Posts Tagged ‘LinkedIn’

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The Power of Passivity: Seek Not and Ye Shall Find

Wednesday, November 15th, 2017

Employers are frequently found to prefer passive job seekers over active ones, so how can you use this knowledge to improve your career prospects?

While you may think that being proactive gives you an edge in your job hunt, research has shown that many employers favor job seekers who are playing it cool. Passive job seekers are those that are open to a new position, although not actively searching or applying for vacancies. Instead of spending hours sifting through job boards and contacting companies, your best bet for progressing your career could be to “play hard to get” and entice recruiters to come to you.

Passive job seekers have the advantage

A recent study revealed that 80% of HR professionals feel passive job seekers are the best source of quality employees. However, the survey also found that only 47% of job seekers are aware of this fact, showing that employers and candidates have very different understandings of what works in the recruitment world.

When asked what makes passive candidates more attractive than active ones, 42% of respondents said these individuals take their careers more seriously, 44% felt that they had the most experience, and an additional 44% said they had the best skill sets.

Even if you’re unemployed, you can turn into a passive job seeker right now by freelancing, becoming an entrepreneur, volunteering, or blogging. By engaging in these activities while you search for a job, you won’t have gaps on your resume, you’ll be practicing new skills, and you’ll potentially be earning side income so you will be less desperate for a job, which makes you more attractive as a candidate (and gives you leverage).

Tips for becoming a passive job seeker

Now that you’ve recognized the “power of passivity” in attaining long-term job search success, try using the following strategies to your advantage:

1. Keep your resume up-to-date – If a recruiter ever contacts you about a position, you want to be ready to show them what you can do immediately.

2. Stay involved online – While you may not be engaging in an active job search, maintaining an online presence means staying in the forefront of your professional contacts’ minds. This includes building a robust LinkedIn profile, joining relevant LinkedIn Groups, and tapping into social networking (Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, for example) to strengthen your social presence.

3. Develop a solid pool of referrals – Professional connections are the biggest assets of a passive job seeker, as their recommendations will do the legwork for you. Stay connected with your network via social media and offer help in return, rather than just building your network and only reaching out when you’re looking for a job. If you’re interested and engaged, your contacts will be more likely to give you help if and when you need it.

4. Write Recommendations – Giving to get works every time. Write LinkedIn recommendations for some of your connections. In return, you’ll get a recommendation back from at least some of the people you provide a reference for. Those recommendations show on your Profile and they are a reference in advance to a potential employer.

5. Be Interview Ready – Don’t use up all your accrued vacation or personal leave time unless you have to. Keep some in reserve, so you have time to interview if an opportunity that’s too good to pass up comes along.

Good luck!

The power of passivity: How not looking could get you the job | via Talent International.

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Do You Need a Resume in the LinkedIn Era?

Wednesday, March 29th, 2017

Now that LinkedIn (alongside numerous other online portals) has become the standard place to present your professional history and credentials — not to mention the fastest way to check somebody else’s — the humble resume has lost its once-hallowed position as the canonical version of your professional identity. Your LinkedIn profile should be the most-viewed and most current version of your professional life. But that has many people asking: Do I even need an old-fashioned resume anymore?

The answer is a highly qualified, but definite, “yes”.

The Value of LinkedIn

In the past, resumes have served several functions:

  1. Applying for a job: When you’re applying for an advertised position, you almost certainly need to submit a resume as part of the application process.
  2. Job hunting: Even if you’re not applying for a specific job, you may still use a resume as part of your search process, as a way of introducing yourself to people who may be interested in your skills.
  3. Professional credentialing: Resumes act as a way of establishing your professional credentials in many circumstances, like grant applications, requests for proposals, and conference or speaker submissions.
  4. Professional memory: Your resume is your own professional memory. Keeping it up-to-date is a way of ensuring you don’t forget the professional accomplishments or qualifications you may want to highlight during your next job hunt.

In the world of LinkedIn, blogs, and professional landing pages (a.k.a. “nameplate” sites), however, most of these functions can be better accomplished through your online presence. If you are job hunting, send people to your LinkedIn page instead of sending a PDF of your resume. (Unlike a resume, a solid LinkedIn profile includes not only your self-proclaimed qualifications, but testimonials from colleagues, clients, and employers.) If you need to establish your professional credentials, sending someone a link to your LinkedIn page will often be the most efficient way to convey your relevant experience. And for maintaining a professional memory, LinkedIn is unbeatable, precisely because it’s easy to update, and because you’re likely visiting the site on a regular basis.

