LinkedInAdvice.com: May 2014

6 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Land a Job

by Gianna Sen-Gupta

Creating and fostering professional connections, or networking, is widely considered the most effective way to land a job. Based on data that suggests more people find employment than there are positions publicly available, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that 70% of jobs are found through networking.

What’s more, LinkedIn—the online social networking platform for professionals—is changing the networking and recruiting landscape in just about every industry. In a 2013 survey of nearly 1,900 employers, 97% said they actively use LinkedIn to recruit new hires. Now becoming a resource for everything career-related, employers believe a LinkedIn profile is essential for every individual. For college students especially new to the professional world, LinkedIn can be the gateway to making new connections, finding a career path, and, most importantly, to cinching job opportunities and interviews.

Mastering the art of networking is a long process that takes work and dedication. Spend the time cultivating relationships and you will eventually build a strong professional circle that may open doors to new opportunities down the road. To learn how to use LinkedIn as a networking tool and career builder, follow the advice of NerdScholar’s college career experts.

1. Build your LinkedIn before your job search begins.

Students who are active on the online networking platform during college will be better equipped for the job search when they graduate. Making connections and asking people for career advice will help in your job search later on, says Patricia Simpson, director of career services at the University of Illinois. “It helps to start the networking [and] connecting process before the student has a real ‘ask’ to make of an alum or other connection.” Simpson adds that “most people love to offer advice” and are more likely to help with your job search once they’ve gotten to know you.

By having a LinkedIn profile, Simpson says, students will “have many more resources to draw upon once they’re doing a job search than they would without LinkedIn connections.”

3. Connect with people on LinkedIn as soon as you meet them.

Because networking is important to a person’s continual professional growth, Bob Franco, senior assistant director of career services at Seton Hall University, says students should make it a routine to build connections on LinkedIn as often as possible. Connecting right after you’ve met someone will ensure they remember you. What’s more, he says, “people will appreciate the invitation.”

Franco recommends this approach for all connections a person can possibly make. “Students should be linking to professors, internship supervisors, individuals they meet at networking events and, maybe most importantly, to each other,” he says. “Linking to other students clearly has long-term benefits in that, at some point, these students will be managers and executives—getting connected to them early may be one of the most important things to do.” When your professional network is limited, Franco advises students to connect with professors and faculty members that may be able to expand your number of secondary contacts in relevant fields.

See all 6 ways and the complete article

10 Simple Ways to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Your Epic Resume

Richie Etwaru

I probably joined LinkedIn sometime in 2003 or 2004 since my first recommendation dates back to 2005. So it is safe to say I have a decade of experience with LinkedIn.
Thus, from the simple length of time I have been updating, my profile is somewhat epic, sometimes I get made fun of for having a “too complete” profile.

But more recently, as the LinkedIn profile quickly becomes the golden copy of a resume more and more folks ask for tips and tricks to making profiles … epic.

Today, someone asked if I could help him make a “Sweet Resume” on LinkedIn – this was a first.
Below are some of my techniques, they go a bit deeper than the simple stuff like complete the profile, add others colleagues, or add education, etc.

Get the top right – nothing is more boring than a profile without a picture, or a profile with a title that says “VP, Technology”. The reality is that the LinkedIn profile is much more than a resume, it is a personal statement of what your colleagues (and customers) can expect from you. Here are some examples “Delivers Projects Like No Body’s Business” – now there is a guy/gal I am looking to hire!
Use the gallery – For every job you had and your summary, LinkedIn allows you to add videos, pictures, documents and links. This is the “rich media” that you can add to your profile to make it relevant, and go beyond a simple digital copy of your resume online. This is the "sweet" in "Sweet Resume".
Use company pages – you want to link each of your jobs to the employer’s official page. This allows the logo of the company you worked for to be added to your profile enabling readers to quickly see what companies you were associate with via company logos.
Publishing – LinkedIn allows you to add your publications; these can be blogs, research reports, articles, or books. One cool trick is to always co-publish, this way the faces of your co-publishers are added to your profile giving you network credence.

