Submitted by HRgorilla
The vast majority of employers and recruiters search LinkedIn before deciding whether to interview you. If you're conducting a job search, do you know how to optimize LinkedIn to your advantage? Here are a few ideas. Please add additional ones in comments!
1.After your title, add your industry (if that's the one you want a job in) and then pump it up with your brand if you wish: "Go-to SAP Project Manager"
2.In your summary, nail your value proposition and competitive advantages.
3.Use the common keywords recruiters or hiring authorities would use when searching for someone like you.
4.Put in a comprehensive list of keywords under Specialties to attract search engine attention
5.Under Experience, just hit your main achievements and contributions. Use numbers whenever possible.
6.If your title isn't the one a hiring manager would use to search for someone who does what you do, put your formal, legal title in, then a slash, and then the title that you would have in most companies: "Business Continuity Analyst / Business Continuity Manager"
7.Make your profile as complete as possible. Include links to any websites or blogs and to your Twitter and Facebook pages.
8.List all your educational institutions, training, associations, and memberships to provide keywords that may help other users find you.
9.Include a headshot. Make it professional even if it's taken from your digital camera.
10.List your interests, community involvement, and extracurricular activities. They give you individuality and make you memorable. Also, studies show that skill in one area (swimming) tranfers to perceived skill in your professional area (Program Management).
Tips 11 - 25 From HRgorilla
Top 10 Tips For Building A Strong LinkedIn Profile
Author Jay Markunas
Top ten tips for building a strong profile from LinkedIn:
1. Don’t cut-and-paste your resume. You wouldn’t hand out your resume before introducing yourself. Describe your experience and abilities as you would to someone you just met.
2. Borrow from the best marketers. Use specific adjectives, colorful verbs, active construction (ie..”managed project team” instead of “responsible for project team”).
3. Write a personal tagline. It’s the first thing people see in your profile. It follows your name in search hit lists.
4. Put your elevator pitch to work. The more meaningful your summary is, the more time visitors will spend on your profile.
5. Point out your skills. The Specialties field is your personal search engine optimizer when Recruiters are looking for candidates.
Tips 6 - 10 + Graphic + Complete Article
Top ten tips for building a strong profile from LinkedIn:
1. Don’t cut-and-paste your resume. You wouldn’t hand out your resume before introducing yourself. Describe your experience and abilities as you would to someone you just met.
2. Borrow from the best marketers. Use specific adjectives, colorful verbs, active construction (ie..”managed project team” instead of “responsible for project team”).
3. Write a personal tagline. It’s the first thing people see in your profile. It follows your name in search hit lists.
4. Put your elevator pitch to work. The more meaningful your summary is, the more time visitors will spend on your profile.
5. Point out your skills. The Specialties field is your personal search engine optimizer when Recruiters are looking for candidates.
Tips 6 - 10 + Graphic + Complete Article
Is Twitter the New LinkedIn?
Posted by Katie Kindelan
Pulling a page straight from the Charlie Sheen playbook, a prominent ad agency just hired its summer interns based on a search conducted solely through Twitter. First Charlie Sheen and now an established advertising firm, it begs the question: is Twitter #winning as the new LinkedIn?
Twitter, the real time social network better known for introducing random thoughts in 140 characters or less, may just be moving into a new market: job search tool.
Sheen, the troubled actor turned Twitter phenom, was the first to give the Twitter job search trend a boost earlier this month when he turned not to Careers.com, Monster.com or LinkedIn to advertise for an intern.
He sent a Tweet.
And 70,000 people applied to his #winning hashtag, while nearly 100,000 people clicked on the link in the first hour, AllTwitter reported at the time.
And now, one of the nation’s top ad agencies, Minneapolis-based Campbell Mithun, for the first time put its annual “Lucky 13” internship search solely on Twitter, and got its largest response ever.
Read the complete SocialTimes.com post
Pulling a page straight from the Charlie Sheen playbook, a prominent ad agency just hired its summer interns based on a search conducted solely through Twitter. First Charlie Sheen and now an established advertising firm, it begs the question: is Twitter #winning as the new LinkedIn?
Twitter, the real time social network better known for introducing random thoughts in 140 characters or less, may just be moving into a new market: job search tool.
Sheen, the troubled actor turned Twitter phenom, was the first to give the Twitter job search trend a boost earlier this month when he turned not to Careers.com, Monster.com or LinkedIn to advertise for an intern.
He sent a Tweet.
And 70,000 people applied to his #winning hashtag, while nearly 100,000 people clicked on the link in the first hour, AllTwitter reported at the time.
And now, one of the nation’s top ad agencies, Minneapolis-based Campbell Mithun, for the first time put its annual “Lucky 13” internship search solely on Twitter, and got its largest response ever.
Read the complete SocialTimes.com post
12 essential ground rules for getting an introduction
Megan Jones
(Editor’s note: Megan Lisa Jones is an investment banker who works primarily with companies in the digital media, technology, gaming and other emerging industrie. She submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
It’s absolutely true that the right introductions, from a credible and well-connected source, can jump-start a career or company. Partnering correctly, getting money from a top tier fund or making the right hire does add credibility to your venture.
But let’s be honest: Are you bringing something of value to the table or just trying to find an easier way? A mumbled, “Can you please just talk to this person for a minute so they stop bugging me?” can kill your chances forever, while an “introduction” can help.
Having worked as an investment banker for years I’ve developed a contact base of CEOs, CFOs and capital sources such as venture capitalists. Part of my role in counseling and guiding companies is to make introductions and facilitate their ability to grow into an entity that can go public, sell at a rich valuation or have the cash needed to buy other companies.
But I’ve also had to learn how to fend off requests for introductions that make no sense. We all want to meet the success story and hope that their pixie dust rubs off on us. And all service providers want access to successful CEOs. After all, asking for an introduction seems easier than making a cold call.
Last week, one too many request from the same person had me hitting the roof and talking to my computer screen (you don’t want to know what I said…).
So I decided to set a dozen ground rules. Technically, they only apply to me, but many people in my position encounter the same frustrations. It might be wise to factor these in as you consider asking for an introduction.There’s a well known quote, attributed to an anonymous person, that says “It’s not what you know but who you know that makes the difference.” My guess as to why that speaker preferred anonymity is that he or she didn’t want to be inundated by people looking to expand their own list of those they “know”.
Both parties need to benefit from the introduction. Occasional exceptions can be made for my children, clients, friends and those that have proven their loyalty. Know and explain why the introduction makes sense.
If I make an introduction, follow up respectfully and professionally. I once agreed to talk to a company founder (an unwanted introduction on my end) who needed money and then stood me up for two phone calls. Then she wanted me to help her and make other introductions (as someone who is rude and irresponsible?). Impressions count for a lot.
When I tell you that making too many introduction to a certain in demand person will impact my relationship with that person so the introduction better be crucial to you – and you have me make the introduction – don’t ask for too many favors shortly thereafter (you’re willing to risk my career for yours so I won’t be as kindly disposed going forward).
Don’t ask me to make introductions for someone you barely know. Relationships can be lost based on credibility and judgment. What if they aren’t that great? Rely solely on your own insight, not that of others.
My Linkedin and Facebook contacts aren’t your personal calling list. Nor is my less public rolodex. See number one above.
Tips 7 - 12 and Complete Article
(Editor’s note: Megan Lisa Jones is an investment banker who works primarily with companies in the digital media, technology, gaming and other emerging industrie. She submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
It’s absolutely true that the right introductions, from a credible and well-connected source, can jump-start a career or company. Partnering correctly, getting money from a top tier fund or making the right hire does add credibility to your venture.
But let’s be honest: Are you bringing something of value to the table or just trying to find an easier way? A mumbled, “Can you please just talk to this person for a minute so they stop bugging me?” can kill your chances forever, while an “introduction” can help.
Having worked as an investment banker for years I’ve developed a contact base of CEOs, CFOs and capital sources such as venture capitalists. Part of my role in counseling and guiding companies is to make introductions and facilitate their ability to grow into an entity that can go public, sell at a rich valuation or have the cash needed to buy other companies.
But I’ve also had to learn how to fend off requests for introductions that make no sense. We all want to meet the success story and hope that their pixie dust rubs off on us. And all service providers want access to successful CEOs. After all, asking for an introduction seems easier than making a cold call.
Last week, one too many request from the same person had me hitting the roof and talking to my computer screen (you don’t want to know what I said…).
