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Using LinkedIn to Link Into A New Job
No matter how much effort Veterans put into applying for jobs, sometimes getting into the desired company is based on who they know. A recommendation from a colleague or membership affiliation can influence an employer’s hiring decision.
Networking is a valuable job-searching tool for anyone seeking employment. While people can network at job fairs and social gatherings, others have turned to the Internet as a convenient alternative. LinkedIn allows its members build a virtual network of colleagues, friends and potential members to help recommend job openings or employers within their industry. LinkedIn has more than 120 million members and operates as the world’s largest virtual professional network.
Why Veterans Should Use LinkedIn
With a free, basic account, LinkedIn members create a resume-like profile where they can list work experience, education, virtual resumes (i.e. VeteranCentral.com) or any other information they want potential employers to view. Along with posting a profile, other member benefits include:
- Job Alerts and Online Job Board.
The “Jobs You May Be Interested In” program alerts members of local or worldwide job openings in their industry. If these jobs are not what the member wants, they also have access to an online job board. - Networking Building Tools.
The “People You May Know” application generates potential members to connect to increase a member’s network. Once members request and confirm their connection, they are officially “linked in” and the application generates connections to new potential members. In addition, the program showcases a “degrees of separation” between the member’s established connections of colleagues, friends and their connections. - LinkedIn Group Membership. Groups can be a specific cause or an association with either open or by request only admission. LinkedIn has a variety of Veteran-oriented groups like “Veterans Hired” or “US Military Veterans Network” that encourage members to post job openings, inform about upcoming networking events and discuss specific Veteran job search issues and tips.
Tips on How to Use LinkedIn
Though having a LinkedIn account opens members to a vast network of people, it is important to remember it is an open network. The LinkedIn application – “Who Viewed Your Profile” – shows the number of people who viewed the profile from the past 30 – 90 days. To ensure a presentable profile, members must make sure it is:
- Grammatically Correct. Writing must be clean, consistent and concise. Similar to creating a resume, members should double check the content and ask colleagues to provide professional feedback.
- Full Work History. Employers are skeptical to hire someone if they find large time gaps between jobs on a resume. Listing relevant volunteer experience, temporary work assignments or school attendance during these gaps are great examples to show member activity during unemployment.
- Professional. LinkedIn is a business networking site and should not be used as other social-oriented networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Posting questionable web links or frivolous status updates can result in an employer or a fellow connection to pass over a member’s profile. Keep profile information and postings specific to the job search.
Overall, LinkedIn is a great tool for Veterans to use in their job search. They could be one click away from unemployed to employed.
Requirements
- Reading
- Spelling or the ability to use spell check
- Grammar (or in some cases the ability to use a grammar check)
- Creativity and Curiosity
- Interest in Technology
- Passion for Marketing and Advertising
- Knowledge of current Social Media beat practices and trends
General Advice
Become intimately familiar with the following websites:
- https://www.facebook.com/
- http://www.youtube.com/
- https://twitter.com/
- http://pinterest.com/
- http://www.tumblr.com/
- http://www.reddit.com/
And more! Always keep reading and exploring new sites and new ways to market your product.
Read the following blogs to stay up to date on industry news, updates, best practices, innovative techniques and ideas and trends:
- http://techcrunch.com/
- http://mashable.com/
- http://gigaom.com/
- http://www.digitaltrends.com/
- http://scobleizer.com/
*Insider Tip! These sites will blow your mind. Investigate them:
Start Your Job Search
Here are some of the best places for a veteran to start a job search:
- Social Media Jobs: Posts a variety of gigs each day, mostly from the U.S, but also from around the world. – http://www.socialmediajobs.com/
- Conferences: You’ll have to leave the house for this one! Conferences are a terrific way to network, put out feelers, talk up potential clients and employers and even land a job.
- Craigslist: Craigslist has a bad reputation becauase it’s a haven for scammers and spammy types. However, if you take the time to dig a little deeper you’ll find some killer, well-paying opportunities. – http://www.craigslist.org
- Indeed.com: A job search engine, yielding results from various job boards. – http://www.indeed.com
- Simply Hired: Another job search engine, but I sometimes find different results from the Indeed job search. – http://www.simplyhired.com
- ProBlogger: Features blogging jobs and the occasional social media job. – http://www.problogger.com
- Jobs in Social Media: A social media talent marketplace. – http://www.jobsinsocialmedia.com/
- Mashable Job Board: Features jobs in tech and social media. – http://jobs.mashable.com/a/all-jobs/list/q-social+media
- Twitter: Follow your favorite businesses to learn when they’re hiring. Also, follow job listing sites and aggregators for updates. Use Twitter search to look for the jobs you’re most interested in.