Read ways 5-10 and the complete article

15 Ways LinkedIn Can Supercharge Your Job Search Results

by Cheryl Simpson

You know that LinkedIn is a critically important job search tool, right? But do you know the specific ways LinkedIn can elevate your search results? Let’s take a look at 15 of them.

There are five major job search methodologies, or ways to bring your candidacy to the attention of prospective employers. By supplementing your action steps in each of these areas with specific LinkedIn tactics, you can upgrade the number of interviews and career opportunities you attract.

1. Networking

Hopefully you are already aware that networking is the #1 way to land a job at any career level. Whether you are a new college grad or a C-suite executive, networking – when done right – will open doors to new jobs faster than any other strategy. Supplement your networking with these specific actions on LinkedIn and you’ll see even better results.

1) Segment your networking: Odds are you have several hundred non-LinkedIn networking connections that you’re planning to contact in your search, but you have to segment those by hand unless you’re using a CRM (customer relationship management) tool. While LinkedIn isn’t a full-fledged CRM tool, it can help you to segment your first-/second-level and Group connections. From your Contacts tab, use recent conversations and filters to segment your list by communication thread, first or last name, company, tag, location, title, or connection level.

2. Targeted Outreach To Companies

Many job seekers don’t realize that targeting specific employers is a powerful way to gain entry to new career opportunities. By making the fatal mistake of assuming a job opportunity has to already exist, they miss out on the incredible benefit of accessing the Hidden Job Market – job openings that will soon be available but have not yet been publicly advertised. With LinkedIn’s business intelligence you gain take your targeted outreach to the next level.

3) Network with connections you already have in the company: I presume you already know that when you visit a company profile on LinkedIn you will be presented with a list of connections you have with the employer. If you filter that list, then leverage the intelligence you can garner from each connection’s profile, you will boost your networking requests of them to the next level.

4. Recruiters

The previous three job search methodologies are great choices for penetrating the Hidden Job Market where 85% of jobs can be found. There are times, though, when it’s appropriate to also apply for jobs that have been already published (the Visible Job Market, of course), including those assigned to an external recruiter. The problem is, though, that recruiters are overwhelmed with great candidates. So how do you get their attention?

12) Seed evidence of your brand in Groups recruiters hang out in: Keep in mind that some recruiters are active or lurk in select industry LinkedIn Groups. If you “seed” your communications in those Groups with evidence of your brand, achievements, and industry insights, then you can potentially cultivate recruiter awareness of your candidacy.

See all 5 methodologies, all 15 ways, and the complete Careerealism article

6 Bad LinkedIn Habits That Must Be Broken

by Daniel Newman

As LinkedIn surpasses 300 million users, it clearly remains a powerful networking site where the benefits of social meet the needs of the professional.

Still, there seems to be some confusion on how to use LinkedIn; there are still several basic tenets of using LinkedIn that seem to go ignored. Specifically, we seem to be using Linked as we use Facebook or Twitter.

#Fail.

If you want the other pros on LinkedIn to take you seriously, you need to avoid certain behaviors; some of which are perfectly acceptable on other social networks. For best results, here are 6 social networking practices you should not to do on LinkedIn…

Frequent Status Updates

People don’t check LinkedIn nearly as often as Facebook or most other Social Networks for that matter. So I recommend that statuses are updated no more than once or twice a day. This is more for your benefit than for your network. Oversimplify here and focus on sharing much less frequently, while trying to find highly interesting content that will benefit your connections.

Connection Spamming

I know you may want to be a first level connection with Mark Zuckerberg or Tim Cook, however random connection requests here are generally not looked upon fondly.

Collecting connections is kind of like collecting twitter followers. If they aren’t interested in you, your product, or your service then the connection may not hold much value. If you really want to give it a go and connect to those you have no relationship with, at the very least include a little note saying why you want to connect and how a relationship with you may become mutually beneficial.