So I decided to set a dozen ground rules. Technically, they only apply to me, but many people in my position encounter the same frustrations. It might be wise to factor these in as you consider asking for an introduction.There’s a well known quote, attributed to an anonymous person, that says “It’s not what you know but who you know that makes the difference.” My guess as to why that speaker preferred anonymity is that he or she didn’t want to be inundated by people looking to expand their own list of those they “know”.
Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Personal Brand
My friends over at Common Craft do some great work. There videos are simple, yet full of great information. Today I want to share with you this 3-minute goodie on using LinkedIn for more than just making contacts.
Here's the video.
The protagonist in this story used LinkedIn to grow her business. What can you learn from her, since you, as a job seeker, are the owner of your own business who’s sole purpose is to find you a job? How can you search your contacts to find people who will help move your career forward? Who do you need to meet? How can you use LinkedIn to facilitate an introduction?
Don’t forget theses 2 important keys to graceful networking (even online):
1. It’s not about you.
You may feel an urgent need to find a job. However, when networking you will turn people off if you show it. Approach people to find opportunity for them and their network FIRST. When they know you have their best interest at heart they will want to help you fulfill your needs.
Here's the video.
The protagonist in this story used LinkedIn to grow her business. What can you learn from her, since you, as a job seeker, are the owner of your own business who’s sole purpose is to find you a job? How can you search your contacts to find people who will help move your career forward? Who do you need to meet? How can you use LinkedIn to facilitate an introduction?
Don’t forget theses 2 important keys to graceful networking (even online):
1. It’s not about you.
You may feel an urgent need to find a job. However, when networking you will turn people off if you show it. Approach people to find opportunity for them and their network FIRST. When they know you have their best interest at heart they will want to help you fulfill your needs.
50 Intelligent LinkedIn Tips That Could Change Your Life
LinkedIn is sometimes referred to as Facebook for grown-ups. That may be true, as LinkedIn is a much more respectable site on which you can network, share information, and build relationships that can grow and support your career. Check out these tips to find out how you can use LinkedIn to make a change in your life and career.
General
Pay attention to your manners, be a real person, and follow these tips to do well on LinkedIn.
These tips will come in handy for those working on a job search.
General
Pay attention to your manners, be a real person, and follow these tips to do well on LinkedIn.
- Be polite: Remember your manners when interacting with others on LinkedIn.
- Stay active: Update routinely-you don’t want it to look like no one’s home.
- Keep an eye on your competition: Check out the public profile for companies to see who they are hiring and more.
- Research a company’s health: Look for former employees to get candid opinions.
- Say thank you: Always remember to say thanks, publicly or privately, when someone does something thoughtful for you.
- Write like a human: Avoid dry writing-robots are reading your profile, but people are more important.
- Ask questions: Get answers and contribute to the knowledge available on LinkedIn with questions.
These tips will come in handy for those working on a job search.
- Make connections where you want to work: Get connected with people on the inside that can give you an in where you want to work.
- Don’t advertise being unemployed: Avoid the temptation to advertise that you’re unemployed-recruiters believe that employed workers are better employees.
- Look up potential employers: Before going into an interview, make sure and look up potential employers to find all of the information you can.
Networking & Connections
Pay attention to these tips that can help you with your network of LinkedIn contacts.
Pay attention to these tips that can help you with your network of LinkedIn contacts.
- Send personalized connection requests: When you send an invitation, make sure you’ve for a personalized message to go along with it.
- Connect your contacts: Provide a valuable social resource and become a more influential person by connecting your contacts.
- Initiate a conversation: After you’ve made a connection with someone, keep the ball rolling with a new conversation.
- Raise funding: Find mentors or potential investors with the help of your LinkedIn network.
- Look up everyone you know: You’ll never know the connections you have until you find everyone you possibly can.
- Get answers to questions: Ask your friends to help you out with tough business questions.
- Reply to connection requests: When you accept connection requests, be sure to send a short message back.
- Search in terms and industries: Connect with people you don’t personally know by searching on terms and industries.
- Start a group: Become the center of information and a connector on LinkedIn by starting a group.
- Do small things: Click "like" on shared articles, write short notes of congratulations, and find other ways to show others that you’re listening to what they’re saying.
- Reach out to event attendees: If you’re attending an event, be sure to talk to attendees that you’re connected with.
- Take advantage of travel: Check out your connections by location, and let them know when you’re going to be traveling to their area.
100 Of The Best Social Media Blog Posts So Far In 2011
Niall Harbison in Social Media
I bookmark a huge amount of content and rather than keeping it all for myself I thought I would split down some of the best stuff in to 10 categories relating to social media and share the best 100 posts in 2011 so far. You are never going to be able to get through all of these in one go but they do all come from the best people in the business and there is a great mixture of inspiration, practical tips and ways of generally expanding your knowledge of social media. There is something to suit everybody here from twitter and Facebook to how to improve your own blog and also larger resources that you can digest in greater detail. Here is your full list of social media blog posts from early 2011…
Growing a blog to 10,000 subscribers in one year ; The stats
Build Your Community Before You Need Them
5 Steps to Captivating Readers with Your Secret Message
It Takes A Village To Grow A Blog .. Along With Your Girlfriends
17 Plugins to Improve Your WordPress Blog
Overcoming Blogger Fright
7 Key Elements to a Successful Business Blog
5 Steps a Newbie Blogger Never Misses
40 Dead Simple Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog
What If You Only Had 20 Blog Posts Left?
26 Ways to Enhance Your Blog Content
Linkedin
LinkedIn Files For IPO; Revenue $161 Million
50 LinkedIn Tips, Many of Which are Awesome
7 Tips for Using Your LinkedIn Profile to Land Great Projects
8 New LinkedIn Features Worth Exploration
100 Million members and counting
LinkedIn for Bloggers – Branding, Authority and Traffic
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile’s New Skills Section
Reid Hoffman’s 10 Rules for Entrepreneurial Success
6 Tips For Giving Your LinkedIn Profile A Facelift
Other Topic Areas Videos, Facebook, And MORE
I bookmark a huge amount of content and rather than keeping it all for myself I thought I would split down some of the best stuff in to 10 categories relating to social media and share the best 100 posts in 2011 so far. You are never going to be able to get through all of these in one go but they do all come from the best people in the business and there is a great mixture of inspiration, practical tips and ways of generally expanding your knowledge of social media. There is something to suit everybody here from twitter and Facebook to how to improve your own blog and also larger resources that you can digest in greater detail. Here is your full list of social media blog posts from early 2011…
Blogging
The Simple 5-Step Formula for Effective Online ContentGrowing a blog to 10,000 subscribers in one year ; The stats
Build Your Community Before You Need Them
5 Steps to Captivating Readers with Your Secret Message
It Takes A Village To Grow A Blog .. Along With Your Girlfriends
17 Plugins to Improve Your WordPress Blog
Overcoming Blogger Fright
7 Key Elements to a Successful Business Blog
5 Steps a Newbie Blogger Never Misses
40 Dead Simple Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog
What If You Only Had 20 Blog Posts Left?
26 Ways to Enhance Your Blog Content
50 LinkedIn Tips, Many of Which are Awesome
7 Tips for Using Your LinkedIn Profile to Land Great Projects
8 New LinkedIn Features Worth Exploration
100 Million members and counting
LinkedIn for Bloggers – Branding, Authority and Traffic
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile’s New Skills Section
Reid Hoffman’s 10 Rules for Entrepreneurial Success
6 Tips For Giving Your LinkedIn Profile A Facelift
Other Topic Areas Videos, Facebook, And MORE
15 Invaluable Websites for Job Research
There are dozens of free sites on the web that help you advance your job search. From these you can learn all about a company including getting a candid insider’s view from those who work there. You can also get expert advice on industries, resume writing, networking, using LinkedIn, networking and more. Below are some of the best:
Quintessential Careers has over 4,500 pages of free content to empower your career success. This site has tons of expert advice, templates and career articles for all levels. If you have a question, you can find your answer here.
Job-Hunt.org offers a comprehensive list of useful job-search resources and services on the Web. All the sites listed are audited by the job-hunt.org staff to ensure they will add value to a candidate’s search and not compromise the job seeker’s personal information. Job-Hunt is a wonderful resource for helping clients sample multiple job search tools.
Spoke Spoke provides business data and detailed contact information on demand. It contains over 40 million people at 2.3 million companies. Spoke lets you create, customize, and promote your own online profile as well. Like ZoomInfo, Spoke is a great tool for finding decision makers. Spoke even has an interface with Simply Hired (a job aggregate board) that allows users to search for decision makers in the companies where Simply Hired has posted jobs.
