With wireless, you can work anywhere

First, Freelancer.com is the world’s largest outsourcing and crowdsourcing site for small businesses. While outsourcing has gained a negative reputation over the years, the fact is that it can provide an entrepreneur or a small business owner with a level of resource they might not traditionally have afforded.

And that is exactly Matt’s point: by hiring a freelancer, they can become more profitable, often resulting in ultimately creating new jobs anyway.

“Create a job, don’t take a job. These are highly skilled and often highly educated people but living in parts of the world on $5 per day or less. I call them PHDs – poor, hungry and driven”, says Matt. He has seen his site grow in the last two years to nearly 1.6 million projects and paying over $129 million to freelancers around the globe.

The most common type of work they do is from basic spreadsheet work to full web design and implementation, web and phone applications.

“In Australia, where I live, a Ruby on Rails programmer will cost around $50 an hour… by using a freelancer, that cost might be a fraction of the price. What this means is that you no longer need to be a big business with deep pockets to bring your idea and new application to market”, says Matt.

He says there is a window of opportunity for the little guy to compete with the big guys because of the proliferation of internet access to tap a global workforce. He points to examples of the disruption taking place around us.

“Look how iTunes disrupted the music industry and created a virtual store to purchase music, Netflix took down the Blockbuster video market, and Amazon has disruped the bookstore model, and now offers Kindle ebooks. All of these products are digital – there’s no actual product. “

Matt sees the future opportunities going mobile, with the development of hundreds of thousands of simple phone apps to make our lives simpler and our entertainment immediate.

In the past, he says, to fund an idea might have cost thousands of dollars, and if it failed, you were out the money. Today, you can fund your idea using freelancers on the back of a Visa card for less than $1,000.

With $10,000 you could try 10 ideas in a year and if only one of them is a success, you still win.

For Bay Area entrepreneurs and small business owners, this type of freelancer resource might be a solution to the cash strapped entrepreneur or owner, or those fearful of hiring in this uncertain economy. Having less expensive resources to bring a product or application to prototype may mean the difference between never doing it at all, to a new budding business that will create jobs.

For those in transition and tired of the corporate hamster wheel, if you have a notion to be your own boss and create a new business, this may also be your solution to bringing your idea to fruition without having to pitch to VCs or angel investors.

For more information, check out www.freelancer.com.

Other sites that offer freelance workers include

www.odesk.com

www.elance.com

www.peopleperhour.com

And yet, and yet, the large companies are starting, just a bit, to hire real full time jobs again (not the part time contractor crap that no one could live on, though there are plenty of those still out there.)

So is it safe to go back in the water? To me the biggest wild card is this election year. I still hear many small business owners whose businesses are finally starting to grow, say they’re anxious and unwilling to hire just yet. Let’s see what happens with the election, they say.

Anytime we have those people in Washington trying something new – like fixing healthcare or the tax code to score temporary points with the voters, the unintended consequences are usually not good.

Nevertheless, I am optimistic that the worst is behind us, though we are not seeing the post recession growth spurts we’ve historically seen. So what am I saying to those of you still searching?
Chin up, carry on and let’s pray things are in fact getting better.

JP McDermott is an insurance and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

The news lately has been cautiously optimistic regarding the national employment picture in general, and for the SF Bay area specifically. There are still far too many highly qualified but long term unemployed out there. Being out of the job market for over a year can be a difficult question to answer by the recruiter or hiring manager.
That’s why many recommend staying busy in many different activities (volunteering or a leadership role for a non-profit, home care for a relative, joining committees at your town, church or local service group.
This provides several benefits such as keeping management, communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills sharp. Oh, and it also answers that question by the hiring manager:
“What have you been doing for the past 14 months?”
There is another path they could follow – an ‘extra credit’ activity that usually pays dividends: Join a success team.
Many job resource groups recommend finding a group of like minded/experienced people that are also looking for their next opportunity. These groups usually meet regularly (weekly) for support and leads and follow a simple agenda:
Your name, last position, what you’re looking for and target companies. Also, they may ask if anyone has had interviews or offers from the previous week or if there are any upcoming interviews.
The other group members can immediately check their LinkedIn connection on the laptops/tablets or smartphones and often will find someone they can introduce them to on the spot.
If there are upcoming interviews, the team is an excellent and safe place to conduct mock interviews. It is a great way to practice and get honest, candid feedback on what to add/change or delete.

