What Is The Most Effective Way To Find A Good Opportunity?

Happy Holidays!

The year of 2008 is fast approaching, and there are only a few days left in Q2 FY'08 for Cisco. I want those of you who are looking for work in the new year to please look at my stats for The Most Effective Way to Find A Good Opportunity?

Remember the days of the faxes or the simple cold call? Nor shall we forget when we put on our best suit and went directly to the lobby of the Corporation to deliver a resume. None of which superceded us having a friend that could refer us directly. Since then of course most of us have become experts at searching the familiar job boards like; Monster, Dice, Hotjobs, and Careerbuilder.

Today requires us to be a little more sophisticated, strategic and technology smart in our career search and planning. Not having access to a computer is not an option! Today I find that being recommended or getting "referrals" is still the best way to find opportunities;there's just a new way on how you go about it.

Globally Social Networking is by far the leader in getting your foot in the door. According to an article in BizCommunity it list 4 popular sites that will aid you. This inclues Facebook, Myspace, YouTube and Second Life. http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/20623.html This link is geared towards international social media.

Nielsen Online has released the list of the top U.S. social networking sites and blogs for October, 2007. The top 10 Social Networking Sites for October 2007 (U.S., Home and Work) by name, number of unique monthly visitors and year-over-year growth rate.

Myspace, 58,843, +19%
Facebook, 19,519, +125%
Classmates Online, 13,278, -2%
Windows Live Spaces, 10,261, +32%
AOL Hometown, 7,923, -15%
LinkedIn, 4,919, +189%
AOL People Connection, 4,084, -30%
Reunion.com, 4,082, -14%
Club Penguin, 3,880, +157%
Buzznet.com, 2,397, +117%

Now not all of these sites are geared towards career advancement or development. I have found that "LinkedIn" has been an effective site for the "recruiter" to get candidates from trusted resources with personal recommendations. http://www.linkedin.com/. Please join and let me know if it proves to be effective for you.

As a job seeker, posting your information on the internet requires you to get hip with the lingo as well! Please check out this article and video to get tips on future predictions on seeking new opportunities for 2008 at http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/23302

This may seem overwhelming, but the sooner you educate yourself on "personal branding" via the internet the better off you will be in securing a solid position. For those of you who want a more focused social networking pool take a look at these top networking sites to collaborate with others:

For Technical Positions:

http://www.groupstudy.com/
http://forum.internetworkexpert.com/ubbthreads.php
http://www.linkedin.com/


For Sales/Marketing:

http://marketing-jobs.theladders.com/
http://www.spoke.com/
http://www.jigsaw.com/
http://www.ryze.com/

I'VE GOT QUESTIONS FOR YOU!

Hello Job Seeker,

I have had several private discussions regarding this blog that you might find very interesting!

There have been inquiries about unveiling the secret to getting into Cisco, implications made that "Sr. Engineers" have no interest in networking through blogs or "talking avatars" and that working with Recruiters seems to be a lost cause because there is no feedback.

I have just a few comments but mostly questions. Regarding the "secret to get into Cisco", come close and listen well....THERE IS NO SECRET!!! But there are a few tips I can share with you:

• Make sure you are registered on the Career Connection Website
• Don't apply for multiple positions unless they are similar in nature
• Read the Website to understand our key initiatives (Globalization, Optimization)
• Communicate with people that you know working at Cisco; ask about the Employee Referral Program
• Certifications are well respected from the CCIE, PMP to the Six Sigma DMAIC certs
• Consulting experience from any "Big 5" consulting firm is a Huge plus
• Developing strategic planning and support around service and delivery for sales, project management and Network Engineering.
• Keep networking; if you are not on linkedin or facebook, myspace join a social networking site that will yield more introductions to the right people.

Now questions for you...?

What do you want to know?

How are you going about your job search?

Are you using blogs in your job search?

How ae you using the web to find your next position?

What is the best Social Networking site for talking to decision makers?

Do you belong to any associations, forums or user groups?

What Does It Take To Get Into A Big Corporation?

"What does it take to get into a big corporation", is what my Mentee Shona asked me, with asperity in her voice. "If I don't have a job by January 2008 I might as well die"! Another person expressed over coffee. This really got me thinking about how to help these young people.

But these thoughts and frustrations don't just belong to the newly Graduated or the soon to be Graduate, but it is also expressed by the job seeker who has recently been laid off , or made the last re-org cut, but "sees the writing on the wall"; or the successful progressive employee whose CEO has convinced them to go to a new startup after 15 years of service and the startup venture goes bust!

As a Professional Recruiter who has spent their entire career in and around corporate fortune 500 and above organizations I have learned a lot. Here are some basic tips to start!