Jigsaw is an online directory of more than 8 million business contacts. Users can access names, titles, postal addresses, e-mail addresses and direct dial phone numbers. Membership is free and you can get a contact by adding one of your own. For each one you add, you get access to any other in the Jigsaw directory. As an alternative, you can sign-up for a premium account and access 25 contacts for $25 a month. We all know that the best jobs are found through the hidden job network. Tools like Jigsaw help job seekers uncover the right person to talk to at their target companies.
FTT Research can leverage information on millions of domestic and international companies and provide in-depth coverage of thousands of the world’s top business enterprises to identify target companies and business contacts. FTT canvases an entire industry, geography, and job function to find the right kinds of decision makers across multiple potential targets.
Highbeam is an online library and research tool that collects millions of research articles from trusted published sources and puts them all in one place. You can access some information for free or purchase a very reasonably priced annual subscription. This is an excellent resource for you to use when searching for potential company targets or preparing for an upcoming interview. By thoroughly researching a company ahead of time, job seekers can have more engaging and thought-provoking questions based on what they have read about that company. This helps them gain credibility during the interview, and in turn, elevates their candidacy.
See the full list of 15 and the full CareerRealism article
Quintessential Careers has over 4,500 pages of free content to empower your career success. This site has tons of expert advice, templates and career articles for all levels. If you have a question, you can find your answer here.
Job-Hunt.org offers a comprehensive list of useful job-search resources and services on the Web. All the sites listed are audited by the job-hunt.org staff to ensure they will add value to a candidate’s search and not compromise the job seeker’s personal information. Job-Hunt is a wonderful resource for helping clients sample multiple job search tools.
Spoke Spoke provides business data and detailed contact information on demand. It contains over 40 million people at 2.3 million companies. Spoke lets you create, customize, and promote your own online profile as well. Like ZoomInfo, Spoke is a great tool for finding decision makers. Spoke even has an interface with Simply Hired (a job aggregate board) that allows users to search for decision makers in the companies where Simply Hired has posted jobs.
Jigsaw is an online directory of more than 8 million business contacts. Users can access names, titles, postal addresses, e-mail addresses and direct dial phone numbers. Membership is free and you can get a contact by adding one of your own. For each one you add, you get access to any other in the Jigsaw directory. As an alternative, you can sign-up for a premium account and access 25 contacts for $25 a month. We all know that the best jobs are found through the hidden job network. Tools like Jigsaw help job seekers uncover the right person to talk to at their target companies.
FTT Research can leverage information on millions of domestic and international companies and provide in-depth coverage of thousands of the world’s top business enterprises to identify target companies and business contacts. FTT canvases an entire industry, geography, and job function to find the right kinds of decision makers across multiple potential targets.
Highbeam is an online library and research tool that collects millions of research articles from trusted published sources and puts them all in one place. You can access some information for free or purchase a very reasonably priced annual subscription. This is an excellent resource for you to use when searching for potential company targets or preparing for an upcoming interview. By thoroughly researching a company ahead of time, job seekers can have more engaging and thought-provoking questions based on what they have read about that company. This helps them gain credibility during the interview, and in turn, elevates their candidacy.
See the full list of 15 and the full CareerRealism article
Let LinkedIn help nurture your network
By Lily Whiteman
The time to build your professional network is before you need it. Once you need help, it may be too late to find allies who are ready, willing and able to provide it.
Among the tools that can help you grow your network is LinkedIn. com — a free, searchable database of professionals in virtually every field.
Use LinkedIn to connect with current and former contacts, the contacts of your contacts and so on — just as you may use in-person opportunities to generate such connections. Also, use LinkedIn to initiate contact with strangers with whom you share common ground; find such allies by searching the LinkedIn database by name, keyword, employer or industry.
Once you register on LinkedIn, you can create a profile that includes varied features, such as your professional summary, a list of your educational and professional credentials, your photograph, as well as links to other LinkedIn members, relevant professional organizations, and websites that cover your work. You can also arrange for your LinkedIn profile to showcase written recommendations from your professional associates and a downloadable version of your résumé.
You can link your profile to those of other LinkedIn members who, at your request, give you permission to do so.
Alternatively, at your request, your own contacts or the contacts of your contacts may introduce you to members of their LinkedIn circles.
With these features, LinkedIn can help you:
• Arrange for hiring managers and other professional contacts to instantly access your résumé and professional recommendations online without you even having to e-mail these documents. To promote such access, change the online address of your LinkedIn profile to your own name, and then link to it from your private e-mail signature and your other private online communications.
• Find potential mentors who have held certain positions, gained experience in particular fields, conquered the same types of obstacles you are confronting or done anything else that may qualify them to advise you on your career choices or answer questions about issues in your field.
• Identify potential speakers for conferences, and identify experts to recruit onto work groups, advisory panels, conference panels or professional organizations.
More Tips and Complete FederalTimes Article
Guy Kawasaki’s “Enchantment” Really Does Enchant
by Adam C. Engst
Baseball manager Leo Durocher has been much quoted for noting that “Nice guys finish last.” And certainly it seems that attitude, snark, and general bad behavior are guaranteed ways of attracting attention, whether on the Internet or in the real world. But attention doesn’t necessarily equate with desired results, and former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki (“The Macintosh Way,” “Rules for Revolutionaries,” and many other titles) argues in his latest book, “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions,” that there’s a better way of not just getting what you want, but also bringing about a voluntary and enduring change in others.
That better way, of course, is to enchant them, and while the word feels slightly stretched to fit into Kawasaki’s usage, the book repeatedly emphasizes that the goal is not to manipulate people into following your cause or buying your product, but to transform them into true believers and loyal customers. This separates “Enchantment” from many other business and marketing books, where the goals often seem to justify the means.
Despite a few humorous asides about the role of enchantment in marriage, “Enchantment” focuses on the business world, cutting across huge swaths of the work-life landscape and explaining how to employ enchantment regardless of whether you’re an employee with a boss, a boss with employees, a marketer looking to increase sales, an entrepreneur launching a new product, or even a community organizer trying to attract volunteers.
With twelve chapters, each containing a number of short sections, “Enchantment” is easily scanned and a quick read, though going through the book once in order is a good idea to ensure you’re exposed to the early chapters on likability and trustworthiness, personal qualities essential for creating enchantment. Next come four chapters on preparing, launching, overcoming resistance, and making enchantment endure — these chapters are the core of the book, focusing as they do on helping you achieve your goals in a successful and lasting manner.
Read Adam's Complete Review
Baseball manager Leo Durocher has been much quoted for noting that “Nice guys finish last.” And certainly it seems that attitude, snark, and general bad behavior are guaranteed ways of attracting attention, whether on the Internet or in the real world. But attention doesn’t necessarily equate with desired results, and former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki (“The Macintosh Way,” “Rules for Revolutionaries,” and many other titles) argues in his latest book, “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions,” that there’s a better way of not just getting what you want, but also bringing about a voluntary and enduring change in others.
That better way, of course, is to enchant them, and while the word feels slightly stretched to fit into Kawasaki’s usage, the book repeatedly emphasizes that the goal is not to manipulate people into following your cause or buying your product, but to transform them into true believers and loyal customers. This separates “Enchantment” from many other business and marketing books, where the goals often seem to justify the means.
Despite a few humorous asides about the role of enchantment in marriage, “Enchantment” focuses on the business world, cutting across huge swaths of the work-life landscape and explaining how to employ enchantment regardless of whether you’re an employee with a boss, a boss with employees, a marketer looking to increase sales, an entrepreneur launching a new product, or even a community organizer trying to attract volunteers.
With twelve chapters, each containing a number of short sections, “Enchantment” is easily scanned and a quick read, though going through the book once in order is a good idea to ensure you’re exposed to the early chapters on likability and trustworthiness, personal qualities essential for creating enchantment. Next come four chapters on preparing, launching, overcoming resistance, and making enchantment endure — these chapters are the core of the book, focusing as they do on helping you achieve your goals in a successful and lasting manner.
Read Adam's Complete Review
Keep that social network profile updated
Priyanka Joshi
Shruti Marathe, an MBA from Symbiosis College, created her business networking profile on LinkedIn two months after she completed her course. “I wrote about my college projects in details and even had work recommendations posted by seniors, who guided me during my internship,” she recalls. Within a few days, Marathe got a call from a company, National Instruments, to come for an interview. “Soon, I had two offer letters in my hand,” recalls Marathe, now working as a sales executive with the Star group.