Habits 3-6 and the complete article

8 Groups To Help You Score A Job on Linkedin

Albert Costill

It wasn’t all that long ago that we presented some tips on how to become an all-star on LinkedIn. One of those pieces of advice was the importance of groups. In fact, we recommended that you join at least 50 different groups. Why? Well, that’s rather simple. Not only is that a requirement for all-star status, groups are also one of the best resources on LinkedIn. Not only can groups help you network, you can also discover who’s hiring or even get advice on key elements like how to properly write a resume.

But, which groups should I join on LinkedIn?

That’s probably the most important question you should be asking. For starters, a great place to start is by narrowing down your search by industry and location. So, for example, if you are an accountant in St. Louis, you should join several St. Louis accounting and finance groups.

It also wouldn’t hurt to join any other groups that are related to your field. While that group may be located in another part of the country, it’s still an opportunity to discuss the industry. You may discover the latest trends or some other useful tips that are related to your profession. Also, you could strike up a conversation with an individual who has connections to an influential person in your neck of the woods.

So, you found some groups to join. Now what?

One of the best pieces of advice that you can give you is to join discussions. After all, if you’re not chatting with other people, how else are you going to get noticed? Scroll through a group’s message and look for the topics that interest you. It’s not only a chance to exchange ideas and learn something useful, it’s the best way to engage people who have some influence or connections. In fact, once you join a group, you’ll be able to email members directly.

Another way to make yourself visible within your groups is by starting a new thread. It could be anything from asking a question, sharing a relevant article or simply introducing yourself to the group. This gives you the opportunity to make your presence known, as well as, giving group members a little insight into who you are as an individual and professional.

Finally, if you join a group that is related to your profession, aka a niche group, you might have the chance to get a lead on a potential job opening that either hasn’t been posted yet or widely announced. Striking up a relationship with people who have this kind of information is one of the best reasons to actively participate in groups.

However, there are also a lot of mainstream groups that are just as valuable as though related to your field. When you join these groups, you’ll be making your job hunt much easier by getting updates, job postings, the chance to ask questions and, of course, network. With all that in mind, here are the top 8 LinkedIn groups you need to join if you want to secure a job.

1. JOBS: Job Openings, Job Leads and Job Connections

Here is the largest jobs group on LinkedIn – which you can’t argue with almost 1.7 million members. This group has perfected the art of networking, connecting, and collaborating with it’s extensive network, as well as hosting and sharing insightful job related topics with either articles or discussions. JOBS also assists job seekers with issues like their resumes and allows members to post and search for jobs.

2. A Job Needed – A Job Posted

This is group has self-proclaimed itself as a “career connection group” and has a very serious no spam policy. What this group does best is connect job seekers with relevant recruiters, as well as locating specific job postings. There are also useful articles that contain tips on resumes, LinkedIn and just the job search process as a whole. A Job Needed – A Job Posted has almost 50,000 and has been helping job seekers since January 11, 2009.

Groups 3-8 and the complete article

7 Secrets to Attracting Recruiters to Your Linkedin Profile

If you're not getting inMails or phone calls from recruiters, then you may want to pay attention to this article.

Gone are days when you need to apply for jobs.

Now jobs come to you when you know how to attract recruiters to your Linkedin profile!

Let me share seven secrets to attracting recruiters to your Linkedin profile starting today.

1) Know How Boolean Search Works

Did you know recruiters use boolean search to pull up relevant Linkedin profiles every day?

Let's say a recruiter is looking for a Financial Accountant with CGA designation who has experience in financial reporting.

The following is a boolean search string a recruiter may plug in at the backend of Linkedin to pull up relevant profiles:

("Financial Accountant") AND (CGA) AND ("Financial Reporting")

Now if you're a financial accountant with that background and I run this search on Linkedin right now, will I find you on the 1st page of my search?