- Twitter Job Search: A search engine for jobs advertised on Twitter. – http://www.twitjobsearch.com/
- Social Media Job Wire: Features listings from around the U.S. – http://smjobs.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/find-jobs
- New Media Hire: Post a job, check out job listings, post resumes and receive job tips. – http://www.newmediasocial.com/
- Web Strategy and Social Media Jobs: Jeremiah Owyang’s job board. – http://webstrategy.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/find-jobs
- Local Networking Events: Many businesses and municipalities hold networking events. See what’s happening in your area.
- Social Media Biz: A bidding site, which means many clients are looking to low ball. – http://jobs.socialmedia.biz/
- Monster.com – Lists all sorts of jobs, social media included.
- Startuply – Lists startup jobs in tech, social media and marketing, mostly. – http://www.startuply.com/
- Career Builder – Lists social media jobs, among others. – http://www.careerbuilder.com
- Yahoo! Hot Jobs – Lists some social media jobs but is also attractive to spammers.
- The Ladders: Features only jobs paying $100,000 or more, annually. Before you flock over though, keep in mind that this is a paying job board. You can sign up for the free trial, but expect to receive regular spam if you do. – http://www.theladders.com
- Job Central: Search on social media and expect to receive a hodgepodge of results. http://www.jobcentral.com
- Dice: Features mostly tech jobs but you’ll find a few social media jobs thrown in there as well. – http://www.dice.com
- FlexJobs: Another pay to play job site, FlexJobs lists a variety of telecommuting opportunities including social media. – http://www.flexjobs.com
- Beyond.com: A search on “social media” yields a variety of opportunities. – http://www.beyond.com
- FlipDog: Search locally. – http://www.flipdog.com
3 Common Pitfalls of Online Job Boards
There are hundreds of job boards out there listing thousands of jobs. If you are using these boards and sending out dozens of resumes, you’re wasting your time. In ‘Headhunter’ Hiring Secrets, Skip Freeman reveals:
If you are applying for openings listed on job boards, there’s only a 2% chance of getting a response from companies
In fact, only 12% of these jobs will actually be filled by candidates who applied through job boards. Those are nearly impossible odds for the job seeker. You’ll have better luck in Vagas, Freeman says. HERE ARE THE THREE MOST COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID:
1. Out-dated Job Listings. The first pitfall is that job ads often aren’t regularly updated or monitored. Some job boards are aggregators that re-list openings from other sites. Other job boards don’t take down their filled positions. It could be that you are sending your resume to jobs that have been closed for weeks or even months. There are two ways around this: check the company website to see if the position is still listed or, better yet, call their HR department and ask about current openings.
2. Entry-Level Scams. You’ve found the perfect job opening in the field of your dreams, it’s entry-level with no experience required, and comes with an incredible salary. Sound too good to be true? It probably is. Willy Franzen, over at One Day, One Job, warns readers of the entry-level and internship scams that are rife on some popular online job boards. Some warning signs include: over generous offers, interviews that don’t ask too many questions, and job descriptions lacking specific details. If you think you may be caught up in a scam, check Franzen’s list of common entry-level scams.
3. Spammers not Employers. Some job boards will allow any paying customer to create a job listing, even spammers. You can tell the quality of a job board by how many job ads come up selling cheap pharmaceuticals and promising low financing on your next home loan. If a company doesn’t care enough to keep their boards clean and useful, then they probably don’t care whether you get a legitimate job offer using their site. The best advice is to spend your time job searching elsewhere.
But don’t ditch the job boards all together—they have their uses. Scan a few in your area of interest to see what companies may have openings. Instead of looking for specific positions you would like to fill, look for companies or areas of industry that can be turned into job leads. Also, scan job ads to see what skills are on demand in your employment areas. Then, visit the employer’s site directly to see which openings might still be available.