I would like to welcome Beth Carter to the writing team at HeyFairfield. Beth is a local Certified Professional Coach and runs Carter Consultants Ltd. She’ll periodically drop in with an article about career development and job searching. Beth can be reached at www.carterconsultantsltd.com
In this market, job seekers need to be much more proactive in getting their resume to as many people as possible. There are various sites that can be quite useful including Linkedin and Plaxo. Recently I was at a seminar that explained how Linkedin can be used in a number of different ways. To start, post your profile but make sure that you put in a lot of detail. Recruiters and hiring companies use key word searches in the Advanced Search section to find potential candidates so it is imperative that certain “industry and functional buzz words” are included in your profile.
What Linkedin groups do you belong to? Besides your college alma mater, there are industry groups as well as local groups to consider. For our area, I belong to Connecticut Business Hall of Fame, @ New England Networkers and Networking CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT, Darien Professionals Networking Group, and NewCanaan Cats. Some church groups that offer career transition meetings also have a Linkedin group such as Black Rock Employment Networking Group, however, some require that you attend a meeting first before joining. Also look at groups created by alumni of companies; in my case, I am ex-Ernst & Young and x-KPMG and am active in these Linkedin groups. After you join, you can “Start a Discussion” and post that you are seeking new employment.
On the Home page, you can also list what you are working on now. I would encourage you to write something upbeat and specific like “researching local marketing companies for my job search” versus “looking for a job”. This status update will only go to people in your network so link in with as many people as possible.
Finally, monitor your Linkedin home page every few days. By viewing what others are doing, it may give you ideas on how to tweak your profile so that you stand out from others and secure that ideal job.
Beth will be co-hosting a free Wish Planning Boot Camp on Thursday 5/28. For more info open: Wish Planning Workshop 2009
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