Happy New Year! National Mentoring Month and BCM Announcements

It’s a new year with fresh beginnings and we’re very excited to announce some recent changes for Brand Career Management (BCM) below. However, before we get to that, I’d like to mention that January is National Mentoring Month (International Mentoring Day is on the 17^th and #ThankYourMentorDay is on the 25^th), so the theme of this newsletter will follow suit and be devoted to this topic.

First off, regarding some BCM announcements, BrandCareerManagement.com has been updated to a modern, mobile responsive site with the ability to schedule initial inquiry calls and sign up for our newsletter. Please follow this link to check it out. Also, the website for The Essential Guide to Career Certifications will soon redirect to BrandCareerManagement.com and will eventually go away all together (the Monthly Tip Sheet archives are now housed on paulabrand.com).

Second (as you can see), the Monthly Tip Sheet is now called the Brand Career Management Newsletter. As mentioned in the last issue, our newsletter will change to a bi-monthly frequency during 2019 (Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept & Nov). Later in the year, a survey will be conducted to hear your newsletter feedback and ideas for moving forward (of course, you are welcome to share feedback any time of the year).

Finally, Brand Career Management has a new tagline. As part of our re-branding efforts, Your Link to Career Success is being replaced by Inspiring Careers & Managing Fears.

I hope you also have some exciting changes to kick off your new year! Feel free to write to me at paula@paulabrand.com to share any recent career shifts and/or any feedback on the changes mentioned above.

Best wishes for a great 2019, Paula

P.S. Please forward this to a friend, if you like what I have to share. Anyone can sign up for the Brand Career Management Newsletter by going to BrandCareerManagement.com.

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In November of 2017, LinkedIn officially rolled out a new feature to facilitate mentoring relationships called Career Advice. It was first available in the US, UK, India and Australia, with all locations to follow. It’s hard to find the landing page but if you go to this link when logged in, you can get there. You can also find the appropriate links on the Help Center page explaining LinkedIn’s Career Hub (you don’t need to be logged in to see this page).

When you land on the Career Hub page, the system will walk you through three sequential steps: First, select the type of expertise you would like to share with others. Second, see recommendations for people who might benefit from your advice and finally, reach out to send a message and start a conversation with the person (the mentee can also message you for advice). You start by selecting your preferences for who you would like to help (1^st or 2^nd degree connections, people from your region or people from your school or no preference). With their step-by-step process, you can only start a conversation after being matched through the system.

I tried playing around with it, but I was frustrated because the list of job function / industry sectors offered were very limited (there wasn’t anything close to career services). To give you an idea of what I mean, the closest categories available for me among 20 choices for Job Function were: consulting, education, community and social services, human resources and business strategy. Among the 28 choices for Industry Sector, only two were even closely related to what I do: public sector and non-profit.

Below are two posts offering savvy steps to finding a mentor on LinkedIn. I agree with both writers that a slow and thoughtful approach is the best way to go. You wouldn’t ask someone you just met to borrow $5. Similarly, you shouldn’t ask someone to be your mentor in your LinkedIn invitation to connect. Kevin Daum of Inc. and Chris Spurvey on LinkedIn both offer complementary advice on the soft-touch approach to finding a mentor through LinkedIn.

Lizz Schumer of the New York Times shares why mentoring matters, how to get started and some statson the topic.

Letecia Rose of CareerWise (formerly ContactPoint) through CERIC debunks 3 myths about mentoring to help you get started.

Forbes writer Julie Koepsell advocates getting a sponsor and explains the difference between mentoring and sponsorship.

Finally, Speaker, Author and Branding Expert Dorie Clark created a brief and practical primer on finding a mentor.

On Tuesday, February 26 at 5 pm, I will be speaking at St. John’s College (SJC) on using LinkedIn effectively. This event is open to students, alumni, staff and faculty of SJC.

On Thursday, March 21, I will be speaking about “Figuring Out Your Next Career Move” at the Broadneck Branch of the Anne Arundel County Public Library from 7 to 8:30 pm. This event is free and open to the public.