CEOs may seem scary, but at some point most of them were in your seat.

I’ve been interviewing at a company over the past few weeks for a position I didn’t want. The position was way to analytical for me, and though I can pull data and make pivots tables and write up reports… I’m a people person and much more than 25% of my day doing that drives me pretty nuts.

My first interview was with the director of finance, he made me do math on the whiteboard.

My second interview wa with the director of product, he couldn’t promise that my day would be less that 60% analytical stuff.

Somehow, these people still liked me enough to invite me back to speak with the CEO today. I guess I’m pretty good at math. Though the position I first came to them for was this overly analytical opening, in my second meeting they mentioned potential marketing openings. I figured, if I met the CEO, and he liked me, chances are he could recomend me for one of those. CEOs get to make decisions like that

So I met the CEO, and within a few minutes we agreed that the analyst role was not for me, and that I was more suited for openings in marketing and web development. He then had the CIO and CMO meet with me… you know because CEOs can do that sort of stuff. I hit it off with both of them, and they are now entertaining the option of bringing me on for jobs that I probably would  never have been interviewed for because they were impressed with my energy, and know that the CEO will back their decision.

Lesson learned… if the CEO is going to meet with you… you show up.

At which point I realized we should go together, and invite the other unemployed people we know. Let’s be serious, we aren’t doing anything else more important, and waiting in line can be entertaining. We had five people join us for the meeting of the unemployed and hungry.

It was amazing how much help we could be for each other. Kyla is a former HR person so she’s incredibly knowledgeable about the application game. She taught us about the importance of reading the post and responding with exact level of experience desired, even if it’s a stretch, simply to get into the real applicant pool. I will be getting her my old roommate who works as a recruiting manger to talk to about next steps in her HR career.

I connected Loren with a contact of mine that works for the Ant Farm to talk about trailer marketing. Then we offered to give Uti leads for teacing jobs at private schools where we know deans/assistant deans.

We all listened to what each of us was looking for and will be keeping an eye out. Now I just need to find the next free meal to host another group at. Is it wrong to meet at Cafe 50’s for free foor pajama night?

In the morning I filled out the online application for a job that my old roommate connected me to, and that I have an interview for on Monday.
I responded to emails from people I met last night and forwarded resumes of more qualified people to hiring managers I knew were looking, and some recruiters who are always appreciative of talent that comes across their desk.

Then I went corporate. I attended a new consultant briefing at Msquared, a firm that specializes in helping big companies connect with “contingent talent” (consultants). I had been turned on to them a few weeks ago through the Product Development and Management Association of Los Angeles. It was a good experience for me for a few reasons, most of which surrounding the fact that I was the most junior person there by at least 10 years. First, it gave me the opportunity to hear from people who have a lot more experience than me to just know what the future could hold. It also afforded me the chance to meet with the consultant matchmakers of sorts so that they could understand better what I bring to the table. I expressed to them that I should be there go to girl for companies that are requesting a team of consultants because I’m the only one in the room who’d be happy to work under one of the others in attendance. The presenters also emphasized the importance of having multiple resumes up on their site to showcase different skills and experiences.

When I got back to my computer the final proofs were ready for my business cards, made by Printrunner, a friend of mine’s company. It’s always good when a connection can save you money. I responded to a few emails about potential jobs, and sent an email to the Director of Young Alumni relations for the UCLA Fund, who I met last night at the UCLAlumni Academy dinner, about the possibility of being her Assistant Director. I forwarded an inviation for an upcoming Maniatv event to Jun and Ya-kai of FutureDelivery (who I had the pleasure of speaking with earlier this week) and they were grateful. Last, there were a few emails back and forth following up on questions about the Iphone application suite, which is getting more an more exciting by the day.

In the evening I had a call with a product manager of a very big tech product, who I had been connected to through the person I had coffee with on Monday who was looking for a business development person, who I had been connected to through Andrew of Mixergy. This was a conversation that might have been one of the best half hours of advice I could have ever been given. Highlights from our talk are that I should definitely wait as long as I can for an Assistant/Assiciate Product Manager position at a company whos product passionate about. If I have to take a job that’s less dynamic, he reminded me that there are always tons of ways to learn no matter where I am. He also made the very relavant point that I can never have too much technical knowledge and that learning wordpress, and then php/python or another programming language will not only strengthen the products I develop, but earn me more credibility with the engineers and potential employers. Finally, he encouraged me to become what he called a “social media maven”, in todays tech world there is nothing more powerful that a good blog, an active twitter, and Facebook knowledge.
I spent the rest of my evening trying to get my website up and running (still a work in progress) and I’m committed to doing it myself so that I can learn the backend. One of these days it will happen.

After drinks with friends to celebrate one of us becoming a US Citizen (he was waiting until Bush was out of power), I came home and did some more follow up emails with the Msquared folks, and my connection to Non-profit consultants, before coming back to by blog and my twitter and my facebook to continue to connect and learn about connecting in new ways.

