Today, there are numerous options for networking and searching for the right professional opportunity. LinkedIn. Ladders. Monster. The landscape of job-related technology solutions is overwhelming with each promising candidates a better, more fulfilling career. While many solutions can give job seekers a place to start, Brother Mark Heckmann ’11 has differentiated his technology by giving candidates a platform free of the biases of paid content. Beginning next month, with the launch of Imagine Careers (www.imaginecareers.com), professionals have an option to look for connections and opportunities based on relationships of trust.
Why did you start Imagine Careers?
I started the company because the universe of career advancement information is noisy, disaggregated and full of bias. The staples of an online job search today — job boards and corporate recruiters — exist simply to share biased, paid content with job seekers desperate enough to pursue opportunities rooted in bad information and intentions focused on the company, not the candidate.
What is the purpose of Imagine Careers?
Imagine Careers is a career discovery and advancement platform for all professionals. Just as Pandora recommends music to users based on their historical tastes and preferences, we’re building a recommendation and curation engine that can do the same for career content. The types of content being curated include companies, credentials, meet- up groups, individuals worth meeting, skill development opportunities, jobs and other forms of structured professional data. Perhaps the most important differentiation between what Imagine Careers does and other players in the professional networking space is that we do not accept paid content. We work for the talent, and that’s a brand new thing in this space. Our beta launches in April 2015.
How important is it to make and keep professional contacts?
These are critical skills and assets to have, but only if you know how to use them. I speak at conferences and colleges frequently and ask people how they quantify their networks, and most do so by quantifying the number of contacts instead of the value the network has created. Having a value-oriented mindset can drastically change how you approach professional networking.
Is Beta a good place to foster professional contacts?
Very much so. Best practices for professional development through networking rely on the creation of trust. Starting a conversation with a fraternal bond establishes a natural, shared foundation from which trust can be easily built. I’ve seen this strategy work well for fraternities, branches of the military, alumni networks, neighborhoods of origin and other affiliation-based connections.
How can brothers maximize their professional opportunities for future success?
It’s important to recognize that professional development is no longer an internal function of companies. There was a time when management wanted to create ladders of opportunity to develop talent in-house. A mixture of technological advancement, outsourced training and consulting, the availability of global talent pools and other trends in HR management has eroded that process, making it critical for individuals to guide their own professional development. Very few professionals have figured how to do it well. Additionally, there is more content available for professional skill and net- work development than ever before. The proliferation of free or paid skill development sites and professionalized social groups has democratized access to career opportunities outside of the workplace. To the actives, you cannot make the assumption that your academic curriculum will give you everything you need to secure your first job. If you see a software skill or technology platform in a job description, chances are good you can dedicate a weekend to learn it well enough to be apprentice level. When you apply for a job requiring that skill, you’ll be one of the only applicants who knows it because you took enough initiative to be self-taught.
You graduated fairly recently. How did Beta Theta Pi Denison prepare you for “the real world”?
I was fortunate enough to hold a leadership position in the chapter that exposed me to the good and bad sides of organizational leadership. The stakes and motivations change when you transition from college to workforce, but the dynamics of creating incentives, maintaining relationships and demonstrating leadership translate well. I’m very thankful for my brothers, the chapter and the larger fraternity for those reasons.
Brothers can connect with Mark at [email protected].