Using LinkedIn to Find a Job or to Advance Your Career

I am not a recruiter. Nor I have ever worked in this industry or in any related capacity such as Human Resources. What I am is a salesperson. Therefore, being able to look at social media, and LinkedIn in particular, as either a recruiting tool or as a tool to help somebody find a new job or improve an existing position, is not really a far stretch for me. There is still a product to sell or buy and that product is you.

Over the last couple of years, I have volunteered to do a monthly workshop for the Idaho Department of Labor at their Meridian office that is entitled “Getting LinkedIn to Your Next Job”. This is conducted on the second Tuesday of each month from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM and it is free and open to the public. Details can be found here. I don’t do this for the money, or even for the exposure. It is just my way of giving back to a great community.

While this workshop concentrates on LinkedIn, we also discuss the overall strategies of deploying social media to either find a new job or to advance your current position. Here are just a few of the key takeaways …

Social media is only one tool. Do not neglect other job boards etc. The advantage that sites such as LinkedIn provides you is that it is a substantially less crowded playing field and it gives you the opportunity to engage directly with employers.

Recruiters and companies are using social media to find, and to qualify, active and passive candidates. Don’t be a dirt bag! What happens in Vegas might stay in Vegas but on social media? It lasts forever and is visible … everywhere and to everybody.

Make sure that your profile is complete and configured for search. You get one chance to make a good first impression and your profile is a direct reflection of you as a professional so make it count! Think about keywords that an employer might use to find candidates like you and include those in your profile in order to optimize it for search.

Have your headline tell a story and be upfront about your search. If you are looking for a!new opportunity, for goodness sake, don’t hide that! Your headline should read something like “Dynamic (insert desired position and or industry) with proven track record looking for new career opportunity!” You have 160 characters to work with.

Personalize your invitations. Nothing says “I don’t care” quite as much as a template invitation to connect. Your best chance to be given the opportunity to personalize an invitation will be from that person’s profile page and they will also know that you have visited their page. This is a free private message to this individual. Give them a reason to accept your invitation. Hint … “Connect with me and give me a job” is probably not the best approach.

Fish where the fish are with groups. Join, and be active in, groups that are frequented by your target industry. You can engage directly with these folks (within the group interface) regardless of whether or not you have any level of network connection.

Never stop building your network. After you get that dream job, and that dream job maybe slips away, you will now have an engaged network in place to assist you with finding that next dream job.

Connect with the right people. This means people in your industry and/or people who can potentially refer you to career opportunities.

Use blogging and LinkedIn Publishing to show off your expertise. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it’s effective!

If you are interested in taking a more indepth look at how social media can assist you in your employment efforts, I recently connected with Irene McConnell (née Kotov) who runs Arielle Careers in Australia and she has created the Job-Seekers Definitive Guide to Personal Branding. I would encourage you to check this out. Best of luck to you in your job search and I hope to see you at one of the LinkedIn workshops!

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!