Tonight I went to Digitala an event by digital drinks, designed to help tech people in the area network. I made some great connections:
1) I met a founder of gumgum.com who specializes in content copyright management, who offered to help me with the Iphone app ideas to make sure they are legal and to advise me on how to monetize the ad/lead revenue properly.
2) He recommended I meet a founder of streamy.com which isn’t launched yet, but specializes in RSS feed aggregation, another gem of a connection. He’s looking for capital investment and advice on how to get it, so I offered to connect him with Marcy from i-lighter, my personal advisor and long time secondary parent, as I think their product are synergistic (yeah I said it!) and that she could be really good at giving him good advice.
both 1 + 2 love the iphone app idea, see its potential and wished me the best of luck and offered to help with advice.
3) I met a person who recently returned to LA to pursue tv/film production, but who is a pricipal in a drug resale company that allows patients to order prescriptions drugs at their doctors office to be dispensed immediately or sent by mail to their home. I offered to connect him with my father’s large cardiology practice in Florida. The doctors make money and it provides a service to the patients as well as they don’t have to go to more than one location. And in Florida the less the elderly drive, the more we’re helping the community at large.
4) I met an advertising sales rep at Myspace who I connected with Tyler from Mahalo who is looking for a director of sales.
5) I met a friend of my friend Jenny’s who I will also be reccomending to Tyler from Mahalo as someone who can help build his sales team as she has much experience in doing so. I’m also going to connect her with the recruiter at Answerfinancial who got me an interview there so that her resume won’t only be submitted through TheLadders.
6) Last (though technically first) I met a guy who is looking for full time work in marketing consulting or strategy and I passed along his card to my friend Jenny who is recruiting for an Interactive agency .
Let’s just say I made a lot of connections that helped me, and used my connections to help others, and that’s what a professional networker should do.

I have learned from friends that work in recruiting that posting a job on Monster, Careerbuilder, the Ladders, Dice or other career sites all aggregated by Indeed.com is often a last resort, and that often they get bombarded with so many responses most resumes are never read. The percentage of applicants’ files reviewed is slighter higher for posting on corporate career sites, but there you stand up against the issue that chances are there is already an internal recruit, they are just going through the motions.

Today’s job hunt is about connections. I don’t just mean LinkedIn or Plaxo, but who you really know and who they know.

How connections have worked for me in the past week:
1) I had lunch with the director of User Experience for Mahalo, the user powered search engine brain child of Jason Calacanis. How did this happen? Though my friend Andrew Warner, founder of Mixergy a networking afficianato.
2) I have two meetings setup this week with non-profit consultants who are some of the biggest names on the west coast in this field. How did these get setup? Herb Tobin, the east coast non-profit guru made a few calls, and with his backing, the two others were happy to help. From my initial interaction with them it seemed they would have been happy either way, but I think they were quicker to return my call with his stamp of approval.
3) A boyfriend of a college friend of mine owns his own company and has offered to let me do some consulting on their product and operations, hooray for building that portfolio.
4) For my bar concept “The Hub” a friend of mine in real estate development who is also ridicuously connected (2,000 phone numbers and counting) will be introducing me to the restaraunteur behind the pay by the ounce wine bar in Culver City.
5) A friend of mine that does PR for SBE Entertainment (yeah the Hiedi and Spencer one that opened SLS hotel most recently) has warned me that they are going through a reorg and that I should hold off. She offered to introduce me to another similar restaurant concept innovators once she thought of a nice one.

My mother jokes that I’m her only daughter (out of four) that believes a connection is better than broadcasting my talents to every employer looking, but she see that it does work.

Problems with relying on connections include that often you could have made the call yourself, or that your connector has their own agenda and will delay your introduction until they have completed their business.

Paul Graham blogs that Los Angeles is a city that is based around fame (http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html) but I think he meant connections. Though a network is loosely defined as who you know and who knows you, we are equaly if not enamored with personal celebrities as we are with those whose faces are plastered on TMZ. Personal celebrities being people who you know that have social networks that include friends with boats, houses in vacation destinations, can get your resrvations at Mozza, can get you into Foxtail, or that knows all the temples in town to match you with the right High Holidays service for your budget.

Time to make some more connections….

Here’s what I’ve ascertained so far:
1) I should try to find a position where I can capitalize on my talents (event planning, non profits, data analysis) while working with people who I can learn new skills from (product management, web design, restaurateuring).
2) This is a great time to work on my own inventions and projects including:
a) “The Hub”- a bar where there are taps at your table for beer.
b) “Self Service Cups” – a green reusable cup that can be refilled at unmanned stations at theme parks
c) “One Status” – an Iphone App that allows you to update your status once for all social networks.
3) I should take this time to learn new skills (web design, consulting, Bed & Breakfast management)
4) If I wish to establish myself as a consultant, do so pro bono work to create a portfolio.