Oracle of NY

What’s in a Name?

As my budding blog took shape, I had enough sense to realize the importance of reclaiming of my domain name joshuapersky.com.

It seemed obvious that with regard to publicity, networking and ultimately finding a job, having my blog and resume under my own name would certainly be the easiest way for people to identify and find me.

I did some research and learned that if it came down to a fight, I could probably reclaim my name. The regulatory body which oversaw domain name disputes—the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—decided overwhelmingly in favor of people who sued to obtain the rights to the domain name associated with their legal name when it was registered in bad faith by someone without that name—whom was called a cybersquatter.

I decided to contact the person who had registered my domain name in order to ask him to sell it to me. I was prepared to offer twenty dollars, ten for the registration fee and ten to cover the costs of executing a domain name transfer. If he did not agree, I would file a complaint with ICAAN and take it back.

I expected a difficult time, a request for a large sum of money, an argument and delay tactics—such as my cybersquatter hanging up the telephone or not responding to my emails.

Instead, Richard Liriano did the right thing. He spoke with me, listened to my story and told me his side of the story. He admitted he had registered joshuapersky.com after noticing my viral publicity but said he had done so with the thought of helping me out. He did not want anyone else to take advantage of me.

At first, he offered to retain the domain name yet give me rights to use it as I saw fit. I remained suspicious and insisted on the domain name being registered in my name.

I had to do a bit of research on how to technically implement the transfer, but a couple of calls to Yahoo and Go Daddy technical support, and I was told exactly what to do.

Over the next few days, Richard Liriano and I spoke and emailed each other several times, and he finally agreed to give me the full rights to my name. Not only that, he would not even charge me the ten dollars it cost him to register the domain name.

Richard emailed me:

Now, your probably wondering what do I want in return for the $10 I spent on the domain, well, all that I ask for in return is that if you plan to have a blog (which I highly recommend that you do) that you post (mention) that a fellow New Yorker wanted to help you in your mission in gaining employment and bought the domain for you.
Thanks in advance.
Richard Liriano

The official domain name transfer process took almost a month, but subsequently I was able to link my domain name joshuapersky.com to my oracleofny.comblog, and I was able to thank Richard Liriano as he had requested—by publicizing his story online.

The Oracle of New York

A few days later, when I decided to move forward, I got an interesting surprise.

When I went online to register my domain name joshuapersky.com, I discovered that someone had already claimed it. That was not unusual, I thought, there must be at least several other people with the same name.

However, with a little research, I discovered that my name had been registered on the very day my publicity had gone viral at the end of June. That was shocking!

Had someone seen my story in the media and grabbed my domain name, hoping to make a quick dollar, figuring I would become so famous they could sell it to me or someone else for a handsome profit?

It cost about ten dollars to register a domain name with Yahoo or Go Daddy, and there was a yearly renewal fee, but a popular domain name could be worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars—or more.

Had I been a victimized by a fast-acting, mouse-clicking, speculator in domain names—a cyber swindler?

Since my personal name had already been taken and I was determined to get started, I thought of an original name for the blog and quickly came up with Oracle of NY.

My wife Cindy was from Omaha, and I was a fan of Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha. I had eaten at Warren’s favorite restaurant, Gorat’s Steak House, and it was my favorite restaurant in Omaha too.

Warren was the richest man in the world—and I was an unemployed investment banker in New York City.

We had so much in common!

Most importantly, the domain names oracleofny.com and oracleofnewyork.com were available, so I registered them.

I then signed up on TypePad and started constructing my blog.

The ready-made TypePad templates simplified the process, but it still took a few days to learn how to use the application, get the layout and formatting right and add the basic features I wanted to include.

I initially wrote and posted an overview of my unemployment story and sign board experience, Face of the American Economy, an essay I had written about my profession, Valuations, a page of Internet links to my media exposure, Media Links, and my resume, Resume/CV.

I then started posting the emails I had received from around the world and started blogging about my job-hunting experience and media coverage.

I also posted some Amazon.com advertisements and hoped for the best.

To jump-start my readership, I reached out to all the people who had emailed me from around the world by sending out an email saying that I had started a blog in order to keep in touch with them—and to help me find a job.

I also emailed the link to all my family, friends and professional contacts, including executive recruiters.
Many of my international email pals told me they would forward my blog link to their friends and family—and the number of people viewing my blog immediately spiked into the hundreds.

