First of all I want to re-emphasize that LinkedIn, social networking and regular networking are not just for job search! Having said that I realize that it is often true that most people don’t pay much attention to LinkedIn until they are unemployed. The title of Harvey Mackey’s book “Dig your well before you’re thirsty” should tell you all you need to know about the necessity of networking throughout your career, not just when unemployed. Here are a few tips to help you use LinkedIn well.
• Having a half-baked LinkedIn profile does not serve much of a purpose at all, so make sure you spend some time to get a robust profile developed. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and should continually be tweaked, updated, re-branded and improved as needed. It is an ongoing process.
• Your Professional Headline doesn’t have to be your Current Job Title. It can highlight the important stuff you want people to know about you. But remember it is confusing to potential employers if they see “seeking new opportunities” in your headline, while you still have a job listed under current employment. Delete your “current job” if you are unemployed. Otherwise it looks like you are a disloyal employee.
• Get a few really, really good recommendations that highlight your strengths. You don’t need hundreds (nobody will read more than a few anyway), but some good ones can bring attention to your value.
• Include a picture unless you have a pretty good reason not to. And make it a photogenic one. Digital photography is cheap and easy these days. If it takes 200 tries to get your smile just right, who cares? It needs to be in focus, good resolution and well lit. A bad photo is worse than none at all. It’s like a typo on your resume. Speaking of typos, LinkedIn doesn't provide a spellchecker yet, so be sure to either use the spellchecker that comes with Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. If you use Internet Explorer you can add a free spellchecker. Here's how:
1.Go to the Tools menu in Internet Explorer and select Manage Add-ons.
2.Click the "Find more toolbars and extensions…" link in the lower left of the popup window that appears. You'll land on the "Internet Explorer Gallery" website. Click the "add-ons" icon (a puzzle piece) at the top of the page.
3.Type "spell check" in the search box on the right and then hit Enter.
4.Select the spell check product and click the "Add to Internet Explorer" button. Follow the instructions provided to complete the process.
5. When you go back to your profile, you'll see any misspellings underlined in red.
• Use the Status Updates to let your network know what you are up to and to feed them some links and articles and events they might be interested in. I am always appreciative when someone clues me in to a great article I might have missed otherwise.
• Reach out to your contacts when you notice they got a promotion or switched companies or completed a degree, or did something notable. It always feels nice to be noticed and appreciated.
• Select some targeted companies to “follow.” Following a company will trigger an email to you whenever something notable happens inside that company. You will hear when someone has left the company (this is a peak into the hidden job market), or when someone is promoted or when they have a new group of new hires. This can be useful information.
• Join some LinkedIn Groups in order to be visible in your industry/occupation, and to your network. It also gives you a link to people who are not directly among your contacts, but who may be a useful contact.
• Keep building your list of connections. It is best if you have connections that you actually know and who can come to your rescue if you have a need. But don’t be overly strict, since part of the power of networking is in the unknown. You never know how a connection can become important.
• Help others in your network when you can. What goes around, comes around.
• Don’t ever lie or misrepresent yourself. This should go without saying, but sometimes the temptation is strong to give yourself a better title at a previous job or to amplify your status in some way. Your connections will know. I know a fellow who was a V.P. of IT who now claims he was the CIO. There’s a difference, and people know.
• And don’t waste people’s time with cute videos of puppies and other non-professional items. LinkedIn is different from Facebook and Twitter for this very reason. It is more like a water-cooler at work than a bar. The conversation is mostly professional and work related.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
What to put for current title in LinkedIn when unemployed?
A question I get a lot in our LinkedIn training for Dislocated Workers is “what should I put for current position now that I am laid off?”
For the most part due to the incredible number of layoffs in the past two decades the stigma that used to be attached to being laid off is gone. The last two recessions took care of that. We all know people, good hard-working people, who have been laid off through no fault of their own. Even in good times there are layoffs due to mergers and acquisitions and off-shoring and outsourcing and all kinds of reasons.
This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. It’s just that in the old days people who were laid off suddenly had two problems: 1) dealing with the painful blow to their self-esteem, and 2) finding a new job. These days people spend less time blaming themselves and are therefore able to get right into the job search. They realize it is not personal. It’s the economy.
So, what should you put on your LinkedIn profile? Well, think for a moment about why you even have a profile and why you are participating in LinkedIn in the first place. The term Social Networking implies that you are part of a larger group where there is give and take. It is about people helping each other in various ways. When you are unemployed, no matter how you got there, you need help with job leads, introductions, suggestions, encouragement, and lots of other things. So, if you don’t tell your network that you are unemployed, they won’t know you need their help. So, it is ok to tell them.
Deborah L. Jacobs of Forbes Staff suggests that “In the current economy, with so many talented people being let go, there is ‘absolutely no shame whatsoever’ in clearly indicating that you are out of work.” In fact “you exude confidence by not being ashamed that you’re between jobs.”
For your PROFESSIONAL HEADLINE some people like to mention right away that they are available. They might put their job title with the addition “in transition.” Another option is what Deborah Jacobs advises, which is to put your desired Job Title in your Professional Headline and then mention seeking new opportunities or something like that in your Summary Profile. She recommends deleting everything from the Current Job entirely so it doesn’t even show up.
