Staying Focused During the Holidays

"What if Christmas doesn't come from a store.What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"~Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

The end-of-year  holidays, that magical time of the year… But if you have been out of work and looking for a job for months, the holidays can also be that most hopeless time of the year. There don’t seem to be as many job opportunities, or people aren't available to interview or take calls. 

Must your life go on hold? And then there’s the gifts, the entertaining, the decorating.

You do not have to go down that road. Energize yourself with the spirit of the season -  joy,  gratitude, good friends, and family. 

Here are some things you can do to participate and keep up your momentum into 2017:

•   Continue your job search. Do not give up. The resume that you submit in December may not get read until January, but it WILL get there. Create you own Personal-Job-Search.

•  Take advantage of down time for self-improvement, resume revisions - take online webinars!  Register HERE for our most popular webinar which will take place on "5 Tips to Battle Ageism." Enjoy these Free Job Search Webinars.

•  Go to parties and get-togethers. They are great for networking, meeting new people, keeping your spirits up. 

• Worried about gifts – DIY! People don’t expect lavish gifts and what’s better than something made with love. Do you bake, knit, paint or like photography?

• Consider having a potluck. Have everyone bring a dish and have your own party! BYOB!

• Take a stroll downtown or in your neighborhood with friends and family to look at the beautiful lights and/or window displays.

• Remember to exercise to keep your mind clear and your energy high.

 Make the last weeks of 2016 count and look forward to 2017. These are YOUR holidays, too - ENJOY!

5 Ways to Find a Job on LinkedIn

Are you making the most of LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional networking site which offers unique features for both businesses and job seekers:

• Businesses can easily post jobs, find prospective clients and check references. 
• Job Seekers: A good knowledge of this platform gives you a great chance of getting a job within the shortest time possible.

Here are five major ways to find a job in just sixty days on Linkedin

#1 Make Yourself Easily Found on LinkedIn: According to a survey, 90% of recruiters and their sources ( both within companies and external headhunting agencies) make use of LinkedIn to spot ideal candidates. And for several reasons these recruiters prefer sourcing for talents rather than assisting desperate job seekers. In other words, you have to make them come to you by making yourself easily found on the platform. You can achieve this in several ways including:

• Creating a strong and compelling profile summary.
• Completing your employment history.
• Completing all other sections of your profile such as education, certifications and more.
• Including samples of your work to showcase your accomplishments.
• Joining groups and participate in discussions.
• Properly filling out the skills section of your profile

#2 Job Board: The LinkedIn’s job board offers you several ways to access the numerous ads posted by recruiters and employers. They get paid for featuring these ads on their site and others that the site aggregates from across the internet.LinkedIn leads you through a process whereby you can create your profile of the kind of job you seek based on the industry, location and more. You are allowed to edit your profile at will, but that also determines the type of ads you will get from LindkedIn. Another way of getting applicable positions is by clicking on ‘Advanced’ at the LinkedIn’s homepage. After this, click on ‘Jobs’, and filter jobs through keywords, location, title, country and more. However, when conducting an advanced search, it is advisable to avoid searching on title, as different firms have different titles for the same role.

#3 Group Jobs: With LinkedIn, you can join up to 100 groups at once. These groups are numerous and each based on anything imaginable such as hobbies, location, school alumni, industry and more. Each of these groups has its own menu structure which includes; discussion, promotion, jobs members and search.The job menu in each group is meant for job listing which could be posted by any of the group member as well as job discussions. This makes making it faster for you to find a new job.

#4: Company Pages: All you have to do here is to search for companies. Typically, on a company’s page, there will be a listing of vacant positions at the company or a link to the company’s employment portal on its site where the open jobs listing is provided. When you find a job opening it is advisable NOT to simply apply to multiple jobs in a relatively short period by clicking on ‘Apply’ numerous times. Instead, take your time by checking each good job prospect. Make use of the features provided by LinkedIn to see who posted the job and who you may know that works in the company. Develop these contacts into networking partners. Most companies use employee referral bonus program. You will be at an advantaged position if your company contact brings your resume to the attention of the recruiting manager or human resources staffer assigned to fill the position. Consequently, the probability of your resume disappearing into thin air is minimized and your chances of getting the job significantly increased.