If not, then you got some work to do on your Linkedin profile.

Sprinkle these three keywords (Financial Accountant, CGA, and Financial Reporting) in the following sections of your Linkedin profile to see immediate results:

Headline right below your name
Summary section
Job titles and descriptions
Education
Skills

Action Steps:

Review job postings you want to compete for in the near future
Pick two to three keywords recruiters will use to pull up relevant Linkedin profiles
Sprinkle those keywords throughout your Linkedin profile so you rank high in search.

2) Tell Recruiters Who You Are

Don't waste recruiters time by making them guess who you are.

Use your headline right below your name to communicate who you are.

Make sure to use one or more of your keywords as you introduce yourself.

This is where you make your first impression.
So make it count!

3) Wow Recruiters With Your Summary - Read more about #3, 4-7, and the complete article

Ten Ways To Use LinkedIn In Your Job Search

Liz Ryan

LinkedIn is an insanely useful tool for every working person, not to mention every job-seeker and student. The only unfortunate thing about LinkedIn as a job search tool is that most of what’s powerful about LinkedIn as a job-search tool is not obvious to the casual LinkedIn user.

If the only thing you’re doing on LinkedIn is updating your profile every now and then and waiting for the headhunters and recruiting managers to reach out, you’re missing the boat.

LinkedIn is a massive database, and within its gazillions of records are critical elements in your job-search plan and strategy. Let’s say that you heard about a growing company in your city and wondered whether they might need someone like you.

Before LinkedIn, you would have had to call or write to the company, search your contacts to see if any of your friends might know someone who works there, or call the front desk and ask for HR. Those are all slow, cumbersome and less-than-highly-effective research methods.

Your LinkedIn membership eliminates the need for that kind of tedious legwork.Let’s call our imaginary company Angry Chocolates. You’re a Marketing guy, Manager level, and you’re curious whether Angry Chocolates might be able to use a guy like you. You hop on LinkedIn and conduct a search on Angry Chocolates to see how folks in your network are connected to the company. Hurrah!

You don’t know anybody who actually works there, but one of your first-degree contacts did a consulting project for Angry Chocolates and another two first-degree homies have friends who work there. You’re already way ahead of the networking-into-your-next-job game!

Now you check out the Angry Chocolates leadership team via their own LinkedIn profiles. What do you find? One of them went to your undergraduate alma mater. That means that the Alumni Office can put you in touch with him, if you didn’t feel comfortable reaching out yourself. (And why shouldn’t you? Alumni connections are one of the pillars of networking.) One of the executives at Angry is on the Board of Directors of a not-for-profit where your fiancee’s mom is a staff member.

Do you remember those see-through models of people, about a foot high, made of plastic parts that fit together and come apart to show kids how the human skeleton fits into the nervous system and the organs? LinkedIn makes your network visible the same way those anatomic models make human anatomy visible.

Using LinkedIn, you can see who your friends know, where people have been and what they’re interested in, what people are talking about and who’s gone from Company to Company B. If you’re paying attention, LinkedIn can absorb at least thirty percent of your job-search-related research load. LinkedIn can save you hours that you used to have to spend at the library or on some corporate database, researching who’s who and who’s where. It’s a new day! LinkedIn is a job-seeker’s best friend.

Here are ten ways to use LinkedIn in your job search:

1) Make Your Headline Count

Your LinkedIn headline (just below your name) is your online brand, because your name and your headline are the only things a LinkedIn user will see when s/he conducts a search on the LinkedIn database and your profile comes up as one of the search returns. Your headline, your name and your profile photo are the only cues that user will get before deciding whether or not to click through your headline to your full profile. Make your headline count!

“Marketer seeking next opportunity” is weak, but “Consumer Products Marketer Looking for Small Brand to Make Big” tells your next boss what you plan to deliver.