It was wonderful having a creative outlet—and I was also encouraged to discover my resume was downloaded at least several times a day.

Furthermore, once I had my blog up and running, I had something new and interesting to tell the journalists who contacted me. They did not always include the name of my blog or a link to it in their stories, however, whenever they did, the number of people viewing my blog would spike into the thousands.

At least I had some sense of marketing—enough to establish and maintain a blog. It still was not enough to get me a job, but it was a good start.

Entering the Blogosphere

During the first six months I was unemployed, before my sign board experience, I had been satisfied with a standard format resume, a basic LinkedIn profile and a casual Facebook profile. I did not have a personal brand, a blog or a cohesive marketing platform.

I was not thinking in terms of marketing at all.

I was thinking about job boards, phone calls and networking—essential aspects of any job search—but unless you use them effectively by first developing a brand, marketing platform and strategy, you will need to be very lucky to find a job, especially during a weak economy.

I was not lucky with my job search and did not find a job.

Instead, my family and I got prepared to leave our apartment, put our belongings in storage and face an uncertain future.

Then came my moment of inspiration when I decided to stand out on Park Avenue wearing a sign board and hand out resumes.

It was a wonderful idea, but I did not think of it in terms of marketing or publicity—that was my wife’s idea.

If Cindy had not thought of taking a photograph and sending it out with a press release to several local newspapers, and if her friend Matt Hagan of Bulldog Public Relations had not advise her on how to go about doing that in a professional and effective manner, I doubt I would have gotten much publicity, if any at all—and it certainly would not have happened so fast.

I did not go out to Park Avenue wearing a sign board in order to generate publicity. I was not even prepared for that. I went out to distribute my resume, generate a few new leads and find a job.

 

Once my picture, story and contact information was in newspapers and magazines, on television and popular Internet sites nationally and internationally, I started receiving hundreds of telephone calls and emails from around the world.

Dear Mr. Persky:
Hello. My name is Sun Young living in South Korea.
(It take almost 13 hours to travel from USA to Korea, my country.)
I am just writing to let you know one woman is cheering you in Korea.
Also she is very impressed by your braveness and positive attitude about your life.
I happened on the article about you at Naver, one of the most popular web sites in Korea. It was the time just after visiting Career Center.
My consultant advised me to make a clear goal in my life.
I felt there was no way I could go to.
After reading the article about you, I think I will encourage myself.
I hope you will get a good position soon.
Please remember this. Finally you will win because you are brave and positive.
God will take care of you.
2008.6.26
Sun, your new friend in Korea

Dear Mr. Persky,
I don’t know whether the mail reaches you but I have the strong need to write you some words. I saw the “Weltspiegel” report on unemployment and poverty in New York yesterday on TV in Germany. On the one hand I asked myself why everybody must live in NYC, on the other hand, being an American I could imagine to do so as well.
I was very very impressed by your way trying to solve the problem. I am aware that you don’t need other people to feel sorry for you but I did so in the most positive sense. I would like to let you know that I have seen you and that I will not forget you just for the way in which you present yourself and the courage and pride which you emanate just standing there on Park Ave.
Mr. Persky, I would be very happy if you could let me know when you have found the job you and your family needs so much. Please give my regards and best wishes to your wife and your children and I press my thumbs!
Sincerely, Klaus

Hi 珀 斯 基,
I am a Chinese boy in Hangzhou (周 宁). I'm 19 years old. I have just finished the high school university exams this June and now I'm waiting for the high school admission. I learned your story from our local newspaper. I really admire your courage to put down your status to find job in the street like the people during 1929 to 1933 in your country. Whatever others people says, don't care at all .他 们 只 是 说 风 凉 话 罢 了．Keep up your courage and be yourself.
Good luck with your finding your job.
By the way, when you are tired, I introduce you some Chinese music which will makes you relaxed. I hope you like them.
Please give a reply when you receive my e-mail.

