E-learning-The Truth of the Matter

This has been a long time coming. I apologize to any one who was waiting to hear the rest of my process. I am going to the best of my ability get the rest out staring with today’s post.

P- Prepare

Preparing like any other first step in a process is crucial to the end result. If you are not fully prepared you might as well ignore the rest of the steps. By being prepared I am referring to many things. The first is knowing the situation you are going into. Is this a high level professional setting? Is it a more casual and laid back event? By knowing your event you can better assess the people you will eventually interact with. I am about to go down a path and please forgive me anyone over a certain age, however knowing the groups age has a huge impact on how to prepare. An older crowd will expect certain things that are very professional AKA (business cards, typed resumes, a sturdy handshake, simple and very professional business dress). I am not saying all older individuals will react this way. That would be very discriminatory. I am saying it is a trend with more experienced professionals. If your going into a situation with individuals of a younger age, they may also expect certain things AKA (electronic resume, electronic samples, typically a business card and typed resume are still required). More youthful employed individuals will also judge on appearance, but that is a whole another step that we will soon get to.

I have mentioned business cards and resumes. These are your front runners. In an initial networking environment you should always have a business card available. To insure you are hitting both lines of the business world your business card should include a link to a website or a way to electronically access your credentials.

I have a company card how do I get an electronic resume link on it? Most companies issue a business card, and it is very limited to what can go on it. Some businesses are changing there policy but it slow to happen. What I suggest is two cards a personal one and an employee business card. This will show any individual you are motivated. I would suggest coining a company name for yourself.

Typed resumes should follow every guideline set down by big business, easy to read, few mistakes, and clean and simple. As long as those are fallowed you should be ok. Like this process will show you a good resume doesn’t always mean so much. Although a good resume is very important.

Your electronic resume should be a web layout. If it is a simple PDF or word doc, you won’t have as much luck. I suggest having it in both formats in addition to a web style resume. Keep it simple a web resume should be quick and easy to navigate. Don’t make it hard for someone to find the information because they will simply give up. Also make it easy to read. Crazy colors may catch someone’s eyes but that is about all it will do. The font should be large enough, black, and on white background. I am not saying this is the only way, but it seems to be the most effective.

By having these items already prepared you will already have an upper hand on others. You won’t believe how many people think that they can get by on character alone. I should know I use to be that guy. I soon realized I wasn’t as popular as I thought I was. By beefing up my portfolio I made so many more contacts.

Some extras to consider, that are most likely not necessary, but certainly can’t hurt are as followed. Blogging is not important but again shows initiative and can ultimately show that people really care what you have to say. If you have a largely hit site you will stick out from the crowd. A personal website that won’t discriminate you but maybe show a more unprofessional side may appeal to certain individuals. As much as they want an employee, companies recognize the employee dynamic and don’t want to hire duds. Myspace and face book pages can go both ways. Unless you are absolutely certain that no incriminating material will show up on your pages, don’t hand out the address. Businesses are excepting facebook and Myspace as a good networking tool and can absolutely benefit you as long as you keep it clean.

That is the extent of my preparation step for now. I plan on expanding this but I want the initial concepts out to others so that I might get some feedback on my steps and the process as a whole so that I can refine it. 

This topic has been a work in the making. I still don’t have everything in detail down on paper but the concept I feel is a good one and one that has relevance in today’s society.  I have created a model for networking in a business environment. My model is the PAPERING model.  The word papering refers to the eventual exchange of information, such as business card, resume, contact information, e-mail address, etc. As I get more detailed descriptions of each section of my model I will post them, but for now here is the model.