Photo credit to digitalart

I know that the title I selected for this blog represents a near impossibility. Technology in the past decade has been developing at a furious pace, and from what I read it is expected to speed up even more. And that makes it even more difficult to stay abreast with. In this blog I want to limit my intent to two areas when I talk about technology. The first area is the technology in your particular profession. And regardless of what that profession is, new and technological advancements are parts of every profession. Companies are very interested in reducing costs, and they therefore embrace technology to keep up their levels of competitiveness with others in the same industry. The second area is the technology that evolved in the past decade in the area of social media.

It is highly advisable that while in transition you stay on top of technological developments in your particular profession. Hiring managers are more interested in hiring someone who’s up-to-date as opposed to someone who’s been out for a while and who lacks the latest technology skills and therefore whose learning curve will be steep and possibly prolonged.

Equally important, I see the need for people in transition to show potential employers their proficiency in using social media. At the very least, one should use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook but also potentially some others. The aforementioned social media could give a job seeker a huge advantage by acquiring a personal brand and then promulgating it to would-be employers or other networking folks. As a career coach, I strongly recommend to my clients that they spend no less than one hour a day—and possibly longer—in learning the functionalities of these new and developing and ever-changing tools. Many recruiters and hiring managers take advantage of them, and so should you.