Social media and career networking portals have become imperative for first-time jobseekers. Whether it’s through blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, people are seeking potential employers through alternative online sources. Take, for example, professionals like Nikhita Arora, who works with Madison Media. She bagged her existing job via LinkedIn. “I maintained my profile on career networking sites like ApnaCircle and LinkedIn. During college, we were repeatedly told how recruiters use social media to hire freshers,” she says. Arora, who had moved to New Delhi for another job, was interviewed by her existing company CEO after he reviewed her LinkedIn profile; he offered a new job in Mumbai within 24 hours of talking to her. Now, she uses her LinkedIn profile to initiate business meetings with contacts she has made online.
The reason why India’s 80-million internet base is turning to social networks to find employment is in numbers. Sites like Facebook have a little over 15 million members from India and LinkedIn claims to have more than nine million professionals from India networking on its site. Twitter has 145 million registered users globally. It is only natural for prospective employers and recruiting agencies to scan these sites to gather detailed profiles while hiring college graduates. For the employees, web 2.0 tools like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the newest way to extend the social circle and tap into jobs that aren’t usually advertised.
More Advice and Complete Business Standard Article
Shruti Marathe, an MBA from Symbiosis College, created her business networking profile on LinkedIn two months after she completed her course. “I wrote about my college projects in details and even had work recommendations posted by seniors, who guided me during my internship,” she recalls. Within a few days, Marathe got a call from a company, National Instruments, to come for an interview. “Soon, I had two offer letters in my hand,” recalls Marathe, now working as a sales executive with the Star group.
Social media and career networking portals have become imperative for first-time jobseekers. Whether it’s through blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, people are seeking potential employers through alternative online sources. Take, for example, professionals like Nikhita Arora, who works with Madison Media. She bagged her existing job via LinkedIn. “I maintained my profile on career networking sites like ApnaCircle and LinkedIn. During college, we were repeatedly told how recruiters use social media to hire freshers,” she says. Arora, who had moved to New Delhi for another job, was interviewed by her existing company CEO after he reviewed her LinkedIn profile; he offered a new job in Mumbai within 24 hours of talking to her. Now, she uses her LinkedIn profile to initiate business meetings with contacts she has made online.
The reason why India’s 80-million internet base is turning to social networks to find employment is in numbers. Sites like Facebook have a little over 15 million members from India and LinkedIn claims to have more than nine million professionals from India networking on its site. Twitter has 145 million registered users globally. It is only natural for prospective employers and recruiting agencies to scan these sites to gather detailed profiles while hiring college graduates. For the employees, web 2.0 tools like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the newest way to extend the social circle and tap into jobs that aren’t usually advertised.
More Advice and Complete Business Standard Article
5 Worst Reasons to Use Twitter for Your Job Search
by Susan P. Joyce
5 Worst Reasons to Use Twitter for Job Search:
1. Because your job search coach or career counselor told you that you should do it.
2. Because you read somewhere that you should do it.
3. Because “everyone else” is doing it.
4. Because your spouse/significant other/teenager/tweener/neighbor set it up for you.
5. Because you don’t have anything better to do.
Much MUCH better reasons to use Twitter for your job search exist!
5 Best Reasons to Use Twitter for Your Job Search:
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce, USMC veteran, has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @JobHuntOrg.
5 Worst Reasons to Use Twitter for Job Search:
1. Because your job search coach or career counselor told you that you should do it.
2. Because you read somewhere that you should do it.
3. Because “everyone else” is doing it.
4. Because your spouse/significant other/teenager/tweener/neighbor set it up for you.
5. Because you don’t have anything better to do.
Much MUCH better reasons to use Twitter for your job search exist!
5 Best Reasons to Use Twitter for Your Job Search:
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce, USMC veteran, has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @JobHuntOrg.
Top 10 LinkedIn Profile Deal Breakers
By
Regardless of how active you choose to be on LinkedIn on a weekly, monthly or even yearly basis, it is essential that you ALWAYS maintain a complete and up-to-date LinkedIn profile. This not only serves as your resume online to which you can refer new contacts you meet in your job search and/or career networking, but also serves as one of the most searchable outposts for your personal brand on the web thanks to its high rankings in Google and other search engines.
When employers, clients, partners or anyone for that matter searches your name specifically or relevant industry keywords, your LinkedIn profile will often be where they find come across you first. Therefore, how your profile presents you can literally make or break a potential career or business opportunity for you, and in most cases, you won’t even have a clue that you missed out!
I have compiled a list of the top 10 LinkedIn profile mistakes professionals make in hopes to help you optimize your LinkedIn personal brand presence and avoid losing out on new opportunities for career success.
1. Not having a 100% complete profile. LinkedIn provides you a step-by-step guide to complete your profile. Not only does completing your profile 100% make you look more professional, but it also, helps optimize your placement in LinkedIn’s People Search results.
Here’s what you need to have a 100% complete profile:
3. Not proofreading your profile for grammar, punctuation and capitalization. Make sure to review your entire profile a number of times to avoid missing any grammatical errors. Ask someone you know to review your profile for an outside perspective and for an extra pair of eyes to catch possible mistakes or opportunities for improvement.
4. Not including your personal brand or statement in your profile. First of all, in your profile subtitle, don’t miss the opportunity to attract more profile viewers and impress potential employers and career stakeholders by listing yourself as “Finance Professional,” “College Student” or anything else generic or boring. Use this area to share your brand and unique and differentiating value with your network and future target audience. Also, don’t forget about your summary section where you can feature your personal brand and supporting pitch and really hook viewers to read the rest of your profile.
5. Not customizing your own LinkedIn profile URL. Many professionals forget or neglect to personalize their LinkedIn profile URL with their name and leave the default letters and numbers in place. This looks less professional, but also prevents you from using this in your networking efforts to link your contacts back to your profile.
Deal Breakers 6 - 10 and Full Career Rocketeer Article
Regardless of how active you choose to be on LinkedIn on a weekly, monthly or even yearly basis, it is essential that you ALWAYS maintain a complete and up-to-date LinkedIn profile. This not only serves as your resume online to which you can refer new contacts you meet in your job search and/or career networking, but also serves as one of the most searchable outposts for your personal brand on the web thanks to its high rankings in Google and other search engines.
When employers, clients, partners or anyone for that matter searches your name specifically or relevant industry keywords, your LinkedIn profile will often be where they find come across you first. Therefore, how your profile presents you can literally make or break a potential career or business opportunity for you, and in most cases, you won’t even have a clue that you missed out!
I have compiled a list of the top 10 LinkedIn profile mistakes professionals make in hopes to help you optimize your LinkedIn personal brand presence and avoid losing out on new opportunities for career success.
1. Not having a 100% complete profile. LinkedIn provides you a step-by-step guide to complete your profile. Not only does completing your profile 100% make you look more professional, but it also, helps optimize your placement in LinkedIn’s People Search results.
Here’s what you need to have a 100% complete profile:
- Your Current Position
- Two Past Positions
- Education
- Profile Summary
- Profile Photo
- Your Specialties/Skills
- 3 Recommendations
3. Not proofreading your profile for grammar, punctuation and capitalization. Make sure to review your entire profile a number of times to avoid missing any grammatical errors. Ask someone you know to review your profile for an outside perspective and for an extra pair of eyes to catch possible mistakes or opportunities for improvement.
4. Not including your personal brand or statement in your profile. First of all, in your profile subtitle, don’t miss the opportunity to attract more profile viewers and impress potential employers and career stakeholders by listing yourself as “Finance Professional,” “College Student” or anything else generic or boring. Use this area to share your brand and unique and differentiating value with your network and future target audience. Also, don’t forget about your summary section where you can feature your personal brand and supporting pitch and really hook viewers to read the rest of your profile.
5. Not customizing your own LinkedIn profile URL. Many professionals forget or neglect to personalize their LinkedIn profile URL with their name and leave the default letters and numbers in place. This looks less professional, but also prevents you from using this in your networking efforts to link your contacts back to your profile.
Deal Breakers 6 - 10 and Full Career Rocketeer Article
Personal branding gives workers an edge on keeping job
Written by NATHAN PHELPS
GREEN BAY — In a bumpy economy, holding on to your job has become a more artful task.
One of the keys is standing out, said Barbara Jordan, owner of AdvantEdge Success Coaching here.