To serve any of these purposes, however, your LinkedIn presence must be well-crafted and up-to-date. Even if you aren’t sending people to your LinkedIn page, it is likely to be one of the first results for anyone who Googles you to find out about your professional qualifications and experience. That’s why you need to ensure it’s accurate, compelling, and current; unless you’re updating your LinkedIn profile monthly or at least quarterly, you’re not putting your best foot forward. Setting up a memorable short URL for your LinkedIn profile, and including that URL in your email signature line, is a good way to remind yourself that this is something people are going to look at regularly.

Blogs, Websites, and Landing Pages

For all its merit, LinkedIn has limitations: you have to fit your career story into its structure, and you have only minimal control over formatting. That’s why many professionals use their own blog, personal website, or professional landing page to craft a more strategic online presence. For many professionals, the best bet is to maintain several presences, customized to different purposes, so that you can point people to the presence that is relevant to each specific scenario. For example, you might maintain:

  • A speaking profile: Professionals who do a lot of speaking or conference submissions would do well to create a specialized presence on a speaker directory like ExpertFile (formerly Speakerfile), a nameplate site like about.me, or even on Slideshare.
  • A services profile: If you offer services as a independent contractor, whether that’s as a web developer, a designer, a coach or an accountant, setting up a landing page for your contract work can be an efficient place to point potential clients.
  • An author profile: If you have a book, blog, or publication file, you will want to profile yourself for readers or future writing assignments with an author page on Amazon, a writing marketplace like MediaBistro, or a web presence for your book.

Why You Still Need a Resume

When you are actually applying for a job, however, neither LinkedIn nor a professional landing page can replace the resume. A strong resume is still the gateway to an interview, and with more and more employers relying on Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) — software that screens resumes to determine which applications warrant human review — you need a resume that you can upload to those systems. Nor can it be the same resume for every application; since an ATS typically screens for specific qualifications and keywords, you need to customize your resume for each job (or type of job) that you apply for, and optimize it for ATS screenings.

If anything, though, LinkedIn will be helpful at least as a reminder for keeping your resume as updated as possible. The standard wisdom — treat your resume as a living document that you update anytime you have a new accomplishment to record — applies to LinkedIn as well, and the two should be kept updated in parallel.

Technology and social media have transformed our daily lives in innumerable ways, with networking and job searching being just two areas where we regularly experience this constant change. But there are still ways in which the old-fashioned, the tried-and-true, remain relevant, and such it is with the humble resume. Don’t count it out yet.

Good luck!

Do You Need a Résumé in the LinkedIn Era? | Alexandra Samuel via Harvard Business Review.

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Avoiding Job Search Burnout

Wednesday, November 16th, 2016

We are continuing with our theme this week of stress in the job search.

After working as a recruiter for more than 10 years, I’ve seen firsthand the toll a long, drawn-out job search can take, whether on a new graduate or someone who has been in the field for decades. Sometimes it’s the strain of being out of work longer than anticipated or not being invited for interviews at all or not receiving offers or even returned calls… all of this can make it tough to keep your spirits up.

Even worse, your confidence in your own abilities may fade over time, leading to a crushed spirit that can further negatively affect how recruiters and hiring managers perceive you.

For those of you experiencing a particularly difficult or long job search, here are a few tips to avoid the dreaded “job search burnout”:

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1. Ask for feedback. If you’ve been on the hunt for a while without much progress, step back. Talk to professionals with whom you have a strong and trusting relationship, like a former boss or your recruiter. They get it, and they get you. Ask for, and be ready to hear, specific, constructive feedback and request a mock interview.

Are there things you could be doing differently? Questions you could be answering better? Follow-up that could be stronger?

Their feedback could mean all the difference, and the positive comments they’ll share will be a nice boost to your confidence.

2. Get the inside scoop. Talk with people in your network to learn more about the industry you’re interested in and any changes or trends they’re seeing. What they’re hearing and experiencing on the front lines could be just the spark you need to shift your approach and pick up some momentum.

By the end of your conversation, there’s a good chance you will feel more relaxed, have more confidence and be inspired to excel in your search.

3. Change your approach. Have you been interviewing a lot without much progress? It might be time to change things up.

Are you coming across as bored with the process? Do your answers sound rote? Did you not notice your interview outfit is rumpled or stained? Prepare for your next interview with these potential pitfalls in mind.

Take out your iron and stain stick; come up with fresh, new answers; add energy and enthusiasm to your voice; use real-life examples anytime you can and be mindful of your body language. These small tweaks will help you come across as excited and engaged.

combat-job-search-adversity-with-resilience

4. Fake it ’til you make it. If you’re feeling downtrodden going into your next interview, fake it. Smile and be ready to greet the interviewer highlighting your best qualities. Make every interview an opportunity to not only get a job, but to polish your interview skills and build your confidence.

