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Your #Career : 5 Reasons You’re Not Hearing Back from #Recruiters (Prospective Company)……There is So Much About the Recruitment Process that is Beyond Any of your Control. Control the Parts of the Process that you Can, and Take the Rest in Stride!

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Not hearing back from recruiters can chip away at our confidence and motivation to continue a job search.

Rather than getting discouraged, let’s look at some common reasons recruiters might not be calling you back and discuss your possible course of action to see better results. 

1. Your Resume

Your resume is the first critical step to getting you through the door. Some common resume mistakes include: 

Format: Color, pictures, funky fonts, wasted white space, misaligned paragraphs, and inconsistency all create an unfriendly experience for a recruiter

Grammar: 58% of recruiters will automatically dismiss a candidate over typos. Make sure to always print your resume out and have someone read it over! 

Content: Your professional story and accomplishments should stand out immediately on your resume. If the bullet points are not relevant to the job, it will serve as a distraction. 

Consider your resume as a marketing piece that is constantly evolving. Don’t wait until you are unemployed to build your rockstar resume, as this should be a continuous practice. 

What Recruiters Want to See at Each Stage of the Interview Process

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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2. Your LinkedIn Profile 

Think of your LinkedIn profile as an extension of your resume, and landing page for recruiters to see what you’re all about. When it comes to LinkedIn, two red flags for recruiters include:

  • Having an incomplete or unprofessional LinkedIn page: Your profile is a reflection of your personal brand. Having a sloppy, incomplete, or unprofessional page will leave a bad first impression with a recruiter. 
  • When your resume and LinkedIn don’t align: If the dates and titles on your LinkedIn don’t match up, this will raise concerns with recruiters and make them question your level of detail, or how truthful you’ve been about your work experiences. 

Make sure your LinkedIn profile has a dynamic headline with up to date and accurate information. Like your resume, it must be perfectly formatted, with a professional headshot, and no typos! Highlight your achievements and make sure your skills are listed. There are so many ways to up your LinkedIn game, so don’t miss out on this low hanging fruit! 

How To Update Your LinkedIn Profile Without Alarming Your Boss

3. You’re not qualified

Unfortunately, you simply might not be qualified for the job you’ve applied to. It’s possible that not all the criteria required for the job was not listed, or the needs of the job have changed. Take the time to properly evaluate the position and consider if there is a strong enough alignment between your credentials and job requirements. 

If you’re not qualified on paper, but know you could still add value to the organization through this position, you can always try bypassing the recruiter by reaching out directly to the hiring manager through LinkedIn. This way, you can sell yourself directly to the decision makers and demonstrate how your work has consistently led to successful outcomes.

4. The job was put on hold

Candidates can often make it far down the interview process before the organization decides to put the job on hold. Reasons for this can vary from lack of internal agreement about the role, hiring freezes, or changing needs of the organization. 

Ideally, the recruiter should communicate any changes, but unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is not much you can do besides follow up with the recruiter and tactfully ask for an update. 

Is it Still Possible to Get Hired After Being Rejected?

5. An offer was made to another candidate

The competition for most jobs is fierce! Typically, a recruiter will consider a handful of candidates before narrowing it down to one person. Additionally, an internal applicant might have appeared and been given preference for the role. 

6. Your interview didn’t go as well as you thought 

Evaluating ourselves and our performance objectively is quite challenging, even for the best and the brightest of us. Think back to your interview, and really reflect on how things went. 

The only way to really make sure you’re performing at your best is to prepare, prepare, and prepare! Ask for feedback whenever possible or consider having a friend do a mock-interview with you. Constructive criticism is important and the sooner you understand where you’re going wrong, the sooner you can make improvements! 

There is so much about the recruitment process that is beyond any of our control. Though it can feel like a personal hit when a recruiter ignores your efforts, remember that a big organization can receive up to 900 applications for a single job posting. Control the parts of the process that you can, and take the rest in stride! 

 

Stacy Pollack is a Learning Specialist with an MA in educational technology. She is passionate about building leadership programs that engage and contribute to the success of her organization. She loves to share her perspective on job hunting, career building, and networking for success. Connect with her onLinkedIn or Twitter.

GlassDoor.com | March 20, 2018 | Stacy Pollack

Your #Career : Do This To Write A More #EmotionallyIntelligent #LinkedInProfile ….Don’t just List Out Skills Associated with Emotional Intelligence. Here’s How to Adapt a Technique from Psychology to appear More Approachable on LinkedIn.

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LinkedIn is a great place to network and look for jobs, but a lot of people’s profiles feel stiff and standoffish–at least compared with other social media platforms. We talk all the time about the rising value of emotional intelligence in the workforce, and there’s lots of advice on how to show it off on a job interview.

But that doesn’t often carry over to LinkedIn, which often just presents a litany of information about people’s accomplishments: what they’ve done, which jobs they’ve worked, the schools they’ve attended. It’s hard to get a sense of who they are. Ideally, your LinkedIn account should be just as good at making interpersonal connections as you are in real life. Here’s how to get that to happen.

Related: This LinkedIn Recruiter’s Tips For Showcasing Soft Skills On Job Interviews

TWO WAYS TO DESCRIBE YOURSELF

Some of the challenge here is LinkedIn’s format. The easiest things to add to your profile are straightforward data like your employment and education history. Sections like your “Headline” and “Summary” are harder to fill in, because it’s not always clear what you’re supposed to say about yourself.

It’s true that you’ll want to use keywords so recruiters and hiring managers can find you, but it’s also crucial to simply appear personable. And to do that, it helps to understand some of the psychology around how people define themselves. Researchers on self-concept have found that we typically use two distinct modes, called “self-construals.”

