If you want to advance your career in HR, you’ve got to be LinkedIn.  There are more than 8.5 million experienced professionals (lots from HR!) from around the globe in in LinkedIn.   Get this, all 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn!  499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees.  And it’s FREE.  What else do you need to know.  LinkedIn needs to be part of your career advancement strategy. To find out more, Guy Kawasaki has compiled a top 10 list of ways to use Linkedin to help you increase your visibility and you access to the job.  It’s the best I’ve seen.  Check it out here.

I recently read about the Chief HR Officer of a large software firm who once tried an experiment. He offered new hires in one of their new small divisions the choice between the title HR Manager and HR Representative. Although the Rep job was $1,500 a year more, most people took the Manager title.

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How would you like to get paid to go on job interviews? Well, now you can. Unbelievable as it may sound. A new online company called NotchUp is looking to take the HR world by storm.  They plan to flip the whole interview process on it’s head by having employers pay job candidates for their time. Here’s how it works….

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Yesterday’s article on the importance of “giving first” reminded me of a presentation I attended several years ago. Richard Carlson, author of numerous books, the most famous of which was Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, was giving a lecture in front of a packed house. I don’t remember much about his talk…except one thing. It happened to be the simplest suggestion he made, the one that required the smallest change.

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It’s clear that HR professionals that have mentors have an edge over those that don’t. They perform better on the job. They get promoted more quickly. They earn higher salaries. And they report more job and career satisfaction. It’s an undisputable fact. So acquiring a mentor should be one of your highest career development priorities.

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With almost daily news reports of companies laying off workers, or filing for bankruptcy, or going out of business altogether, losing your job suddenly doesn’t sound all that unlikely. That not only applies to folks in Human Resources, but to just about anyone in business as companies try to stay competitive.  You don’t want to be surprised when this happens…or unprepared if you’re called on the red carpet.  With that in mind, here are some strategies either to avoid being laid-off, or to cushion the blow if it comes.

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….MAKING THE JUMP FROM BEING AN INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR TO BEING A MANAGER OF OTHER HR PEOPLE.

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To be perfectly frank, if you think you’re going to get an executive HR job by surfing websites alone, you’re crazy! If you’re looking for a Director, VP or Senior VP level role in HR, you are a heck of a lot better off doing other things. Like networking, leveraging your relationships, working with headhunters, presenting at HR industry conferences and following up on leads that you hear about. Having said all this, you absolutely can get some good HR leads by spending time at the right websites. However, don’t waste your time going to 100 sites. Here are the top 10 executive websites that would will give you the biggest bang for the buck in your HR job search:

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Bootstrapper has come out with 100 articles that every Human Resources professional should read. This is an awesome list of articles that range from management development, recruitment, talent management, interviewing and more. Laura Milligan has done a great job in compiling this list. I would really urge you to take the time to read through all these articles. However, if you don’t have the time, here are the 3 best articles on this list that you absolutely MUST read…

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LeBron James is 22 years old and arguably the best player in the NBA. However, you cannot debate what would happen to his team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, if he ever decided to leave — the value and performance of that franchise would drop like a rock! What does this have to do with HR? Here’s what. It’s been proven that losing any of the top 10% of your performers has 5-10 times more business impact than losing your average performers. It’s true in NBA. And it’s true in any company. And, the best HR folks don’t wait for their top talent to walk out the door before trying to keep them - it’s too late then. They work with their business put proactive steps in place before these folks bolt. With that in mind, here are 10 steps you can take right now to keep your best people.

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