5. Find commonalities. Search for your interviewer on LinkedIn and discover common ground. Maybe you’ll find that you both know some of the same people or enjoy volunteering. Whatever you share, remember that people want to work with people they like, and discussing commonalities with your interviewer is an effective and authentic way to start building the relationship.

6. Fit matters. While it’s appropriate to strive for jobs that may be slightly out of your reach, doing that too often could lead to too much rejection. To keep your job search on track and your spirits high, go after positions that are an ideal fit for your background, experience and interests. Save the long-shot interviews for the one or two employers that really spark a fire in you.

7. Try some retail therapy. Sometimes, if you are feeling lackluster, a new pair of shoes, a fresh haircut, a fun accessory, a new tech gadget or an updated suit will give you the extra confidence and excitement to ace an interview. Walk in with some swagger, and let the interviewer know why you’re the best person for this role. You might be convincing enough to get hired.

If you’ve spent months in what feels like a fruitless search for a new job, don’t lose heart! The opportunities are out there. Try something new, challenge yourself, and step out of your comfort zone. A great job is waiting for you somewhere.

Good luck!

7 Ways To Avoid Job Search Burnout | Sarah Connors via Forbes

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5 Strategies for LinkedIn Job Searching

Wednesday, April 27th, 2016

LinkedIn has been called the Facebook for professionals… or MySpace (dated reference) with ties. From humble origins, it has grown to become the premier professional networking site, par excellence, throughout the internet, and despite the company’s various attempts to hide its more useful features, especially for job seekers and recruiters, behind pay walls and “premium accounts”, for the most part it is still free and open and certainly one of the best tools a passive or active job seeker has available.

However, as anyone who has been a member for any length of time (and received the countless spam messages from sales and marketing professionals in India) will know, LinkedIn can be used properly and then it can be abused and what goodwill you might have generated may be quickly squandered. Nothing like putting your foot in it when thousands of people are watching. And the more connections you have collected, the more opportunities there are for that grand faux pas that has sunk the career of more than one actor, politician, sports star, and internet thug on Twitter or Facebook.

So how then does one effectively use LinkedIn for a job search without abusing it and without falling into the trap of trying to do “too much”, to the ire of connections and staff admins alike? Here are a few basic tactics to employ that don’t require a premium account or paying for InMails:

Follow a company. You will get updates on who in your network moved where. While it’s interesting to see who the “New Hires” are, more important is where they came from, as these might point toward openings at their old company. Also note what their new positions are to get an idea of a possible career path. And, of course, a company’s “Recent Departures” list also lets you know of openings.

Mine new contacts for even newer ones. Every time someone connects to you, look through his or her list of contacts. View the profiles of those that intrigue you, and reach out to a few of them, citing things like common interests, schools attended, and shared company experience, or even just mention photos they’ve posted… LinkedIn allows people to put up so much content — slide shows, groups, awards, reading lists, articles, blogs, Twitter streams — it’s very easy to find a common reason to connect.

Connect with highly visible people. Search on terms like “speaker,” “author,” “writer,” “coach,” “trainer” “evangelist,” “sales,” “keynote,” “award-winning,” or “expert.” These people are often uber-connectors with thousands of connections. When you find one in your field (or a related one), search for him or her on the Web to find something he or she has written, and send a thoughtful comment or compliment. Make sure it’s sincere. If you get a good response, follow up with an invitation to connect, but don’t pester the person if he or she ignores you. These well-connected types are very busy people. A visit to the person’s Website might reveal an upcoming speaking engagement in your area. Whatever you do, respect an uber-connector’s time. Recruiters are in their own category; they often have connections in the thousands and knowledge of job openings, but they are also overwhelmed. If you contact them, make sure you give them a good reason to link and try to be memorable.

Connect to “interesting” people. Search on an unusual interest of yours to see who else has it. You might get ideas about career direction, or a contact might be able to give you a job lead. Imagine you’re a medical assistant who likes dancing. A search on “flamenco dancer” brought up this title for one person: “Medical Doctor, Wellness Expert, International Speaker, Life Coach, Author & Flamenco Dancer.” You could reach out to say, “Wow, another person in health care who loves flamenco!” It’s a long shot, but life is made up of such coincidences.

Leverage even weak links. I once got an interview by sending a message through LinkedIn to one of my contacts, with whom, truthfully, I was only loosely connected. Not only was she someone I’d never met in real life, but I’d turned her down for an interview! (I got a job offer elsewhere.) A year after our initial connection, I was job searching again, and I noticed she was connected to someone I was targeting. It was gutsy of me to do, but I felt I had nothing to lose, so I contacted her. She forwarded my resume, and I got the interview.