• Be a change Agent - Don't get stuck in a time warp or afraid of change
• Know your Strengths and Weaknesses - How can you make an immediate impact and be effective and efficient
• Be able to articulate with confidence and show relevance in what you know
• On your resume have the main things recruiters/hiring managers look for:

Overall years of experience in needed discipline or technology

List what you specifically have contributed in projects, programs etc.

Name the type of methodologies, techniques and software or hardware you used to get the job done, and most importantly

• Fish where the Fish are! You have to participate in events, webinars, networking events, reading of the websites to know the "lingo", the culture, and need of the company.

Maybe I can answer a question or two for you, feel free to reach out and, "ask me how"!

If you agree with me send me an example of how these points worked for you.

If you disagree send me an example of how these points didn't work for you.

If you've tried other avenues tell us how you did it!

Cisco Systems Corporation is a Global Company that has offices all over the world. It's a great time to work for Cisco. They are growing year over year and their Networking Solutons and physical presence is literally being requested all over the world. Do you know what it will take to get a job in Cisco Systems? Have you read the web-site, the blogs?

The Mind Of A Modern School Kid Shaped By Networking Technologies

Wim Veen of Delft University Ponders Networked Education and Rise of Homo Zappiens at Cisco Event
November 19, 2007
By Jason Deign, News@Cisco
Pupils have learnt from teachers since time immemorial. But soon that could change-and educationalists may learn from the students of the 21st Century, believes one of the world's most respected thinkers on learning and IT, Professor Wim Veen of the Delft University of Technology.
One of the speakers at last year's Cisco®-sponsored Public Services Summit at Nobel Week, Prof. Veen startled delegates with a virtual tour of the mind of a modern school kid as shaped by the networking technologies being introduced by companies such as Cisco Systems, Inc.
It was a picture that few of the senior education officials present would have recognized from personal experience. "Today's generation is focused on images, not text," says Prof. Veen. "Kids do not make a distinction between virtual and real characters.
"They can correspond over instant messaging with 10 other individuals at a time, while listening to music in the background. They are even inventing their own language. And they see school as a place for meeting friends, not learning."
Prof. Veen believes that today's youth has integrated technology so seamlessly into life that it almost represents a new stage in social evolution.
He has coined the term 'Homo Zappiens' to describe the generation growing up in the era of digital networks and is keen to emphasize that education must take account of these social and technological changes.
"There are two time slots in the day when kids do not consume digital media," he says. "And they are the morning and afternoon sessions at school."
At other times, he says, Homo Zappiens is likely to be spending as much time in virtual environments as in the real one.
Today's teenagers interact with each other not just face-to-face or over the phone, but also through mobile text, instant messaging, games such as World of Warcraft (which has 8.5 million players), virtual environments such as Second Life or online communities such as 43 Things.
"One of my sons recently attended a funeral, online, for someone he had never met, but who was a member of his guild in World of Warcraft and who had died in real life," Prof. Veen relates.
"When we see young people glued to a screen, we worry that they are not communicating, but in fact there has never been a generation that communicates so much."
So what does all this mean for schooling? According to Prof. Veen; "Kids who have grown up with technology are a force for change in education. They are using technology in multiple ways and have learnt to be in control of information and in control of the learning process."
He says educationalists should not make the mistake of thinking that digital environments do not stimulate learning: "World of Warcraft is all about strategy and problem-solving, like chess or Monopoly before it. What you see on the screen is not important-it is what is underneath."
In addition, he states: "The techniques used by tagging sites like 43 Things or Flickr can be used for education, for example by applying them to research articles.
"This generation wants to determine its own keywords and gets used to doing this at age seven or eight, so naturally its members expect to locate information in the same way."
After studying Homo Zappiens, "I came to the conclusion that this generation cannot be doing everything wrong," says Prof. Veen. "So I started to look for useful skills that they could be developing."
From this study, he unearthed the following learning attributes of today's digital teens:
Iconic skills. While parents in Western cultures tend to scan pages from top left to bottom right, searching for words, a young person may scan in a completely different way, for example focusing on images, icons, symbols, colors and particular typefaces.
Multi-tasking. While it may seem impossible to adults, many of today's teenagers are in fact able to listen to music, call up friends, surf the Web, carry out an instant messaging conversation and do their mathematics homework all at the same time.
Processing discontinuous information. Young people find it relatively easy to switch between TV channels and recreate the story lines being played out on each from relatively small snippets of information. Information may be summarized by mind maps rather than stories.
Non-linear learning approaches. Young people search for information using search engines and typing in keywords. Their approach is just-in-time learning: an active attitude about searching for something you want to know. Contrast this with parents who have been trained to learn by absorbing, with teachers telling them what they should know.
"If these skills are so different to those that have preceded them, should we not recognize the fact in our teaching methods?" questions Prof. Veen. "Does it make sense to still have students lined up in front of a teacher?
"If there is a digital divide, it may end up being the one between us and our children growing up with technology.
"All learning theories so far have focused on the internalization of understanding by the student. Now learning is happening through the externalization of information, returning to the social constructivism of Socrates.
"If we do not respond to this development, we won't just alienate students, but schools will become irrelevant. And that is even worse than being hated."
Jason Deign is a freelance journalist located in Barcelona, Spain.