Hi Joshua
Am a guy from Cyprus my name is Christodoulos, not gona offer you a job - sorry. Just wanted to let you know that i personally believe what you are doing is courageous and smart and descent and inspirational. What a better way to find a job. Most people would not have the balls to do what you did. But everyone is wearing a label. The only difference is that you are exposing it to potential employers n if they are smart n thinking outside the box, they’ll hire you. Plus, it seems much more time efficient than e-mailing your CV n cover letter to them, we all know what long procedure and that is n how depressing it can get especially if you are not fresh out from the university. You’ll get a job if you haven’t already am positive. Hey if i saw your ad hear in a Cyprus newspaper, then you have written history my friend, you may even found a new way of searching for a job. I think I’ll print a t-shirt of mine with my CV all over it. Nowadays, everyone can have access on my personal data anyways through Google, Hi5, Facebook n God knows what else. Keep up the good work man. You are not alone now. You owe it to the world to find a job, make a difference at your work n become successful so that new generations can get inspired by you.
Planet love
Christodoulos

Joshua,
Read about you today on NY TIMES -- that is incredibly brave of you and I hope you will find something soon for you and your family.
I just graduated with my MBA and am finding the job market real tough, myself!
Best of luck -- in the meantime, let's get linked in!!
~ Dan

I saw the article about you on AOL...very ingenious...if I were looking to hire someone in your field I would definitely give you a try just based on your creativity and ingenuity...did you get any interviews?
Michael

I saw you on Fox News this morning rather creatively promoting yourself to potential employers. I just wanted to wish you good luck in your endeavors. I'm sure thinking outside of the box is going to pay off for you (especially with the promotion you got from Fox!).

Dear Josh,
I am sorry to see that you have been affected by the down turn but your genius idea has probably landed you many job offers by now. Maybe you should think of being in a creative job like PR or Advertising.

Joshua,
Hats off to you for your creativity, boldness and chutzpah. I certainly could never do what you are doing.

Joshua, I caught your photo in my local paper (Temple, Texas) after they picked it up from AP. I applaud your effort and courage. I am sure you have now been blessed with thousands of offers.

You are an inspiration!

The calls and emails were encouraging, but I had not planned on getting so much publicity and was not sure what to do with the calls and emails that were not job leads—which was the overwhelming majority of them.

My inclination was to respond to each person, so that’s what I did.

At my wife’s urging, I kept my communications brief, so I could concentrate on finding a job—but I made lots of new email pals, Facebook friends and LinkedIn contacts and spoke with many fascinating people from around the world.

It was amazing to get calls from India, China, Malaysia, Japan and Korea, as well as from Argentina, Brazil and Columbia.

Many of the people who contacted me and many of the media people who interviewed me assumed my extensive publicity would immediately lead to re-employment, but that was not the case.

I had not expected the publicity and had not been prepared for it.

I kept doing exactly what I had been doing before—sending out resumes, making phone calls and setting up meetings and interviews. Other than having a lot of public exposure, the only difference was that I had much larger network and half a dozen new and exciting leads.

As far as I was concerned, that was a great success—as that had been my goal all along.

Yet, a few weeks after my initial and intense publicity, my fame continued to blossom, but my job leads did not lead anywhere.

One by one, my job leads fizzled out—or due to business travel, vacations or the worsening economic environment, follow-up meetings were pushed off until late August or early September.

Perhaps if I had developed a cohesive marketing platform to reinforce my resume, experience and personal communications skills, I would have been able to quickly leverage my publicity into a job offer—but that was yet to happen.

Fortunately, by the end of July so many people from all over the country and all around the world had contacted me and continued to contact me with words of encouragement—and my communications with them had become so time-consuming—I knew I had to do something.

I had never considered starting a blog before, but many of the people who called and wrote to me asked me to let them know how things turned out.

Also, many of the journalists who interviewed me asked me to let them know as soon as I found a job.

I also wanted to keep a diary of my media exposure, write about my job hunting experience and the interesting people and opportunities I was encountering, post my resume, find a job—and perhaps even derive some advertising income.

Blogging was getting a lot of media attention and seemed more suitable to my needs than a static web site. My only problem was that I had no idea what blogging might involve or how to get started.

Almost instinctually, I did a search on LinkedIn and contacted a fellow in San Francisco named Brandon Peele whose profile stated he was a consultant in business development and social networking.

I wrote him a brief description of my situation and requested to connect with him.

Brandon quickly accepted my request and replied, “Joshua, Yes, definitely. Get started with a blog. I use TypePad because it’s easy to get started and you can add a ton of features.”

He also included his telephone number, so I called him to learn more—and he was extremely helpful and encouraging.

After speaking with Brandon, I was certainly closer to taking the leap, but I still had hesitations.

Was it really as simple and as inexpensive as he claimed—or was it going to end up being a costly and time-consuming technical nightmare? Would I have enough compelling content to maintain an interesting blog? Would a blog help me or distract me from finding a job?

