LinkedIn is, by far, the number one social network geared strictly towards business professionals. While it is a great place to network, meet people, and find jobs, it is also your electronic resume. What users need to understand is that it is more than a business networking site. Your LinkedIn profile can go a long way towards giving you an edge in your job search. On the same note, it can also kill it if you aren’t using it correctly.
In conducting a job search, I personally use LinkedIn in many ways. However, for the purpose of this post, let’s say that I am a recruiter and have posted a job outside of LinkedIn and am collecting resumes from various sources.
Are You on LinkedIn?
Once I have a number of resumes that pique my interest, I check the candidates on LinkedIn before I even call them on the phone. Are you on there? You need to be on LinkedIn if you are in the job market, because you better bet your competitors are!
Some hiring managers do not do this. Some do. The thing is, you don’t know which ones do and which ones don’t. Be safe, and be on there.
Does Your Resume Match Your Profile?
Once I land on your profile, I will check the LinkedIn version of your resume and compare it to the one that was sent to me. Do they match?
It is simply amazing how many candidates’ LinkedIn profiles do not match their resumes! When I see discrepancies, I toss out the candidate. If you have a LinkedIn profile, make sure jobs, dates, job descriptions, and education information match up to whatever you write on your resume.
Also, post your picture in your profile. It matters, and is part of your personal brand. Show that you are aware of and care about your online image.
Do You Have Recommendations?
The most important thing I look at on LinkedIn is the person’s recommendations. If you are in the job market, the single most important thing you can do with your LinkedIn profile is to have several glowing recommendations.
Yes, it is true that most people only ask people for endorsements if they know they will say good things. This is the same rule that applies when you list references in your resume. Still, it is good to know that someone holds the candidate in high regard.
In the days before LinkedIn, employers checked references after a job interview. Today, with LinkedIn, references may be part of the decision to even bring a candidate in for a job interview.
Many LinkedIn users have recommendations on their profile. If I have ten great resumes in my hand but only plan to call in five for interviews, I will check your LinkedIn profile. If you are one without recommendations and seven others have great ones, that is a huge plus for them and a huge minus for you and will likely eliminate you.
Alternatively, if you have 15 recommendations from coworkers on your LinkedIn profile and another candidate has four, but two of them are from people who managed them, that gives them an edge over you.
Are Your Recommendations From the Right People?
Recommendations from people who have managed (or taught) you, directly or indirectly, carry more weight than 10 coworkers’ recommendations. Hiring managers know that these recommendations could be from 10 of your closest friends. Hiring managers want to hear from people who have managed you in the past.
The job titles of the people who endorse you matter as well. Try for a good mix (managers, coworkers, clients) but keep in mind that higher level employee endorsements are stronger endorsements.
Realistically, you really only need three to five recommendations (as long as you have one or two manager recommendations in there). Ideally, two to three recommendations per job is sufficient. You should probably go back about 5-10 years.
Do You Talk on LinkedIn?
Are you active on LinkedIn? Do you post updates on yourself? Are you answering questions for others and participating in group discussions?
If you are, and I am considering you as a candidate, I will search you and read what you write. You must always keep that in mind when using LinkedIn. Participating in discussions on a high level can really boost your chances of getting an interview or getting a job. The opposite is true as well.
Does the Number of Connections I Have Matter?
Not really. Ideally, if you are applying for a sales, marketing, or other related position, it would be good to see that you have many connections. However, quality matters more than quantity. Having 20,000 connections (in my opinion) is too many.
The number of connections a candidate has is of least importance to me – UNLESS you have 5,000 connections and no recommendations. That looks odd. A person with 40 connections and 4 recommendations is more impressive to me.
As with any social networking site, you must be smart about how you use it – especially if you are in the job market. You must consider your LinkedIn profile as a part of your resume. If you are honest, have some glowing recommendations, and are participating intelligently, LinkedIn can be the magic key in your job search.
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Jessica Simko is a seasoned senior level Human Resources professional with over 15 years of experience in all facets of Human Resources Management. She is a Freelance Writer and Entrepreneur specializing in career/ life coaching and social media. Connect with her on:
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How LinkedIn Can Impact Your Job Search | Brand-Yourself.com Blog
Jump Start Your Search By Becoming Your Own Executive Recruiter
I am not the first nor will I be the last person to tell you that a resume and cover letter that successfully melds what you have achieved in the past along with your potential to succeed in the future are critical tools for conducting a successful job search. However too many job seekers with these tools in hand make as much noise as the proverbial tree that falls in the forest that no one hears because they use a shotgun approach and fail to get these documents into the proper hands.