"Toot your own horn," she said. "Don't wait for your leadership to notice what you have done or how much you are accomplishing. They may never notice unless you bring it to their attention."
Jordan has seen an increase in business in recent years as people look to increase their visibility — both those who are employed and the unemployed who are re-evaluating their career goals and aspirations.
"I present it as an opportunity to hone their skills and polish who, and what, they are and what they represent," she said. "Some people can see it as 'This is another thing I have to do. I'm spread thin already, ... ' but this is a preventative measure and is also an esteem-building exercise because you are evaluating what your strengths are."
Mandy Nycz, associate director of St. Norbert College Career Services in De Pere, Wis., tells students they need to go above and beyond expectations in the workplace — especially in this economy.
"You can't do just your job description anymore. You have to give more at your job; that's something a lot of employers look for," she said.
Like Jordan, Nycz said it's important for employees to track their workplace successes.
"You should always maintain a record of accomplishments," she said. "Let's face it, companies are having to do more with less in the current economy, and your boss may not always have the time to recognize what you have been up to and what you've been accomplishing."
Those lists can be helpful when completing an annual review.
More Tips and Complete Northwestern Article
Top apps for job seekers
PHOTO
Looking for a new job? ZDNet UK presents a selection of apps to help you in your search — from interview practice and social-networking apps to business-card scanners, advice guides and pocket CV tools.Audio Job Interview Professional
This interesting 59p app for iPhone allows the user to record a job interview and share it with a prospective employer.
Users select questions that are relevant to their application from a list, then record their answers. The recording is uploaded to the web and the URL is sent to recruiters.
The company behind the Audio Job Interview Professional app claims that employers are grateful to receive recorded interviews, not only because they help candidates stand out, but because it saves them time in the recruiting process.
Photo credit: Halosys Technologies Inc
See more top tech apps on ZDNet UK.
Job recruiters shifting tactics to find ideal hires
By Greta Guest
Experts say job growth is expected this year and recruiters may step up efforts to find the right candidates.
But the ways in which they'll find those workers won't necessarily be traditional.
Will Boland, chief administrative officer for Sageworks, a Raleigh, N.C.-based firm that analyzes industry financials, said some recruiters would post openings on sites such as CareerBuilder, Craigslist or LinkedIn, but not all of them. The biggest frustration in posting jobs this way is the sheer volume of responses.
More employers are using social media sites such as Facebook to find candidates, while others are hitting the streets in search of workers.
Here is a sampling of recruiting methods from several business sectors.
ACCOUNTING/FINANCE: Kevin Suksi, a recruiter for consulting and executive search firm Accretive Solutions in Troy, Mich., recently posted a job to his Facebook friends looking for a logistics manager for a consumer products company in metro Detroit. The candidate needed trade experience in China.
While Suksi typically focuses on accounting and finance jobs, he will turn to Facebook when trying to fill something unusual.
"You just never know who knows who," he said.
But for the bread-and-butter jobs such as chief financial officers or certified public accountants, he is more likely to use LinkedIn, the professional networking site.
"The group that we are targeting in metro Detroit is a pretty finite group, and we pretty much know who they are," he said. "I think that our core value to companies is that we are able to get to people who are passive, who they wouldn't get on their own."
MORTGAGE: For jobs that require strong customer service skills, there's nothing more effective than going out to find them at their current jobs, said Michelle Salvatore, director of recruiting for Detroit-based Quicken Loans.
"We're doing a more rogue-recruiting style where we will send the recruiters out on the streets," she said.
The company's recruiters, for instance, will approach people who work at stores.
She says that up to 20 per cent of hires are personally approached by her in-house recruiting team. Salvatore oversees 27 recruiters.
Her team also uses on-site job fairs and online job sites to find candidates, particularly for the mortgage banker position, which has the highest turnover of any job at the company. The company needs to hire 1,200 mortgage bankers a year to keep up with demand and turnover.
Quicken Loans is in a trial over a lawsuit from more than 300 people working as mortgage bankers in Michigan and Ohio who argue they should have received overtime pay from 2002 to 2006.
RETAIL: With 30 per cent turnover, Wal-Mart is recruiting pretty much nonstop. Baldomero Silva, division human resources senior director who oversees Ohio, Michigan and parts of Pennsylvania, said much of the hourly and management recruiting happens at the company's website, www.walmartstores.com/careers, and in-store kiosks.
For the three states, he's looking for more than 30,000 employees a year. The company also recruits at job fairs in communities, colleges and military locations. And starting in June, Silva will be looking for 300 employees for its new store in Southgate.
Experts say job growth is expected this year and recruiters may step up efforts to find the right candidates.
But the ways in which they'll find those workers won't necessarily be traditional.
Will Boland, chief administrative officer for Sageworks, a Raleigh, N.C.-based firm that analyzes industry financials, said some recruiters would post openings on sites such as CareerBuilder, Craigslist or LinkedIn, but not all of them. The biggest frustration in posting jobs this way is the sheer volume of responses.
More employers are using social media sites such as Facebook to find candidates, while others are hitting the streets in search of workers.
Here is a sampling of recruiting methods from several business sectors.
ACCOUNTING/FINANCE: Kevin Suksi, a recruiter for consulting and executive search firm Accretive Solutions in Troy, Mich., recently posted a job to his Facebook friends looking for a logistics manager for a consumer products company in metro Detroit. The candidate needed trade experience in China.
While Suksi typically focuses on accounting and finance jobs, he will turn to Facebook when trying to fill something unusual.
"You just never know who knows who," he said.
But for the bread-and-butter jobs such as chief financial officers or certified public accountants, he is more likely to use LinkedIn, the professional networking site.
"The group that we are targeting in metro Detroit is a pretty finite group, and we pretty much know who they are," he said. "I think that our core value to companies is that we are able to get to people who are passive, who they wouldn't get on their own."
MORTGAGE: For jobs that require strong customer service skills, there's nothing more effective than going out to find them at their current jobs, said Michelle Salvatore, director of recruiting for Detroit-based Quicken Loans.
"We're doing a more rogue-recruiting style where we will send the recruiters out on the streets," she said.
The company's recruiters, for instance, will approach people who work at stores.
She says that up to 20 per cent of hires are personally approached by her in-house recruiting team. Salvatore oversees 27 recruiters.
Her team also uses on-site job fairs and online job sites to find candidates, particularly for the mortgage banker position, which has the highest turnover of any job at the company. The company needs to hire 1,200 mortgage bankers a year to keep up with demand and turnover.
Quicken Loans is in a trial over a lawsuit from more than 300 people working as mortgage bankers in Michigan and Ohio who argue they should have received overtime pay from 2002 to 2006.
RETAIL: With 30 per cent turnover, Wal-Mart is recruiting pretty much nonstop. Baldomero Silva, division human resources senior director who oversees Ohio, Michigan and parts of Pennsylvania, said much of the hourly and management recruiting happens at the company's website, www.walmartstores.com/careers, and in-store kiosks.
For the three states, he's looking for more than 30,000 employees a year. The company also recruits at job fairs in communities, colleges and military locations. And starting in June, Silva will be looking for 300 employees for its new store in Southgate.
11 Reasons Why Every College Student Needs a LinkedIn Page
by
While in college, students worry about having enough money for tuition, what to major in, finding time to study, and passing mid-terms and finals. Having a LinkedIn page is probably far from their mind. But it shouldn’t be! LinkedIn is a valuable tool in their arsenal for helping them to establish their career.
It is important to remember that LinkedIn is your professional face to the business world. It is not like Facebook or YouTube. Don’t post goofy pictures, be silly, or say inappropriate things. Put your best foot forward. You are creating your own personal branding and this is your sales letter (about you) to future employers and to the world.
With that in mind, here are 11 reasons why every student needs to join LinkenIn:
While in college, students worry about having enough money for tuition, what to major in, finding time to study, and passing mid-terms and finals. Having a LinkedIn page is probably far from their mind. But it shouldn’t be! LinkedIn is a valuable tool in their arsenal for helping them to establish their career.
It is important to remember that LinkedIn is your professional face to the business world. It is not like Facebook or YouTube. Don’t post goofy pictures, be silly, or say inappropriate things. Put your best foot forward. You are creating your own personal branding and this is your sales letter (about you) to future employers and to the world.
With that in mind, here are 11 reasons why every student needs to join LinkenIn:
- Build your professional network. It’s never too early to start building a network with people in your career area. Start by linking to classmates who are in your major. While they are friends and classmates now, in the future they become business referrals. Ask professors who are in LinkedIn to write a recommendation for you. Linking to professors ensure that you will stay connected to them after you graduate. This could be beneficial.
