How to Find Your Job with LinkedIn

 
[Saturday, May 30, 2009
|
5
comments
]

The
job and internship search can be tough and discouraging, especially in
a down economy. The search itself can appear to be a full-time job in
itself with so many different areas of focus, including resumes, cover
letters, emails, networking, applications, interviews and more, and
with so many different tools and resources available to help you with
them. One of the most powerful weapons of the career search in today's job market is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the leading "social networking"
site for professionals. It's not social networking like on Facebook or
MySpace, but more business and career networking. There is so much you
can do on LinkedIn, and while it is not the only effective tool
available to you in your career search, it really deserves some of your
time, attention and investment as it integrates all of your career
search efforts and can really help you be more effective and productive
in the other important areas.

Here are 6 ways
to use LinkedIn to optimize your career search and find your dream job.
If you know someone who is seeking a job or internship, please forward
them these tips along with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

1. Profile

• Use the Profile
  link on the left and whether you've just created your profile or
  already have one, make sure to follow the suggested steps to complete
  your profile up to the 100% level. A complete profile lifts you up in
  LinkedIn's search engine results.




• Go beyond the bare
  minimum when following those steps and make sure to fill in as much
  professional, academic and skill-based information from your resume as
  you feel comfortable providing. The more information you have provided,
  the more potentially-matching names and keywords you will have
  provided, in turn also optimizing your profile in LinkedIn's search
  engine results.




• Completing your profile 100% will require
  getting 3 recommendations, but try to go beyond that. Ask for brief
  recommendations from as many past supervisors, co-workers,
  subordinates, key classmates, professors etc as possible. That's the
  beauty of LinkedIn, you can request brief recommendations from people
  from whom you might not request longer, more comprehensive hard-copy
  recommendations. Many brief high-quality recommendations are often just
  as valuable as a few long high-quality recommendations. If you feel
  comfortable doing so, offer to write one for them in return.




• Create an interesting, intriguing and memorable subtitle to be included with your name, something more than simply "MBA Student" and/or "Financial Analyst."




• Update your status often to post your availability and career goals like "John is seeking full-time opportunities in brand management with food and beverage CPG firms."

2. Groups

• Use the Groups
  link on the left and search for LinkedIn groups related to your
  company, industry, school and/or career-related interests and request
  to join (maximum limit is 50 groups). While quantity is not as
  important as quality, join as many as possible and remember that groups
  with more members allow for more potential contacts. Group membership
  also allows you to contact fellow group members (depending on their
  privacy settings) even if they are not your direct connections which
  can be very valuable in your job search.




• Once joined or
  confirmed by the group owner as a member, check to see what the group's
  discussion board guidelines are (if any), and if permitted, post a
  personal sales pitch for your job candidacy on each group's discussion
  board and include your email address, Twitter username etc.




• Network
  with group members by offering insights and answers to questions on the
  discussion board and/or posting questions or discussion topics
  yourself. This helps you make valuable connections while starting to
  establish your personal brand.




• Check out the groups' external websites/communities for more networking opportunities.




• Consider
  joining open networking groups, such as TopLinked, Invites Welcome and
  many more. This will increase your number of personal connections, but
  the true value is that it puts you in second-degree contact with more
  professionals and depending on their privacy settings, allows you
  contact them.

3. People

• With an increasing network of connections and fellow group members, under the People
  tab at the top, search for contacts of interest, industry leaders
  and/or current employees of your top-choice companies and if possible,
  message them requesting brief informational interviews.




• When
  successful, read their profiles to learn a little more about them prior
  to your conversation. If appropriate, use this background information
  to help you come across well-researched and find common ground with
  your interviewer.

4. Jobs

• Under the Jobs
  tab at the top, you will find LinkedIn's own job board, a great place
  to search for jobs on a daily basis. Its job board is similar to
  others, like Monster and CareerBuilder; however, many of the
  opportunities are exclusively available on LinkedIn, and many of the
  opportunities list the recruiters or employers who posted them,
  offering another level of personal connection for the cover letter and
  future networking.


• In addition, this job board is where the
  profile recommendations really can make a difference, for after you
  apply, employers and recruiters can instantly refer to your
  recommendations as complimentary support to your resume, cover letter
  and profile.

5. Answers

• Using the Answers
  tab at the top, you can search relevant questions of interest or of
  relevance to your expertise by category or by keywords and you can
  offer your own answers and insights. The person who asked the question
  may rate the best answers, which if yours, can help identify you on
  LinkedIn as an official expert in a given subject area. However,
  regardless of your answer ratings, offering your insights and answers
  will begin to establish your personal brand and expertise and will
  initiate some potential networking and job opportunities.


• You
  can also post your own questions. If you are writing a book, articles
  for a blog etc., this can be a great way to get some ideas and answers
  to your own questions which can enhance the value of the content you
  offer to others through your writing and reinforces your own brand and
  expertise.

6. Companies

• Under the Companies
  tab at the top, you can search companies by industry category and
  geographic location and identify companies that you may not have
  previously considered, especially smaller companies and start-ups.
  LinkedIn also shows whether the companies in your search results have
  posted job opportunities on its job board, a feature which is very
  helpful.




• If the companies don't have jobs posted on
  LinkedIn, visit the companies' corporate websites and check for their
  job opportunities or application processes.




• Use their
  company profiles to identify new people, especially the hiring managers
  or HR decision makers, to contact for information, information
  interviews etc.

Author:

Chris Perry,
MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing "generator," a career search and
personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer.