For a better job, reinvent yourself

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — With a slow job recovery forecast for 2010, experts say the time may be ideal for reinventing your image for a better job at the place you work.

“So many [companies] are still in the mode of getting done what they need to get done with the people they have. That’s a great time for anyone working in management or not to stand out and become more important to the company,” said Dan Finnigan, a recruitment and HR expert and CEO of Jobvite, which uses social networking tools for recruiting.

Finnigan said employees should decide what it is they want to do, identify where in the company that kind of work is done, introduce themselves and offer to help.

In boom times, he said, employers tend to look outside the company for people to solve problems. But in a down economy, businesses look internally — for people with good ideas who are willing to sign up for more work and stay late.

“It’s really all about making yourself visible,” he said. “Volunteer. If you have a boss that has staff meetings, I think you should sit in on every staff meeting and pick up on two or three problems that that boss and that staff need and want to solve.”

That’s exactly what Leah Jones — owner of Chicago-based Natiiv Arts & Media, a company that teaches clients how to use social media tools — did to get ahead.

When Jones showed up at a Chicago temp agency in summer 2005, they didn’t know what to do with her. She had not worked more than two years at any job and her experience ranged from scooping ice cream to managing a residence hall in London. She managed to land a temp administrative-assistant job at Edelman, a global public relations agency, where, after raising her hand to volunteer on a number of projects related to social media, she was soon hired on as part of Edelman’s Me2 Revolution — a group formed in 2006 to launch their public relations into the digital, and social age.

“If I could participate, I was participating,” she said. “I raised my hand and offered to work on a database project regarding blogs. I was talking to my supervisor about creating a position in our group, too. I was asking, ‘How can we change my job description to better reflect my skills?’”

By the time Jones left Edelman in January 2009, she had been promoted to Digital-Culture Evangelist, helping clients understand what was being said about their brands online and creating strategies to match.

“Don’t let a job description define what you do,” Jones said.

Tom Musbach, managing editor of Yahoo HotJobs, said it isn’t enough to simply work harder. Your boss needs to know about all the good work you’re doing.

Carissa Froome, who was promoted in September at her job with a major financial institution and relocated from Chicago to Kansas City, worked with co-workers to help endorse one another’s work.

She also decided to step up her wardrobe, hired a fashion consultant and visited a tailor.

“If you want a better position, you have to dress like you’re already in that position,” she said. While employers, anecdotally, say they are better positioned to offer raises and promotions than last year, Musbach said ladder climbers will need to stay flexible.

The more you can do to make your boss’s job easier, the better you will perceived when promotions are made, he said.

Penelope Trunk, founder of BrazenCareerist.com, said employees should also raise their profiles online. That could mean blogging or creating a professional presence through a career site.