An “independent self-construal” involves defining your sense of self in terms of the qualities you possess without reference to other people. If you describe yourself as smart, a hard worker, or someone who gets things done, then you’re focusing on independent properties–the stuff that has to do with just you. With an “interdependent self-construal,” on the other hand, you define yourself according to the qualities that do refer to others. If your self-concept prominently includes your role as a parent, then you’re prioritizing your relationship with your kids. If you describe yourself as a mentor, then your sense of self arises from your experiences interacting with them.

If you look at many LinkedIn profiles (my own included), some will be heavier on independent self-construals than interdependent ones, and vice versa. One isn’t necessarily “better” than the other in every context; some cultures (both within a given organization and across entire societies) lean more individualist than collectivist, so what flies in one environment may weigh you down in another. And in a more in individualistic culture, researchers have found that people are more prone to independent self-construals. Generally speaking, though, if you describe yourself in more interdependent terms, then other people will likely feel more welcomed by you.

It’s pretty intuitive, really: If you include your reader in part of the self-construal you present on LinkedIn, they’ll have a better chance of seeing how they can relate to you.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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REVERSE-ENGINEERING AN EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT LINKEDIN PROFILE

How do you actually put this into practice? Work backwards.

For decades, psychologists have used the so-called “Twenty Statements Test,” one of a few leading instruments to assessing people’s self-concepts. It’s extremely simple: The test requires you to come up with 20 different answers to the question, “Who am I?” Instead of answering this question generally, though, answer it for your work-self–that is, “Who am I at work?”

Chances are many of the descriptions you come up with for yourself are independent, but you’ll probably also hit upon a few that are interdependent as well. Now go back through your list and see if there are ways of turning some of the independent descriptors you used into interdependent ones: How does this skill or attribute you possess help or relate to that other person?

This exercise can leave you with a richer, more conversational means of describing yourself than just listing out the job skills associated with emotional intelligence. As you rewrite your headline, summary, and other sections on LinkedIn, hang onto that interdependent mind-set. It’ll make you seem more approachable and worth connecting with.

 

 

FastCompany.com | March 19, 2018 | BY ART MARKMAN 3 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : How To Update Your #LinkedIn Without Making Your Boss Suspicious…Updating your #LinkedInProfile is something you should be doing regularly. Here’s how you can do it without raising alarm bells at work.

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Updating your LinkedIn profile can be a major stress point if you feel like it could alarm your boss or cause tension at work. However, the truth of the matter is that you should never feel guilty about updating your professional profile.

It’s common to feel like your boss might know or think that you’re looking for a new job, but there are simple ways to get around that issue. Here are some tips to help you update your LinkedIn profile without alarming your boss or sending out the wrong message.

UPDATING YOUR PROFILE DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE UNHAPPY AT YOUR JOB

The first thing to realize is that updating your LinkedIn profile or revamping your resume doesn’t automatically mean you’re unhappy in your current role. You might have recently taken on a big project that you want to acknowledge, or maybe it’s just been a while since you’ve freshened things up. Regardless of your reasoning, you have every right to update your professional documents and LinkedIn profile without feeling guilty or scared that a manager or boss might be unhappy.

If your boss gets that upset over a LinkedIn update (updating your LinkedIn can be considered professional development), you probably aren’t working for someone who wants to see you succeed. If anything, your manager or boss should be thrilled that you want to highlight all that you’ve accomplished while working for them. Your success can reflect well on them and their leadership techniques.

 

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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BE TRANSPARENT AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE UPDATE

If you’re concerned that a manager or boss might feel like you’re going behind their back, let them know that you’re updating your profile. By coming out and telling them that you’re planning on doing an update or revamp, there’s no way for them to feel like you were being dishonest or trying to hide it.

Swing by your boss’s desk or shoot them an email saying something along the lines of, “I was looking at my LinkedIn profile, and I noticed that there are a lot of projects and responsibilities that I haven’t included, so I’m going to be adding some additional information in the next few days. I wanted to let you know, because I don’t want any updates or changes to catch you by surprise.” This shows that you’re open and respecting your boss by giving them a head’s up for what they can expect.

You can even add something in about how they’ve made great opportunities available to you, and you want to reflect that on your LinkedIn profile.

Related: Your LinkedIn Profile Lists Too Many Skills 

IF ALL ELSE FAILS

If you still feel like the update might raise red flags to your boss, put it into perspective for them. A great way to phrase it is, “I always want our clients/candidates/partners to have the most updated information on their LinkedIn profiles so I can learn more about them, therefore I feel like I need to do the same in order to reflect that standard.”

Another great way to frame the LinkedIn update is this: “I’ve been afforded so many great opportunities in this role, and I want others to see that and be aware of the great opportunities that this company provides.”

Related: Exactly What To Put In Your LinkedIn Profile To Get A Promotion

Both of these statements articulate that you want to hold yourself to the same standard that you hold others to, and that you want to highlight the benefits of working for the company. This highlights how it will benefit you as well as benefit your clients/candidates/partners, which will in turn benefit your boss/company.

At the end of the day, you have control of the information you put out there, and you shouldn’t feel guilty or scared about updating your LinkedIn profile. If your superior is that upset about it, you may want to look into a new role where your boss/manager wants to actually see you succeed. If you are trying to update your LinkedIn profile without alarming your boss, be transparent about it, and frame it in a way that will benefit everyone. At that point you’ve made a conscious effort to be respectful of your peers and authority figures, and if they’re still upset, that’s on them.

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Your #Career : Five Things To Do When You’ve Exhausted All The #JobBoards …If your #JobHunt has Stalled, Try One of These Tactics to Get Out of your Rut.

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You’re scanning the job boards daily, but there just aren’t any new listings that catch your eye or fit your experience level. But you don’t have to let your job search grind to a halt just because the pickings seem slim.