There is no right way to do all this, but the main point is let your network know you are looking so they can help you out. You can use your Status Update to stay visible by posting useful links to articles or events your network might be interested in seeing.
For the most part due to the incredible number of layoffs in the past two decades the stigma that used to be attached to being laid off is gone. The last two recessions took care of that. We all know people, good hard-working people, who have been laid off through no fault of their own. Even in good times there are layoffs due to mergers and acquisitions and off-shoring and outsourcing and all kinds of reasons.
This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. It’s just that in the old days people who were laid off suddenly had two problems: 1) dealing with the painful blow to their self-esteem, and 2) finding a new job. These days people spend less time blaming themselves and are therefore able to get right into the job search. They realize it is not personal. It’s the economy.
So, what should you put on your LinkedIn profile? Well, think for a moment about why you even have a profile and why you are participating in LinkedIn in the first place. The term Social Networking implies that you are part of a larger group where there is give and take. It is about people helping each other in various ways. When you are unemployed, no matter how you got there, you need help with job leads, introductions, suggestions, encouragement, and lots of other things. So, if you don’t tell your network that you are unemployed, they won’t know you need their help. So, it is ok to tell them.
Deborah L. Jacobs of Forbes Staff suggests that “In the current economy, with so many talented people being let go, there is ‘absolutely no shame whatsoever’ in clearly indicating that you are out of work.” In fact “you exude confidence by not being ashamed that you’re between jobs.”
For your PROFESSIONAL HEADLINE some people like to mention right away that they are available. They might put their job title with the addition “in transition.” Another option is what Deborah Jacobs advises, which is to put your desired Job Title in your Professional Headline and then mention seeking new opportunities or something like that in your Summary Profile. She recommends deleting everything from the Current Job entirely so it doesn’t even show up.
There is no right way to do all this, but the main point is let your network know you are looking so they can help you out. You can use your Status Update to stay visible by posting useful links to articles or events your network might be interested in seeing.
Overused Words in Resumes
Are you “team player,” or a “customer-focused” “people person?”
If you find these words in your resume, some bloggers (Elizabeth Lowman, in the Daily Muse) are suggesting giving them the heave-ho and updating the terms you use.
She says most resumes use too many terms and phrases that don’t really carry any impact or meaning anymore. If you find some in your resume, replace them with words and phrases that better describe what you have actually done in previous jobs. This adds substance to your resume and allows you to “leverage your impactful experience in your previous career space.” Oh, sorry, I slipped into corporate bafflegab for a second there. So the idea is to communicate your actual accomplishments and avoid sounding presumptuous.
One of the most obvious examples of meaninglessness usually shows up in a person’s career objective. Phrases such as “I want to work for an growing organization that utilizes my talents in supervision” are a bit trite. And it sounds a little entry-level as well. You need something that is more captivating for such an important location on the prime real estate of your resume.
Tips:
• Don’t just say you are experienced (seasoned, well-versed), which is a little vague, but say something to describe your experience.
• Rather than saying “I am a team player,” say what that means to you. What did you actually do that showed this quality? Led a team? Joined a team? Managed a fantasy football team?
• If you describe yourself as “dynamic, enthusiastic, or passionate” be sure you come across that way in the interview. These are terms that are really the judgment of the interviewer. You can quote someone else as saying this about you. That is one way to avoid sounding too self-promoting.
• Employers know that they can ask for references. You don’t need to tell them anymore that your “references are available upon request.” That is a waste of words and space these days.
We are all probably guilty of all these mistakes, and the best thing to do is to clean them up going forward.
If you find these words in your resume, some bloggers (Elizabeth Lowman, in the Daily Muse) are suggesting giving them the heave-ho and updating the terms you use.
She says most resumes use too many terms and phrases that don’t really carry any impact or meaning anymore. If you find some in your resume, replace them with words and phrases that better describe what you have actually done in previous jobs. This adds substance to your resume and allows you to “leverage your impactful experience in your previous career space.” Oh, sorry, I slipped into corporate bafflegab for a second there. So the idea is to communicate your actual accomplishments and avoid sounding presumptuous.
One of the most obvious examples of meaninglessness usually shows up in a person’s career objective. Phrases such as “I want to work for an growing organization that utilizes my talents in supervision” are a bit trite. And it sounds a little entry-level as well. You need something that is more captivating for such an important location on the prime real estate of your resume.
Tips:
• Don’t just say you are experienced (seasoned, well-versed), which is a little vague, but say something to describe your experience.
• Rather than saying “I am a team player,” say what that means to you. What did you actually do that showed this quality? Led a team? Joined a team? Managed a fantasy football team?
• If you describe yourself as “dynamic, enthusiastic, or passionate” be sure you come across that way in the interview. These are terms that are really the judgment of the interviewer. You can quote someone else as saying this about you. That is one way to avoid sounding too self-promoting.
• Employers know that they can ask for references. You don’t need to tell them anymore that your “references are available upon request.” That is a waste of words and space these days.
We are all probably guilty of all these mistakes, and the best thing to do is to clean them up going forward.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)