Can One Find a Perfect Job on LinkedIn?

Can One Find a Perfect Job on LinkedIn? I asked this question on Facebook last week, and the answer I received was a “NOOOOOOOO” I have to tell you this: last week I applied for a Marketing Manager on LinkedIn on Monday, had 2 interviews that week with a perfect company & 1 with not a so perfect one, and I signed a contract that Friday afternoon. I’m starting on July 1st. Salary, bonus, benefits… Thanks to LinkedIn!

How did I do it? I’ll tell you exactly how, but on Saturday. One thing I want to say: social media rocks. Every time I’d apply for a job (I applied for 30 that Monday, 8 applications were opened, and two interviews scheduled within 24 hours), I’d find that company on Twitter and tweet. Screenshots of those tweets, my LinkedIn job application, and my Resume, as well as other cool details are coming, so stay tuned and check back on Saturday at 8 am.

I want to leave you with the most important tip for a LinkedIn success – GROW YOUR NETWORK! Be active! Stay engaged!

Here’s my LinkedIn data from today: 6 people viewed my profile just today and 36 people searched for either me or someone like me with me appearing in search, which is exactly what you want and you can only achieve it by being active.

What are your LinkedIn stats? What can you do to improve those?

How to Manage an MBA Life

You are a professional working 5 days a week. You are also a parent. There are family and friends who need your time as well. Plus, working out, cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery-shopping….you name it! How can you manage to add being an MBA student to the list? Here are some tips for you.

Four Tips on How to Successfully Manage an MBA Life

• When at work, focus on work to be able to accomplish as much as possible WHILE there, so you don’t take work home
• When in your car commuting back and forth, make calls to family members and friends to share your life and news
• When at home, focus on your children and spouse for some period of time undividedly
• When the children are in bed, schedule time to study every evening and focus your mind then on your school fully

By shifting your mind from one area to another and by focusing your attention on only one are AT A TIME will help you give your best to each of your roles and will prevent you from getting exhausted, which is exactly how you will feel if you decide to do EVERYTHING at once.

How to Find Time to Prepare for PMBA

To prepare for PMBA, you will need to take several steps discussed in this blog before. Among those are GMAT, application process, interview, recommendation collection, essay writing; if you’re not a native English speaker, there will also be Academic English Test included, and more. So, how do you find time to prepare?

Four Easy Steps to Find Time to Prepare for PMBA at GSU:

• Cut off TV-watching time and spend it reading appropriate books and taking GMAT or English classes
• Wake up 30 min earlier each day and collect your ideas for essay writing first thing in the morning
• Spend your lunch breaks eating at a cafeteria with a colleague who can provide written recommendations for you
• Listen to leadership audio books while in the car – that information will help you get inspired for your MBA interview

Hope these tips were helpful. Learn more about PMBA here.

Family Lunch for PMBA in Buckhead

Today we’re enjoying family lunch organized for PMBA students on Buckhead Campus!
Every student is welcome to bring his or her entire family to meet the families of other students!
Fun-time!!!

How PMBA at Robinson Adds Value

I’ve been asked so many times: “How does PMBA at Robinson add value to you, Anna?”, “Did you get anything out of it at all?” and the like. Let me share with you just one single thing that blows my mind today, and you will know exactly whether or not PMBA at Robinson adds value…

I think I told you that I wrote a book. In the past month or so, I’ve been sending my manuscript out for people to read and endorse the book, so that it can be viewed as a credible source of information with a wide range of social support.

Remember I wrote two blogs about our Leadership class presenter W. Frank Blount, whom we read a case study about and whom I personally admire greatly? Well, imagine if you wrote a book. What is the chance that someone like W. Frank Blount, who’s so well-respected and famous worldwide, would support your book? Not much of a chance, right? 🙂 Guess what? Everything is possible when you’re a part of a huge professional network, such as PMBA at Robinson. Do you already understand where I’m going with this? Yes! You’re right!!!  W. Frank Blount was so kind and nice that he actually invested his valuable time into reading my book and he also wrote a statement of support for me!!! Can you believe it? Ok, if not, here it is: http://smartgoalsbook.info/testimonials-from-readers/

Frank wrote this statement of support to be placed on the back cover of my new book, and so I did:

So, now you can conclude for yourself whether or not PMBA at Robinson adds value – I don’t need to persuade you, right? If you’re looking for great opportunities, strong and wide network, and advanced progress for yourself –  PMBA at Robinson is THE place to be! You should check out how to enroll on the program: the sooner you start, the sooner you will advance your level of success. Good luck!

The Value of a Tagline for Networking and PR

Many of my friends entrepreneurs have so called taglines to help them stand out in the crowd and also help others remember them. For example, my friend Bonnie Ross Parker has a networking company and is known as the America’s Connection Diva. That’s what she calls herself, that tagline is on her website, blog, e-mail signature, you’ll see it in a magazine that writes about Bonnie – everywhere! Another friend of mine does consulting on LinkedIn and organizes events that are only open for LinkedIn members. Dahlys Hamilton. You may know her as Atlanta’s LinkedIn Godmother. Memorable? Will you be able to recognize her next time you see her after this one time you met? Yest, because there was a tagline that stood out! Ali Brown – Entrepreneurial Guru. Joe Turner – Chief Impossibility Officer. And many more! On the 29th of January I was trying to help Carol, the CEO of Raise where I do my internship, to come up with a tagline that would be easy to remember and help her stand out.