There are a few other things you can do to keep things moving, even when there’s not much out there.

1. SET UP AN INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW

Informational interviews are underrated. The goal is to get a hold of someone who works at a company you’re interested in and just learn the inside scoop. They aren’t the one who’s making any hiring decisions, and maybe there isn’t even an open position there that you’re currently gunning for. It’s purely for research and networking.

After you’ve spent some time trawling job boards like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Monster, you’ve probably assembled a shortlist of employers that appeal to you, even if they aren’t hiring right now. And as career coach Sarah Vermunt put it recently, “If there’s an organization you know you’d like to work for, you’d be crazy not to try for an informational interview with someone who works there.” So, she suggests, “reach out to someone who is doing work that is similar to the work you want to do. That’ll give you a true picture of the work–the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

As you plan your next move, these informal conversations can arm you with crucial intel about where the market needs really lie, which organizations are thriving and which ones might actually be pretty toxic, and a few smart ways to position yourself for openings when they finally do crop up.

Read more: Yes, You Need Informational Interviews–Here’s How To Land Them

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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2. UP YOUR LINKEDIN GAME

This one is a no-brainer. When you send out a job application, you’re knocking on employers’ doors; when you optimize your LinkedIn presence, you’re inviting employers to knock on yours. Scan your LinkedIn profile for any incomplete fields, discrepancies, overwritten chunks of text, extremely basic skills, and meaningless industry jargon–all of those things are turn-offs to recruiters and need to go.

Take a little time to personalize your profile so it highlights what’s genuinely unique about your experience. For instance, if you’re a software engineer, your headline should specify what kind, and your skills field should list all the languages and coding tools you know. At the same time, balance out any the human side, too, so you don’t come across as a soulless robot with only great technical chops. Explain what you’re passionate about and what types of problems you’ve solved (and why those wound up helping your team, your organization, or your customers).

Specificity matters, but so do soft skills like emotional intelligence–no matter what your role or industry.

Read more: If You Can Only Spare 15 Minutes A Week For LinkedIn, Do This

3. GO TO A NETWORKING EVENT

I know–everyone hates hearing advice like this. But when you’re coming up dry in your search for openings, it doesn’t hurt to hit up a networking mixer–even one that you know will be short on leads. The reason? When you’re looking for a job, you need to actively seek out opportunities to practice discussing your experience, professional goals, and passions.

So even if it’s pretty much guaranteed that you aren’t going to meet your next boss at that networking event, the exercise in introducing yourself to strangers and talking articulately about your career is a valuable one. Feeling iffy about it anyway? Grab a friend or coworker and make networking a team sport.

Read more: How I Learned To Stop Hating Networking Events (Mostly)

4. CHECK YOUR SOFT SKILLS

Recruiters are interested in your people skills, not just your technical know-how. As Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer for iCIMS, recently told Fast Company, “Hard skills are what you do, and soft skills are how you do it.” And some of the top capabilities in that category, according to Vitale and other talent professionals in the space, include adaptability, problem solving, and verbal communication.

Some job seekers who repeatedly get called in for job interviews but miss out on offers may find that they’re falling short on some of those key soft skills. It’s sometimes easier to nail down a candidates’ technical capabilities before meeting them; soft skills are harder to suss out. So giving recruiters and hiring managers reason to feel confident that you’re emotionally intelligent in addition to being a world-class marketer is one way to get a leg up when new openings finally do get posted. In the meantime, take a few minutes to dial up those soft skills on your resume–here’s a handy formula for figuring out how.

Read more: These Are The 5 Soft Skills Recruiters Want Most

5. CHANGE YOUR THINKING ON JOB-SEARCH DEADLINES

One of the reasons a long, mostly fruitless job search can feel so frustrating is because the outcome you’re looking for–a really great job offer–isn’t something you can bring about all on your own. No matter how badly you might want a new job by next month, there’s nothing you can do single-handedly to guarantee you’ll get one by then. As The Muse’s Alison Cardy explains, “When you tie a deadline to something that’s not within your power, you set yourself up to feel defeated if it falls through.”

Read more: Two Simple Tricks For Staying Positive In A Long, Hard Job Search

Looking out for your mental health is crucial at times like these, when positivity can be in short supply. One trick Cardy suggests is rethinking the way you’re setting goals and deadlines as a job seeker. So commit to sending out 10 job applications over the next two weeks, for example, or to grab coffee with three contacts by the end of the month. “By connecting the deadline to your personal efforts,” Cardy says, “you give yourself the opportunity to feel successful just by meeting it–and that confidence boost can mean a lot during a tough search.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rich Bellis is Associate Editor of Fast Company’s Leadership section.

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FastCompany.com | February 22, 2018 | Rich Bellis

Your #Career : Take These Three Steps At The First Sign That Layoffs Are Coming…A Layoff isn’t Necessarily a Catastrophe, Especially if you Can Snap into Action at the First Signs that Your Job May Be in Trouble.

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When someone from HR tapped me on the shoulder and invited me to join her for a private conversation, I knew what was coming. By the time I had my, “We think you’re great, but you need to exit the premises right now,” conversation, several former colleagues had already had the talk. In fact, two rounds of layoffs had preceded mine within the past 18 months or so.
Laid off Worker with Box

The first one didn’t affect my team directly. That meant it was relatively easy to ignore it and still spend the majority of my allotted stress-about-my-career-time reading studies stating that sitting at a desk all day was shaving years off my life.

The second round hit closer to home. Suddenly my solid job didn’t seem so solid. I responded by firing off a few applications for positions that looked okay, did a few interviews that went okay, and before long, settled back into the same old routine of doing my job.

This was a mistake. And I don’t mean I should’ve launched a massive job search at this point, because I truly believe getting laid off led me to make career choices that I never would’ve made otherwise. (And I’m certainly not the only person who feels that way.) But I do know that taking a few steps during this in-between time would’ve made that first unemployed week far less frightening.