A Unified Marketing Message

My blog Oracle of NY was a work in progress, but once I had unified and linked my resume, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles to it, and I had started being a more selective and focused about what I posted, I was well on my way to applying the skills and experience I had used to successfully market companies and products internationally—to marketing myself.

“The next step,” Paloma told me, “is to identify your personal brand and incorporate it into all your communications.”

Fortunately, I had been already branded by hundreds of people from around the world who had seen my image and had felt obliged to contact me—so it was not difficult for me to identify my personal brand.

Hundreds of people had emailed and called to tell me how creative and brave I had been to stand out on Park Avenue with a sign board. Furthermore, dozens of people had had told me they had seen my image in the newspaper or on television and I had exuded such integrity, they had been compelled to contact me.

Among these people were the attorney for a prestigious boutique investment bank who arranged an interview for me with the COO, one of the founders of Qualcomm who put me in contact with a business associate and a pioneer doctor of endovascular therapy who invited me to meet him and visit his cancer research and treatment clinic in Yokohama.

It was quite clear to other people—and quickly became clear to me—that my personal brand was creativity, bravery and integrity, so I reinforced my personal brand by infusing it into all my communications.

As soon as I had I identified my personal brand and created a cohesive marketing platform, I had the tools and ability to turn my job leads into offers, start a new job, benefit from a new round of publicity and leverage my entire experience to further my career and bring it to the next level.

A Profile Picture is Worth a Thousand Emails

I studied marketing at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and have plenty of professional marketing experience.

For four years, I helped market satellite communications equipment internationally. Also for four years, I acted as the brand police at an USA-based affiliate of large European bank, ensuring that all of the company’s marketing communications material, including its web site, conformed to the European headquarters’ marketing standards and policies.

I valued the importance of brand recognition, packaging and a uniform message.

So, why didn’t I apply this marketing expertise to myself when I was searching for a job? Why did someone else have to tell me what to do?

When Paloma told me to identify my personal brand, professionalize and unify my LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, resume and blog—it made perfect sense to me. It also seemed like a daunting task.

I had created a LinkedIn profile, but I did not put in much information or keep it fully updated.

My children had lured me onto Facebook, but I did not regard it as a professional venue. I only used it to keep up with them.

My blog www.oracleofny.com was in its infancy—and I was not sure in which direction to take it. I had created the blog to stay in touch with people from all over the world who had contacted me by email and telephone. I also wanted to use it to document my job search. I also thought of it as a creative outlet for my thoughts and writing. I also expected it help me find a job and advance my career—but that was almost secondary.

In short, I wanted my blog to be everything for everyone.

Paloma’s first advice concerned my profile pictures.

On Facebook, my profile picture was a happy, sunny snapshot taken in a playground. On LinkedIn and my blog, I had posted a casual photograph taken by my wife after a Thanksgiving dinner while I had still been working at Houlihan Lokey. I was reclining on a couch, happy and satisfied. I thought it was great, the epitome of success. I was wearing a bright blue and white striped Ralph Lauren Polo button-down shirt and a comfortable, happy smile.

Paloma told me to replace it with a more professional portrait. Apparently, to her I looked more like a laid-back, stuffed turkey than someone she would turn to for financial advice or want to hire. She also suggested I use the same professional portrait on Facebook.

My wife, a professional photographer, said she could take care of the profile picture. During my next visit to Omaha, Cindy asked me to put on my best suit and stand up against the wall. She took a professional business portrait, the style you see on corporate web sites and in annual reports.

I posted my new portrait on LinkedIn, Facebook and on my blog—and that little effort made a world of difference. I was on my way to having a unified and professional marketing platform.

Then I updated my LinkedIn profile, aligning it with my job-search objectives and added a link to my blog.
I also filled out and cleaned up my Facebook profile and added a link to my blog.

My main task then became to professionalize and maintain my blog.

Lesson Learned – Rewrite Your Resume!

• Writing a non-chronological transferable skills resume is a profound and effective transformational experience and an important milestone on the road to managing your career. 

• Even if you submit your standard chronological resume or both resumes to potential employers, by producing a non-chronological transferable skills resume, you can identify your enthusiasm, have your skill set at the tip of your tongue during interviews and be able to confidently tell potential employers how you will save them money, make them money and solve their problems while citing examples from your previous experience.