6) Find Your Hiring Manager
If you want to avoid the Black Hole of Death recruiting portals, you’ve got to know who your hiring manager is in any organization you’re targeting. It’s easy to find your hiring manager in all but the most enormous and bureaucratic organizations, where half the people walking around are called Program Manager, Project Manager or Director of Special Projects.

To find your hiring manager on LinkedIn, just use the Advanced People Search feature (click on the word Advanced next to the search bar at the top of the page) with your target company name filled in and the most likely title for your hiring manager as a second search term.

If you’re a Marketing person, your hiring manager could be Angry Chocolates’ Marketing Director or Marketing VP, for instance. Once you’ve got your hiring manager’s name, you can send him or her a paper Pain Letter via snail mail with your Human-Voiced Resume and avoid the Black Hole part of the process altogether!

Read all 10 ways and the complete Forbes article

The Top 10 LinkedIn Facts and Figures in 2014 You Need To Know

Written by Jeff Bullas

1) It has now passed 300 million users

5) 2.1 million LinkedIn groups

8) The top 5 countries by user numbers are. USA (93 million), India (24 million), Brazil (16 million), UK (14 million) and Canada with 9 million.

9) The top 3 fastest growing countries are Turkey, Colombia and Indonesia

See all of the top 10 and complete article

3 Ways To Get People To Refer Your Resume Using LinkedIn

by Melanie Feldman

“If you know someone, have them help you make a connection. One way someone will get my attention is if someone meaningful at the company puts a resume in front of me. This resume has a sure shot of getting looked at.” - Marnie Woodward, HR Bank of America

To be forthcoming, you won’t find anything in this article that involves applying for random jobs on LinkedIn. Here are some tips on how to get people to refer your resume using LinkedIn…

1) Search By Company And Connect With Employees

Objective: Get in touch with someone from the company you want to work for and have him or her connect you with someone from that company who can better assist you in your job search.

Enter the company you are interested in working for in the search box.
Right away you should see employees from that company appear in the search results, along your degree of connection with them. For instance, a 3^rd degree connection represents someone who has connections who are connected to your direct connections.
Connect with as many people as you can from the company (past or present).
Invite them to connect as a “friend,” select the box that says “Include a personal note,” then delete the generic message and write a two or three sentence message to them.

For example: “Hi John, I am really impressed by your resume. How do you like working for XYZ Company? I would love to chat with you for 5 minutes about what you do from day to day. Look forward to hearing from you! Thanks, Jane.”

Note: Once one person connects with you from the company, it will improve your success rate of connections with other employees, as you’ll now be a 2^nd connection.

When you receive a response to your intro message, set up a time to talk with them for a quick phone call.
If someone connects with you, but doesn’t message you back (they probably didn’t see your message in the original invitation), send them a short four sentence message reiterating the original, that you would like to get on a quick phone call with them.
The phone call! It is all about them! You want them to talk about themselves and their own experiences the whole time. This conversation is not about you or asking for anything. How would you like it if a random person asked you for something? (Especially for a favor related to your place of employment?) More often than not, at the end of the conversation, if the conversation went well you’ll be asked what you are interested in and whether you need their help. That is your gold!

Ways 2,3, and the complete Careerealism article

The Secret to Building a LinkedIn Profile That Gets Results - 7 Steps

By Lily Zhang

Everyone is on LinkedIn now. With over 300 million users and growing, you probably already know that this is where you want to be to manage your professional reputation. But with so much competition out there, how do you go about grabbing the attention of recruiters?

The best way to raise your visibility among your peers and have a knockout profile is by creating a cohesive, compelling brand for yourself on LinkedIn.

What exactly does that mean? In a nutshell, when you’re branding yourself, you’re suggesting a unique promise of value that separates you from your peers—you are someone or do something that’s different than everyone else out there. And then you’re communicating it on LinkedIn—and to the world.

1) How to Do It

The majority of your work actually involves figuring out what your brand is first. While there’s a lot of advice out there on how to develop a personal brand, the golden rule is to be authentic.

