LinkedIn – Tying it all Together

Many people tell me they are using LinkedIn, but when you scratch past the surface, it turns out that the huge majority of job seekers don’t understand this resource well nor use it effectively. The loser in all this is the person looking for work, as networking is the critical activity to open up a new universe of job openings, and LinkedIn is a fabulous free service to give you access to a huge number of professionals in Israel (and worldwide).

To summarize this discussion, here are links to the relevant articles:

• Employment Networking - Getting to the Other Two Thirds of the Jobs
• LinkedIn – Search and Be Found
• LinkedIn – Recruiter's Search Engine
• LinkedIn – Employment Networker’s Dream Come True
• LinkedIn – Connecting to the World Professionally
• LinkedIn - How to Connect with Executives and HR Professionals?

Happy Networking!

LinkedIn – Connecting to the World Professionally

In order to make use of the search and be found strategies that we have discussed on LinkedIn, you need to take one additional step in order to make yourself accessible to the masses, enabling you to have meaningful search results, and increasing your chances of being identified by those that can offer you a job. That extra something is to make connections and join groups.

Let’s explore from an administrative perspective how LinkedIn works. If this explanation is too boring for you, skip to the conclusion at the bottom. When you or someone else does a people search on LinkedIn, the system searches using both sources:

• Your Connections – You can connect to people you know that are also using LinkedIn. Since this is a professional networking tool, it is best to connect with people which you know professionally. When you use LinkedIn to search, the system starts with your direct connections (those people you are connected to). In addition, the system will also search second degree connections (those people that are connected to your direct connections) and finally third degree connections (those people that are connected to your second degree connections). This means that each person that you directly connect to can open up your network to hundreds (or even thousands) of new people. A good way to get started adding new connections is to let LinkedIn access your email address books (from Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo…), and check which of the people you communicate with is already a member.
• Your Groups – There are a large number of groups that you can join on LinkedIn. Some of these are regional groups, others are related to professions, and there are a wide variety of those that fall into the miscellaneous category. When LinkedIn does a search, all of the members in your groups are checked as well. I manage the second largest Israel-based group: Job Networking in Israel. There are currently more than 7,000 group members, so just by joining this one group you have significantly increased your visibility. The additional benefit of finding a match with someone that you share a group with is that you can contact them directly from within LinkedIn, something which is not true of a second or third degree connection. To begin registering for group, go to the LinkedIn Groups directory and enter a keyword (such as Israel) to view the different groups that are available.
  Groups also have jobs and discussion boards, so within your group you may have access to job opportunities as well as a forum to ask questions.

The bottom line conclusion to take away is that the more connections you have, and the more groups you join, the better the chances that you will be found or that you will be able to find someone of interest.

LinkedIn – Recruiters Search Engine

Recruiters are using LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) to find qualified job candidates and check out those that have already applied. Job seekers can use their LinkedIn profile to make sure that the information being relayed to recruiters presents a positive image, helping to position themselves as excellent prospective employees.

What is today’s recruitment paradigm? Corporate budgets are being cut, including advertising in the media and online job sites. Human resources professionals are therefore forced to find more frugal alternatives to identify top quality job candidates, and what could be less expensive than LinkedIn, a totally free online networking site!

According to a 2009 study by CareerBuilder, 46% of recruiters already use online networking sites to identify/research job candidates and applicants, and this number is expected to grow rapidly. Besides searching directly in LinkedIn, when a recruiter does a simple Google search on your name, there is a good chance that the first result will be a LinkedIn profile. You want that LinkedIn profile to be yours, and you want it to be effective!

I manage the second largest Israel-based LinkedIn Group (Job Networking in Israel), which currently has close to 7,000 members. I guess that at least 1,000 of these members are either company recruiters or work at headhunters/placement companies. So, joining this group alone (and there are plenty of others as well) gives you immediate access and visibility to a large quantity of human resources people that making hiring decisions.

What is particularly interesting is that from this same CareerBuilder study, it was found that 18% of recruiters actually found content on online networking sites that caused them to hire someone! Job seekers can use LinkedIn to their advantage by creating a strong profile with an excellent summary and recommendations.

Online Branding – The LinkedIn Profile Summary

Your LinkedIn profile is your opportunity to shine! Here you have the chance to create your online brand, a summary with a short and targeted message to potential employers describing the value you can bring to an employer. Mirroring your CV/resume, the profile enables you to describe your education and work experience. And since there is no length limitation, you have the flexibility to include whatever you think is relevant. The profile can and should be used to supplement your CV with more detail, examples of work… Many people include a link in their CV to their LinkedIn Profile.

LinkedIn Profile – The Other Parts

In addition to the summary, education, and (work) experience sections of the summary, there are other components that you should be aware of:

• Recommendations enhance your appeal to companies, and you should find suitable people from previous jobs to write testimonials. Sometimes you may need to help them convey the important points you want to highlight.
• You can add a picture to your profile to personalize your image.
• You can add links to websites/blogs that contain your material.
• You can add applications that enhance your profile. For instance, I use BlogLink; each time I add an entry on my blog, the BlogLink application updates my LinkedIn profile by displaying the new article.
• You can lists honors and awards that you have received.
• Include all of the relevant industry keywords in your profile, so that when recruiters search, you have a better chance to be found.

Investing time in your LinkedIn profile (i.e. Online Brand) is a necessity in today’s recruitment environment. Recruiters are using this network as a special purpose search engine, actively searching for job candidates

One note of importance though. As much as we hope that after we create an excellent LinkedIn profile, the job offers will start rolling in, the reality is that this action by itself is usually not enough. The next thing you have to make yourself accessible by connecting with others and joining groups. Finally, and critically important, you can become proactive by doing searches of your own, identifying others that are of professional interest and introducing yourself. The next entries in this blog will focus on these activities.

LinkedIn – Search and Be Found

As I have discussed previously, networking is critical to a job seekers success: http://jobsearchinisrael.blogspot.com/2009/11/employment-networking-getting-to-other.html. And developing new connections is an integral part of making your networking work best. Wouldn’t you love to have access to thousands of Israeli professionals that you could meet and begin conversations with? And be to be part of a group that Israeli recruiters use to find qualified job candidates? Actually you do have such a resource, completely free and available from the comfort of your own home: LinkedIn.

LinkedIn claims to have more than 50 million users worldwide. From my experience, half of them seem to be Israelis! This is of course an exaggeration, as there are not this many Israelis in the world (yet), but the point is that there are a huge number (tens of thousands) of Israelis that use LinkedIn.

LinkedIn users can be put into two (2) categories:

1. Recruiters – Either company recruiters or from placement companies/headhunters
2. Professionals in a wide variety of jobs and industries

The objective with recruiters is to be found, and to use the opportunity to highlight your skills and work experience in order to make a favorable impression.

You can use the large quantity of Israeli professionals to search for those that match your interests, and then to introduce yourself.

In upcoming articles, I will develop in detail how to use LinkedIn to target recruiters and how to find and introduce yourself to others that can help you identify employment opportunities.