreach for our organization.  “Broke” currently has 575 followers on twitter.  We’ve been able to network with universities, federal agencies, and companies involved in human resources, and individuals in need of a job without the waste generally involved with advertising, transportation, or running an office.

Furthermore,  my husband and I practice green living at our home office.  For instance, we recycle the ink cartridges, buy recycled paper, and recycle used paper, too.  Also, our Internet host, www.1and1.com reduces its carbon footprint.  Furthermore, we’ve created online alliances to help promote our free resources.  We joined the local Chamber of Commerce which hosts our information on their site for potential networking and usage.  Also, we host the FDIC’s MoneySmart podcast on our Web site, which enhances our financial education outreach mission.  Additionally, we hope to advertise our resources on public radio which will reach a large audience  in an eco-friendly manner!

Lastly, I mentor job seekers online and over the phone to keep costs down and reach a larger audience.  I’ve blogged about the wonderful jobs I’ve had throughout my career.  (See Diary of a Resume Parts 1 & 2)  Since I started mentoring teachers online for my profession, I thought about doing the same for job seekers.  It started with a few questions from my connections on LinkedIn.com.  I found that job seekers were so happy to get a response and interact with someone online!  You’re welcome to connect with me.  Here’s my public profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sandrogers.

Technology has afforded us the opportunity to reach you, our reader, on this blog, as well as thousands of others!  Everyday I think about how I can use social media to provide outreach.  I hope we can connect with another nonprofit to help raise funds for a worthy goal that aligns with our mission on the Gulf Coast.   To that end, I’ve been creating a profile of our charity on GuideStar.org to encourage charitable giving and provide transparency.  Here’s their video: http://videos.guidestar.org/Welcome.html.

April 9th was our 2nd anniversary as a nonprofit!

Sincerely,

Sandra Annette Rogers

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December 20, 2010 by Sandra Rogers.

“The times, they are a-changing.”  When Bob Dylan wrote that song, anybody looking for work searched the want ads in the newspaper.  Today that approach is almost worthless.  In contrast, social media tools like Twitter are the tools for today’s job seekers.  For instance, you can search job openings in your industry.  You can even find job announcements in your own hometown.  You don’t need a Twitter account; however, it is available for free.

Go to Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com.  Twitter operates this free service, but it’s not on their regular Web site: http://twitter.com.  Look for the Twitter logo the small bar where you can type in the search words.  Just under that bar, at the right-hand side is a link that says, “Advanced Search.”  Click on that.

This brings up a new page that invites you to be more specific in your search.  You’ll see the phrase, “Find tweets based on…” followed by a whole page full of possible categories.  A “tweet” is the name Twitter uses for short messages posted on their site.  For now, we’re just interested in the section, “Words and Places.”

Let’s start with the field,  “Any of these words.”  We’ll become more specific by combining other fields in a minute.  Type the name of your industry and any related words.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and hit the Search button.  Voila!  You’ll find a plethora of tweets containing those terms and hopefully a job that is matches your career.

On the other hand, if none of these tweets are job announcements, return to the Twitter Search.  Then find the field labeled, “This Hashtag” and type the word “#hiring” or “#jobs.”  Click on the search.  This time all of the tweets displayed should be job announcements.  There’s also another option that’s even better!

Return to Twitter Search and repeat all of the above actions.  This time narrow the search geographically by typing in your zip code or location in the section titled, “Places.”  Note that you can set the distance from that place, as well, e.g. “within 25 miles”.  Click on the Search button.  Now you’ll find job announcements for your industry in your local area.

A typical tweet looks like this: @wildlifesociety: #hiring Chief Conservation Officer Jobs at Ducks Unlimited, Inc. -The Wildlife Society http://t.co/zuVNLEX.   In this case, @wildlifesociety is the individual or organization who tweeted this announcement.  The job title and name of the company are next, followed by the hyperlink.  Click on the link to the full job information and application process.  This is how you can use Twitter Search to find job announcements specifically targeted to your career interests.  Furthermore, they’ll probably be hot-off-the-presses and, therefore, not yet posted on any job board.  Consequently, you could be among the very first to respond!

Guest blogger,

Robert Rowell

http://www.indeed.com/p/index.php?pid=7080813311402333

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December 20, 2010 by Sandra Rogers.

 Dear Readers,

Our guest blogger, Robert Rowell, found a great article on the use of social media as a career tool.  Jobvite, a social recruiting software company, conducted a survey on the use of social media by human resource (HR) departments.   Robert stated that we, as job seekers, should learn more about the actual candidate selection process conducted by HR.  He learned that they’ll be using social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter more so than regular job boards.  Read more to learn the facts.

Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey 2010 | Jobvite Recruiting Software

Your blogger,

Sandra Annette Rogers

http://www.indeed.com/p/index.php?pid=7080813311402333

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August 18, 2010 by Sandra Rogers.

Nowadays, job seekers need to incorporate social media into their job hunt.  The good news is that these tools are free to use (unless you want to upgrade to the premium level on some of them).  Social media refers to connecting with people via the Internet to have a discussion; it’s often referred to as Web 2.0.  It was the latest evolution of the Internet.  The next wave, possibly Web 3.0, is already occurring.  With social media tools, you can share all sorts of information via documents, multimedia, or live chats all at the same time.

Our nonprofit has been part of the social network for employment since 2009.  We use the following social media tools: a Twitter account @Broke4Jobs, Blogging4Broke, Paper.li for e-newspapers, and our Web site, www.brokebutnotforlong.org.   I also use LinkedIn.com and Yahoo Connections to network with other professionals.  We decided not to use Facebook because it requires nonusers to set-up accounts.  Whereas, the twitter feed can be viewed without logging in via a widget (electronic gadget that is embedded into a Web page with HTML code).

First, you should create a Twitter account for the job hunt.  Twitter is called microblogging because you can only “tweet” 174 characters.  Be professional with your tweets because the Library of Congress is documenting them!  Moreover, what you “tweet” will show up in a Google search.  If you set up a Google Alert on your twitter name/handle, you will find that this is true.  Google alerts are part of gmail, Gooogle’s email, which is also free.

Why would you want to use Twitter to find a job? Because many companies have job boards on Twitter.   Visit our twitter account to view our list of US and international job boards.  Currently, there’s a polarized debate going on regarding the future of face-to-face and online job boards.  Matt Adler of Recruiting Futurology stated in his article, “The Job Cloud–Why Twitter is the Future of Job Boards, “Depending on your viewpoint/agenda it seems you should either believe they are going to suffer a painful death and all shut down tomorrow or carry on regardless effortlessly circumventing the massive digital changes that are effecting every other industry so drastically.”

He goes on to say that companies can get several hundred qualified applicants even though they don’t have many followers.  Basically, a “tweet” can go along way!  People retweet important or fun tweets that they find.  I’m always retweeting interesting jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities in hopes that one of my followers will go after it.  We currently have 573 followers, and I “follow” twice that amount.  If you’d like to learn more about Twitter for the job hunt, read the TweetSheet created by Marci Reynolds at www.marcireynolds.com.

Sandra Annette Rogers

sandra@brokebutnotforlong.org

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