#5 Feed Update: Updates are at the center of your LinkedIn homepage. What you will get here are not just articles that the Pulse feature thinks you should be interested in but also the status updates of your contacts or connections. Take your time to scroll through these updates on a regular basis as there are often some posts from hiring managers or recruiters calling the attention of qualified job seekers to some vacant positions in their respective companies

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10 Steps for Online Career and Job Networking

         Let’s start with the big question.


Why?
What is the point of doing online networking for your career? How is it any better than simply keeping in touch with people you know via email or at meetings? Isn’t stuff like LinkedIn or Facebook a waste of time, or at least not worth the time you invest in it?


Online networking tools serve two purposes, really.

First, they make it easy for people to find you – or at least find the information about you that you want to be found. Once you set up a proper profile at a social networking site, it’s often the first thing that shows up about you on search engines. Thus, when people go searching for information about you, you can have a lot of control over the information that they find.

Second, they allow you to keep tabs on other people – and allow other people to keep tabs on you. Let’s say, for example, that you’re starting a new project that might interest a lot of people in your field – and you might want input from some of them. Is it easier to collect all their email addresses then send a blanket email to all of them or to just simply update your online networking tool?

Similarly, if you’ve set up such tools properly, you can effortlessly and automatically follow such news and updates about others in your field, which can automatically alert you to any interesting changes without having to hope that that person remembered to send it to you.

Together, these things add up to tons and tons of opportunities to connect with people without having to invest a ton of time continually tracking people down.

Tactic #1: Just Use Google
One problem that many people have with doing this is that there seems to be a giant pile of services available for people to connect to others. Should I use Twitter? Should I use Facebook? Should I use LinkedIn?


Really, though, there’s only one you need to worry about. And that’s Google.


When people want to find other people online, they turn to Google. They type in that name, click on the first few links, and see what they can find out.


That means your focus shouldn’t be so much on which of these services to use. It should be to make sure you’re controlling that top search result on Google.


How can you do that? You need to have a page that’s (a) fully open to the public and (b) linked to by a lot of other people.


Based on what I’ve observed, for professional purposes, the best tool for that is LinkedIn, so if I were just getting started with things, I’d use LinkedIn. Facebook has more users, but it’s a “walled garden,” meaning the general public cannot read your profile. If you’re focusing solely on professional material, that’s actually a pretty big disadvantage.


Tactic #2: Detail Your Profile
When you sign up for such a service, the first step is to add appropriate detail to your profile. The key word here is appropriate.


The purpose for doing this is to attract professional connections, so keep it professional. Describe your career. Enter all of the relevant information and include as much detail as you can, including past places of employment, organizations you’re involved with (that you’d want to share professionally), where you went to school, and so on. Make especially sure to describe your current work (again, in as much detail as you can). Be sure to share it all publicly, too, so that you can easily be found on Google searches.


The more information you provide – particularly interesting information – the more likely it is that people will take an interest in you, follow you, and contact you for further connection, which is exactly what you want.


Click here to read part 2 of this article

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Would You Like To Find Your Old Business Contacts?

When Rick Featherstone, 49, was laid off from DHL in August after nearly five years with the company, he dived into his Rolodex to call old network of colleagues and business associates. He figured it would be easy to reconnect. But it turned out that many of his former coworkers had moved on and finding them was a challenge. Mr. Featherstone, who had worked at just three companies over the previous 22 years, quickly realized his contact list was sorely out of date.

Four months later, the former IT manager has found many former colleagues, but in retrospect he says he has learned a valuable lesson: "You have to be ready to move at a moment's notice, you aren't going to work for the same company for 50 years."