Some people are keen to update their profiles to “Job Seeker” or put something rather desperate sounding in their current title or job description (like “Looking for the Next Great Opportunity!” or “THE Candidate You’ve Been Looking for!”). Always seems a little desperate and likely to attract the wrong sort of attention from recruiters and hiring managers. While it’s always good to be honest about your current job status, no need to wave around being unemployed like dirty underwear.

Get started on LinkedIn BEFORE you are out of work, so you have the resources in place beforehand and it doesn’t look like you’ve joined or become suddenly active only because you’re looking for a job. Then you’re free to use LinkedIn like your online resume for both passive and active opportunities that come up.

Good luck!

5 Tips for Using LinkedIn During Your Job Search | Maureen Nelson via Quint Careers

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4 Ways To Make Your Job Search Suck Less

Thursday, October 15th, 2015

OK, I know what you’re thinking—it’s impossible to make the job search process suck less. After all, job searching is not a traditionally “fun” process. In fact, words that more likely come to mind are stressful, tedious and hard-to-predict.

And I’ll admit that some parts of the job search process are pure torture (cough, waiting to hear back, cough). But, there are many ways to balance it out with memorable experiences. In the same way you have learned to make other “unenjoyable” activities like, say, exercise or networking less-dreaded; applying for a new position can also be energizing and impactful.

Here are four ways to make looking for a new job more fun—or, at the very least, less awful.

1. Be Open To Anything

Whether your search is focused on a single dream job or a specific industry, giving yourself space to look around may uncover interesting positions you had never considered. So, instead of brushing that intriguing listing off, take the time to consider it.

Imagine that you were initially focused on jobs at larger corporations because you love benefits and paid holidays, but then you stumbled upon a couple of exciting startups that could support your goals and fit with your qualifications. So, you take the time to explore this route by simply reaching out to someone at the company and learning more about the position.

Worst case scenario: It’s a networking disaster and you don’t even finish your coffee. More likely scenario: You’ve made a new connection, gotten away from your computer screen, learned about a new opportunity and hopefully made your search less stressful by realizing that there isn’t just one job out there for you.

2. Use Tools You Enjoy

Every person brings unique skills to his or her job search. Maybe you have incredible people skills or maybe you’re an amazing writer. These talents can help you, but too often people think applying to a job has to be a mind-numbing process.

Think about it this way: When a people person is stuck behind a computer screen punching out resumes and sending emails, she can easily resent the experience. However, if the same person were to get her name out there by attending networking events and local workshops, her interest level would immediately increase. The same goes for the talented designer who loathes mingling but could create a truly unique application.

So, use the tools for job searching that match your strengths and interests. If you enjoy one-on-one conversations, set up informational interviews. If you love tech and innovation, build a personal website that shows off your background. Utilizing skills you enjoy will make the process more fun—and help you make the most of your time.

3. Re-Invent Yourself

Maybe you’ve been taking the approach of doing what you know best and you haven’t tracked down any new leads. Well, now is the time to shake things up. Re-invention is one of the more exciting parts of any change—career or otherwise.

Just as exercise can transform you physically and mentally, the job search can similarly challenge people to become the best version of themselves. Speaking to strangers, marketing yourself and writing persuasive emails are all chances to embody a more confident demeanor and communicate at a higher level.

If the job search is starting to discourage you, mix things up by re-inventing yourself. For example, you could change your LinkedIn profile or resume to present your story in a different way. Or, you could watch top speakers and emulate their tone and delivery to become more comfortable at networking events.

When you challenge yourself to master new techniques and capture the boldest and most charismatic parts of your personality, the job search becomes much more than looking for a job. It becomes about personal and professional growth.

4. Treat Yourself

Ultimately, searching for a new position can open the door to new opportunities, friends and choices. So, accept the highs and lows of the process and focus on progress at each stage, including vulnerabilities you’ve challenged and uncomfortable situations you’ve survived.

Make it more rewarding by treating yourself in small ways for staying on track. For example, take a break after an intensive round of interviews, make time for a hobby after a full day of applying or see your favorite band at the end of the month. These mini-celebrations will pace the journey and provide things to look forward to when things aren’t going your way.

The ultimate reward, of course, is landing a thrilling job at a company that is equally as excited to have you. When you do, the new opportunity will be well worth the grueling process.

Finding a new job is usually a challenging process, but it can also present opportunities for memorable stories, discovery and personal and professional growth. And the fun is there, too—if you dig a little deeper.

Original from The Daily Muse.

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How To Land Job Offers In A New City (Without Having To Move First)

Wednesday, September 30th, 2015

As graduation was looming, my client Jane was increasingly stressed out. She hired me to help her land job offers in Germany, without having to move there first. She just didn’t feel that she could move overseas without having any job prospects – a challenge she found intimidating.