So if you’re currently employed at an organization that feels a little shakier than you’d like it to feel (for the record, I like my companies to feel 0% shaky), I’d suggest taking these three simple steps.

1. START WARMING UP THE OLD NETWORK

You know what’s really un-fun after losing your job (besides having to think about what sad half-eaten stale snacks the person packing up your desk is finding in your drawer)? Sending awkward, “I just got laid off, know any openings?” emails to people you haven’t spoken to in a while.

You know what’s less awkward? Sending notes to those same people sans the scent of desperation.

For example, I wish I’d sent a message like this to a few old colleagues after the first round of layoffs at my company:

Hi,

How are you doing? That campaign you shared on LinkedIn last week looked really awesome. But you always were the graphics wizard at the office. I’m starting to think about making a job move and I’d love to grab a drink and talk about your experience working at Company X.

I’m free most nights after 7 p.m., let me know if any work for you in the next few weeks or two.

Looking forward to catching up,
Jenni

Meeting for coffees while you’re still employed doesn’t just make it less awkward to send out follow-up emails if you do actually lose your job. But it also means your conversation won’t just be a pity party full of inspirational quotes that leave you both repeating tired mantras about silver linings and turning lemons into lemonade. Instead, you’ll remind people why you’re so awesome. That way, if the worst happens, they’ll be far more eager to help you out in the way of leads and references.

 

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2. UPDATE YOUR RESUME AND LINKEDIN PROFILE

Ugh, I know. You were totally hoping that I wouldn’t say “resume.” But trust me when I say that spending a leisurely Saturday afternoon bringing yours up to speed is far less stressful than doing it in a hurry after losing your job because your cousin just sent you an opening that’s filling up so fast.

Plus, it’s much easier to remember your impressive accomplishments andquantify your bullet points when you have access to your files and inbox. Because it’s actually really hard to figure out exactly how many users you helped the website acquire when you can’t see the internal company spreadsheet that lays out the month-to-month growth oh-so-nicely.

Not to mention, you’ll be less likely to come up with bullet points like “Grew Facebook by 4 billion users, not that those selfish idiots appreciated it” if you’re in a good place mentally.

3. CREATE A BUDGET

First, I recommended you update your resume, then I asked you to create a budget. I know—I’m the worst. But hear me out. When you go from making any amount of money to none overnight, it’s really (really!) scary. And even if you have emergency savings for times just like this, it’s still a little nerve-wracking to actually start transferring those funds out. (Trust me, the moment when you have to do this, you’ll realize that you always assumed “emergency fund” was just a shorter way to say, “My life is together because I have an emergency fund, so I’ll never have to touch this.”)

Here’s what I suggest: Figure out how you spend your money each month. That’s it. Right now, you don’t need to change a thing when it comes to your spending habits. And tell you what, you can figure this out in any which way you like. Personally, I love Mint, but there are lots of budgeting apps out there. And if you don’t trust apps with your confidential information, people also swear by Excel.

Why do you need to do this? Because if you do find yourself unemployed, you’re going to very quickly need to make changes to your lifestyle. And it’ll be far easier (and therefore, way less anxiety-provoking) if you can determine right away what can be cut out. While the dinners and the drinks are obvious, it’s often the small things that will surprise you when you see how you spend your budget.

I waited until the very end to tell you the best part of taking these three steps. And it’s the fact that even if you never get laid off, they’ll only benefit you. Unless, of course, you’ve met the one person in the world who trudges around town, ruing that Saturday she spent updating her resume.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Muse and is reprinted with permission.

 

 FastCompany.com | JENNI MAIER, THE MUSE 09.30.16 5:00 AM

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Your #Career : 9 Reasons To Love #LinkedIn … Study conducted by ROI Research, 59 percent of Respondents said LinkedIn is Their Most Important Account on Social Networks.

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It is one of any career-minded professional’s most important personal branding tools because it is replete with features that not only help you stand out and get noticed, they help you do your job better.

Linkedin Coffee

Here’s why:

1. It’s big! In fact, it is the largest professional network with over 400 million members (and growing). That means it gives you access – and makes you visible – to people from all around the world who can help you be successful.

2. It shows up first. When someone googles you, your LinkedIn profile is likely to show up at the top of the search results – making it a key tool for influencing those who want to get to know you. Since almost two thirds of all clicks go to the top three results, LinkedIn is the place where people will learn about you.

3. It helps you stay in touch. In a world where it is getting harder and harder to maintain contacts, LinkedIn provides the best way to keep in touch. When your former colleagues change companies, you don’t need to worry about finding their new email address. You can maintain all those professional relationships by being connected on LinkedIn.

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4. It provides Google juice. The links you provide from LinkedIn, leading people to your website and other sites that are important to you (LinkedIn allows you to include three outbound links in your profile), make the sites more valuable to Google. This makes them even more visible to people who are searching for what you have to offer; traffic generates more traffic when it comes to search-result rankings. Links to your website have more value with an inbound link from LinkedIn – just make sure you have your profile visible to everyone. Here’s how to do that.

5. It’s comprehensive. It’s your one-stop shop for managing all your contacts. You can organize your contacts using tags so you can communicate with subsets of them at a time. And they don’t even need to be LinkedIn connections. You can upload your Gmail contacts and iphone contacts too – keeping your entire professional network in one place.

6. It lets others speak for you. Personal branding is not all about you telling the world how great you are. It helps to get others help you tout your accomplishments. There are two ways LinkedIn lets you validate what you say about yourself –endorsements and recommendations. These features make you more credible to those who are checking you out. Just be sure to get endorsements for key skills and have recommendations from respected leaders in your industry.