When I started my career as a professional recruiter, my boss who happened to be one of the top billers in NYC ingrained in me that to be a successful recruiter I needed to be one step ahead of the curve, and he taught me how to penetrate the “hidden job market.” This is how I learned the value of research, focus and networking in the job search process; and I’ve been sharing this information with all of the recruiters I hired and trained and the clients I work with in my coaching practice ever since.
Now if you are a $75,000 to $250,000 level candidate this should come as no surprise. With hundreds of thousands of postings on job boards and an additional 5% of jobs advertised using conventional media, statistics show that 70% of the jobs available in America today are unadvertised; and this number grows incrementally the higher up the corporate ladder you are. On top of this since 2007 fewer jobs have been listed with search firms each successive year.
So what should these figures tell you? What they tell me and what I tell my clients is that if 7 out of every 10 jobs you want to land are part of the unadvertised hidden job market, you need to start spending 70% of your time and effort acting like a recruiter and not a job seeker. I won’t lie and say you will find the perfect job this week or maybe even this month. But I can tell you this method will reduce your job search time and increase the odds of selecting a job you want instead of settling for one you don’t.
And what is it that recruiters do? They spend the bulk of their IPT (income productive time) finding out who the players are in the companies they want to work with at their competitors. So should you! Start by finding out the title of decision makers you would be reporting to at each company and who they report to. Then find the decision maker one level up, because this is the person you will be targeting.
If you don’t know why you are starting so high up the ladder let me tell you. First off this person sees the bigger picture and may actually be considering making some personnel changes but does not have the time or inclination to do so at this time. Your call and availability can get the ball rolling. This is how I made over 25% of my deals as a recruiter. Second, the odds are the person you would be directly reporting to will find you more of a threat and hide your availability from his or her superiors, who more than likely in this job market would share this view.
Here is who you should target. If the company has less than 250 employees target the president, owner, or a vice president in the group you want to work in, and if the company has 250-1000 employees target the VP of your department. If they have 1,000+ employees find a senior director or divisional VP.
If you find the title of the hiring authority but not their name what should you do? Once again do what recruiters do.
a: Call the company and ask for the department. Then ask whoever answers the phone for the name of the person you want; very often you may need to devise a creative ruse to get them to talk.
b: Visit the company Web site and see if the person is listed there.
c. Look up the company on Linked-in and other social media sites and see if the person is listed there. If not, look for a contact in the company you are directly linked to or have a 2nd or 3rd level relationship with and see if they can give you the person’s name.
d: Google the company under News and these 3 terms: Company name, title, department name, and use Google Alerts
Now that you know who you want to approach, the final step is reaching out to this person with a customized resume and cover letter printed on quality paper and sending it to them via the US Post Office. You read that right, not in an email or a fax, but by snail mail. The message you want to get across in the resume and cover letter is one that is simple and direct.
a: I know your business inside out and I know the problems you face.
b: I have a history of solving similar problems and can produce the results you seek.
c: Site examples of the problems and solutions and offer testimonials.
d: Depending on geography suggest meeting for lunch or coffee or spending 10-15 minutes on the phone.
Finally, if you don’t have a great resume and cover letter, find someone to write them for you. If you don’t there is a very real chance that all your hard work will be for naught because you failed to make a winning first impression.
Perry Newman, CPC CSMS is a nationally recognized executive resume writer, career coach, AIPC certified recruiter and SMMU certified social media strategist known for his ability to help his clients get results. You can view sample resumes at http://www.perrynewman.com/ and email him your resume at perry@perrynewman.com for FREE telephone resume critique.
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Don't get caught up in your "job" or "title" Someday your job will be replaced.
NPR presents us with an amazing study done in photographs, of how innovation makes jobs obsolete...http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124251060
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How to Answer the Top 5 Tough Interview Questions | EmploymentDigest.net
The telephone rings and you have been invited to an interview. You are excited and nervous at the same time. Your mind starts to work in overdrive and you become worried that you will not be able to answer the questions. What do I do now? What questions will they ask me?
There are many questions that can be asked in an interview but some questions are more popular than others or are variations on the following top 5 tough interview questions. If you think about the questions themselves they are not hard but rather need some thought and research. There are no right and wrong answers rather your strengths and abilities need to be marketed to your prospective employer and this is your golden opportunity to be the most successful applicant.