According to a recent study, 59% of millennials would be willing to move to a foreign country for a job. This may be due to the challenges this demographic has faced in trying to find post-college employment, but it may also relate to the fact that this generation is very culturally and politically engaged. Regardless of whether you are hoping to find employment abroad or in a city a few states away, there are more people than ever searching for jobs from a distance.

If you count yourself in that statistic, you’re probably wondering: How do I land job offers in a new city without moving there first?

Here are some tips to help you in your long-distance job search.

1. List a local address if you have family there. You can’t lie on your resume, but if you have family or close friends in the area, why not use it to your advantage? It helps for recruiters to see on your resume that you’re accessible, as they often weed resumes out when the job seeker shows a non-local address. And considering the average job relocation costs businesses $71,786 per move, you don’t want to give employers any extra reasons to think twice before hiring you. That said, never lie. Don’t provide an address if it’s not somewhere you would legitimately stay for an extended period if you got the job.

2. Identify the companies you want to work for. Know where you want to work — don’t let the job search sites tell you. While many big cities lead with different industries (i.e. politics in Washington, D.C., banking in London, tech in San Francisco), focus more on the function you want to perform and use that to help identify the best companies for you. For example, do you want to do marketing, communications, or perhaps financial analysis? Use tools such as Linkedin’s advanced search function to enter keywords that help you see who is using those skills in jobs that exist in your city of choice. Take note of the profiles that interest you, and use them as a platform to come up with a list of companies that you’re inspired by.

3. Find two points of contact in each company. After you’re clear on which companies inspire you, it’s key to find out who handles HR and who your potential boss would be in the company. While HR doesn’t have as much power as the hiring manager (your potential boss), it’s good to be on HR’s radar. This is another great opportunity to use Linkedin— figure out who is in charge, and get comfortable with the advanced search function. Considering 89% of recruiters have hired employees through this tool, it’s also critical that you establish your Linkedin presence and use it to your advantage.

4. Cold email your points of contact for a phone conversation. Once you’ve identified who you want to meet, don’t wait around for an introduction. Send emails to your potential boss, requesting a quick call due to how inspired you are by them and their work. Buy a phone number on Skype that has the same country code so that you don’t overwhelm people when providing your number. Always list times for the phone call in their local time. In short, email them because you’re inspired—not because you want a favor—and always make it easy for them.

5. Just say yes if a big interview happens. As Sheryl Sandberg would say: “if you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, get on, don’t ask what seat.” Make this your motto. When an opportunity comes, don’t sabotage it by agonizing over logistics or getting caught up in details that don’t matter yet. Just say “yes,” and pony up for the cost of airfare if the company doesn’t offer to cover the cost… Especially if your resume has that local city address you borrowed from family or friends. Even when the interview doesn’t lead to an offer, you’re positioning yourself for more opportunities throughout your career simply by creating this habit of saying “yes” to the opportunities you’re dreaming about. This sort of commitment is not for the faint-hearted.

If you go into the job hunt believing you have to “take what you can get,” you’ll get the bottom of the barrel.

I remember how certain Jane was that she would never be able to make the move actually happen. In fact, she was concerned about landing any job, anywhere – let alone landing a job she actually wanted in a city she actually wanted to be in.

But inner shifts create outer results, which is why it is so important that you believe in the possibility of landing the job you want, where you want it. Helping Jane change her mindset was the first step in creating that shift in her own life, and it sent ripples of possibility in every direction: Jane got multiple job offers in Frankfurt, which is exactly where she wanted to move.

Touch base with your heart. Do you know it’s possible? I do…and so do countless others like Jane who have turned their most ambitious dreams into fulfilling realities.

Original from Forbes, by Ashley Stahl.

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Cover Letters That Make Hiring Managers Call You

Thursday, April 2nd, 2015

You know that next job of yours? Yes, that’s right, the really amazing one with the brilliant co-workers, cool boss, and fresh, free snacks in the office vending machine? That one.

You know how you’re going to land it? By quickly showing your future employer that:

a) You’re going to perform incredibly well in this job.
b) You’re insanely likable.
c) You’re really going to fit in around there.

These are the three primary factors that influence the selection process. The person who wins that great job will be the one who shows the decision makers, quickly, that he or she is all three of those things. And you have an amazing opportunity to begin planting these seeds right from the introduction, à la your cover letter.

Most people squander the opportunity. Instead of using their cover letter real estate to their massive advantage, they toss over bland, cliche-filled, or completely-redundant-to-the-resume clunkers. Or worse, they showcase all the things that they want out of the deal, without pausing for a moment to recognize that the company cares a heck of a lot more about what it’s going to get from you.