7. It’s always available. The new version of the LinkedIn app gives you access to everything you need when you are on the move and gives you an opportunity to use those minutes (while waiting for the plane to take off or standing in line at Whole Foods) to reach out to connections – keeping those relationships in shape.

8. It’s exclusively focused on business. There are lots of social networks where you can post a picture of your family outing or your dog doing stupid tricks, but LinkedIn is truly the most powerful professional network for people who are serious about their career.

9. It helps you keep the saw sharp. LinkedIn Pulse provides access to luminaries and their latest thinking. Participating in groups and being engaged in conversations with your connections helps you learn and grow, benchmark processes, and innovate. You can also find mentors, source staff, and find people to coach and mentor outside your company – even outside your industry.

William Arruda is a partner in CareerBlast, a video platform and virtual coach that helps you get promoted faster.

Forbes.com | August 14, 2016 | William Arruda

Your #Career : 7 Ways To Make Your LinkedIn Profile Job Search/Contacts Ready…There’s a Lot of Great Advice Out there on Using LinkedIn to Find Jobs/Networking. This Post is Different because I Include Actions to Make your Search so Fruitful that the Jobs/Contacts Find You.

/in /by

Untitled-3

Here are your 7 Ways:

1. Get Your Headline Right

Although the search algorithm at LinkedIn is a closely guarded secret, one thing many experts agree on is that the words in your headline play an important role in how search results are ranked and displayed. That means you need to make sure the most important words hiring managers and recruiters would use to find are included in your 120-character headline. One way to identify all the right keywords is to go to indeed.com, put in the title(s) of the job for which you are searching and look for the words that come up over and over among the job listings.

 

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2. Grow Your Network

It’s as simple as this: The more connections you have, the more frequently you show up in search results. This makes some people nervous – connecting with people they don’t know. Let me allay your fears. LinkedIn provides a way for you to remove, block or report a connection if they become a problem. So the risk of accepting connection requests from people you don’t know is low. You also get to see the full profiles of first- and second-level connections. The more connections you have, the more full profiles you will see – making it easier for you to check out hiring managers and others you will meet before those interviews!

3. Follow Desired Companies

Get clear about your ideal employers and follow their company pages in LinkedIn. This keeps you up-to-date on what they are talking about – giving you great fodder for your interview. Some of their posts can also include the names and other information about your potential hiring manager or others who could help you open doors in the company. And LinkedIn allows you to follow 10,000 companies – that’s probably a lot more than your full list of targets.

4. Use the Alumni Feature

Including your education in your profile does more than show potential hiring managers what degree you earned from what school. Perhaps more importantly, it gets you on the radar of hiring managers who are your fellow alumni. But the alumni search tool works both ways. Get familiar with this extremely valuable feature. It is one of the best ways to find warm leads inside companies. By searching on your alma mater, you can find people who also went to your school. Then you can reach out, asking them for an informational interview or finding out if there is someone in the company to whom they can connect you. It’s the antidote to cold calling.

5. Add AKA/Common Misspellings

Save some of those 2,000 characters in your summary for a section called AKA/Common Misspellings and include all the different ways people may spell your name, your nicknames, maiden or married names, etc. That way, people can find you whether or not they know exactly how to spell your name.

6. Get Your Skills In Order

Literally. Sure, LinkedIn endorsements seem silly. Most of us have been endorsed for skills we don’t want to be known for – or we don’t even possess. The challenge is that even though we roll our eyes when we think about endorsements, they matter. A New York Times article underscores this, quoting Bill Peppler, a managing partner at the staffing firm Kavaliro. He seeks out the most endorsed person with specific skills in a particular city: “It’s hard to know how meaningful that will be in the long run, but to me, it makes them one of the most influential people in that region for what they do.”

7. Be Redundant

Take every opportunity to repeat all the keywords for which you want to be known. Make a list of them. Then prioritize them and add them to all parts of your profile. Make sure they are in your headline, summary and all relevant experience sections, too. Include an additional section at the bottom of your summary called Specialties. Repeat your keywords there, separated by commas.

These easy-to-implement actions will help you get found and make you more attractive to the hiring managers and recruiters who hold the key to your ideal next job.

William Arruda is the CEO of Reach Personal Branding and host of the Reach Interview Series. His full podcasts are available here.

Forbes.com | May 18, 2016 | William Arruda

#Strategy : How to Create a Killer LinkedIn Profile in 5 Minutes… Want to Attract More Clients, & Customers using #LinkedIn? Here’s a Simple, Copy-&-Paste Script you Can Use to Make it Happen!

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If you want to Discover How to attract Clients using LinkedIn , it’s critical to understand what your ideal audience on that particular platform wants… and what they don’t.

Free- Business Desk

For instance, they’re not interested in reading an online version of your work résumé. (In fact, that’s about as far away as you can get from creating a killer LinkedIn profile.)  They do want to know, as quickly as possible, who you are, what product or service you provide, and how that product or service can help them achieve their goals. They also have to know how to take next steps to working with you, so they are going to be frustrated if you don’t place your contact information in some strategic places.

I want to show you how to create a client-attracting, lead-generating LinkedIn profile in five minutes or less. Before I get there, however, I need to make one thing clear: If you want to attract your ideal clients and customers on LinkedIn, you must adhere to these two core tenets: Speed and Clarity.

The fastest way to ensure you deliver on those two key elements is to think about one simple reality: How most of us tend to consume content online.

Even as you’re reading this post, you’re likely flicking along on your phone or scrolling on your laptop, scanning and moving fast, stopping only when something stands out and grabs your attention. Your ideal customer is doing the same.

 

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When it comes to laying out your LinkedIn profile in a way that appeals to prospects who are quickly scanning to see if you have what they need, the “copy and paste” template below works as well as anything I’ve seen on the platform.

