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Personal branding is very important.  More and more, you’ll realize this.  If you’ve ever known or been a hiring manager, you know all too well how hard it is for a single applicant to stand out in that tall stack of résumés when a job is open.  You’re the proverbial needle in the haystack.  Here are a few easy ways to get out of the haystack and in front of that next great opportunity.

There is an overwhelming truth that you need to realize… No one is looking out for you.  No one.  From the moment that you took your first job, you and your career have been in your hands.  Even in the best companies in the world, your boss isn’t looking out for you.  They probably already know this secret.  That’s how they became your boss.  Here’s a few tips on why you need to be thinking about your future every day.

We’ve all been there.  It’s a group setting – most likely a meeting at work.  Several of our colleagues are there, including our boss and maybe even the boss' boss.  The topic.  Anything.  It might be something seemingly trivial, or a new direction for the business to follow. The inevitable question is asked by someone in the room, “What do we think we should do about X?”  The ominous letter X.  It’s used in math and everywhere else as a placeholder.  Similarly, this could be any decision and it’s often made before the group realizes it.

Have you ever boiled water?  Sure you have.  It’s easy.  First, you get a saucepan (preferably a clean one).  Next, you turn on the water and fill the sauce pan about 3/4 of the way.  Now you turn a burner on your stovetop between medium and high heat.  Finally, you wait.  Easy.  But that’s not what this article is about.  It’s about the pouring of hot water, and how it’s related to being a great leader.

I’ve been in the software industry for much longer than I’d care to admit at this point.  That’s another blog post though.  Much of it has been centered around building products.  One of the things that seems to not go away is the expectation that a software trial is infinite, or free.  Regardless to whether you pay a single penny, trials aren’t free.  They cost companies money - even if you’re evaluating it on your own computer.  The moment you move from evaluation to development, you’re hurting the company that builds the software.  Here’s how…

 

This book review will serve as numbers 2 and 3 in the three total that I promised you in my review of Confessions of a Public Speaker.  The reason being is that the first book in this review is Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.  He later wrote a follow-up to that book, Presentation Zen Design.  The first book focuses strictly on presentation itself, so the design aspect is somewhat glossed over.  The second book talks strictly about design to make up for it.

 

I have been doing technical presentations and training for several years now.  Like any level-headed person though, I know that I don’t know everything, and that I can always use more training myself, and do plenty of other things to make myself better at what I do.  So, I came across and read a few books about presenting.  This is the first of three book reviews.

 

I thought that I knew what usability was.  I mean, it’s simple, right?  You just make sure people can use your product.  Wrong – kind of…  Even though you can simplify it like that, there is so much more to consider when usability is being addressed.  How do I know that?  Well, one of my favorite books these days is not a technical book, per se, but rather a non-technical book that focuses on design in technology.  It is called Don’t Make Me Think, written by Steve Krug.

Here are a couple of REALLY good links that were sent to me recently... (CAUTION: Reading will be required.)