Disclaimer
The following is a review of a presentation given at FLOSSUK Spring DevOps Conference. The event was held at Mary Ward House in London between 15th-17th March 2016. Although this is a description of a presentation with some dissection of what was discussed it is not a verbatim account and will contain personal impressions and interpretation. The content therefore does not reflect the quality of the original presentation and should be considered a review and personal opinion.
This is one of a series of reviews of the talks I saw at the event.
Disclosure
I should really mention that Rick is also a good friend of mine, I have had the pleasure of working with Rick at a number of events over the last few years and know of his passion and commitment to the community. He is also a dedicated man with a great professional reputation and understanding of the career market.
Open Source Recruiter
Rick Deller is an Open Source recruitment specialist at Eligo. Before you start to instantly make assumptions he is probably one of the few really good recruiters as he does care about the industry and the communities. Rick, and Eligo, are sponsors of a number of community events and Rick is always on hand to help out. One of his ways of contributing is in talks. Last year Rick spoke about how to write a good CV for your next job and this year he returned with the ideas of how to develop yourself as a brand to make your career stronger.
Rick at the start of his presentation
You and Your Brand
Rick wanted to make sure that we all understood that in a world that is quickly becoming dominated by your online presence the notion of public and private are becoming blurred. So part of this is to control your image and project yourself correctly, that is making your brand. When someone looks at you online you have a short period of time in which to make the best impression. There are a number of things you should do:
- Only show core skills
- Show projects
- Core achievements
- Blogs
- Social profile
- Make sure your Linked-In page is up to date
- Peer recommendations
- Be careful of your online attitude
- Make sure you are visible in your community.
There has to be another side of this equation. If you are a company and you are seeking to employ the right people for your positions you can also do a little more to make yourself more attractive to the best applicants. So you should be aware of:
- How you connect, speak to people in their language
- Representation of your business
- Your reputation in the marketplace
- What technologies you use
- The Management structure
- What do your ex-employees say?
- What is the company progression?
- What is the training and skills
As always Rick spoke with a quiet authority on this subject. I have since discussed with Rick his two talks and know that he is keen to return in 2017 with the next stage. He is also developing a workshop to help people practice skills of choosing the right company, presenting themselves and getting a good career path.
[Don't forget that you can join in this conversation by using the comments form or by tweeting at @shadowcat_mdk]
