FREE Career Advice for Job Seekers Through My LinkedIn Group

This is just a reminder that one of the advantages of being a member of the EMPLOYER & CANDIDATE CONNECTION LinkedIn group and its subgroup, STRIVE FOR FIVE is that you can ask job-related questions and get answers from me as the group owner, one of the two Group Managers or other members of the group (which include other recruiters and employers who are members of these groups)AT NO CHARGE.  What could be better than FREE, individualized career coaching? 

Please ask your questions THROUGH ONE OF THESE GROUPS so that others will benefit from your question and the answer. 

(Bear in mind that if your issue involves confidential information (e.g., salary negotiation questions, reason for being laid off, etc.), you can either make your question general in nature or, it may be beneficial for you to seek the services of a career coach.  There are numerous coaches right on this group, or, you can consult my public website where I have made the names of some coaches that have been referred to me available.  Please note that I do not endorse the services of any particular coach and strongly suggest that each person do their own due diligence and "interview" the coach(es) they are considering for compatibility.)

Mark wrote: 

“Hi Marissa,

I attended a coaching session with you at NCCC last month. At that time you mentioned a method for taking a list of key words (that describe my aspirations desires, skills abilities etc.) that could be plugged into a search engine that would bring up a list of Job Descriptions that may fit with the key words. It was a way of narrowing the job focus or bringing up other careers or industries where the skillset would be valued. Will you remind me of the procedure/process and were the web site is located to do the search? I appreciate you and your time. Please let me know if I can be helpful to you in some way.

Thank you again. You are a gifted presenter.”

MH

Answer: 

Mark.  I remember you, and am impressed that your notes are so detailed.

All materials I review are on www.meetup.com under the "NC3" meetup group.

How to Optimize How You Use LinkedIn -- Whether you are Looking for Jobs, Candidates or Business Leads

What is LinkedIn? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlUwwgOfKwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U--Vijc2jbw

Linkedin for Dummies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV_7yAPnkFw

LinkedIn Job Seeker features: Open up to opportunities: (What is OpenLink?) Great for Job Seekers!!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r636M5WFQRw

LinkedIn Discount - Cheap LinkedIn Plan : Personal Plus - Secret way to get it! (1 yr. old: may not be available, but check for it as the monthly cost is very low)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wahk6lQkNCY

How to find a new job using LinkedIn? (www.explania.com):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eTDnSnDMgE

ADVANCED:

How To Optimize You LinkedIn Profile [The Download]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APa4ngh934c

How to LinkedIn: Create Your LinkedIn Company Page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TGyZzCmU3c

LinkedIn Marketing: 5 Steps to Growing Your Business on LinkedIn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCKtfcAGUTE

Succeeding with LinkedIn.com: How Agency Recruiters Find Top Candidates
LinkedIn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcEpVyAxLmY

Best-Kept LinkedIn Invitation Secrets

Stacy Donovan Zapar is a recruiter and coach and as the most LinkedIn woman on LinkedIn, has more than 30,000 first connections.  

In a recent article that she authored, Stacy illuminates some of the finer points of LinkedIn's invitation functions, covering do's and don'ts, how to know if your account has been restricted and get it unrestricted, and much more.  

For advanced users who want to offer others a shortcut to their LinkedIn invitation page, Stacy even provides a fill-in-the-blank formula that links directly to your invitation page.  From there, you can go to www.TinyURL.com or a similar site, paste your unique LinkedIn invitation page link into the bar, and convert this link to a much shorter one.  You can then post it right on your LinkedIn home page under the "Contact Info" section by editing your profile, add it to your business card, public website, FaceBook page, etc.  See Stacy's Tip #12 (one-click invitation link). 

Take a look!

LinkedIn Invitations: Everything You Need to Know (and Then Some!)

How to Select the Most Highly Searched Keywords for Your Resume & LinkedIn Profile

Aside from using Wordle.com and similar sites, what can you to best ensure that you have the right keywords to attract recruiters and employers to your LinkedIn page and resume?

There are two ways that I know of to do this on LinkedIn: 

The first way is to simply go to the Skills & Expertise area (the section where people endorse you) and add a skill and note what suggestions pop up that may have higher appeal. 

The other is to go to the last tab across the top navigation ("More") and click on "Skills & Expertise."  After the page loads, type in some words that you are considering and watch the bar graph to the right populate!  Analyze whether it will help you to add that word or term and compare it against other words/terms that are suggested on the left side.  Pick the word/term that is being used the most to find folks with your skills.

Remember that aside from these tools, you can use Word Cloud technology (www.ToCloud.com and www.TagCrowd.com) in two ways:

1. Copy and paste 3-5 job postings into one word cloud window and see what the most frequently used words that employers are seeking and they will visually appear larger relative to other words that appear in those documents.  Then, copy and paste your resume in a second window and compare what words you are missing.

2. You can also analyze the keywords used in a SINGLE job posting and compare it to your resume to see if there is a 

match between your resume and the job to which you are applying. (For employers who use automated resume soring software, this exercise may help you to score high enough to remain in the "call back" pile.

You know what they say “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and this applies to doing your homework to ensure that you are using all of the most marketable keywords you can  Comparing this beforehand may make all the difference between you getting a call to be interviewed or not. 

Happy keyword researching!

M2    

P.S.  For more LinkedIn and other tips to help you land a job more quickly, go to www.TheECC.com (Speaking/Other Events Page) and download the 50 LinkedIn & Other