Long gone are the days when a grammatically perfect cover letter and a resume brimming with action verbs and key phrases, such as, team player and ability to multitask suffice for a successful job search. As many know most job openings are filled by word of mouth. This trend still holds true in today’s job market, but what has changed is that word of mouth now extends WAY beyond a friend of a friend whose company is hiring.
With the growing success of social networking sites the ability to network, search job openings and be seen by employers has exponential possibilities. There are hundreds of internet sites that are used to connect with friends and people who share similar interests, but for the purposes of seeking employment, I think that LinkedIn has the most to offer. With over 15 million members, it is among the largest online social network for business professionals.
Tips for using your LinkedIn Profile as a Resume
- Create a profile that includes your employment history, education/training and industry. Include key phrases and professional achievements from your resume to highlight areas of expertise and accomplishments.
- Include keywords from your resume to increase opportunities for your profile to appear in search results.
- Set Contact Settings to let others know what opportunities you would like to be contact about (career opportunities, expertise requests, consulting offers, business deals, new ventures, personal reference requests, job inquiries, request to reconnect).
- Make your profile public so that it can be viewed by everyone. With that said, remember that everyone includes colleagues, potential employers or business contacts so keep it professional.
To the All things Workforce readers, please share your experience, insights and social networking best practices. And for those of you who are interested in learning more about effective social networking, I suggested Inner Architect. Susan and Dean are the social networking gurus and have tons of ideas on how to maximize the use of this media!
Can’t wait to read your comments!
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Great tips! I think the same thing can apply for facebook users, as well. If they decide to fan associations or join certain professional groups, then they should keep their profile professional.
ReplyDeleteWow! Those are really great tips on how to polish up a resume. I had never considered using social networks as possible job search catalysts but I can see how they could help. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteFrom Gina Arreola to Anonymous regarding Facebook:
ReplyDeleteI recently listened in on a Webinar hosted by JobFox in which recruiters discussed the ways in which they use social networking sites to seek out employers. 73% of the recruiters they polled have used LinkedIn as a recruitment tool, but only 20% have actually hired someone from these efforts. So there is definitely a gap there. I think that it is because the use of social networking for professional purposes is fairly new; therefore, best practices are still in development.
As far as Facebook goes, only 10% of recruiters who used it actually hired someone from the site. It remains popular among college students, with 36% of Facebook users being under the age of 24. However, with 44 million users between the ages of 25-55, the potential is definitely there.