- Check out career paths. Find people who are in LinkedIn who are already employed in your desired profession. Check out their profiles to see what they have done to become successful. See if you can incorporate something from their career path into yours.
- Prepare for interviews. When you have a job or internship interview, review the profile of the person who will interview you. Having this background knowledge during the interview will help impress the interviewer.
- Get referrals. Networking is all about who you know and who those people know. If there is someone in LinkedIn that you would like to meet, ask a mutual acquaintance to for an introduction.
- Land internships or jobs while in school. Is there a company that you would like to work for or an internship that interests you? LinkedIn can help you find a common connection to someone at that place of business.
- Gain connections from conference attendees. When you meet new acquaintances at a conference that you attend as a student, chances are you do not have a business card to share. Nor do other students. LinkedIn is the perfect place to maintain a connection to those people once you have returned back to school.
How I’m #winning with @CharlieSheen
From a social media perspective it has been interesting to watch the whole media swirl around Charlie Sheen. Once you get past the “waiting for the train wreck” portion of it and see that he set a record for getting to a million Twitter followers in the shortest time and a record number of intern applicants I’m hoping that there is something beyond the frantic ravings about #tigerblood...
So there you go. That is how I am #winning with @charliesheen
I’ll have posted this right away Monday morning so that Charlie’s peeps will find it if they have some keyword searches set up and we’ll see if I make the first cut.
Probably the thing that made me think that there might be something beyond craziness involved was his funny OR DIE #winning cooking sketch. It was actually funny. So I figure he either is a really good actor or that there is some thought process involved, either way it is a good sign.
This past week my blog included three articles that we about Charlie. They generated 300 visitors for the blog. That might not seem like a lot to most people but not too long ago 300 visitors would have been a good week for me. Will these 300 visits translate into anything for me? Probably not. I don’t have ads or anything else to monetize the blog.
So, how am I actually #winning with @charliesheen?
I got 300 extra visits to my blog.
I’m posting my first self generated content to my blog.
I’ve applied to be Charlie’s intern.
I actually did apply to be Charlie’s intern but since I am twice as old as I’m guessing the average applicant is I’m not too confident of making the first cut.
Why Charlie should pick me:
Experience - I actually have a real job and work experience with industry leading companies.
Social Media - I am the group owner and manager of LinkedIn groups with nearly 60,000 members.
Maturity - I’ve been around enough that if they are looking for someone with opinions and a long term perspective instead of star struck yes men I think I’d be a great addition to his team.
So there you go. That is how I am #winning with @charliesheen
I’ll have posted this right away Monday morning so that Charlie’s peeps will find it if they have some keyword searches set up and we’ll see if I make the first cut.
10 Secrets To Getting A Job At Apple, Google Or Microsoft
Written by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Some might say that I got incredibly lucky. At eighteen years old, I was perhaps the youngest intern in Microsoft’s thousand person intern class. Most of my fellow interns had three times as much experience as me, and I couldn’t help but wonder, “What am I doing here?”
Indeed, there’s no denying that I got very, very lucky to land such a prestigious internship at such an early age. But there’s more to it than just that.
The tricks below enabled me to get the right experience, flaunt it on my resume, get the attention of recruiters, and eventually land positions with Microsoft, Apple and Google.
Here’s a list of 10 things you can do to improve your chances to do the same:
Some might say that I got incredibly lucky. At eighteen years old, I was perhaps the youngest intern in Microsoft’s thousand person intern class. Most of my fellow interns had three times as much experience as me, and I couldn’t help but wonder, “What am I doing here?”
Indeed, there’s no denying that I got very, very lucky to land such a prestigious internship at such an early age. But there’s more to it than just that.
The tricks below enabled me to get the right experience, flaunt it on my resume, get the attention of recruiters, and eventually land positions with Microsoft, Apple and Google.
Here’s a list of 10 things you can do to improve your chances to do the same:
- Start Something: Launching a small tech company, or just a project, can demonstrate virtually everything a tech firm wants to see: field expertise, passion for technology, initiative, leadership and creativity. Don’t have software development experience? Not to worry – you can hire an outsourced development team from sites like odesk and elance
- Create an Online Portfolio: Almost everyone can benefit from a portfolio. A simple web site with a description of your major accomplishments (both inside and outside of work) can provide more context than what your resume can provide. Recruiters may reference this after seeing your resume, but they might stumble across your portfolio online and give you a call.
- Get Out There (And Online): Online job boards are tough, and the best way around them is a personal referral. Attending tech events will help to build your network, but don’t forget about the online channels. Recruiters search for potential candidates on blogs comments, industry forums and Twitter. Being active on online – while providing a trail back to your portfolio – can be an excellent way to catch a recruiter’s attention.
- Make a Short and Sweet Resume: Let me tell you a little secret: recruiters don’t really read resumes. They glance at them, often for as little as fifteen seconds, before putting it in the ‘yes’ pile or the ‘no’ pile. For this reason, a short (usually one-page) resume is advantageous. This will ensure that the resume screener notices your most impressive accomplishments, without the mediocre items getting in the way.
- Focus on Accomplishments: Kill the fluff; no one buys into vague statements like “excellent problem solver.” A resume should focus on your accomplishments: concrete ways that you’ve made an impact, quantified if possible. Remember that your list of accomplishments goes beyond the “official” work that you’ve done. Any project that is reasonably substantial can be listed on your resume.
Gayle Laakmann McDowell, a former Google engineer, who interned at both Apple and Microsoft, is CEO of CareeCup.com. She’s the author of “The Google Resume” and “Cracking the Coding Interview.”
Top 25 LinkedIn Groups ALL Job Seekers MUST Join
One feature you job seekers may not know about or have fully explored is LinkedIn Groups. LinkedIn Groups are free to join, and you can choose to join up to 50 groups from a list of thousands of user-created groups for literally just about anything. Not only do these groups provide you access to connect with and contact fellow group members who could become future partners, employees, investors, customers etc., but the groups’ newly updated discussion board feature can provide more networking opportunities, answers to your questions and insightful advice, tips and support. You can also join the groups' subgroups and contribute answers, comments and your own expertise to the groups’ discussion boards to establish your own online personal brand on LinkedIn.
Last year, I published a list of the top 20 LinkedIn groups for job seekers which became a very popular resource on Career Rocketeer. It's been over a year since the list originally went out and some of the groups have changed and new groups have emerged. Therefore, I have updated the list and am pleased to present the Top 25 LinkedIn Groups ALL Job Seekers MUST Join to help you build your brands and launch your careers:
Last year, I published a list of the top 20 LinkedIn groups for job seekers which became a very popular resource on Career Rocketeer. It's been over a year since the list originally went out and some of the groups have changed and new groups have emerged. Therefore, I have updated the list and am pleased to present the Top 25 LinkedIn Groups ALL Job Seekers MUST Join to help you build your brands and launch your careers:
- JobAngels - Non-profit job search network of professionals helping other professionals find job advice and opportunities.
- Executive Suite - Community of over 100,000 US-based executive-level and recruiter members.
- Star:Jobs Professional Career Center - Group working in tandem with Linked:HR, the largest Recruiters’ Group on LinkedIn, to help top candidates find jobs quickly and efficiently.
- Career Rocketeer - Career Launch Network - Fastest-growing professional network for personal branding, career search and career management, bringing job seekers and employers, recruiters and career experts together for mutual success.
- The Talent Buzz - Group for job seekers, recruiters and HR professionals interested in expanding their professional networks.
- Helping Friends Career Network (LI2HF) - Business and career network where entrepreneurs, hiring managers, recruiters, and talented professionals worldwide can make meaningful win-win connections.
- JobsDirectUSA - Official job search group on LinkedIn for JobsDirectUSA.com.
- Career Change Central - Group linking job changers and professionals in career transition with recruiters, hiring managers and career coaches.
- CareerLink Network - Community providing job seekers spiritual, physical, social, mental, economic and personal growth to meet their ever-evolving needs
- Jobs Alert - Job search group for middle and senior-level managers worldwide.
- A Job Needed - A Job Posted - Group is for all LinkedIn members searching for employment, posting employment or recruiters helping members find employment.
- Looking for a Job? - Group designed to allow job seekers to share ideas, network, post jobs, advise on job market trends and ultimately help them find work.
- MyCredentials - Career Presentation - Group helping members to network, expand their resumes and enhance their interview skills.
