LinkedIn and Your Job Search
Posted in Online Networking
LinkedIn is quickly becoming a favorite recruiting tool in the business world. In LinkedIn, you can "network" with previous or current employers, colleagues and classmates.
And since a lot of companies are using LinkedIn as a staffing or recruiting tool (including Fortune 1000 companies), it is proving to be a great way to be found in cyberspace. Comapanies are even posting job openings directly in LinkedIn, so more and more career opportunities are open to you.
Forget Friendster
LinkedIn offers more and better opportunities for you than just being able to display your party pictures. Other social networks offer a chance for you and your friends to keep in touch. But Linkedin is a professional network of over 17 million users and focuses more on your professional network. Having Linkedin is like having the "recommendation" part of your CV as an online network.
Imagine recruiters are looking at your network and find that you have worked for a prestigious company and are still in contact with your former employer. That says a lot to recruiters who are looking at your Linkedin network.
Linkedin offers many other benefits as a professional network. "Keeping in contact with professional friends, classmates and former colleagues can help you to find your dream job, negotiate a higher salary, locate important information and people, draw on the expertise of others to solve problems, make more informed decisions and better use of your time."*
How you can get the most out of your professional network
Create a good online image. It is very important that potential employers see a good professional image of you. It can affect their decision to hire you. It is also important that your network of other professionals see a good professional image of your. Keep your professional experiences up-to-date.
You can create your own online professional "brand" by developing a LinkedIn profile. Know that recruiters and HR departments check out online networks to do a background check on their potential employees. Always keep your best foot forward and make sure that (if you have other social networks) your drunken shots remain in your within your friends' circle.
Be on top of people's minds. As a aforementioned. It is always a good idea to keep your professional experiences up-to-date. It will make your network remember you more. Plus, in LinkedIn you can see who has been promoted, switched jobs, won an award, etc.
So it is very important to keep in touch with your present and former colleagues and employers and friends. LinkedIn has an InMail messaging system which is great when trying to reach out to your connections.
Know where to get the best answers. LinkedIn has an Answers feature that allows members to quickly get valuable inputs from their personal network or from the entire LinkedIn community.
Remember, being efficient worker does mean being the best at everything but knowing where to look for solutions. Learn from others' experiences.
In business, successful people are often requested to speak for an event, a meeting, etc. by complete strangers. Know which meeting/event to attend by searching who invited you in the first place. It saves time by helping you choose efficiently in which events to attend (before you can commit) and helps you allocate your time wisely.
Also preparing for e meeting is now a cinch wit LinkedIn as you can use the Advance search feature to find specialists on any topic, industry or company.
Stay on top of your game. Know the latest news in your industry through LinkedIn's LinkedIn News. LinkedIn makes important and relevant business news available to professionals. It starts by delivering news about key daily topics: a user's company, industry, and competitors, drawn from more than 10,000 publishers and blogs.
Then, LinkedIn News uses the wisdom of each user's "crowd" of colleagues to determine the handful of articles that are the most important to their business.