As a recruiter, it pains me to read most cover letters, because the vast (and I mean vast) majority of them stink. Knowing this should inspire you even further to create a brilliant one. Because, let me tell you, on those rare occasions an amazing cover letter crosses my desk? Mamma mia. It makes my day, and it most certainly influences my interest in its author.

So, how do you pull off a killer cover letter, one that conveys passion and talent and that makes the recruiter or hiring manager’s day? Make sure you do all of these things.

1. Tell Them Why, Specifically, You’re Interested in the Company

Decision makers never want to feel like you’re wallpapering the universe with the same pathetic cover letter. They want to feel special. And so, you need to make it clear that you’re approaching this organization for very specific reasons. And ideally, not the same very specific reasons that everyone else is giving.

Example: Try a high-personality lead in like this: “Having grown up with the Cincinnati Zoo (literally) in my backyard, I understand firsthand how you’ve earned your reputation as one of the most family-friendly venues in the State of Ohio. For 20 years, I’ve been impressed as your customer; now I want to impress visitors in the same way your team has so graciously done for me.”

2. Outline What You Can Walk Through the Doors and Deliver

This isn’t you making a general proclamation of, “Hey, I’m great. I swear!” You need to scrutinize the job description and use whatever other information you’ve gathered about the opening, determine the key requirements and priorities for this job, and make it instantly clear to the reviewer that you can deliver the goods on these key things.

Example: Consider crafting a section within the letter that begins with, “Here’s what, specifically, I can deliver in this role.” And then expound upon your strengths in a few of the priority requirements for that role (they’re typically listed first on the job description or mentioned more than once).

3. Tell a Story, One That’s Not on Your Resume

As humans, we love stories far more than we love data sheets. (OK, I speak for most humans). So, what’s your story? What brings you to this company? Did you used to sing along to all of its commercials as a kid? Did the product make some incredible difference in your life? Do you sometimes pull into the parking lot and daydream about what it would feel like to work there? Tell your story. Just make sure you have a great segue. Random trivia can come across as weird.

Example: Say you’re applying for a marketing job with a baked goods company known for its exquisite tarts and pies. You may want to weave a sentence or two into your cover letter about how you took the blue ribbon in the National Cherry Festival pie eating contest when you were 10, and that you’ve been a pie fanatic ever since.

4. Address the Letter to an Actual Person Within the Company

Not one employee at your future new company is named “To Whom it May Concern,” so knock that off. You’ve got to find a real person to whom you can direct this thing.

This seems so hard or overwhelming, but it’s often easier than you may think. Just mosey over to LinkedIn and do a People search using the company’s name as your search term. Scroll through the people working at that company until you find someone who appears to be the hiring manager. If you can’t find a logical manager, try locating an internal recruiter, the head of staffing or, in smaller companies, the head of HR. Address your masterpiece to that person. Your effort will be noted and appreciated.

And a last, critical factor when it comes to delivering a great cover letter: Be you. Honest, genuine writing always goes much, much further than sticking to every dumb rule you’ve ever read in stale, outdated career guides and college textbooks.

Rules can be bent. In fact, if you truly want that amazing job with the brilliant co-workers, cool boss, and fresh, free snacks? They should be.

Original from the Daily Muse

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What To Do If Your Network Isn’t Helping You Get A Job

Thursday, March 12th, 2015

When you’re an active job seeker, well-wishing people will be ever so quick to tell you, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Or, “It all boils down to networking.”

And they’re right. It’s so critical to leverage your professional network when looking for a new position. But what do you do if you’re finding your current network marginally helpful at best?

Surely, you could consider branching out to new people (and you should always—throughout your entire career—look for ways to continue building strong ties with people who may be influential to your professional life), but what about now? What can you do now—with your existing network—if you feel like you’re getting nowhere fast?

Here are four quick ideas that may help you better leverage the people you already know:

1. Send Out a Networking Letter

It’s astounding to me how many people just assume that their people understand with any clarity what it is they do, and how (specifically) they may be able to help out. When you call or email your contacts and ask them to “keep an ear out” for opportunities, they may be more than willing to do just that—but confused about what, exactly, you do for a living.

A networking letter is a simple note that you send to your closest people, outlining that you’re actively searching and sharing what specific types of roles would be great for you and what skills you’d like to put to use. If you paint a picture of the company or job at which you’d be the best fit, your people will have a much easier time considering how they might be of specific assistance.

2. Have Your People Introduce You to Their People

If you zip on over to LinkedIn and see that you don’t have a single first-degree connection at a company of interest, don’t fret. You may well have a second-degree connection. How do you use this to your advantage? Here’s how: Take a look at the person with whom you share the connection. Do you know that person pretty well? If so, get ahold of her and say, “Hey, Sarah. I noticed that you’re connected to Jerry Johnson at XYZ Company. How well do you know him, and would you be willing to introduce me?”