Many laid-off professionals who've worked at the same company -- or just a few firms -- over their careers may find that their networks have gone stale. Experts recommend networking be done consistently and be nurtured throughout a career, but that's not always feasible in a world of 70-hour workweeks and family commitments. There are ways to jump start a network that's out-of-date and to rebuild rapport with former friends and colleagues.

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GUIDE TO GETTING A JOB OVER 50

Dead Ends
First, you actually have to find these people. The email address you used a year ago may yield only a bounceback message now. Michael Duncan, 44, was laid off from a software-development firm in late October. While working for the same company for 11 years, Mr. Duncan hadn't done much networking. "I just had this assumption that I didn't need to worry about it," he says.

To rebuild his network he emailed former colleagues, did Internet searches and asked ex-coworkers to reconnect him to people they have stayed in touch with. But Mr. Duncan has had trouble locating former managers for references, particularly a manager who moved overseas, whom he still hasn't found.

Social- and business-networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo are good ways to find old connections. LinkedIn officials say the site has seen a 36% increase in membership over the past six months as executives scramble to rebuild their networks. You can search by name or company to find old acquaintances. Personalize your network invitation request with a memory the two of you shared or a reminder of who you are, says Cheryl Yung, a senior vice president of outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison. Once you've re-established your relationship, you can also view the friends of your connections, and request an introduction to people at companies that interest you.

If you already have a LinkedIn account, keep it current. An update on David Stevens's LinkedIn status indicating that he was "up for grabs" spurred one of his contacts to alert him to a job opportunity. He interviewed for the job and within two weeks of being laid off, he was back at work.

Once you've located people in your old network, a simple holiday card to a former manager or colleague -- or calling to wish them a happy New Year -- can reopen dialogue, says Ms. Yung.

It can be daunting or uncomfortable contacting people you haven't spoken to in years -- especially when you've just been laid off. But, you can use the spirit of the season as a crutch; December and January are prime months to get reacquainted with old friends and colleagues. Also, try to attend as many holiday parties as you can; look for people you've lost touch with and speak to people you've never met, advises Bettina Seidman, a New York career-management counselor.

Once you've made contact, arrange a meeting. "Email and networking sites speed up the communication, but they don't do the networking for you," says Liz Lynch, author of "Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online." Career coaches say it's critical to set up in-person meetings and attend networking events. Be mindful of your contact's time; you might not be the only one asking for help. Ask for 10 minutes to chat, or offer to catch up over coffee or lunch, says Ms. Lynch.

Click here to read part 2 of this article

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Does Social Media Confuse You As An Older Job Seeker?

7 Secrets to Get a Job Using Social Media - and a valuable LINKED IN TOOL! 

Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, The Baby Stork and mailing resumes to HR. As an older worker do you ever feel that all the good fantasies are dead? What do you think?:(Editor's Note)

Between current economic conditions and the technological evolution of the Internet, the traditional approach most job seekers have taken in the past is no longer viable.

The approach — developing a resume and cover letter, locating jobs on and submitting your resume to corporate sites and job banks, and crossing your fingers in hopes of receiving a call from a hiring manager — is, for the most part, a thing of the past. The new approach is far different. It boils down to the fact that there are fewer jobs available, more competition for those jobs and more touch points for recruiters and seekers to interact.

The current environment

There will be 1.5 million college graduates this year, yet the job growth rate is at a six year low, at 1.3%! The amount of jobs posted online is decreasing at over 13%, which has all led to the ratio of 3.3 job seekers per each job.

Social networks are starting to become part of the criteria that both hiring managers and college admissions officers are using to weed out applicants. One in five hiring managers conduct background checks using social networks (primarily Facebook), while one in ten college admissions officers do the same.

It’s time for you to be open-minded and think differently about how you’re going to get your next job and keep it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t submit your resume to job banks, corporate websites, vertical job agents (Simply Hired/Indeed) or attend job fairs, but these should only consume 10% of your time. The other 90% should be concentrated on the following seven social media secrets, which will not only get you a job, but help you create your own dream job!

