Springtime Spruce-up: Don't forget to update all aspects of you - including your brand. #mentor

If you’ve followed this blog, you know I have recommended a variety of solutions that will connect the electronic you (your web and online presence) to the real you. This goal is so that everything you communicate to people – personally and professionally – reinforces the person you are and want to be known as and remembered for.

But don’t forget to keep it up to date – and springtime in the US finds many of us doing spring cleaning. So do this to your professional self as well as your house or your wardrobe.

Use the checklist to check your professional consistency:

-Does your professional email (the one you maintain outside of your work email) let people know it’s you?

If you’re still using clover21@xxxxx.xxx, now is the time to check for your name on Yahoo, Hotmail, Google or your ISP-provided email. You can usually find some combination of:

              FirstnameLastname@

Firstname.Lastname@

firstinitialLastname@

FirstnameMiddleinitialLastname@

When people search for you in their In Box, make sure they can find you easily.

-When you set up your professional email, did you remember to fill in the NAME information so that the email comes in showing who you are and your email address?

Remember to set up so it looks like:  Firstname Lastname < FirstnameLastname@xxxx.xxx>

-Does your answering machine message make clear that the caller is reaching you?

You have a cell phone that you use for both work and personal life. Check your answering machine message to make sure that the message isn’t too informal if you’re expecting to receive professionally-related phone calls.

If you use your home phone number for professional contacts, make sure that the answering machine message for that makes it clear who the caller is reaching.

-Have you updated your resume or CV recently?

You should be doing this every 6 months because you will have more work experience, publications, presentations, and honors to add. And you need to check that your contact information is correct, especially if you have changed your professional email.

And check your document’s style. Is it still easy to read and find the critical information? Updating the format also helps you realize any experience text that you should change.

Don’t forget to make sure that the footer has both a page number and your name in it so that it is printed on each page – and, as I’ve written about before, make sure to save it with your name in the filename.

My suggestion is to use CV_ FirstnameLastname.xxx so it clearly conveys to anyone who receives it what the document is.

Posted via email from sue griffey's posterous