Assuming Sarah knows Jerry pretty well, you could be chatting with someone on the inside of a company of interest within less than a day. Not bad for someone who thought you had no “in,” right?

3. Offer to Help Them

Something that bugs people about networking is that it feels very ambush-y. “Give me this!” “Help me with that!” “Could you walk my resume over to your manager, stat?!” If this is how you’re going about networking, it’s no wonder that your people aren’t being helpful.

Consider instead a strategy that asks your contact for something small (say, “May I ask you two quick questions about your experience at XYZ Company?”) before you ask for a larger favor. Build rapport. Be genuine and interested. And most definitely, when you say thank you, ask if there is anything that you may do to help that person out. Reciprocity is a magnificent thing. Look into it.

4. Consider Facebook

We’ve all pretty much bum-rushed LinkedIn for career networking, and that’s not at all a bad thing. LinkedIn is, far and away, our best online resource for job search and professional networking. However, Facebook can also be supremely helpful to your cause. Think about it: Your Facebook network probably consists of your closest friends. In theory, these are the people most likely to “have your back” when you need something, like a new job. But if you never alert them that you’re looking, how can they possibly be of service? They cannot be.

Use your Facebook status update—selectively—to alert your people of what you’re doing and what you need. On your way to an interview? Let ’em know. Looking for a contact at a company of interest? Ask. You definitely want to avoid being a big, giant downer (“Stilllll no job, people”), but using Facebook strategically for networking can be a very good thing.

Certainly, if your network isn’t being particularly helpful, you may want to also think about ways to expand your professional connections, stat. But more often than not, there are so many ways you can better utilize your existing people. Try these first.

Original from the Daily Muse

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The Biggest Resume Lies — and How Job Seekers Get Caught

Thursday, October 16th, 2014

Why You Shouldn’t Fudge Facts — and How to Make the Truth Sound Better

Desperate times often call for desperate measures — and in a brutal employment market, some job seekers may be tempted to falsify their work or education history in order to make themselves more attractive to potential employers. HireRight.com, a provider of on-demand employment background screening, found that 34 percent of job applicants lie on resumes.

But job seekers who stretch the truth are playing an ever-riskier game. Background checks are much easier now. It’s all pretty open on the Internet. And many companies and recruiters now employ background-check providers who specialize in sniffing out untruths.

The Gray Area Between Fact and Fiction

Almost all career experts advise job seekers to customize their resumes to individual jobs they apply for. So where’s the line between self-promotion and falsehood? Some experts say it can be hard to define. The dictionary says that ’embellish’ means ‘to make beautiful,’ which is when a candidate is great at self-promotion. The difference between that and a damaging lie varies by industry and profession.

For instance, financial executives are subject to more intense scrutiny than many people going into entry-level positions that don’t involve money.

But at any point in your career, stretching the truth is risky — especially on official job applications. Any uncovered fib is liable to severely damage your reputation in the workplace.

Most Common Resume Lies

According to Forbes.com, some of the most common resume lies concern:

  • Education
  • Employment dates
  • Job titles
  • Technical skills

These are the same resume areas that, if you fudge them, can cause problems — the Internet has made it much easier to verify a person’s claims about education, for instance.

And some recruiting firms are sleuthing far beyond a candidate’s given references to corroborate his claims — for instance, finding and contacting the candidate’s former colleagues via LinkedIn.

People think that they can make up and embellish details about companies that have been sold or gone out of business. But LinkedIn, Facebook and our wide-ranging networks will put a quick stop to most efforts to change history in our favor.

Truth or Consequences

And even if false credentials get you the job, those untruths may come back to haunt you. You’re subject to immediate dismissal if it turns out you misrepresented something.

If your company is acquired, for instance, the acquirer’s HR department may perform an audit of its new employees. Or your background may be checked when you apply for a promotion. Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, former Notre Dame football coach George O’Leary and celebrity chef Robert Irvine are just three of the people who made news when false background information cost them high-profile jobs.

Keeping It Real

Career experts have practical advice on how to deal truthfully with some of the problems that may cause people to lie — follow it, and you’ll be able to sleep more easily at night.