1. Conduct a people search instead of a job search

The majority of jobs aren’t posted online. Hiring managers get a list of employee referral candidates before they even bother to view resumes from those who submit them online. Sometimes the listed jobs aren’t available or never existed in the first place. Many studies have noted that 80% of jobs are taken through networking, but few have sought to use the web to search and locate people they would actually enjoy working for at companies that they get excited about.

The 3-step people search:

a. Identify the top five companies that you would like to work for.
Use a focused approach instead of flooding thousands of inboxes with spam. You want to brand yourself, not just as the person of best fit for a job, but as someone who is eager and ecstatic to work for the company.



b. Use search engines to track employees that currently work there.
There are over 130 million blogs in Technorati and you can search through them to possibly find someone who works at one of your top five companies. You can search through corporate groups, pages and people on Facebook. You can even do the same on Twitter. Then there are people search engines such as pipl, peek you, and wink. Once you find a contact name, try googling it to see if there is any additional information about that person.

c. Connect with the person directly.
Social media has broken down barriers, to a point where you can message someone you are no longer friends with and don’t have contact information for, without any hassles. Before you message a target employee, realize that they receive messages from people asking for jobs all the time and that they might not want to be bothered on Facebook, where their true friends are. As long as you’ve done your homework on the company and them, tailor a message that states who you are and your interest, without asking for a job at first. Get to know them and then by the 3rd or 4th messages, ask if there is an available opportunity.

2. Use attraction-based marketing to get job offers

The traditional way of searching for a job was proactive, forcing you to start a job that you might not have enjoyed. The new approach is about building a powerful personal brand and attracting job opportunities directly into your doorstep. How do you do this? You become a content producer instead of just a consumer and the number one way to do that on the web is to launch a blog that centers around both your expertise and passions.

You need to be passionate to be committed to this project because it requires a lot of writing, creativity and consistency in order for it to actually help you. A blog is a non-intrusive, harmless and generous way of getting recruiters interested in your brand, without you even asking for a job! Make the recruiters fall in love with you and only send you opportunities that are related to your blog content, so you end up happy in the end.

This works a lot and is expected for new-age marketing jobs that require experience in social media and can even help you jump-start a new business off of your blog platform. By pulling recruiters into your world, you are able to impress them with what you want them to see and they can make a quick decision whether to hire you or not, without you hearing about rejection. Start a blog today using Wordpress.com (for beginners) or install Wordpress.org onto your own host (such as GoDaddy or Bluehost).

Click here to read part 2 of this article
                                                                                                               
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Female Style of Networking - Detrimental to Success?

Editors Notes: Are women better networkers or just different then men? Do  men go for the size/volume of business relationships while women build smaller more meaningful relationships? Does this help or hurt women?


Women are born networkers. After all, at its core, networking is about connecting with other people, and that’s something women excel at. Connecting is in our DNA.

Given that we have the social gene, I’ve been surprised in my work as a coach and the research I did for my new book, The Female Brand, that women often don’t have an expansive network – yet men do. We women tend to favor deep relationships with a group of close friends, a preference evolutionary scientists trace back to our roots as family caretakers and home keepers. We also see the preference for close, intense relationships in playground studies. Most girls tend to pair up and play one-on-one or with a small group, while boys are more likely to play with a series of different mates and play with a larger group. Later, when female hormones kick in, the preference for intimate relationships with a small group of friends accelerates.

A small group of deep relationships provides women with a reliable source of support and advice, but in the wider world of careers and brand building, a small though intensely committed group is not as advantageous as a large network of contacts – even if those contacts are superficial. In my coaching of senior executives, I also found that women, unlike men, are less likely to ask for a favor or introduction unless they know someone well. For many women, calling up a virtual stranger is painful. Likewise, women seemed more reluctant to do a favor for someone they didn’t know – say, recommend a friend of a friend for a job – unless they had actual experience working with the person.

Men, on the whole, seem less constrained in networking. Guys understand the mutual advantage of helping one another out. Many men can know someone casually or hardly at all and think it’s no big deal to call him to arrange an informational interview or pitch him for a specific job opportunity. They feel more comfortable pitching a casual friend or a friend of a friend.