To find groups that offer success teams, here are a few places:
Job Connections – Danville
S.I.N.G. (St. Isidore Networking Group) – Danville
Experience Unlimited – Walnut Creek
For a more comprehensive list of resources, check out
BayJobs.

One group I’ve recently experienced is The Executives Network, a fee based group that targets more senior executives in transition. This is a nationwide organization founded by Molly Wendell, author The New Job Search, and the Bay Area locations are Silicon Valley and Walnut Creek.
This networking group meets monthly and, once the candidate has landed, they are eligible to participate
in a networking group of employed executives to continue the lifelong networking and learning.
For more information on the Walnut Creek Executives Network, click here or call (720)-981-3570.

JP McDermott is an insurance and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

When your paycheck stops...

I know it’s not a good time to talk about this, especially when the media (and all of us, really) are hoping for a recovery from the horrible economy and recession we’ve been living through. The fact is we’re not out of the woods yet. Yes, the unemployment numbers are inching up, more people are being hired.
But people are still being laid off, many after years and years of service and don’t know how to cope with a lay off. Too often, I see when someone is laid off, they are in denial (and no, that’s not the river in Egypt.)

Not only are they in denial, but they keep their old spending habits as if they could still count on that money showing up in their checking account like it had been every two weeks. Except it won’t be there. Ever again.
We are all creatures of habit and it is hard to break habits – especially when doing so makes us even more uncomfortable (like stop spending money on the nice-to-haves.)

When your paycheck stops, it’s time to stop spending on everything now. I know… you have bills that won’t go away and have to be paid regardless: utilities, rent or mortgage, car payment, insurance, etc. Before you pay all of these, however, stop and do an quick tally: what’s coming in and what’s going out.
The coming in part might be easy. Nothing, or unemployment insurance benefits, or some other source of income. Now, identify all the expenses going out and before you pay any of them, first identify them, then ask if they are a necessity or simply nice to have.

Once you’ve identified all the outgoing expenses, and identified which are necessities, now it’s easier to stop the nice-to-haves.
Too many people keep buying the green tea lattes each day like they used to and simply accelerate the depletion of their savings.
Facing the reality that your world has changed financially and taking stock of your finances will help you cope with this new situation and make you more fiscally able to withstand no paycheck until you land again and begin receiving a new paycheck.

JP McDermott is an insurance and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

Yet when you do show up on time, dressed appropriately, and ready for the interview, are you really prepared?
Too many people show up without doing their homework.
Bay Area employers, especially Silicon Valley firms, tend to be a bit different from employers in other parts of the country. They are more demanding and expect their candidates to know what they do and how you will help their mission.

“Tell me what you know about Clorox.” This is a pretty innocuous and safe question, but what do you know about Clorox? Too many times good candidates get tripped up here because they didn’t do any basic research on the company or its leaders. The recruiter or interviewer will think you are either stupid or arrogant, neither one a good thing.
So here are five things you can do easily to prepare for your interview and impress your interviewer.

1. Google the company (and actually read about it!) Also check Wikipedia for the summary and statistics (When founded, industry, number of employees, who the leadership team is, etc.)

2. What’s the current stock price (and what was it 1, 3 & 5 years ago?) While you may not be asked about the financials, it’s impressive to know some of the basic market trends and if the products or services offered are increasingly in demand or declining (they are a really good DVD/CD manufacturer today, but the future is limited to streaming and on demand, providing dim long term prospects for the company)

3. Do a LinkedIn search on the company. Two things will come out of this:

One – you’ll get real time information on the employees including the current job functions, years experience, educational degrees and universities attended. You can also see what companies many of the current employees came from (see photo).

Two – and more important – you can see who works there who is in your network, or someone who is in your network that knows someone who works there. Contact them and ask about the culture, working environment and if they know your interviewer.

4. Do a Google and LinkedIn search on your interviewer. While it may seem a bit creepy to snoop, you can bet they have already done that on you. Also, people who join LinkedIn are there to find people and be found (isn’t that why you joined?) so it is actually encouraged to learn as much as you can through the service. You may discover that you went to the same high school or worked for the same employer or some other tidbit that will make you memorable after the interview.

5. Have a list of questions about the job and the company. Companies hiring today are looking for people who can solve their problems. Craft questions that show you are an indispensable problem solver (and, by the way, that you know quite a bit about their company from the research you did in items 1 through 4.)

