Ok. You’ve concluded you must use LinkedIn for your job search. Well with 65,000,000 members and with millions of career professionals reaching the same conclusion you are in good company. And you are in good company for good reason. LinkedIn offers a tremendous pathway for job hunting. So, if you are putting on a full court LinkedIn job search how exactly are you going to exercise the campaign?
First, let’s discuss the preparatory steps you will take:
You have to be signed up for LinkedIn. You need to complete your profile in a detailed and compelling fashion. You must join as many groups as apply to you by profession, industry, title, education, and major professional affiliation. Use the group directory tab to most easily search for pertinent groups. You can join up to 55. You have to maximize your immediate network as it relates to your profession, industry, title, education, and affiliations and invite as many exiting contacts to join and / or connect (if they are already on LinkedIn) with you as possible. This step is an incremental event that you pursue daily. You may want to consider setting up a group of your own if you have some area you have a particularly strong interest in and feel that no group really covers the area effectively. Keep in mind that this decision comes at some personal cost as you will have to moderate, promote, and create content for the group Having completed the foundational work you are prepared to begin your job search. The pillars of your search are:
Contacts and contact management, Professional and intellectual credibility development, Network development and interaction The process is relatively simple, begin following the activity of your network from your home page. This is a matter of following the announcements and other network information presented there with only a few minutes review each day. As part of this, ensure you update your own status with activities, objectives, events that keep your network involved in your search.
Directly reach out to contacts in your network or directly attached (2nd or 3rd level) to your network seeking leads or persons they feel you should reach out to in your search. In the process, move folks in the 2nd and 3rd level up to your first level by directly connecting so that you can reach more deeply into their networks. While doing this keep an eye out for folks you can help out. This effort falls under the contact and contact management area and network development and interaction.
Next follow discussions in the groups most closely attached to your job search and participate in those discussions. Thoughtful comments and suggestions create interaction and may even lead to direct job leads. This is the professional and intellectual credibility component.
While working in the groups, look for contacts you feel would be good sources for your job search and contact them directly through the message capacity under the groups. Let them know your interest in connecting, be clear about your specific need, and see where they lead regarding connection. This falls under network development and interaction.
Together this effort will keep you engaged in your industry, may create unexpected solutions and alternatives to your career direction and immediate job goal. Overtime, the exposure and effort may increase your long term opportunity in unexpected ways.
Peggy McKee owns Career Confidential a job search coaching for top sales talent, sales management, marketing and service personnel! Peggy’s 9+ years as a top recruiter and owner at PHC Consulting filling roles for leading national companies gives her proven perspective on the process. Visit http://job-search-success-secrets.com/customer-feedback.htm to see testimonials of real job hunting success stories. See our at http://linkedin-for-jobseekers.com/linkedin-profile-tutorial.htm.