That same tendency may be apparent in a recent Harvard Business Publishing study on Twitter usage, based on a random sample of 300,000 Twitter users in May 2009. Though men and women follow a similar number of users, men have 15 percent more followers than women and they have more reciprocated relationships in which two users follow each other, according to the report. The study also pointed out that women seem to be less compelled to have followers or "have more stringent thresholds for reciprocating relationships."
Click here to read part 2 of this article


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10 Steps for Online Career/Job Networking (part III)

Tactic #8: Don’t Get Bogged Down
Ideally, you find yourself in a situation with a lot of connections, which means a lot of people are keeping tabs with what you’re doing. The danger in that is that it’s tempting to get involved in a lot of conversations – and that turns the social networking tool into an unproductive time suck.

My suggestion: avoid long conversations on the site. If you see something truly compelling, contact that person directly off the site. If it’s not compelling enough

Tactic #9: Add Value
There is one other reason I add updates to such social sites, and that’s when they add direct value to the people following me. If I find a truly great resource or piece of information that many others in my field will find valuable, I add an update letting others know about it.

Why do this? Why share something of value so easily? If you share truly valuable things, people will come to ascribe value to you – and that will stick in their minds. Do it regularly enough with stuff that’s truly valuable and people will share valuable things with you – information, important news, and so on.

Tactic #10: Follow Up
Most of these tactics don’t require much time, and so it can be easy to just put up the profile, check in every once in a while, and not think about it.

If you just do that, however, you may miss out on opportunity. Thus, I’d suggest two methods for regular follow-up on your profile.

First, set the site as a default page in your browser. This way, checking the page becomes part of your normal routine. You can often integrate a number of pages into a single iGoogle start page – that’s the tactic I use.

Second, check your own profile regularly and make sure it’s updated. Don’t let it slag with out-of-date information. Check it once a month or so and make sure that correct, current, and relevant information is easily found by people searching for you.

Follow these ten tactics and you’ll be using online networking to great career advantage.

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Click here to read part 1 of this article


http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/11/25/ten-fundamental-steps-for-online-career-networking/

10 Steps for Online Career/Job Networking (part II)

Tactic #3: Find People You Know (Or Want To Know)
Once you’re in place, start searching the site for people you know and establish connections with them. You may not know anyone – that’s fine – but if you can at least establish a few connections, you’re off on the right foot.

You might want to search whole companies, like your own, just to get a list of people, so you can quickly identify people that you may want to link up with. Don’t be afraid to connect with people above you in rank – or even below you – but focus on connecting to those that might actually have value in that connection. Don’t just connect for the sake of connecting or else you’ll suffer from needless overload.

Tactic #4: Invite Your Friends To Join
So, you signed up at LinkedIn (or whatever site you’ve chosen to use), filled in your profile, and located a few people you know. Now what?

These tools work better if you know lots of people using the tools, so email a bunch of your work contacts. Send them the URL of your LinkedIn page, along with perhaps the URLs of some other people most of them might be interested in, and encourage them to sign up. If people already know that they have at least a few connections in the bag, they’re much more likely to sign up for such a service.

Tactic #5: Keep People Reminded Through Other Means
Once you’re established there, make an effort to remind people through other mediums about your profile page, so they can follow you, too. I’d encourage you to stick a link to your profile in the signature of your emails as well as into the profile of any other online services you might use (like Facebook, for example).

What this does is it gives people many opportunities to visit your page and keep you in their mind – and that’s a pure benefit for you.

Tactic #6: Keep An Eye Out
Once you’ve established a profile and a lot of connections, it’s worth setting your basic page on the site as a bookmark so you can keep up with what’s happening with the people you’re connected to. I tend to look at what’s happening with my connections on various sites every other day or so, just to keep tabs with them.

For the most part, I don’t do anything with the updates – I just try to keep track of them. I usually send congratulations in response to big news and occasional follow-up questions, but I usually try to avoid too much follow-up (see #8 for why).