Good luck!

JP McDermott is an insurance and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

Those of you who’ve followed my posts over the past few years know that I’m a big fan of Jason Alba. I have given several LinkedIn seminars and always credit Jason and refer folks to his site. His DVD & book I’m on LinkedIn – Now What are excellent resources for many uses of LinkedIn.

Jason will be coming to the Bay Area at the following venues, dates & times:
Sept 8 – Thursday

(1) EARN Event: 6:30 – 9:30
Shadelands Art Center (111 N. Wiget Lane, Walnut Creek, Ca 94598)
Reservations and Questions: EARNcontracosta@gmail.com
non-members: $10 donation

Sept 10 – Saturday
(2) CPC: 9:00 – 11:30am
Community Presbyterian Church (222 West El Pintado Road, Danville, Ca 94526)

Sept 12 – Monday
(3) GRACEWorks: 9:15 – 10:30am
Grace Cathedral in San Francisco – Wilsey Conference Room (1100 California Street, San Fransisco)

(4) SING St. Isadore: 7:00 – 9:00 pm (inviting CrossWinds Job Networking Group and St Raymond Church)
Cardelli Ministry Center (Across from St. Isidore, Catholic Church – 440 La Gonda, Danville, CA)

Sept 13 – Tuesday
(5) Right Management – Silicon Valley: 10-12noon ???
(6) Right Management – San Francisco Professional Career Network: 1:30 – 3pm
100 California Street, Ste 1300, San Francisco 94111

Sept 15 – Thursday
(7) CSIX Saratoga: 10:30-1pm
Saratoga Federated Church, Richards Hall (20390 Park Place, Saratoga, CA 95070)
(8) Right Management – Silicon Valley: 3:00 – 4:30pm
910 E Hamilton Avenue, Suite 550, Campbell, CA 95008

If you go, be sure and say hello for me!

JP McDermott is an insurance and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

In the San Francisco Bay Area we are seeing more and more old universal and variable life policies that are “blowing up”, meaning the assumptions that were made when they were written no longer apply due to changed financial conditions.
An example is a policy written in 1994 when interest rates were 8%. The premium payment on the universal policy was based on a continuing high rate to provide the face death benefit amount. Unknown to the policy holder, as the rates declined, the amount of premium needed to keep the policy in force increased.
Soon policy holders who made the required payments as indicated were now receiving letters asking for even more payments to keep their policies in force, often many times higher than the original premiums.
Many people ignored these requests and their policies lapsed. What happened?
These strategies on the universal and variable policies were heavily dependent on a continuing strong stock market and increasing interest rates.
As the market is in a very volatile state and has seen three major corrections in the last decade, and our interest rates are at an historically low point – near zero, these policies are lapsing.
What can you do if you have one of these policies?
Contact a licensed life insurance agent and ask for a review and an in-force illustration of the policy. By reviewing the language in the policy, he or she may have some alternative options for you that can preserve some protection for you. One option may be to exchange the old into a new guaranteed policy that will not lapse and have steady premiums for life. That is much better than simply walking away from a failing policy and having no life insurance protection at all.

JP McDermott is an insurance and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

So what can you do about all of this? Nothing. These are forces like gravity that you cannot control, only learn to live with. There was a book many years ago titled Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff – And it’s All Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, and the message is exactly what the title says and it is especially relevant now. You can only worry about the things you can control – your attitude, your health to some degree (diet & exercise) and your relationships with loved ones. These are the important things in our lives that no event or person can ever take away from us unless we let them. So don’t let them.

Being in transition is demoralizing and can absolutely affect our attitudes. Just remember that your attitude is everything and no matter what life throws at us, only we can allow our attitude to change. Picture the “mood elevator” – when you get up each day, you choose which floor you want to go to. You can choose to wallow in the basement, say ‘woe is me’ and be in a state of despair, or you can choose to press the Up Button to the penthouse for the glorious view and be in a state of grace, ease and gratitude.

When we are in that state, we attract people – they want to be around us and we are more open to new opportunities (that we may miss being in the basement.) This is all easy to say, but harder to do. You choose which floor you want to be on each day, and that choice will help or hinder your search. Press the Up Button.

My friend Dean Tracy asks “Are you going to have a great day or do you have other plans?”
What are your other plans?

