I came to blogging fairly late, in keeping with my tendency to listen, analyze, and discover the meaning of something before acting. Paradoxically, I was also an early adopter of social media, observing and consulting behind the scenes on the uses of new media with my clients. As I worked with clients, I came to the understanding that blogs are just a different way to tell a story.

I warmed up to storytelling as a guest blogger here on my friend Michael’s The Red Recruiter and other great forums – Career Rocketeer , Careerealism and  Brainzooming to name a few and other individual blogs that I will acknowledge soon – provided by my talented friends in the industry. As I worked into this new way of telling a story, it became apparent that what I was doing was preparing to launch my own blog community, a place where I can share my experiences and educate people interested in innovation, entrepreneurship, branding, career development and culture fit – a few of my longtime passions (I admit, the list is much longer and yes, a blog is necessary).

You readers have helped me learn how to tell a story effectively. I have discovered how to read the audience, choose topics that resonate, experiment with points of view, and share experiences and personal anecdotes. All of this has been done with the goal of giving you, the reader, the best and most current thinking on personal branding, career strategy, self-awareness and the tools of self-assessment necessary to plot a sustainable career path.

Along the way I have discovered what is important in social media: the ability to interact and observe, participate and share. Now I’m hooked, and ready to branch out and launch my own blog at TalentCulture.com, while still standing in occasionally as a guest blogger here and in a few other forums. I will use these conversations with you to continue to develop my thinking on the importance of culture fit, branding, and how to communicate the value each of us brings to our employers. (OK, many other topics too).

Guest blogging has been a great experience, one I wouldn’t trade in. It has opened up opportunities to share articles as a guest expert for several ebooks and a book, blog on a few great sites, and has helped broaden my sense of what is important to career seekers and the collective “people” experiencing this concept we know as new media.

Please take a moment to visit TalentCulture.com in a number of weeks (it will be rebranded), and be on the lookout for our new blog. You will meet the rest of my amazing team and contributors. We will certainly cover the topics of resumes and career tips and will look beyond to provide meaningful discussions on a wide array of topics: the impact of culture – employee, employer, brand, popular; work/life balance, and innovative thinking about emerging technologies and the green/sustainable market and what they mean for careerists and the larger context of business. We’ll take on generational issues. We’ll look at how new media can build your brand, and use new media to tell you how. We may even get philosophical…

Your support has helped me take a great step forward in my personal development as an entrepreneur, and brought clarity to how I can best help those who want to control their careers, rather than be victims of timing and circumstance. It’s a journey, and this is the first step. Thanks for taking it with me.

Photo Credit, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

In this downright weird economy it can be hard to find the humor in a career search, but it turns out humor is a great teacher.  Here’s a story about a square peg and a round hole – and what can be learned from finding a way to make a square-peg prospect’s personality fit with the round culture of the hiring company.

I was heading a retingency search for a VP-Technology for a cloud services start up with 45 people. In developing a search strategy to guide the selection, I worked with the CEO to define the position: skills, educational profile, past experience, management style, all the many attributes of ‘culture fit’. After a long meeting where we crafted a job description and a better sense of their authentic employer brand – and in which I privately thought, “I hope Jesus Christ is looking for a job,” I headed off to my favorite coffee shop to regroup.

As usual clusters of animated people gathered around power outlets debating the benefits of various technologies. One man, sitting off in a corner, was watching the nearest group with a smug smile on his face. I sat with a latte to simply watch the fun (I love to people watch).

Midway through a heated discussion of security in the cloud, the lone guy – dressed like a hard-core software ninja in ponytail, Birkenstocks and shorts – leaned towards the group and launched into an explanation of cloud-based spam, phishing and virus protection approaches. I realized, as I watched him work the small crowd, that I had found our candidate. My 3-D vision told me he had the technical chops; although he was wardrobe challenged, he mesmerized the group he addressed; and he had self-confidence and a touch of arrogance – all attributes we were looking for. I picked up my latte and asked to join him.

In an interesting hour’s discussion I extracted more information: Jake had a wry sense of humor, was looking for a job, spent a lot of time alone developing software, and needed a brush-up on his social skills. The next task was to convince my CEO that we had our VP-Technology.

After looking at dozens of resumes and enduring interviews with people who were well qualified on paper but lacked the certain spark of the guy in the coffee shop, the CEO agreed to interview him.

Of course Jake showed up for the interview in sneakers, jeans and someone else’s logo polo shirt. He asked challenging questions and displayed impatience when he didn’t get the straight answer. He bluntly told the CEO what he thought about the company’s website, its product claims, and then offered three areas where he thought he could make a difference. In meetings later that day with the start-up’s technical staff he was greeted with suspicion which quickly warmed to acceptance as it became apparent he not only knew his stuff, but was advocating for positions the staff thought were right but hadn’t been able to socialize with the senior team.

It took a bit to convince the CEO – we still conducted a selective search using all the ‘right’ methods, including job advertising on the internet, new media, contacts in my private network and more – but nowhere did we find the flash of brilliance + something unique this guy had. I was able to convince the CEO that Jake’s lack of ability to dress well and his challenging interview style were actually pluses – because he had the right technical skills, a certain edgy charm, and credibility with the technical team.

It turns out that every career search demands that we challenge our assumptions and remain open to possibilities. Hiring processes are essential but creativity and that 3-D sense I mentioned are just as important. Each search comes down to people hiring people. The ability to see the various angles and gifts of each candidate – while keeping a sense of humor, and looking beyond the square hole/round peg trap – can mean the difference between the right hire and a long-term staffing retention issue.

Tell us how your intuition or spidey-sense has helped in a job search – and let us know your thoughts on humor!

Guest Blogger: Meghan M. Biro, founder of TalentCulture, is a globally-recognized expert in talent acquisition, creative personal and corporate branding and new media strategies that accelerate talent acquisition.

Photo Credit, R’eyes