Best of all, the entire process should take less than five minutes.

The copy-and-paste template for generating Leads on LinkedIn.

(Note that I use ALL CAPS for sections like “WHAT I DO” and “WHO I WORK WITH” to help those headers stand out, since LinkedIn, as of this writing, doesn’t allow you to use bold or italic text on your profile page.)

WHAT I DO: I help [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][MY TARGET AUDIENCE] achieve [THEIR TOP GOAL] by providing [MY PRODUCT or SERVICE].

WHO I WORK WITH: I partner with [TARGET AUDIENCE or INDUSTRY TYPE] including:

[Insert Bulleted List of Job Titles, Industry Names, Client Types, etc.]

WHY IT WORKS: When you partner with [MY COMPANY NAME], you get the most efficient, effective, and affordable [PRODUCT or SERVICE] that [TARGET AUDIENCE] are looking for right now.

WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT: [Answer that question! What makes you unique/different/better than similar vendors or competitors? XYZ years of experience? Certifications/Patents/etc.? Something else?]

WHAT OTHERS SAY: [Copy and paste two-three testimonials in this area. Make them specific to the product or service you’re offering or the industries you’re serving. Focus on the results clients got from using your product or service. Include the full name of the person and his or her company to give your testimonials more legitimacy.]

HOW IT WORKS: [Explain how your process — “we start with a free evaluation, we do an analysis of your website’s SEO rankings,” etc.]

READY TO TALK? Feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn, drop me a line at [EMAIL ADDRESS], visit me online at [WEBSITE URL] or call me directly at [PHONE NUMBER].

Look here: great LinkedIn summary examples.

If you want to see some great examples of how LinkedIn Riches students of mine have followed this format to near perfection with their LinkedIn profile summary sections, check out these profile pages:

Your turn — update your LinkedIn summary!

Time to take action! Copy and paste the template above into your LinkedIn summary section, then leave a comment below and let me know how it turns out!

 

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The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
PUBLISHED ON: MAR 2, 2016
BY JOHN NEMO

Founder and CEO, LinkedIn Riches

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Your #Career : 7 Things You Must Do To Maximize The Value Of Your LinkedIn Profile…Your LinkedIn Profile is One of the Most Important Career Marketing Tools you Have.

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You’ve done all the hard work to create a stellar LinkedIn profile. You have a professional headshot, a compelling headline and a complete, authentic summary (if you are still working on this, read this post for guidance). When LinkedIn says your profile is “all-star,” it’s time to turn your hard work into a tool that will advance your career.

Free- Business Desk

Here are seven actions to take (in four categories) to maximize the value of your perfect profile:

1. Make it visible. You don’t want to be the world’s best-kept secret, wasting all that effort you spent building the online representation of the real you. I recommend making every element of your profile visible to everyone. Through the Privacy and Settings option, you can choose to share your entire profile or just a few elements with public viewers. Allow anyone to see your public profile. What’s the value of creating your profile if you don’t showcase it?

 

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2. Keep it current. The more interaction you have with your profile, the more likely it will be seen by others. In fact, according to LinkedIn, you should “update your status at least 20 times per month in order to maximize your reach to approximately 60% of your unique audience.”

Stay connected with your contacts by updating your status regularly – letting others know what you are working on and the events you are attending, along with sharing links to the content you find interesting. 

Direct People to it

Sure, people can find your profile through LinkedIn searches – publishing all the right keywords is essential for attracting people you didn’t even know were looking for you. I call it planned serendipity. But you need to go beyond the random and unplanned connections. You need to send people to your profile so they can learn more about you.

There are two easy ways to get people to check out your profile:

3. Use a QR Code. You want people to learn more about you after meeting you at a networking function. Make it easy for them to get to your profile by creating a QR (quick response) code that links directly to your profile. Add your QR code to business cards, your resume, and your pitch letters. You can also create stickers with your QR code and add them to your name badge at networking functions.

4. Create LinkedIn buttons. Use the LinkedIn buttons to direct people to your profile. Under “Privacy and Settings” you can access your public profile settings (on the right side of the screen). At the bottom of the box, there’s an option to create what LinkedIn calls “your public profile badge.” This lets you choose from a series of button options that you can add to your email signature, Blog, Website, etc.

Repurpose it

LinkedIn provides a valuable, one-stop-shopping resource for people who want to know more about your expertise. But the act of putting your profile together is also a valuable, one-stop-shopping exercise in getting clear about your personal brand message and defining and documenting your career success. Now that you have all that content in one place, leverage that work for other applications. In personal branding, we have a technique we call “being lazy,” which means repurpose and reuse content. This helps ensure consistency and saves time and effort. Here are three ways to maximize the effort you put into build your amazing LinkedIn profile: 

5. Get a copy of it. You can export your profile to Word or PDF document to use in your career marketing activities. Here’s how.

6. Turn it into a resume. LinkedIn Labsprovides an option to turn your LinkedIn profile into your resume. First, you select your resume template, and then you can customize the content that you pull directly from your profile. This helps save time and ensures consistency between your on- and offline career materials.

7. Create your own website. There are a number of services that will let you import your LinkedIn content into their platform so you can create your own custom website. My favorite is branded.me (disclosure: branded.me is a partner of my company, Reach Personal Branding). They allow you to import your profile content into one of a variety of templates. Then you can customize your site with images, colors, fonts, etc.

Your LinkedIn profile is one of the most important career marketing tools you have. Its value is amplified when you get more people to see it, and when you repurpose it to support your personal branding efforts.

Remember, before you maximize your profile, you need to make sure it is compelling and reflects who you are in the real world. Learn how to build a stellar LinkedIn summary in this recorded webinar which you can download here.