JP McDermott is a retirement and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

2. Add Value: Recruiters and hiring managers are inundated with cover letters and resumes that all look the same and say the same things. You need to stand out. Do some research and find out what type of challenges the company or industry is facing, find some timely, respected article or whitepaper, and send it to the recruiter with a note. Let them know you are the one who can help solve the challenge they face. And after the interview, check in periodically and continue sending timely, relevant articles to stay top of mind.

3. Be Brief and Concise: Too many candidates are like an open fire hydrant – spewing everything they know and have done and what they’ll do and – oh my! Stop. Say what you need to say in less than 30 seconds. Also, rather than tell, show. “My managers loved that I was able to reorganize my team, while also improving the morale and saving $80,000.” This type of statement should elicit a ‘Really? Tell me how you did that.’ comment. Practice what you will say with a friend or partner and remember to be concise.

4. Don’t be Desperate: This is one of the most difficult things to follow after an interview. When should you follow up? How frequently? What do you say? You know you need this job, but the company has their own schedule to follow and it won’t match your in most cases. Be optimistic in your calls and emails. People want to be around optimistic people, so your attitude is critical. Recruiters and hiring managers can smell desperation in your tone – either in your voice or email.
Practice your message you’ll leave on voice mail and reread twice any emails you send. Be positive and expect the offer.

5. Know What Their Time frame is: As mentioned, your urgency does not automatically match their need or timeline to hire. Be prepared for that and make sure you ask what their time frame is to fill the position as well as the steps involved. Smaller companies tend to move quicker, but not be as clear on their hiring process. Large companies are very clear on their process, but can take several months to complete it, if ever. Too many times a candidate will go through the lengthy interview process for several months only to find the company had changed direction, acquired another company that has that resource, or filled the position from within. Be prepared for that.

6: Don’t Assume the Worst… If you haven’t heard back after repeated calls or emails (that’s a lot of articles you’ve been sending!) don’t despair. It is not uncommon that they haven’t made a decision for many reasons and have no progress to report. They may have filled the position with another candidate and after a few months found she was not a good fit and will come back to you. Don’t despair and wait for the phone to ring. Continue your search for other opportunities and keep your attitude positive.

7. And Don’t Expect the Best: But not too positive. Too many candidates who are looking at multiple opportunities have a terrific interview where the hiring manager all but says you’re hired, and you stop the good search activities and wait for the call. Don’t. The call may come, but more likely it won’t, or it won’t in an acceptable time frame. Keep up your good habits and continue to be visible to the recruiters and hiring managers of your target companies. You won’t catch any fish if your line is not in the water.

JP McDermott is a retirement and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile

Many were hired, not always in their dream jobs, but working at last. Those who had given up were starting to come back into the search.

Then the Middle East started rumbling, and the economy paused to see what all this meant. Still pausing, then the horrible triple tragedy occurred in Japan – massive earthquake, deadly tsunami and the nuclear radiation threat.

Should you also be sitting on the sidelines watching, too? Not unless you want to remain a spectator instead of a player.

There is too much pressure on growth for companies not to hire, despite the global distractions. There are too many positive economic fundamentals for us to slide back into a recession. So now is the time to set your goals, find your success team and start getting in front of hiring managers.

The best ways are to use the tools the hiring managers are using: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
There are hundreds of free sources online how to use these in your search, but for a couple of quick ones:

www.Jibberjobber.com

Guy Kawasaki’s 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job

And just some basic common sense in case you’ve forgotten.

1. Beef up your resume by using strong active verbs and numbers that demonstrate results.
2. Write a killer cover letter to explain why you’re a good fit for the job by stating what can not be seen on your resume.
3. Focus your job search by targeting specific companies and/or industries that appeals to your passion.
4. Be smart about social media by cleaning up your online profiles and using Twitter and/or LinkedIn.
5. Ace your interview by learning as much as you can about the company and preparing at least 3 questions.
6. Stay in the game by refreshing your skills or developing new ones.
7. Network your way help open doors and opportunities.

Good luck and remember attitude is everything!

JP McDermott is a financial services and insurance adviser in Walnut Creek, CA. He is also a retirement and financial coach, a freelance writer on career coaching as well as the SF Insurance Examiner with SF Examiner.com, and has been volunteering his time and experience to various non-profit, service and civic organizations.
JP lives in Danville with his wife Candy.

Check out his LinkedIn profile