Tactic #7: Update Regularly
I also make an effort to update my own profile whenever there’s something significant to note. Whenever something happens that’s significant enough for me to wish to contact people professionally, I make sure to update any relevant social networking pages with a global update (so that everyone can see it and anyone who follows me or is connected is alerted to it).

Of course, there’s a fine line here – too much stuff can overburden the people connected to you. To mitigate that, I keep the update count down to the serious stuff – things that I would actually bother to contact others about, such as major project changes, changing jobs, the birth of a child, or another major event.

Click here to read part 3 of this article

Could Social Media Actually Result In Hiring Discrimination?

Job Seekers & Recruiters Beware:Could Social Media Actually Result In Hiring Discrimination?


As a recruiter you might be facing charges of discrimination in your screening process. But as a job seeker you just might be off the candidate radar if you are not actively using social media to help prospective recruiters and employers find you. Are you now part of the new "social media handicapped". Just another sign of the digital divide.


Story Excerpt by Fay Hansen:
"Discriminatory Twist in Networking Sites Puts Recruiters in Peril


Sourcing applicants from Twitter or LinkedIn or screening candidates through Facebook or MySpace may open employers to discrimination charges.
By Fay Hansen

In the rush to cut recruiting budgets and avoid the avalanche of résumés now generated by job boards, employers are increasingly tapping professional and social networking sites as a sourcing tool.


Some employers now rely heavily or even exclusively on Twitter or LinkedIn to fill open positions. While this approach may create short-term cost savings and new efficiencies, it may also skew applicant pools and trigger discrimination lawsuits.


“Networking sites, including Twitter, exclude whole populations,” says Jessica Roe, managing partner at Bernick, Lifson, Greenstein, Greene & Liszt in Minneapolis. “We are going to end up with a very homogenous workforce. The social networks represent limited social groups and very small labor pools. It’s an enormous issue.”




According to the latest data from Quantcast, only 5 percent of LinkedIn users are black and only 2 percent are Hispanic.

“Social networking sites are problematic because the population is limited and highly selective,” Roe notes. “I anticipate more race and age claims over the next two years, and a significant portion will be from sourcing through social networking sites, where the users are generally white and age 20 to 40. We’ll see lawsuits.

“Employers don’t want to pay recruiters, so they take the path of least resistance, but they have to look very carefully at the applicant pool and cast a much broader net. Recruiters are often swept up by the latest process. Minor decisions lead to major consequences.”

Using networks for recruiting is ripe with risk for future discrimination claims, says Pamela Devata, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago.

“Sourcing from professional network sites such as LinkedIn carries a risk that the method could be challenged on discrimination grounds,” Devata says. “It represents a hiring pool that is not open to the general population. Using a limited network may have a disparate impact. If hiring through these networks can be challenged, it will be.”

Employers should consider the risk of litigation arising from disparate impact claims.

“If the business practice is to use Twitter and the existing pool is 50 percent female and 20 percent minority, but you’re down to zero for both groups because your digital network is heavily male and non-minority, then you must establish that there is a business necessity for the practice,” says Paul Mollica, partner at Meites, Mulder, Mollica & Glink in Chicago. “The first company that gets sued for this will have to be very resourceful because it will be very difficult to establish a reason for relying exclusively on Twitter.”

Some employers are integrating Twitter into their employee referral programs to help employees connect with possible job candidates.

“Combining Twitter with employee referral programs could turn out to be a digitalized version of word-of-mouth hiring methods because you are simply using referrals and employees’ online acquaintances,” Mollica says. “If you combine these methods and use networks to expand the applicant pool, that’s a valid method, provided that you are also reaching candidates through broader means.”"


To Read this story go to: http://www.workforce.com/section/06/feature/26/68/67/index.html
Fay Hansen is a contributing editor for Workforce Management.


