Most of the recruiters and employers have quit traditional methods of searching for a perfect candidate. No longer do they spend all their time going through job portals but they also search for interesting candidates on social media sites, blogs, forums and professional networking sites.
LinkedIn is one great way of letting recruiters know about your talents, testimonials, profession, friends, business networks and much more. LinkedIn has over 35 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of LinkedIn members are outside the U.S. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members and have listed their entire profile including roles, responsibilities, previous experiences, education and their business network details.
- Edit Opportunity Preferences: Edit your profile and change your contact settings > Opportunity Preferences. Select Job Inquiries and any other opportunities you prefer.
- Get Recommendations: More recommendations in your profile means that your profile gets a higher the trust and reliability. Send a request for recommendation to your co-workers, clients or immediate managers. If you are in a management position, it is great to get a feedback on your leadership qualities. Make a practice also to recommend others whom you think deserve. This is another way to get a feedback from them. 😉
- Find where the Opportunity Is: Search for people in similar job profiles and find out where they work. Search on Google about those companies and find out if there are openings.
- Find out the skill sets required: After you find out the companies where similar profession people work, it’s good to find out the skill sets they posses.
- Find out how your colleague got that nice offer: Not many colleagues share all that they know or all that they do to get a job. Search with their names on LinkedIn and find out their background. Where they are employed now, what are their roles and responsibilities and more importantly what are their skill sets.
- Contact the HR: Did you finally trace out the company which is still hiring your kind of job? Great! Now, find out who among your network is working there. How are they linked to you? Are they a first degree contact or second or third? Get in touch with them through your friend or a person in your network and pass on your resume. Usually, a resume from a coworker is paid more attention.
- Grow your network first: Well this should have been done the first and foremost. Grow your network. How do you grow?
- Have a complete LinkedIn profile.
- Get as many co-workers, ex-colleagues and friends into your network
- Start Groups
- Join Groups
- Create Polls
- Join Discussions
- Interact through Questions & Answers
- Find out who on your GTalk, Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger may be on Linked In and add them up.
- Get testimonials
- Add your blog to Applications
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Don’ts in Linked In
- Some friends or blogs can give you a tip to update your LinkedIn “Status Update” mentioning that you are searching for a job. DON’T DO THAT!!. Remember, most of your bosses and fellow workers are already on LinkedIn and do you want them to know you are not pleased with your current company and want to move out? You decide!!
- Do not try to contact people in LinkedIn mentioning about your friend who is their first degree contact unless you get an approval from your friend.
The list is endless. Your network can grow as much as your mind can think. And there is no limit to your thoughts.
All the best in your job search!!