- JibberJobber - Career Management - Network for executives, professionals, students and all those involved in the career services industry, including counselors, coaches and resume writers.
Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.
Social Media Now Essential –How Will B2B Respond?
Mobile and social channels are heating up.
In fact, the second-annual Bazaarvoice Social Marketing Survey shows unequivocally that social media is now considered an essential component of executive marketing strategy. The vast majority (90 percent) of CMOs who took part in this study said they participate in three or more social media activities, and interestingly, nearly all of them (96 percent) are beginning to look beyond sales goals and web metrics to focus on how social media can deliver strong insights that fuel improvements across the business.
The survey, conducted with The CMO Club, also revealed that:
In fact, the second-annual Bazaarvoice Social Marketing Survey shows unequivocally that social media is now considered an essential component of executive marketing strategy. The vast majority (90 percent) of CMOs who took part in this study said they participate in three or more social media activities, and interestingly, nearly all of them (96 percent) are beginning to look beyond sales goals and web metrics to focus on how social media can deliver strong insights that fuel improvements across the business.
The survey, conducted with The CMO Club, also revealed that:
- Brands are beginning to use social media and user-generated content to drive innovation and business change. 93 percent of CMOs plan on using some form of user-generated content to inform product and service decisions. Top forms of user-generated content used in 2010 included customer stories (59 percent), product suggestions or ideas (54 percent), polling (49 percent) and customer reviews (47 percent).
- Measurability remains a top priority. Only 40 percent of CMOs surveyed successfully tracked ROI on their social initiatives. But, measurability is still a chief concern, with sales conversion and revenue attribution standing out as the #1 and #2 growth opportunities in social measurement.
- Product ratings and reviews remain one of the best understood tools with proven ROI. While more than half of CMOS still don’t know or don’t see ROI across most social media tools (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), there are a few channels that offer better measurability. Bright spots include product ratings and reviews (59 percent see average or significant ROI); company / brand communities (56 percent); and company or brand blogs (48 percent).
Be the First Applicant with this Job Search Tip
Laura Smith-Proulx
Planning to apply to that hot job you just found online? Take it a step further with some competitive research that can put you first in line (but at another company).
Here’s the idea: when companies post a position, they might be hiring from within their network – looking at suppliers, competitors, vendors, and any other organizations within their sphere of influence for that perfect candidate.
If they follow through on hiring from within this group of companies, there’s now a space to be filled somewhere within this network.
Here’s your cue: jump on this scenario, and send your resume to any of these other firms BEFORE a job is posted, putting yourself first in line – before these companies realize someone is leaving!
Find a hiring manager (using LinkedIn or Zoominfo), then add supporting detail to your cover letter that shows your research on the industry, and your interest in their specific operation. (This letter WILL be read in detail, because you’re going to send it in hard copy, intriguing the manager enough to open it.)
Next, plan to follow up in about a week by phone or via LinkedIn.
Congratulations! You’ve just made a preemptive strike in your job search, figured out how the hidden job market works, and probably generated sufficient interest to win an interview.
Laura Smith-Proulx is a resume expert & former recruiter who wins interviews for C-Suite leaders using powerful personal branding and resume strategies.
Read more » articles by this approved career expert
More Career Advice at CareerRealism
Planning to apply to that hot job you just found online? Take it a step further with some competitive research that can put you first in line (but at another company).
Here’s the idea: when companies post a position, they might be hiring from within their network – looking at suppliers, competitors, vendors, and any other organizations within their sphere of influence for that perfect candidate.
If they follow through on hiring from within this group of companies, there’s now a space to be filled somewhere within this network.
Here’s your cue: jump on this scenario, and send your resume to any of these other firms BEFORE a job is posted, putting yourself first in line – before these companies realize someone is leaving!
Find a hiring manager (using LinkedIn or Zoominfo), then add supporting detail to your cover letter that shows your research on the industry, and your interest in their specific operation. (This letter WILL be read in detail, because you’re going to send it in hard copy, intriguing the manager enough to open it.)
Next, plan to follow up in about a week by phone or via LinkedIn.
Congratulations! You’ve just made a preemptive strike in your job search, figured out how the hidden job market works, and probably generated sufficient interest to win an interview.
Laura Smith-Proulx is a resume expert & former recruiter who wins interviews for C-Suite leaders using powerful personal branding and resume strategies.
Read more » articles by this approved career expert
More Career Advice at CareerRealism
Jim Stroud demos Linkedin Signal and how to use it to find job leads.
This episode marks the end of season 1 of The Jim Stroud Show. Subscribe now to get updates on the next season. (Scroll down for more jobhunting resources.)
More Jim Stroud Advice @
the Recruiters Lounge
More Jim Stroud Advice @
the Recruiters Lounge
Job Hunting Secrets From A Top Recruiter
Jessica Stillman, BNET
As BNET’s sister site MoneyWatch pointed out recently, in a climate where it takes the average job hunter more than seven months to find their next position, big job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder are of only limited use.
The post’s author Eilene Zimmerman writes:
Writing on recruiting blog Fistful of Talent recently, Kelly Dingee, a “professional stalker” with Staffing Advisors, lets the cat out of the bag and offers up seven things employers should tell job seekers about how to get considered. Dingee isn’t convinced job boards are totally over saying, “there will be people looking for you on there.
At least for a little while longer.” But overall Dingee agrees with consensus opinion that too much time on job boards isn’t productive and offers tips to help you get hired in a post-job board world, including old standbys like networking — “Find someone who works at your targeted company who can pass your resume along” — as well as less well known advice:
As BNET’s sister site MoneyWatch pointed out recently, in a climate where it takes the average job hunter more than seven months to find their next position, big job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder are of only limited use.
The post’s author Eilene Zimmerman writes:
Forget CareerBuilder, HotJobs, and all the other mass job sites. While these boards seem like a good place to start, how many people do you know who actually found a job that way? Even hiring managers don’t want to sort through the hundreds and hundreds of resumes they get for each position they list on these sites, so they’re increasingly turning to industry-specific job portals, says Debra Yergen, author of Creating Job Security.And Zimmerman isn’t the only person pointing out that job boards are often a waste of time. Everyone from the WSJ to Ask the Headhunter’s Nick Corcodolis has written posts advising that there are probably more productive ways to spend most of your job search hours. But if job boards are on the wane, how are companies and recruiters finding people to hire? And how can you best position yourself to be found?
Writing on recruiting blog Fistful of Talent recently, Kelly Dingee, a “professional stalker” with Staffing Advisors, lets the cat out of the bag and offers up seven things employers should tell job seekers about how to get considered. Dingee isn’t convinced job boards are totally over saying, “there will be people looking for you on there.
At least for a little while longer.” But overall Dingee agrees with consensus opinion that too much time on job boards isn’t productive and offers tips to help you get hired in a post-job board world, including old standbys like networking — “Find someone who works at your targeted company who can pass your resume along” — as well as less well known advice:
Make yourself findable first. Google yourself right now. Did your LinkedIn profile come up? No? Build one, make it public. If you have a preferred method of contact, note it. Use inmails. Use a separate email.
Make yourself even more findable. Post your resume, or your bio, or whatever you want to call it. Use Posterous, use WordPress, use a .me site, use doctoc or slideshare… use something.
12 Little Known Tips For LinkedIn
Most business professionals are on LinkedIn at this point. LinkedIn tells us that:
- LinkedIn has over 65 million members in over 200 countries.
- A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S.
- Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.
To me that states clearly that if you have almost ANY kind of business and are prospecting, LI will be a good resource for you. But just setting up a profile and dabbling once a week or so is not going to do much for your prospecting efforts. Below are a few tips that not many folks know about, but are powerful techniques for increasing your visibility and maximizing that “inbound marketing” that Social Media is known for.
- LinkedIn has over 65 million members in over 200 countries.
- A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S.
- Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.
To me that states clearly that if you have almost ANY kind of business and are prospecting, LI will be a good resource for you. But just setting up a profile and dabbling once a week or so is not going to do much for your prospecting efforts. Below are a few tips that not many folks know about, but are powerful techniques for increasing your visibility and maximizing that “inbound marketing” that Social Media is known for.
- Create 3 saved searches. If you are doing a search on a company, person, industry or whatever, save your searches. At the top where you see the number of records in your search you’ll see a “save this search” button – you get 3 if you are at the basic level. LI will send you a weekly email, if you want, to get updates to your search.
