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Often the area in the Capital Region is called SmAlbany because of how everyone know's each other; in some cases, its called SmAlbany because of how some businesses act like it is smaller than it truly is.

When you live in a small community, it is important to get to know as many people as possible in the community and find ways to collaborate. The best way to do this is to "bebig".

bebig - V. to speak highly of your coworkers, competitors and colleagues and share ideas with them

Bebigging is a practice that can also be called practicing "co-opeitition". Even though you may be in the same business as a competitor, sharing best practices with one another leads to more abundance, and there is often plenty to go around for everyone. Very often, even though maybe 80-90 % of what you do is similar, the 10 % that each of you do differently can be combined into a stellar package for potential clients.

In my own business, I collaborate with 50 other independent consultants and several public speakers as part of The Consulting Alliance. As an entrepreneurship professor, I meet with other entrepreneur teachers, trainers and professors through LinkedIn groups, entrepreneur breakfasts at RPI and through face to face coffee chats. With fellow marketers and HR professionals, I invite guest blog entries, talk best practices, and share resources.

When you practice bebigging, you find far greater opportunities than you would on your own. In the world of HR and Careers, bebigging a past employer, colleague or competitor will show the world that you are confident in your own skin and able to recognize talent.

Who will you bebig today?

by Braathe Enterprises Virtual Intern Liska Wilson

According to the Australian Blueprint for Career Development, a career involves managing life, learning, and work. Using that definition as a reference, I broke down managing my career into three different, intertwining plans. It's still a work in progress, but if nothing else, I hope sharing it will give you another perspective on your career.

Here is an overview of each plan:

Career Development Plan (CDP)
My CDP covers the work side of my career; it is a timeline of work roles I want to have. For me this even includes volunteer work and other unpaid work roles.

Professional Development Plan (PDP)
My PDP covers the learning side of my career. Workshops, classes, etc. are some things that go into my PDP. The goal of my PDP is to help me develop my resume and grow as a professional. In turn, my resume and personal growth will help me move forward in my CDP. My PDP is my favorite plan to execute and also the most important. For more on professional development planning, read my 3-part series in the Golden Briefcase Blog.

Budget Plan (BP)
My BP covers the life side of my career, but also trickles over into the professional side and both help me make decisions about the work side of my career. My budget includes my income, expenses, and how I'll achieve various monetary goals.

Overall, the most important part of how I manage my career, especially with all these plans, is that I write them down.

Do you have a written plan for your career development? If no, why not?

For more information, visit
http://www.shesabossnetworks.blogspot.com

Hire hire hire so you don't have to fire fire fire! When you have excess help, you can train, retrain, and retain others by avoiding burnout, poor customer service and improper planning.

The time is now to find people for the holiday season and to backfill talent. If you are unsure how to approach recruiting in a proactive way, its time to hunker down and call in an expert or just make the effort yourself to do some hiring BEFORE you need to do hiring!

Get into the hiring frenzy! Don't lose talented people to your competitors here in the Capital Region by waiting too long to find talent!

Come by the Times Union Job Fair today from 10-4. I will be there 10-1 doing free resume critiques.

If you can't make it today, Braathe Enterprises will be offering free resume critiques through October 17. Send your resume to resumes@saratogacollege.com and we will give it a review!

Since January 2011, Braathe Enterprises has mentored over 80 students through the Braathe Enterprises Virtual Internship Program. Working remotely with students for 5-7 hours per week, we have managed to produce some great improvements to resumes, engaged in incredible skills building and personality building activities, and helped students to gain experience with companies while they are still in college.

This fall, we are going on tour with our Virtual Internship concept. Tuesday October 2nd, we will be speaking at the University of Southern California to my current interns and future candidates. Sunday October 7th, we will be doing a free webinar covering how the program works as well for prospective interns and prospective for-profit and not-for-profit companies.

For more information, visit http://saratogacollege.eventbrite.com

Sometimes the most difficult decision in the job search is where to look for work. From job fairs to job portals like indeed.com, there often is a sea of information out there on where to find a job and how to find a job.

The best way I have found to find work is via developing relationships. Today, I encourage you to reach out to someone today who has nothing to do with your current job search (whether it be me, a career counselor like Dr. Tom Denham, or other trusted advisor) and find new ways to develop your search into one that is productive and more focused.

While online searches and job fairs can be helpful, sometimes well-timed and well-placed efforts in networking and meeting up with others can be extremely valuable.

We have been delighted to see other companies embrace the concept of virtual internships since we started ours in January of 2011. Here is an excerpt from a recent article called 10 Virtual Fall Internships You Can Apply for Right Now

"A virtual internship is a seriously awesome way to gain professional experience while saving hours in commute time and tons of money in gas or train fares. They're also fantastic if you live in a smaller city with fewer opportunities in your field. So what are you waiting for? Remote internships can be found on almost any internship search website, but here at Her Campus we did the hard part for you." Darci Miller

LinkedIn recommendations and video testimonials are two great ways to get people you've worked with, worked for and who you've made a difference with to tell people how wonderful you are.

Having someone other than yourself tout your greatness and your abilities is an easy way for others to find out what you really stand for.

For LinkedIn recommendations, the best way to get them is to give them. Find someone in your connections who has made a different and write a glowing recommendation. If you don't know what to write, check an email you may have sent to that person in the past complimenting them or read other people's recommendations.

For video testimonials, more people have access to video than ever; they can post it themselves to a YouTube channel or Vimeo channel, send you the video via Dropbox, or record it right on your computer.

Get out there by getting people out there telling the story of you!

With all of the ways to communicate, the type of person you are as a communicator and can impact how successful you are at growing your network.

What grade would you give yourself? Let's look at the different type of networkers according to this scale...

FF - Frightened Freeloader - the FF networker meets as many people as can as much as they can, collects business cards, makes promises, yet fails to make any or many strong relationships. They often are afraid of any competitor coming in to take what limited business they have and have a scarcity mentality

DD - Doutbful Dominator - the DD networker doubts their own abilities, but finds it necessary to dominate every conversation they are involved in. They don't find time for others but always seem to dominate the circles they are in

CC - Consistent Connector - the CC understands the value of connecting, but doesn't follow up quite enough to make network effective. However, they do spend a great deal of time out in public and on the scene so people know who they are.

BB - The Brave Businessperson - the BB uses tools like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find others who have unique complementary skills and abilities, and seeks contact in between network events. They reach out to competitors to establish rapport and referrals. They realize not every contact they meet is worth following up on.

AA - The Alliance Athlete - the AA does everything the BB does, but does it better. They form strategic alliances with competitors, follow through on every person they meet, subtracts contacts with those that aren't a good fit, and strengthens contacts with the core people they already have a relationship with.

Where do you fit on this spectrum? What would you add to these descriptors?

I joked with one of my friends that one of the reasons I get invited to be a panelist or participant in events is because I'm the Charles Nelson Reilly of my network.

Reilly was one of the funniest people from my childhood and he always added some wit and charm to the shows he appeared on.

In my life, I've always found that when there has been a need for someone in a pinch, when I get a call I am able to deliver a quality presentation, class, or contribution on short notice.

What can you do to become that reliable and energetic presence for those in your network or business?

Here is more on Charles Nelson Reilly from Wikipedia:

He was also a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, appearing more than one hundred times. Because Reilly was such a lively and reliable talk-show guest and lived within blocks of the Burbank studios where The Tonight Show was taped, he was often asked to be a last-minute replacement for scheduled guests who did not make it to the studio in time. During this time, Reilly was perhaps best known as a fixture of game shows, primarily due to his appearances as a regular panelist on the television game show Match Game.