  • Employment Gaps: Just because you weren’t getting paid for something doesn’t mean you weren’t being productive and gaining skills. If you volunteered or worked on your own projects, say, you should speak to those things on your resume, in a cover letter or in an interview.
  • Misrepresentative Titles: Job seekers need to lay claim to projects and results that may not have been in their formal job descriptions. Here’s an example: An office manager took on HR in her company after the HR coordinator left. The office manager’s title was never changed, but she took on responsibility for payroll, benefits, and so on. She put all of that on her resume, and changed her title to ‘Office Manager (with HR responsibilities).’ That’s a perfectly good way for her to brand herself, because she hasn’t changed the title to something her old employer wouldn’t recognize or support.
  • Past Salaries: If you feel you were underpaid, you should arm yourself with information about the salary you should be earning.
  • Skills: If you’re tempted to lie about having a technical skill, for instance, the right thing to do is clear: Gain that skill by enrolling in a class (or committing to learning it on your own). Then you’ll be able to explain to potential employers truthfully that you’re working on getting up-to-speed in that area.

    Original from Monster.

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What You Should Be Doing on LinkedIn Every Month, Week, and Day

Thursday, October 2nd, 2014

Following up on our last article regarding profile pictures, this time around we’re discussing how to best utilize LinkedIn, not only for your next job, but also for your career in general:

You’ve heard it hundreds of times before (and probably will hundreds of times again): You need to be on LinkedIn.

But once you’ve created your profile, what’s next? If you’re not actively job searching, it can be easy to throw your information up there and leave it alone until you need to reach out to someone or browse open positions.

Well, that would be a big mistake. You’ll be missing out on an opportunity to stay current in your field, interact with and grow your network, and even establish yourself as a thought leader.

The good news? It doesn’t have to take a lot of effort. To keep things simple, here’s your plan for how to make the most of LinkedIn, broken down into easy, manageable chunks.

Daily

Interact With Your Homepage Feed

LinkedIn is a great way to keep up to date on industry news and see what your contacts have been up to—both great things regardless of whether you’re job searching. If you check your homepage feed regularly, this will likely be the first place you’ll see viewpoints on news in your field or a contact’s new promotion posted.

Interacting with your feed really only takes a couple minutes—just click over, scroll on down, and write a quick “congratulations” for new positions or promotions or click “like” on interesting new or articles others have posted. You’re done!

Weekly

Post Something

Aside from using LinkedIn to keep up with your network, try using it to update others on your professional achievements and interests. Target posting an update once a week: If you recently attended a conference or professional development seminar, write a quick update on what you enjoyed about it. Or, if you read something relevant to your industry, post it to the homepage feed to see what others think.

If you want to do something a bit more in depth, LinkedIn now offers a platform for you to write and post your own articles. Much like your very own professional blog, it’s a great way to get your thoughts out there and your work seen.

Add New Contacts

In case you haven’t noticed, LinkedIn is a great way to keep track of your contacts—but that only works if you’re consistently adding them as you meet them. So, set aside time once a week to send out invites (personalized, of course!) to connect on LinkedIn for the new people you meet in your day-to-day work—think vendors, people you’ve met at conferences, new co-workers or clients. Once you’ve connected, LinkedIn makes it easy to interact with your contacts’ updates as well as send personal messages when you want to reach out directly.

Monthly

Update Your Profile

While this isn’t something you have to do daily or weekly, it’s a good idea for you to keep track of any new job responsibilities or professional accomplishments and update your LinkedIn profile accordingly. Making a point to do this at least one a month ensures you’ll have an easy time updating your resume when the time comes and has the added benefit of allowing others to see your most up-to-date qualifications. Recruiters and hiring managers often scroll through LinkedIn looking for candidates, so even if you’re not actively job searching, having an impressive profile will mean that opportunities will still come your way.

Contribute to a Couple of Groups

Groups on LinkedIn are a great way to interact with professionals with similar interests or backgrounds—but they’re really only as good as you make them. Contributing to larger, better-known groups could even help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. Of course, that takes times, so at the very least try to catch up on what relevant groups in your field are up to at least once a month. This will help you stay current, and if you make the effort to comment or contribute to existing discussions, you may even make some new connections.

Reach Out to Old Contacts

Few things feel as sleazy as reaching out to someone only after you realize you need them for one reason or another. To avoid setting yourself up for this uncomfortable situation, regularly reach out to a handful of contacts (switch up the contacts every month) to check in with them and see how they’re doing. Offer some updates of your own, and simply make it a point to catch up. The good news is, LinkedIn makes it easy—just shoot people a quick note, and it should pop right into the email they have linked to their account. No need to worry about up-to-date contact information! Make a habit of this, and you won’t have to feel awkward about reaching out to your contacts when you do need some help.

LinkedIn is an incredibly handy tool for keeping track of contacts, what everyone has been up to, and the latest in industry news. And that’s all in addition to being a platform for you to promote your skills and expertise. So, don’t let your profile sit stagnant—make the most of it by actually using its features beyond the profile.

Original from The Daily Muse

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