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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Over 40? Get A Job Using 9 Simple LinkedIn Tips

If you are an older skilled worker who is in the market for a job  you should be taking advantage of the significant benefits LinkedIn can bring to your job search: including warm leads into companies or to people you are targeting, the possibility of creating new job leads through recruiters who frequently use the site or people who are impressed with comments you post on the site, and access to posted and unposted job openings. So how do you take advantage of LinkedIn if you’re a job seeker?


1. Create a Thoughtful Profile.

 According to LinkedIn, you are 40X more likely to receive opportunities if your profile is complete. A complete profile includes your current job and 2 previous jobs, your educational background, a profile summary, profile picture, your specialties and at least 3 recommendations. Your profile summary should highlight your passions, interests AND your personality. Your work experience should highlight the specific actions taken and the impact achieved.


Many people make the mistake of writing their experience as a recitation of tasks; e.g. built models, created presentations. If you’ve created presentations, projects or have other work that showcases your talents, use an app like Slideshare or Box.net to include your work in your profile. Thoughtful (vs boilerplate) recommendations from colleagues who can speak to specific skills or your impact can help. LinkedIn has a simple tool that lets you solicit them for people you know. Once and only when your profile is complete, include a link to it in your email signature, on your resume, and even on your business card.


Want to know how to improve  your Next Job Interview? Learn More Here
2. Build your network. 



Focus on friends and colleagues who know you well. There’s no prize for accumulating the most connections. Your connections should be people who’d be willing to credibly and enthusiastically introduce you to people in their network. To do that, they must know you well enough. Here’s another reason to be careful about who you invite into your network. 


Your connections may also ask you for introductions to other people in your network. Do you want to jeopardize your reputation with your friends or former boss by encouraging them to talk to some random person in your network that you don’t know? If you’re a college student, consider adding some older people such as professors, close family friends, and supervisors and colleagues from summer internships. Continue to work on strengthening your ties -- thought you might find this article interesting, ran into someone who knows you, etc. The optimal time to build your network is when you don`t desperately need help.

3. Join Targeted Industry & Professional Groups. 

Why? There will be people there who are doing what you want to do. Join in on discussions. Create discussions on topics you’re interested in. Ask interesting questions. Doing these things will enable you to meet people who can increase your job or industry understanding, give you feedback on your job search, or even approach you about potential jobs. 


The key to GETTING a lot from these groups is GIVING to them. For someone to want to help you, they need to feel that it’s worth their while, either because they genuinely like you, and/or they believe that helping you benefits them in some way. If you are only there to take from the group, you won’t find many willing to help you.

4. Join Your School Group on LinkedIn.

  The content in these groups is fairly limited now, but being a member is valuable because you can send connection invitations or messages to other members of the group that you otherwise couldn’t engage. I can search my Stanford group for my hypothetical target company, Google for example, and find 81 group members, only 2 of whom I’m directly connected to, with current or past work experience at Google.

Click here to read part 2 of this article


How To Get Hired Faster on Linkedin. Start Now.



Want to know how to improve  your Next Job Interview? Learn More Here.

    11 comments:

    1. Frankly, I have been doing all of that already on LinkedIn. When you are 61 and have incredible experience, it is hell finding work.

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    2. Try Dan Miller's book "48 Days to the Work You Love." It's the best system for finding a great job in any economy, and he specializes in helping older workers (i.e. over 40 or 50). You can download the free worksheets for the book on his website at 48days.com, and listen to his advice on his free podcast on the same website. Basically, you clearly define your goal, and then make a list of companies who might want to employ someone with your skillset (realistically), then tailor an introduction letter for each company, and just contact them directly. After that, you send a cover letter and resume 1 week after the intro letter. Then follow up with a phone call. You aren't applying to advertised jobs this way - so you actually gain access to the *unadvertised* jobs. According to the 48 Days workbook (published 2005), only 8 out of 100 people get jobs from applying to classified ads, and only 7 in 100 get jobs from applying to trade journal ads. Fewer than 1% of applicants to internet ads get a response. Applying directly to an employer without doing any homework leads to jobs 47 out of 100 times. Walking in the door, unannounced, leads to a job 50% of the time (mostly for lower paying jobs), and using the placement office at the school you attended leads to a job 21% of the time. Asking friends leads to a job 34% of the time, and asking relatives leads to a job 27% of the time. (all from Chapter 8 of the 48 days workbook). I'm sure the numbers in 2011 are more dismal, but the success of each method is proportionately about the same. Save yourself the pain, and just work Dan Miller's system.

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    3. Old news. Any career coach tells you all these things. Getting the job means acing the interview and having a hiring manager that does not have tunnel vision but is open to those over 40 or over 50. You can have tons of experience and when you start an interview process you take all the assessments and preliminary steps as if you are coming out of college. Finding a job is not fixing your LInkedIn profile. It is that and much more

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    4. What about those just 30 and not yet 40. Can these articles apply to them as well?

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    5. What about those just 30 and not yet 40. Can these articles apply to them as well?

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    6. You are talking about those people that are i guess above 45 or under 55, can you tell us are these techniques are beneficial for 20-30.

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    7. It's also important to note that LinkedIn has reached a point where it's almost unprofessional not to be on LinkedIn. There are members from all 500 of the Fortune 500 companies.

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    8. I know I'm getting old but the title said 9 tips and I only see 4.

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    9. }}} "I know I'm getting old but the title said 9 tips and I only see 4."

      LOL -- right after the 4th one:
      "Click here to read part 2 of this article"

      DOH!!
      :-D

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    10. Thanks for these tips, Linkedin is a powerful way indeed. I used to think of finding good ways to get a job and i landed here. This post is gonna help me alot with finding jobs in chandigarh and other parts well.

      ReplyDelete

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