How would you describe yourself? This is your opportunity to demonstrate your strength and abilities. Depending on who is asking the question you may need to adapt your responses. If the person asking the question is a human resources manager their views and expectations would be different from a senior vice president. To answer this question focus on what the questioner wants in an employee. Senior leadership want people who are self starters, who look for better ways of achieving results, are capable and responsible. While a human resources manager will focus more on your personal characteristics and ability to work with others. Talk about yourself and your personal attributes and relate them to your accomplishments in previous roles.
What are your goals and aspirations? The interviewer is interested in your career direction rather than your desire or dream to become an astronaut. Focus on your career expectations and where you want to be in five years time. What personal goals do you set yourself that will make you a better employee? Consider what you like to do outside of work that can make a valid contribution as a valuable employee.
Why do you think you would be right for this role? This question requires some thought and preparation. What are the goals, direction and mission of the company? An employer is looking for an employee who has similar ideas, goals and motivation as the company. Research the company; look at the website, product brochures and what they do in the community. From this information you will be able to craft a response that is compatible and in alignment with the corporate direction and values. Other useful sources of information are current employees, newspapers and magazine articles.
What do you think it will take to be successful in this role? The interviewer wants to know what you will be bringing to the role. What skills, abilities or experience can you bring to benefit the organisation? Your response needs to consider and answer what the employer expects of you in this role. Relate past roles and the accomplishments and success you had. After answering this question you want the employer to know that by hiring you, productivity will improve, problems will be solved and that you can create value in the role.
Tell me about how you work as part of a team? All employers want to know how you will work as part of a team. Any role in an organisation involves working with other people and you need to be a team player. Yes it is important that you can work on your own and that you are a self starter but at the end of the day you are part of a team. If you have worked in a team environment before describe how it worked and how your skills and abilities contributed to its success. If you are a leader then demonstrate with examples from your previous roles, if you are not then emphasise how well you work in a team. Organisations need both types of people and honesty will bring you credibility.
In the top 5 tough interview questions all the answers you need come from performing some research on the business you want to join and reviewing your own personal strengths and abilities. To successfully answer these questions put in the time and effort to develop a good response and practice answering with a partner, friend or colleague. Fine tune where required and you will be successful at your next interview.
By David A Low – If you want to stand out from the crowd and win your next interview, visit http://www.jobinterviewsecretsonline.com
How Today’s Job Searchers Are Supplementing Their Résumés
Throughout most of our lives, the résumé has been a fairly standard document. Job seekers prepare prospective employers a few sheets of paper summarizing their work goals, qualifications for the job in question, previous employers and perhaps a few positive references. Home computers becoming the norm did little to change the basic format and structure of most résumés, although programs like Microsoft Word provided ready-made templates to spruce up same old résumé. However, many of today’s résumés are of an entirely new breed. Web 2.0 has driven a sea of change in the way résumés are thought about, created and viewed by employers. Today, we’ll explore several ways in which today’s job searchers are supplementing their traditional résumés.
Prior to the mid-late 2000’s, the résumé was thought of and treated as a static document. They were created once and then left alone until they were needed again in the future. This is captured in the well-worn phrase “getting your résumé in order” – usually expressed when someone is about to leave their current job. LinkedIn.com has done more than perhaps any other service to change this. By joining LinkedIn, users can create “living résumés” that get updated on a regular basis and are viewable simultaneously to every prospective employer who also belongs to the service. While the look and feel of a LinkedIn résumé is not dramatically different than what you would expect, the true difference is the social aspect. Partners, colleagues and previous employers can attach references to your online résumé directly through LinkedIn. In many cases, your references will themselves have LinkedIn profiles which enables employers to get a better sense of their credibility too. More broadly, LinkedIn makes public your entire circle of contacts, connections and colleagues to any LinkedIn member that wishes to see it. This allows any interested professionals to get a quick read on the types of people with whom you associate. It also adds credibility to the claims made in your résumé. Someone claiming to have graduated summa cum laude from Yale, for instance, likely has friends and colleagues from that university, which LinkedIn will make obvious to anyone who cares to check.
Another key contribution LinkedIn and similar services have made to résumés is convenience. Previously, it was necessary to print out or e-mail copies of your résumé individually to each prospective employer to evaluate. Ambitious job searchers, during these times, frequently found themselves running off dozens of copies of the exact same résumé, which was an extremely time-consuming affair. Today, however, online résumés like those found on LinkedIn are completely portable. All any employer needs to do is join the service (though they likely already belong) and search for you by name. And should any aspect of your work history change, there is no need to manually update everyone who has your résumé. Updating it once ensures that anyone looking at it thereafter will see the latest and freshest copy.
Video Résumés
An even more radical way that new job searchers are supplementing traditional résumés is by using video. In a 2007 article, Time Magazine explained that video résumés were no longer mere comical fodder for Hollywood, but were in fact being used successfully by job searchers of “The YouTube Generation.” While various dedicated video resume sharing services exist, the bulk of job seekers opted to simply record and post videos for free on websites like YouTube and Vimeo. In February of 2007, Time reported that there were “already 1,590 entries listed under résumé.” By now, in April 2010, that number has skyrocketed to over 14,000 on YouTube alone. Because video allows a job searcher to be far more personally expressive than a piece of paper (or even LinkedIn), video resumes are as varied as they are popular. Some use their video resume to affect a professional and serious demeanor in hopes of convincing employers that they are worth hiring. Others use the opportunity to inject wit or humor into their resumes, perhaps to show employers their human side. And some video resumes are nothing short of asinine, as ResumeBear.com reveals in its 2009 article 10 of the Worst Video Resumes & What Makes Them Ineffective. One featured example includes a man who “divulges unnecessary facts about himself, such as his enjoyment of candlelit dinners and kung fu.” Another job seeker opted “to sing her resume to the viewer as a spoof of a Miley Cyrus song”, while still another admits “he got fired from his last job for tax evasion” while also sharing with employers “that he was really popular in college and got laid a lot.”
Such ridiculous examples notwithstanding, video résumés have made a dramatic difference in the job interview and hiring process. For all the benefits of regular paper résumés, their rigid standardization paints all job seekers with a broad brush. Those who found it difficult to distinguish themselves using the “same old résumés” as the rest of the herd have been given new life by video résumés in which they can truly express their unique workplace strengths.
Personal Website Résumés
Some of today’s job searchers opt to maintain a dynamically updated résumé on their personal website. Rather than joining a service like LinkedIn, web-inclined job seekers can simply create a public résumé on their own website, which is then distributed to employers during the job interview process. Today’s HR departments routinely get résumés in the form of web links to an applicant’s own website and it is not at all inappropriate to maintain a résumé in this manner. Truly creative job seekers often find ways to combine a video résumé with supporting text on their websites. For instance, a brief video might appear at the top of one’s résumé page to offer a personal introduction. Another approach is to post a lengthier video résumé in which the applicant refers viewers to text on the same page for further clarification (such as when discussing references or past projects at work in the video.)
The personal website résumé is ideal for job seekers who proactively seek out specific employers and approach them directly. A drawback of this approach, however, is that it may not be as easy for employers to find you as it would be on LinkedIn, where companies can search for various job attributes and automatically find workers who possess them. About the only way employers would find a personal website résumé would be if Google or Yahoo! displayed it as a search result for one of their queries, which is far from a sure thing. Nevertheless, thousands of today’s job seekers are using website résumés to great effect.
The Future
The résumé has changed so much in the last 5-10 years that one can only wonder what they will look like in the future. Of course, no one can be certain exactly what résumés will look like in 10-20 years, but recent trends suggest some likely outcomes. For one thing, the standard paper résumé figures to become ever-increasingly obsolete. It also seems likely that mobile phones will play a larger role in job interviews and hiring. LinkedIn, for instance, already offers mobile versions of its service for the iPhone and other devices. Above all, one thing is clear: after decades of staying relatively the same, résumés are changing in a big way.
Employment Digest: 4 Rules to an Amazing a Cover Letter
There are four simple rules that you must follow when writing your next cover letter. If you hit all four points, you are sure to land more quality interviews!
Rule Number One – Be personal!
You need to research the company and the hiring manager. Go to the library or hit the internet and find some simple fact that you can use to your advantage in your cover letter. Always find out the name of the Hiring Manager and use it to address him or her in your letter! A good source for the hiring manager’s name is the front desk receptionist, call the location and ask the kind person on the other end of the phone. If they are reluctant to share the information, just let them know that you are applying for the open job and would like to address your cover letter and resume directly to that person. Often times, that will be enough for the person on the other end of the phone to spill the much needed information!