Cisco Displays Strength -"Beam Me Up Scotty"

Cisco's display of strength
Cisco fell hard, went through a wrenching period of reinvention, and is now stronger than it has ever been, reports Fortune's Rik Kirkland.

By Rik Kirkland, Fortune Magazine
October 31 2007: 11:22 AM EDT


(Fortune Magazine) -- Sipping Diet Coke in a suite at New York's Mandarin Oriental hotel after a day that began with a joint interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer conducted by PBS's Charlie Rose, followed by a quick march through a luncheon speech, some one-on-ones with the trade press, and a dozen customer meetings, John Chambers doesn't look or act the way you or I would - exhausted.

As the shadows lengthen over the Hudson River, Cisco's ever ebullient 58-year-old CEO is just getting warmed up. "This is the most excited I've been in ten years," he'd said earlier during his taping with Charlie and Steve. Now in his soft, 90-mph drawl he's explaining why: "I believe a new wave of innovation is coming that will make the first wave of the Internet seem small."


Beam me up: Chambers (front) wanted Cisco's telepresence product to be 'like Star Trek.' Here he's in D.C.; behind him are key execs in San Jose (from left): Charlie Giancarlo, Sue Bostrom and Marthin De Beer.

Team player: Holland is both treasurer and a co-head of Cisco's sports effort.

Telecommuter: From his home in Bangalore, Elfrink talks to fellow brass back home.

Connected: Proctor runs Cisco's collaboration technology business.

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My, that does sound exciting. Example? "This will shock you," he says, leaning forward. "The other day I started the morning with my top staff in India. Then I went to Japan and a meeting with Fujitsu, then on to Cleveland, then London and a meeting with BT. The whole trip took only 3 1/2 hours, and I was far more effective in the calls."

The reason: Chambers was traveling, of course, over Cisco's latest gee-whiz product: telepresence, a high-def, life-sized, Internet-based communications system that is to traditional video-conferencing what the latest big-screen surround-sound plasma extravaganza would be to Grandma's black-and-white set with rabbit ears. "When I asked the team to design this," he recalls, "I said, 'Make it like Star Trek. You know, Beam me up, Scotty.'"

Cisco Services Hottest Job Of The Week

SWOT SALES ACCOUNT MANAGER

It's an exciting time to work at Cisco.Every day we connect people to the network and make it come to life. Whether it's using e-learning to educate students far from city centers or downloading the entire Library of Congress in seconds, our networking technology has not only revolutionized the way people do things, but who they are. People are more informed, more efficient, and more involved.

With all forms of communications converging onto the network, Cisco is entering an exciting new era. The concept of the network as the platform for transforming life's experiences is no longer a possibility: It is quickly becoming a reality. And Cisco is leading the experience.

DESCRIPTION

Cisco seeks a Service Account Manager to join its sales organization.

Working with Cisco product teams and customers, you will build on your understanding of customer needs, develop solutions for addressing those needs and delivering value, and execute on key opportunities to increase sales of Cisco services.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate has account planning experience, is comfortable with executive level communication, and has an aptitude for translating intangibles into quantifiable business value. This is a great opportunity to apply your sales skills in a services business area that is quickly growing as a key component in Cisco's success as a leader in its industry.

REQUIREMENTS

Requires a combination of broad experience in IT sales/presales, services sales/consulting Demonstrated ability to succeed in a matrix environment. Knowledge of IP networking an assetRequired skills:

BS/BA or equivalent. MBA and/or Sales Management preferred 10 - 15 years at senior levels in the IT industry 5+ years Customer service and sales experience in a high-technology environment. Experience in account and partner management. Strong understanding of networking product applications, network management techniques, and service strategies.

Ability to manage and direct sales strategies to customers as well as channel partners. Team player, with proven ability to manage by influence. Excellent written, verbal communications and presentation skills required. General understanding of legal contracts.

To apply go to: http://www.cisco.apply2jobs.com/index.cfm job#821557, email me at tangsmit@cisco.com , or call me Phone # 919-392-9197.