Tag: #jobsearch

LinkedIn Profile for your Job search

If you are on social media at all for your job search, the first place you want to start is with LinkedIn. I recently participated in a webinar hosted by Lisa Rangel of Chameleon Resumes. I encourage you to participate in one of her free webinars. If you can afford her paid services they are also probably high quality but she does provide a lot of good information for free.

You will want to have a complete profile. This is not the time to skimp. Many recruiters use LinkedIn to find passive and active candidates so you need to put your best foot forward. This will also be one of the primary places to network.

Name: Please use the name you go by most often. This is the same with your resume. You do not have to use the name your Mom calls you.

Headline: You will want to be sure that your headline has keywords that a recruiter might search on. If I were in the job hunt I would use “HR, Recruiting, Talent Acquisition” and similar keywords. Don’t worry boss, I’m not looking! Pete Leibman puts it this way: Say what you are, who you help, how you make their life/work better and proof that you are credible. You get 120 characters, make them count.

Location and Industry: You will want your location to be where you want to work. It is a big turn-off to most recruiters if candidates are not local. We don’t like paying for relocation and a lot of people are “open” to other locations until the rubber meets the road.

Contact info: You can control who has access to your information but I would encourage you to let your connections have access to a phone number and email address. It is frustrating when people apply for a job posting on LinkedIn and they don’t have any contact information in their profile. You can also add your Twitter handle, website, blog, RSS feed, etc…

Summary: You have 2000 characters available. Jenny Foss of JobJenny.com puts it well: Tell your story. You want to be engaging and original. Also, write it in the first person. It sounds weird otherwise. Lastly, you can have an actionable item at the end of your summary. If I am reading your summary should I contact you? Read your blog?

Summary uploads: You can upload logos, images, videos, documents or presentations. Remember, it is better to have a little too much info than not enough. I said a little too much.

Customize your public profile URL: It just looks better. Linda Cheung tells you how.

Experience: This is from your resume. Be sure it looks good. How far back you go is up to you but the more recent and relevant the better.

Skills and Endorsements: It is a good idea to ask a few people for endorsements. I don’t hire people based on endorsements but every bit helps.

Education: Unless you think it is to your advantage, I would leave the dates off. Also keep in mind relevancy. You do not have to put down irrelevant education.

Organizations: I would keep them professional and neutral. Stay away from politics and religion.

Groups: These are a great way to network with people in your profession or with similar interests. Some are public and some you need to approved to join.

See how easy that was 🙂 I don’t know about you, but this was a multi-day project for me. I also periodically update my profile. After writing this I am not happy with mine! But wait, there’s more! Now you need to connect with people and post! More on that soon.

You can observe a lot by just watching.
Yogi Berra

Networking in your job search

Networking sounds salesy to a lot of people. Many people think of some dude name Biff going around handing out business cards for some multi-level marketing deal. But it should not and does not have to be like that. BusinessDictionary.com defines networking this way:

Creating a group of acquaintances and associates and keeping it active through regular communication for mutual benefit. Networking is based on the question “How can I help?” and not with “What can I get?”

Help other people… what a novel idea. For many people this is not a very easy thing to do. You may be panicking a little right now, thinking that you don’t know that many people very well. That is OK. On the podcast Question of the Day they mention a study that showed loose acquaintances are actually better at helping you find a job than close friends! So let’s start there.

What is a great place to have lots of friends that you don’t know very well? Social Media! You can use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to build and maintain a network. If you do not already do this, you need to start and once you start, don’t stop. Ideally you will keep your network and expand it as your career grows. If you already have a social network and it is not geared towards professional development then you might need to start fresh or at the very least start heading in a different direction.

Keep in mind that networking is a marathon, not a sprint race.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
Dale Carnegie

Making a hit list for your job search

Another quote that rings true in your job search is from Jim Key: “You’ll only hit the targets at which you aim.” If you are applying for EVERYTHING you will probably end up with NOTHING. This is why a lot of people get frustrated in their job search. They apply for hundreds of jobs and never hear anything or they get a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” email.

At the beginning of any job search you need to start a list of industries, companies and positions you are targeting. You will add to this list as you go through your job search. I recommend using a spreadsheet but it is up to you. If you use a spreadsheet you can cut, paste, insert, sort and filter your data. This can also turn into your tracking spreadsheet, which I will discuss in a later post.

Your first four columns should be Industry, Profession, Company and Position.

Now start listing them. Each row does not have to have all three columns filled yet but you want to list out what you think are good matches for your background AND what you want to do. You may find that somethings you CAN do you don’t WANT to do and some things you WANT to do you CAN’T, at least not yet. To find more information on bridging the gap between what you want to do and what you can do look up Informational Interviews, they are awesome!

For instance, for me, my list would start like this:

If you want to look for more ideas on occupations check out O*NET Online. You can look up occupations by name or look up occupations by abilities, interests, knowledge, skills and much more. This step is important because what if you want to get into recruiting but you don’t look up “talent acquisition?” You could miss a lot.

This step should not stop you from applying for positions or looking for work but it will assist you in focusing your efforts. In my opinion there is only one thing you should do before applying for any job, have a good resume. I did not say great or perfect, a good one will do to start.

As you go through your job search you will add to this list and I encourage you to change it into your tracking spread sheet. Call it a very basic JSM (Job Search Management) tool.

Be sure you positively identify your target before you pull the trigger.
Tom Flynn