Learn How To Prepare For Your Interview 

How to Excel at Online Career Networking

If you are confused or unfamiliar with how to use online networking groups this is a excellent overview. For those who are inexperienced users of LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo or other online networking groups this is a good starter guide. If you are experienced perhaps a short refresh class. Let us know you think? (Editor's Note)

Ace Your Next Job Interview! Learn More:

Get a Job Using 9 LinkedIn Tips - pt 2

5. Search LinkedIn Jobs.
When you search Jobs by company or job title, you can see which of your connections are at that company or know the person who posted the job. Leverage these connections to help you get a warm introduction.


6. Search for Connections at Targeted Companies.
You will dramatically increase your chances of an interview or favorable initial impression if you get an introduction to a recruiter or hiring manager from someone they trust. Do a search for people who can make that introduction by inputting the company name. Let’s say I’m interested in working for Apple. My search on Apple will generate people in my network who work or worked at Apple. You may in fact be able to ask a 1st degree contact (someone I am connected to on LinkedIn) for a personal introduction or recommendation to the hiring manager. Alternatively this person may be a great source of information about the company or industry, which will help me distinguish myself in the interview. For a 2nd degree connection (a connection of one of my connections), check out their profile and if it looks relevant, ask your contact for an introduction. Read The Email Introductions Most Likely to Open Doors to see who the wide range of people who can effectively open doors for you with a simple email.


7. Make the Right Ask.
Once you’ve identified people through LinkedIn that can be helpful, it’s important that you make the right ask. In most cases, asking for a job or an interview is NOT the right ask. Most people can’t help you with what may be your primary goal, but they can still help with information, feedback, introductions and more. Read How to Make the RIGHT and REASONABLE ASK for help


8. Let People Know You’re Looking.
Everyone is a potential job lead, but they can’t help if they don’t know you’re looking. Use the update field to indicate that you are looking for a job.


9. Showcase your Expertise through LinkedIn Answers.
In LinkedIn Answers you can ask and answer questions on specific business topics. Others who view your answers and are impressed with your insight can reach out to you directly. You can also receive recognition for strong answers, which adds to your credibility and visibility.

Click here to go back to the first page of the article

By: Andrea Rice
http://www.gottamentor.com/viewAdvice.aspx?a=379

Bartender To A Successful Career. Job Networking A Real Life Story

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Editor's Note: Molly (President of Executive Network) is someone who worked as a bartender at one point in her career and learned how to network. She was out of work for over 2 years.

Molly tells her story and where/how to network for a job.
Her direct approach includes:
1) Get off your computer. NOW.
2) How to avoid some of her mistakes- like spending too much time posting to job boards.
2) Going to Job Search Networking events that are relevant to you.
3) Utilizing contacts that can be both relevant and supportive of your efforts.

Part 1

Looking at a new career? Have you taken the 7 Minute Career Test? Its Free:). Learn More.

View Part 2 of "Job Networking Advice: A Real Life Story"

How to Use Social Media to Land a Job

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http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-use-social-media-to-get-a-job

How to Network Effectively

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phVKyTSvSAY

Easy Steps for Job Networking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9VUqB7wQpY

Social Networking to Your Next Job

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp6XScM4QJw

Use LinkedIn To Find a Job

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eTDnSnDMgE

Job Seekers Get Help from Former Classmates (Click Here)

"Gilliam of Southgate, Mich., was laid off from a job as a program manager for a Tier One auto supplier in January. Some old classmates, including his teammates from the Jaguars baseball team who have auto-industry jobs, told him "they'd keep an eye open for me," said Gilliam. He had a great time at the reunion. His only regret - no business cards. ". . . I wished I had brought cards," said Gilliam, who has since ordered them."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/image/20090812_Job_hunters_turn_to_old_classmates.html

Online Etiquette - what you didn't know about online communities

"Follow-up & respond:
There’s nothing worse than a “drop in”… a blogger, forum poster, or commenter that swings by a community, asks for help or pitches a product then disappears never to be seen again, until the next time they need something. Proper community etiquette dictates that when you post content in a discussion that you participate until the natural conclusion of that discussion."