I have been talking about the importance of developing a tagline with Carol for a few days. Carol mainly sees herself as an ideator and visionary, so she doesn’t want to get into details, such as taglines and PR. Yet, I am a believer that all the information in regards to how an entrepreneur is viewed by the public has to come from the heart of that very entrepreneur. So, I’ve been speaking about the value of a tagline as such:

“Imagine you go to a networking event at 200 P’tree in Atlanta called Global Connect. There are 44 bi-lingual Chambers of Commerce present (so think “simple language” as not everyone’s native language is English; if you plan to go global, you’ve got to thing that your C-level client may be speaking limited English, may be blind, may be deaf etc, so all the content on your on-line outlets has to anticipate it and be straightforward and simple). There are 2,000 people at that networking event (that’s how many there were last Summer, I think). So, as each of potential 80 or 100 people, whom you can personally meet there, speaks to you, what do you want them to remember, when they tell their partner about you next day? What is one phrase you want to embed in their memory associated with you?”

Well, somehow, Carol wasn’t buying in immediately, which is, of course, understandable: I am new. So, on the 29th of January there was a networking event next door from Carol’s office. It was hosted by Atlanta Business RadioX . I encouraged Carol to go. So we went. There, Carol was meeting many people and introducing herself similar to this:  “Hi, I’m Carol McKown, my company Raise Global is a hybrid of non-profit and for-profit…” Guess what? All that the people heard was what they wanted to hear: non-profit. So everyone, who was introducing her to people after they’d meet her, would say: “Meet Carol, she can help your non-profit” 🙂 🙂 🙂 Actually, Carol is on a lookout for for-profits to partner with Raise as she already has a line of non-profits in need of help. When we came back to the office, Carol  received a call from a woman, whom she met at that networking event, asking Carol to help the woman’s non-profit buy buses. I think that was a good breakthrough.  Carol said: “Anna, I now know why you’ve been telling me to create a tagline and make people look at me the way I really want them to” 🙂

Yeah!!! Her tagline now is “Chief Solutionism Officer”, by which people will likely be intrigued and ask to learn more about her business 🙂

Atlanta Business RadioX Event

On the 29th of January, during my internship, Carol and I attended the Atlanta Business RadioX networking event. We met many wonderful people from Atlanta’s business-community. Carol has been invited to be interviewed on multiple radio-shows about the great cause she promotes with her business. It is going to be a beginning of something big for Raise – I know it! Exciting!!!!!!!! Below are two pictures: me and Carol and me with Lee Kantor, the creator and founder of Atlanta Business RadioX. Enjoy!

PMBA Students are Spoiled!

PMBA students are spoiled! We really are! In Buckhead, where I have my classes, we are so well taken care of: not only do we get help registering for each semester, our parking tickets are paid for and brought to us, our book are given to us right to our hands each semester, but also we have delicious snacks available for us all day long, we have coffee, tea, water, juice, sodas and more! AREN’T WE SPOILED?

New Semester: Ready to Rock!

Hey, everyone! We’re back from the break and ready to rock during this upcoming semester! Great news! This time one of the electives is very unusual: it’s a field study – intership with an entrepreneurial company for the whole semester! Wow! When I had heard about this opportunity for the first time, I got so excited: I applied immediately 😉 I was accepted – the process consisted of a Resume submission and also you had to find a company where you’d like to do your internship, the company had to be approved by the professor, and you had to pass the interview with that company. It’s like  job searching 🙂

I am very passionate about Marketing, Social Media, Branding etc. And I also care a lot about Corporate Social Responsibility. So, I was looking for something in that range. And….. I was lucky enough to actually find it! The company is called RaiseGlobal.org and needs someone to implement Marketing, Social Media and other initiatives while connecting socially-responsible brands with non-profits! Ideal match! Here’s a picture of me after my interview on December 4th 2012.

 

And now I will keep you updated on all the new things I do, learn and discover through my internship at Raise! Excited? As always, check in every Wed and Sat to read fresh blog-post I write 🙂 See you soon!

Final Grades and Break Time!!!!

Well, well, well…. guess what? The semester is over for us! Yes, it was a lot of fun, but now it is time for all to recharge the batteries and get ready for the new semester 😉 It is promising to be very unusual and nothing like you’d expect 😉

Unbelievable news! I made an “A” in Corporate Finance class! This sounds like a miracle considering the fact that I am so not a number-person 🙂 Our class overall did a great job, and we even had 2 people who made 100% on this course!!! The professor said it is VERY rare and congratulated us. He also said he was proud of my work that paid off well at the end…

I also made an “A” in our Negotiation class, which I loved as you already know. As of Leadership class, the grades have not been released yet.

Before the break, I finished my first book that is getting ready to be published now, and right after the classes I had my photoshoot for the cover of the book – here’s a snapshot of that:

I am going to spend the break in Savannah with my husband and step-sons. We already decorated our home, and I can’t resist the spirit of Christmas and feel very happy! You will hear from me again after January 14th. Happy Holidays!

My family inspired by holidays