Rule Number Two – Let your Personality Show!
It is very important to use the information from your research but it is equally important to show the reader who you are. Show your personality in your writing! Mix the facts with your personality and you are sure to write a cover letter that will be read from start to finish!
Rule Number Three – Call to Action!
Make sure to include a call to action statement at the end of your cover letter! What is a “call to action”? Simply put, you need to close the deal! Ask for the interview! The only purpose your finely crafted cover letter has is to land you a face to face meeting with the hiring manager. You need to ask for it!
Rule Number Four – Short and Sweet!
Do not get too long winded in your cover letter.
Never exceed one page with your entire letter. If you need to shorten it, do so but make sure to keep your best stuff intact!
Never use a smaller font just to get it down to one page!
Use short paragraphs and “white space” to make it more readable!
Get in and get out! Grab the hiring manager’s attention and then keep it by making your letter interesting. If it gets long, chances are they will not make it down to your “call to action” and your shot at an interview will be lost.
This is just one tip to help you Learn How to Write a Cover Letter. Follow Roland Johanson over to http://www.simple-cover-letters.info to learn more and finally land that job of your dreams.
Paula Caligiuri: If You Won 4 Million Dollars, Would You Still Work?
If you won 4 million dollars in a lottery would you continue working? Research of Drs. Richard Arvey, Itzak Harpaz, and Hui Liao found that the majority of big-money lottery winners with a high work centrality do continue earning income in some form. This provides compelling evidence that people gain intrinsic rewards from their careers.
Given the staggering number of people who report that their jobs are a source of negative stress, you may be surprised by this research finding. I was not. The source of work-related stress is not the income-generating activity; it is doing this activity without control. While many lottery winners continue earning an income, a very small percent of them continue doing exactly what they were doing prior to winning. The lottery winners’ new financial freedom affords them opportunity to craft the careers they really want. They are fully in control of their career destiny.
You do not need to win the lottery to take control of your career destiny and have the career you really want.
Since Get a Life, Not a Job first became available online almost 4 weeks ago (and in bookstores soon), I have been in touch with more people with truly amazing and inspiring careers -- people who are not lottery winners but are leveraging their talents to do what they love.
Adam Schell is one of those highly motivating people.
I was inspired by Adam’s ability to stay true to himself, his talents and his core values. Through the pursuit of experiences and self-awareness, he is crafting (and continues to craft) a career that brings him work-life harmony. Let me share some of the highlights of Adam's career acts:
When Adam was younger he wanted to be a professional football player and, in fact, was a linebacker for Northwestern University when he was in college.
While a professional future in football wasn’t in the cards, Adam decided to explore his other passions. After college (and to explore his love of great food) Adam picked grapes and olives in Tuscany and coffee beans in Guatemala, and apprenticed under a master French Chef. He was a chef himself -- and then a food critic.
Leveraging yet another skill set, Adam produced award-winning short films and commercials. In a beautiful example of how great careers are a process and not an outcome, Adam returned to school for a master's degree in creative writing.
Combining and leveraging his multiple skills and passions (food, writing, travel, and the creative process), Adam recently authored his highly-successful first novel Tomato Rhapsody: A Novel of Love, Lust, and Forbidden Fruit. (If you enjoy novels, this book is pure pleasure, a delightful mix of history, humor, romance, and drama wrapped in a rich and colorful fable about the tomato’s start in Italy.)
While not playing professional football, Adam also stayed true to his personal value of physical fitness; he is a popular yoga instructor.
When asked how all of his pursuits influenced his writing, Adam responded “I think football taught me how to prepare, being a chef taught me how to wing it, and being a yoga teacher taught me to trust – all skills intrinsic to writing a good novel.”
With his wife and child, Adam has true work-life harmony. When not traveling to Spain to research his next novel, Food of the Gods: An Epic Tale of Love, Chocolate and Bittersweet Revenge, Adam lives in Bend, Oregon where he and his family enjoy the “small town charms.”
I asked Adam if he won 4 million dollars, would he keep doing what he continue doing what he is doing? His reply: “yes, I would certainly keep writing and teaching yoga. The yoga teaching, however, would be public and by donation, with all monies going to support some local cause.”
You see, my friends, you do not need to win a lottery to have financial freedom and work-life harmony. Many thanks to Adam for sharing his career story. I look forward to hearing about the next chapter of Adam's career -- and reading his next novel.