- Jake McKee, aka: The Community Guy

http://www.communityguy.com/

7 Secrets to Get a Job Using Social Media - do you know them? (2)

3. Be proactive on Twitter

Twitter has become the ultimate utility to connect directly with recruiters and employees at companies you want to work for. By conducting Twitter searches, following recruiters on your account and using the “@” sign to communicate with them on occasion, you will start to learn a lot about them and their companies.

Before you follow anyone on Twitter, you HAVE TO have a completed profile. This means, you should have a short bio, the location where you’re from, a link to a site that recruiters can go to for more information (I recommend your blog or your LinkedIn profile) and an avatar of yourself (not a clown or Homer Simpson please). This way, you stand a better chance of securing an opportunity or a relationship with people who care enough to read your profile.

Most people get jobs on Twitter by already having hundreds or thousands of followers. For example, I’ve heard of at least ten people getting a job by tweeting “just got laid off, looking for a job in finance” and then receiving a few direct messages with people who want to help them. Of course, these individuals had built trust, credibility and relationships with their followers over time, so they were more inclined to come to their rescue. You can do the same, just start right now!

4. Capitalize on LinkedIn

It’s no surprise that LinkedIn has been extremely profitable and successful as of late. Recruiters are starting to use LinkedIn as the main place for sourcing candidates because it’s free and the top professionals are on there. Many people don’t use LinkedIn to the best of their ability and fail to complete their entire profile, such that it says “100% complete.”

Just like any other search engine recruiters are using, keywords are extremely important. You want to fill out your entire profile, just like you would a resume, but include the same avatar you are using on Twitter (see above) and ensure that the summary section is complete. You’ll also want to get at least one recommendation from a supervisor or friend, which will give you a “1″ next to a “thumbs up” graphic when people search for you.

Then, you should import all your contacts from Outlook, Gmail, etc, so that you can start to build your network or grow your existing network. The more people you’re connected to the better because you’re only able to reach other people in your network (1st, 2nd & 3rd degrees) by having these connections. You may want to pay for a premium account, so you can contact other recruiters that may help you. Finally, you should conduct searches on there for jobs that you may be interested in and reach out to those individuals that may supply you with an interview or referral.

5. Advertise your brand using AdWords and Facebook Social Ads

Google AdWords is Google’s advertising platform, which offers CPC (cost-per-click) and CPI (cost-per-impression) pricing for advertisements on Google and partner sites. Some of their partner sites are newspapers, radio and TV.



Before running your advertisement, you need a landing page. If you have a website or blog, then use the resume page within it to display through advertising. This works beautifully because recruiters can see that single resume page and notice all the other pages/options on your website, to get a better sense of your brand.

Here’s how to create your ad:

• Title. When you create your ad, label yourself as a specialist, expert or guru on the title tag. You might want to state the fact that it’s your resume first.
• Description. In the next two description tags, pull out your biggest achievements in 6 words or less and list your personal brand statement or a few descriptors.
• URL. For your URL, don’t use the URL for your resume page. Instead use yourname.com for personal branding purposes. Drop the “www” from the domain you want to promote because it’s unnecessary.
Facebook Social Ads allow businesses and individuals to advertise using Facebook’s news feed or left rail (will change to 2 ad spots on the right when the new interface swaps over). This program works similar to Google’s but you can use a picture and it’s more “word-of-mouth friendly” because ads travel through the news feed of friends.

Here’s how to create your ad:



• Title. What is the ad for? The title is the most important piece of your ad because it has the most “text” emphasis. I would say “I want to work for ” or “Resume for .” Try and be as specific as you can.
• Picture. Just like your Facebook picture, don’t use a picture that you wouldn’t want shown to your future employer. I would go for a professional yet personal picture.
• Description. Don’t write your resume, but instead give the viewer a quick description of who you are, what you do and what job you want in 25 words.
Once you create your ad, either link it to your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile or blog/website. These ads are all about targeting a specific group that would care about your resume or hiring you for that matter. When you select your target audience, keep your major in mind, as well as the company and location.

Click here to read part 3 of this article