- Recommendations are important, so ask for them. But make it easy. I first call or email my contact and ask if they will recommend me. If so, write the recommendation yourself – so you are sure that you are sending the right message. Be sure to talk about the problems you solved – that’s really the point, isn’t it?
- Use the Question and Answer area to gain more visibility on the Internet. On the question that you answer you will see a “share this” with a drop down menu. You can email your network, Digg it, Bookmark the question on Delicious, or use the link provided in your answer and link to your one of your blog posts, or somewhere else on your site to pull in traffic.
- Join groups that are in line with your business, your objectives or your hoped for job. Fish where the fish are. The more “on target” the group, the more valuable the content they provide, and the networking opportunities will be
- Use groups to expand your network, but be selective. In the groups tabs, you will see on called “other” with a drop down menu. Select members and you will see a list of all of the member in that group. Offer to connect with the ones that make sense. You might evaluate based on the size of their network, the type of company or industry they are in or how much interaction they have had with the group.
- Did you know you can export your connections? Go to “Contacts.” Then “Connections.” At the bottom of your Connections box is “Export Connections.” Export the connections and import them into your preferred address book. Do this frequently so you are consolidating all of your contacts in one spot (might be Outlook, Act, Salesforce)
- Refer to both the LinkedIn Learning Center and their blog. The Learning Center is full of great tutorials and blog has info on updated and new features with full explanations.
Tweets can be used to impress employers
I'm late to the Twitter party.
I messed up; I'm behind. I used to tweet occasionally, then Twitter smacked me in the face. It was everywhere, in virtually every aspect of my life, and here I was with ten tweets. Not anymore.
As a student journalist, college student, 19-year-old, smartphone owner and news junkie, Twitter is suddenly everywhere I look. Twitter helped start a revolution in Egypt and it's now supposed to be on my resume.
During last week's liberal arts career fair, Kyle Lacy, the man who wrote "Twitter Marketing for Dummies," came and spoke to students. He said that every student on Twitter should tweet six times a day - two retweets, two professional updates and two personal tweets. One's Twitter name can be put on one's resume next to one's GPA, e-mail address and reference list. I like to update my resume every couple of months, just in case, and now I'm supposed to add on my Twitter name? That concept baffles me.
LinkedIn made sense. The initial concept of LinkedIn was to put resumes online then be able to track your connections online. It's like a virtual career fair - your resume is out there for everyone to see and you can make connections and work contacts instantly. Twitter started with the connotation that it was a forum where you or I could post updates about our lives throughout the day and someone out there in cyberspace would be listening. It has done an excellent job of defining itself as something multi-faceted - it's a resume booster, a front page for different news sources and a place for Kanye West to exercise his caps lock key.
I'm not the only one late to the Twitter party or the only one who's suddenly discovered its potential - JP Morgan is in talks to buy a 10 percent stake of the company. It would value Twitter at $4.5 billion.
Student journalists have utilized Twitter in a creative way, too. A trend that has become increasingly more popular among student journalists is to tweet at sources for a story asking for interviews. The popular blog College Media Matters wrote a post about proper Twitter etiquette when tweeting a source. The post said to make sure the student includes a description of what his or her story is about and is sure to thank the potential source - all in 140 characters or less. The post also suggests that student journalists keep their Twitter feeds public, something I only recently changed. After being on Facebook for four years, I feel trained to protect as much of my personal information as possible. With Twitter, however, users are almost encouraged to put less about their personal information, like their birthday, hometown, etc., and more what they're doing in that moment.
Read The Rest Of The Exponent Article
I messed up; I'm behind. I used to tweet occasionally, then Twitter smacked me in the face. It was everywhere, in virtually every aspect of my life, and here I was with ten tweets. Not anymore.
As a student journalist, college student, 19-year-old, smartphone owner and news junkie, Twitter is suddenly everywhere I look. Twitter helped start a revolution in Egypt and it's now supposed to be on my resume.
During last week's liberal arts career fair, Kyle Lacy, the man who wrote "Twitter Marketing for Dummies," came and spoke to students. He said that every student on Twitter should tweet six times a day - two retweets, two professional updates and two personal tweets. One's Twitter name can be put on one's resume next to one's GPA, e-mail address and reference list. I like to update my resume every couple of months, just in case, and now I'm supposed to add on my Twitter name? That concept baffles me.
LinkedIn made sense. The initial concept of LinkedIn was to put resumes online then be able to track your connections online. It's like a virtual career fair - your resume is out there for everyone to see and you can make connections and work contacts instantly. Twitter started with the connotation that it was a forum where you or I could post updates about our lives throughout the day and someone out there in cyberspace would be listening. It has done an excellent job of defining itself as something multi-faceted - it's a resume booster, a front page for different news sources and a place for Kanye West to exercise his caps lock key.
I'm not the only one late to the Twitter party or the only one who's suddenly discovered its potential - JP Morgan is in talks to buy a 10 percent stake of the company. It would value Twitter at $4.5 billion.
Student journalists have utilized Twitter in a creative way, too. A trend that has become increasingly more popular among student journalists is to tweet at sources for a story asking for interviews. The popular blog College Media Matters wrote a post about proper Twitter etiquette when tweeting a source. The post said to make sure the student includes a description of what his or her story is about and is sure to thank the potential source - all in 140 characters or less. The post also suggests that student journalists keep their Twitter feeds public, something I only recently changed. After being on Facebook for four years, I feel trained to protect as much of my personal information as possible. With Twitter, however, users are almost encouraged to put less about their personal information, like their birthday, hometown, etc., and more what they're doing in that moment.
Read The Rest Of The Exponent Article
Your Résumé, for All to See
By PATRICIA R. OLSEN
YOU think you have a serviceable résumé. Maybe you have worked with a professional résumé writer, or at least have had someone read it over and give you feedback. But you still haven’t gotten a new job. Should you start a Web site, solely for job hunting, that features your résumé?
Maybe — or maybe not. If you are currently employed, be very wary about setting up a Web site that announces you are job hunting. If your employer happens to find out about it, you could be dismissed, says Kim Isaacs, director of ResumePower, a résumé-writing service in Doylestown, Pa.
To some job seekers, a profile on LinkedIn, the business social networking site, is the only Web presence they need.
Jeff Neil, a career counselor and owner of Be Your Best Coaching in Manhattan, says LinkedIn is “the primary source for employers looking for candidates online, and a fabulous way for most job seekers to inform colleagues and potential employers that they’re job hunting.”
But LinkedIn has limitations for job seekers, Mr. Neil says, including limited space and a rigid format for listing past jobs.
“So setting up a Web site strictly for job hunting,” he says, “can be an especially good idea for consultants and people in creative fields like advertising who want to describe numerous projects they’ve worked on.”
Even if you’re not in a creative field, the résumé you post on your job-hunting site should be different from the one you might hand to a manager during an interview, says Ms. Isaacs, who is also the résumé expert for Monster.com. “You still want short bits of information, where you get to the key points quickly, but you can create a multipage, online portfolio on the Web and include case studies, a page of references, and testimonials,” she says.
It’s also a good idea to provide your résumé in several formats, including Microsoft Word, ASCII text and a PDF file, Ms. Isaacs says. “Companies have different applicant-tracking systems,” she says, “so you want to accommodate various requirements and give prospective employers the option to choose how they want to download your résumé.”
When posting your résumé, be more cautious about privacy than you would if you were submitting it to an interviewer. More job hunters are omitting their street address and city these days, Ms. Isaacs says. Some list a post office box for privacy and use a Google Voice phone number, in part to keep their actual phone number private.
“I’ve heard of an employer Googling a candidate’s address before deciding whether to interview the person,” she says. “You don’t know what a hiring manager might deduce from a street location, and it might just take two clicks to find that information.”
Richard Deosingh, a regional vice president of the staffing firm Robert Half International, suggests making your e-mail address or a phone number easily accessible.” Put it on every page of your Web site; don’t make a recruiter work to find it,” he says. He also advises including a brief biography and updating your site regularly.
When he wanted to change jobs last June, Jared Kreiner, a public relations account supervisor in New York, designed his own job-hunting site, www.jaredkreiner.com. Shortly afterward, a former colleague who was about to leave the public relations firm G. S. Schwartz & Company recommended Mr. Kreiner to her manager as a possibility to replace her — and mentioned his Web site.
“I think my site helped me get the job,” Mr. Kreiner says. He removed his résumé when he started work, but reposted it when he was laid off last December because of cost cuts. He is now actively promoting the site.
Read The Rest Of The NY Times Article
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