 

Forbes.com | January 4, 2015 | William Arruda

 

Your #Career : 19 Terrible #LinkedIn Mistakes you’re Making…There Are Some Things you Just Shouldn’t Do on LinkedIn.

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Kim Brown is an Assistant Director for Syracuse University’s Career Services Department. She spends a good portion of her day looking over LinkedIn profiles for job seekers and students.

LinkedIn coffee

She makes sure candidates are putting their best foot forward on LinkedIn.  Here are the most common mistakes Brown sees job seekers make on LinkedIn.

Your profile is full of typos

Your profile is full of typos

John Lillis

Brown says she’s spotted typos in company names, job titles, and even in the user’s name.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn’t have a built-in spell checker, but your browser might. Safari, Chrome, and Firefox underline misspellings in red. Bottom line, whatever you use: Be as careful on LinkedIn as you would be with a paper resume.

 

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You have no picture in your profile

You have no picture in your profile

LinkedIn

Adding a picture to your LinkedIn profile can make a world of difference to a recruiter. Studies have shown that LinkedIn profiles with pictures are much more likely to get clicked on than those without.

LinkedIn says you’re 14 times more likely to be viewed if you have a photo.

You have a profile picture, but it’s a photo of you and your significant other (or worse)

You have a profile picture, but it's a photo of you and your significant other (or worse)

Filckr / Huw Thomas

Do not get LinkedIn and Facebook confused, says Brown.

Facebook is for personal pictures, LinkedIn is for professional ones.

Brown recalls one student who came to her, frustrated because he couldn’t find a job. When she checked out his LinkedIn, she saw that he had chosen a photo of himself doing The Chicken Dance at a wedding. Oof.

Stereotypical, duck-faced selfies are another big no-no that Brown’s started noticing more often.

She also says she sees a lot of people link to their Facebook profiles from their LinkedIn pages. Don’t do this. It’s best to keep the two profiles separate.

 

You don’t have a background photo or any other visuals either

You don't have a background photo or any other visuals either

LinkedIn

You can now add a background photo to make your profile stick out, too. You should pick something that matches your brand, Brown says — for example, hers is of the SU campus — and make sure that your file is big enough that it doesn’t end up looking stretched and pixelated.

LinkedIn also allows you to upload all sorts of rich media — like documents, photos, links, videos, and presentations — to your profile, and if you don’t take advantage of that you’re missing out.

“Your LinkedIn isn’t just words anymore,” Brown says. “You should really be paying attention to the visuals you can add to your profile.”

 

You haven’t put any thought into your profile headline

You haven't put any thought into your profile headline

LinkedIn

Brown says she sees a lot of people simply put “Student at X University” as their lead LinkedIn headline. She also sees a lot of professionals who are looking for jobs with old titles as headlines.

You have a lot of room to be descriptive in this area of your profile!

“If you’re a job seeker and you have a [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][vague or outdated] title, I have no idea you’re looking for work,” says Brown.

So, it’s better for a student to write that they’re an “Advertising major at Syracuse University who has experience with nonprofit work” or for a job seeker to write, “Experienced advertising professional looking for a opportunities in the med-tech space.” Her official job title comes in the “Experience” section of her profile.

Even people with concrete job titles should use the headline space to give more detail about what they do and are passionate about. Brown’s headline, for example, reads “I help SU students and alumni to craft their career stories | Connector | Speaker | LinkedIn Trainer | CNY Promoter.”

Never, never write “unemployed” — highlight what you’re looking for, instead. 

 

Very Important: You’re not reaching out to people through LinkedIn Groups 

You're not reaching out to people through LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn can be a great tool for networking, but messaging a complete stranger can be awkward. Try finding people who are in a group you share in common. This helps break the ice, says Brown.

For example, if you’re a Syracuse University alumnus, message a fellow Syracuse person from the Alumni Network before sending a blind InMail.

But pick and choose your recipient carefully: You’re only allowed to send 15 messages a month to other group members.

 

You’re not personalizing LinkedIn connection requests

You're not personalizing LinkedIn connection requests

LinkedIn

When you connect to someone for the first time on LinkedIn, don’t just use the generic message option, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

Take a few moments to write something personalized, says Brown. It will make the recipient more open to your request and the message feel less spammy.

Also, never lie about how you know the person. Lying is almost a guaranteed way to kill your chances at connecting.

You’re “connecting” with people from LinkedIn on your phone

You're "connecting" with people from LinkedIn on your phone

LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s now has a whole suite of useful apps. The flagship lets you connect to people with a click—but you can’t customize the message.

“People will say to me, ‘Well, I didn’t personalize my message because I couldn’t on my phone,'” says Brown. “It’s not an excuse. Get on your computer and connect that way.”

Wiggle room: The nice thing about connecting via smartphone is that you can do it immediately after meeting someone, in which case a message isn’t as important.

You also run a greater risk of typos on your phone though.

You haven’t created a unique LinkedIn URL

You haven't created a unique LinkedIn URL

LinkedIn

“The head of business development for a big company contacted me, and he had his LinkedIn profile link in his signature,” says Brown. “It was [Joe]-[Smith]-8346974. Who would think [all those numbers] look okay? It looks terrible. Definitely customize your URL.”

To customize your LinkedIn URL, press the “Edit Profile” button. Click the gear symbol next to your URL, which will take you to a separate page where a “Your public profile URL” box will let you change the link. Try to get as close to your first and last name as possible. Avoid cutesy nicknames or usernames.

You never bothered to fill out a summary

You never bothered to fill out a summary

LinkedIn

Filling out the summary portion of your LinkedIn profile is crucial if you want to pop up in search results.

“The summary is the most important part,” says Brown. “Having search terms and key words in your summary that are related to the job you’re doing or want to do is going to make you more likely to be found by the recruiters and hiring managers who are searching LinkedIn for talent.”