Think about what really matters to you: your vision, purpose, value, and passion. Know what you have in common with your peers and competitors, but also what makes you stand out. For instance, if you’re in business development, do you specialize in managing top clients, or are you the guy who creates connections out of nothing? Then, get external feedback: What do other people know about you? What do they think makes you unique among others they’ve worked and interacted with?

This initial groundwork can take time, but once you’ve done it, see how you can connect your self-perception, the perceptions of others, what makes you compelling, and your promise of value together. Then (and here’s the fun part), figure out how to roll it all up in one sentence—a pithy, one-line, statement that sums up your personal brand. Here are a few examples:

Extroverted office manager with passion for event planning, from office holiday parties to company retreats employees actually look forward to
Sports marketing professional with expertise in social media analytics and Millennials
Coder with a conscience: Solving problems in healthcare with technology

This step can be hard to get right, but once you do, it’ll be easy to turn it into elevator pitches—and, of course, your LinkedIn profile.

(For more on this process, read about the first step to building your personal brand.)

2) Express Your Brand - read more about #2, steps 3-7, and the complete article

4 Ways You Are Limiting Yourself on LinkedIn

By Dasanj Aberdeen

LinkedIn claims to be the “world’s largest professional network” and it is hard to deny that. A LinkedIn profile has become the electronic version of one’s resume. In addition to that, it allows you to highlight your personality and, as an extension of you, is a hub for your professional network. It allows you to create and build professional relationships and facilitates the sharing of knowledge and insight via articles and group discussions.

If you take advantage of it, it is a powerful tool that can enhance your professional situation. But are you taking full advantage of it?

Here are 4 ways you may be limiting yourself on LinkedIn:
1. You’re not taking advantage of opportunities to continue the conversation

How many times do you connect with someone on LinkedIn and the communication ends there? You press “Send invitation” or “Accept” and then there’s silence. Networks like LinkedIn make it easy to connect with others beyond your geographic location but maintaining that relationship comes with time and effort on your part. This is the same was with offline relationships. Make an effort to continue the conversation with your connections by touching base throughout the year, find out what they’re up to, find out what issues they could use help with and what their latest accomplishments are. Go a little deeper than waiting for periodic updates on your homepage.

2. You’re uncomfortable selling yourself

Many of us, especially women, have been taught to be humble and to not brag. But is it bragging if you’re simply stating a fact? I’d agree that how tact is applied affects how the information you’re sharing about yourself is perceive. So provided it is done gracefully, I think it is important to share your achievements. At the very least, we’re each responsible for being our biggest proponent and supporter. If you’re not able to exhibit confidence in yourself and your abilities, how do you expect sponsors to feel comfortable vouching for you at the decision-making table? It all starts with you. And if you don’t share your progress with those around you, the world may never know about the impact you’re making day-to-day.

Ways 3,4, and the complete article

17 Quick Ways to Master Your LinkedIn Profile

Warren Knight

Following up on The Beginners' Guide to LinkedIn article last year, I wanted to make sure you know about all of the latest updates coming from LinkedIn. There are a lot of great ways to improve your LinkedIn profile. Here are 17 quick ways to master your LinkedIn profile.

1. Be Professional

When it comes to using LinkedIn you need to remember the difference between this being a professional and what other social networks are for. LinkedIn is about connecting professionally not socially.

2. Use of Keywords

You will need to use the Search function inside of LinkedIn, researching your keywords to make sure you appear on the first page of LinkedIn. If you don’t, you will need to change the wording on your profile.

8. Be Industry Specific

When choosing which sectors you work in, make sure you are specific. You want to be found by the right people and choosing your industry is important when considering this.

16. Don’t Forget Your Past

You will need to include all of your previous work experience, and not just your current workplace on LinkedIn to build a CV type profile.

Read all 17 quick ways and the complete article