You don’t “stalk responsibly” or take advantage of it when someone’s checking *you* out

You don't "stalk responsibly" or take advantage of it when someone's checking *you* out

LinkedIn

Any LinkedIn user can see who’s viewed their profile recently, but if you limit your public profile settings, less of your information will be revealed to the person you’ve checked out on LinkedIn. The trade-off: You won’t see as many details about who’s visiting your profile, either.

Getting insights can be super valuable, so being public is a plus. Just stalk responsibly.

“If you’re job seeking and you’re looking at the same person’s profile 59 times in a two-week period, you should probably make yourself anonymous,” says Brown. “Don’t be creepy.”

If you’ve noticed someone checking out your profile in a field or at a company that interests you, though, it can’t hurt to message them to start a dialogue.

 

You haven’t broken your profile out into sections

You haven't broken your profile out into sections

LinkedIn

It’s not just about your summary and work experience: You can add volunteering experiences, organizations you’re part of, honors you’ve received, projects you’ve worked on, and more to your LinkedIn.

A lot of profiles are just one long block of text, but breaking it into different parts makes it easier for people to scan and for you to highlight certain parts that you think are particularly important.

“Don’t be afraid to play around with the order of the sections,” Brown says.

For example, if you’re a recent grad and your course work is more valuable than any of your previous jobs, drag the “projects” section above the “experience” section.

You list “skills” that LinkedIn doesn’t recognize

You list "skills" that LinkedIn doesn't recognize

LinkedIn

Adding a bunch of skills to your profile is a good way to easily flaunt your chops and make yourself more searchable, but if you write something obscure that LinkedIn doesn’t recognize, it doesn’t do you much good.

When you start typing a skill on your LinkedIn profile, make sure it appears in the dropdown menu. If it doesn’t, it may be spelled wrong, or it’s not a frequently searched item, which won’t help your resume get found by recruiters.

Stick to the thousands of skills LinkedIn already has in the system and your profile will pop up more often in search results. You can also allow people to “endorse”

You don’t have (credible) recommendations

You don't have (credible) recommendations

LinkedIn

Brown says it’s important to have recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. But not just any old recommendation—it should come from someone who’s reputable and it should speak to your specific qualifications.

“A lot of times recommendations are really generic,” says Brown. “Such as, ‘Alyson would be an amazing asset to your company because she is a hard worker and a wonderful addition to our office.’ Well, great. How about something more detailed, like about that time you worked on a specific project together?”

Make sure the recommendation someone writes for you isn’t applicable to every other candidate.

Getting these recommendations may require asking for them. Navigate to the “Privacy and Settings” tab, then to “Profile,” and you will see a link for “Manage my recommendations.” That section will prompt you to send a message to a boss or coworker.

You’re not posting photos, posts, or work-centric updates

You're not posting photos, posts, or work-centric updates

LinkedIn

Don’t fill out your profile and then forget about LinkedIn. Radio silence on your feed is bad news.

More than ever before, the site makes it easy to keep your network up-to-date on what’s going on in your professional world through updates, photos, posts, and comments.

“Make it a point to once a week do something,” Brown advises. “Share an update with your network. Put up a photo of an event that you attended. Comment on someone’s post. You want to show up in the network feed, and the way you show up is by doing those things.”

You can solidify yourself as an expert on a topic by publishing posts, too, which often get thousands of views from professionals across LinkedIn.

You’re not engaging with your network

You're not engaging with your network

LinkedIn

“The ‘Keep in touch’ section is a lazy networker’s dream,” Brown says.

Under the “Connections” tab, LinkedIn makes it dead simple to find little ways to connect with people in your network. You can see congratulate someone on a work anniversary, new job, or switching cities.

There’s no excuse to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of maintaining a relationship.

You haven’t left yourself helpful little reminders or scheduled reconnection nudges

You haven't left yourself helpful little reminders or scheduled reconnection nudges

LinkedIn

Every time you connect with someone new on LinkedIn, you should get into the habit of feeling out information in the “Relationship” tab that will appear on their profile.

You can add notes about their interests, info about how you met, and even reminders to reach out to them again in a week, a month, or on a recurring cycle.

“Don’t worry, it’s only visible to you,” Brown says.

You’re not exporting all your contacts

You're not exporting all your contacts

LinkedIn

Want to make it easy to take your LinkedIn conversations off the site, or make sure that you’ll still have access to your contacts if you lose access to your account?

You can export all of your contacts into an Excel file with their name, job title, and email.

Go to the main Connections tab, press the gear symbol in the right-hand corner, and then click “Export LinkedIn Connections” under “Advanced Settings.”

Viola! There are a bunch of different file formats you can use when exporting

“This is one of the biggest ‘a-ha’ moments that everybody has when I teach LinkedIn classes,” Brown says.

BONUS: You’re not using advanced search tools when hunting for a job

BONUS: You're not using advanced search tools when hunting for a job

This one may seem a little obvious, but if you use the advanced search tab, you’re much more likely to turn up relevant career opportunities than if you just conduct broad queries.

Instead of just searching by the name of the company or person, you can search by keyword, industry, location, and more.

You can also save searches, save jobs you’re interested in, and even apply, right through the site.

You’re not taking advantage of the “Find alumni” option

You're not taking advantage of the "Find alumni" option

LinkedIn

Recently, LinkedIn has really amped up the way it lets you find people who went to your university.

You can see all the people who attended your college who studied a certain major or were in your year. You can even search for a specific company, and see all the alumni who worked there. This is great for networking, reconnecting, or planning reunions.

“You can use it for a ton, a ton of different purposes,” Brown says. “It’s like an in-depth yearbook.”

Businessinsider.com | July 17, 2015 | 

 

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