Could you imagine a job interview during which your interviewer asks you for your Facebook password? Well folks, it’s happening and you should know what to do when it happens to you.
The reason why companies are doing this is to get better insight into who you really are. They will strategically ask you to look at Facebook with them — right there, on the spot. You would think there would be some type of HR regulation in place to prohibit this type of conduct during an interview, but currently there is not — although the state of Maryland is starting to take action in a case regarding the Facebook profiles of student athletes.
With that in mind, what about job applicants in all the other states? Maryland is the first to do anything about this (and it’s currently concerned with student protections), so how long will it take for the job applicant process to be evaluated? Will asking for social networking account passwords be prohibited? The answer is, “There is no answer.” But you do not have to give the information as a condition of employment.
Let’s go over some things you can do to protect yourself on a job interview. Don’t forget: You have the right to a personal life and your privacy!
1. Put it Eloquently
If you are asked for your password, here are some things you can say, in an eloquent and respectful manner, to show you will stand your ground:
“I am very careful with my personal, private online persona and do not feel comfortable giving out any passwords. But you can feel free to look at my profile as it appears to you as a company right now, if you would like.”
“I would never participate in social media on the organization’s time and ask that the organization will respect my personal social media rights outside of work.”
“My LinkedIn network is a great place for you to review my professional experience and see the professional connections that I have that may be of benefit to your organization.”
“Is that something that is required to move forward with this job interview?”
If you don’t like the prospective employer’s answer to the last question (or any of the statements above), you can decide if you would not like to move forward with the interview. It is your profile and your privacy, and you have the right to protect it. So, take control and make it your decision.
2. Evaluate the Situation
You may feel obligated to provide your password, but is it really worth it to you to have a job where you will be watched all the time?
The answer is probably “no.” It would be extremely stressful to feel like your personal life has the potential to be picked apart by your employers at any time. It will already be enough that they will monitor you while at work in other ways.
3. Take Steps to Protect Your Personal Life
If you plan carefully and strategically, you can separate business and pleasure. Set up your social media profiles to be only obtainable or known by your friends and family. Here are some things you can do:
Disable a public web search on your Facebook profile. The default setting allows search engines like Google to pick up your Facebook profile.
Change your name and go by a nickname that only your friends and family would recognize.
Take advantage of the new Facebook Timeline to illustrate the personal brand you want to project as a job seeker.
Once you have a job, you should be careful not to jeopardize it by putting ill-willed comments up for all to see. What you say could get you fired if it sheds a bad light on your company. You represent your company, so keep your personal social networking about you and not about work.
Now you know it is okay to take a stand and say “no” when asked for your social networking passwords. It is ultimately up to you to decide what you are comfortable with.
What would you do if your interviewer asked for your password? Let us know in the comments.
Social Media Job Listings
Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
http://mashable.com/2012/04/08/employer-facebook-password/
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Social Media Posts Can Have an Impact on Hiring, Firing
Friends may not be the only ones who see that clever Facebook post you just put up.
In fact, if a person’s profile is not set to private, potential employers could be watching as well. Many legal issues abound because social media allows an employer to see information that was once private. Yet, it’s not just about what one posts.
Brian Moore, a partner with the Charleston Dinsmore & Shohl law firm, said using social media to check a candidate’s background is gaining popularity.
“The important thing is it’s not a free-for-all, and there are legal implications,” he said. “You possibly could have discrimination claims or invasion of privacy claims.”
Jilted candidates could argue they were the target of discrimination because of race, as shown by a profile picture, or religious/political views.
“People used to have photos submitted with their resumes but that stopped for that reason,” Moore said. “Now you have social media, where you can’t un-see the information when you look at it on the Internet.”
Rick Wallace, a labor and employment lawyer at Spilman Thomas and Battle says employers who routinely use social media to screen candidates are putting themselves in a dangerous situation.
“This is because you have a picture, you know the race of the employee, their birthdays, religious information, political information,” Wallace said. “You’re getting all kinds of protected characteristics that you wouldn’t on a job application.”
Of course, this danger decreases the further along in the interview process, Wallace said. After a candidate has come in for a first interview, social media could be a good way to get “uncensored profile information.”
However, if a person’s profile is set to private and an employer finds a way to bypass it in any way, this could raise claims of an invasion of privacy.
“It’s common sense,” Moore said. “If someone has a password-protected profile or it’s set to private, employers shouldn’t use fraudulent means to access it. If it’s set to public, it’s public information. I don’t think individuals have done enough to protect themselves for their privacy rights.”
How can one find out if potential employers are discriminating based on one’s social media information? One can never be sure, but if the issue was brought to court, it could come out in discovery.
“If they filed a lawsuit and discovered that they screen all applicants using social media, they could accuse you of eliminating people of a certain race or religion,” Moore said.
This is why employers should have policies and training on social media, Moore said. Healso recommended businesses have a non-decision maker with an HR background to pass on relevant information found on a public social media profile.
“Well, if I saw something like illegal drug use or someone disparaging the company name or anything not legally protected, that could classify as fair game,” Moore said.
Moore recommends decision-makers to compile a list of what they’re looking for in an employee and run it by an employment lawyer. Gaining perspective of an employment lawyer is a vital step, Moore said.
Yet even when a person gets a job, he or she has to worry about keeping it.
Wallace said the same rules apply for firing an employee based on social media posts.
“It’s common sense,” he said. “For example, if a guy said he had an emergency and posted on Facebook a picture of him in a Halloween costume partying that same day, then it would come down to that.”
Yet Wallace cautioned that there are many federal regulations in place to enforce free speech on Facebook. In particular, the National Labor Relations Board issued a report Aug. 18 summarizing recent social media cases along with what is constituted as protected speech.
People should think twice about posting negative comments about supervisors. However, the NLRB ruled in favor of an employee who did just that.
This was more than just a run-of-the-mill negative remark about a supervisor, however. According to the NLRB, the employee posted the remark after she asked for a union representative in the context of a customer complaint.
Although this was against the company’s Internet and blogging policy, the NLRB states that the employee’s speech was protected.
“Complaining or grousing, saying you hate a co-worker or something would not be protected but when it gets into the territory of talking about taking action to deal with pay issues or workplace safety issues — any type of activity that would be aimed in theory to changing the condition of work or forming a union is protected,” Wallace said.
The NLRB also ruled in favor of another employee who was fired for posting photos and critical commentary of an event sponsored by his employer.
“At issue in this case was the salesperson’s activity in taking photographs of hot dogs and other inexpensive food and beverages offered by the luxury car dealership in connection with a sales event,” the document explained. “The message conveyed by the employee was that the cheap food and beverages offered sent the wrong message to clients and thus, negatively affected sales and commissions.”
This form of speech also was protected, the document states.
According to the NLRB, speech is protected if it raises concerns about one’s working conditions on behalf of other employees, or indicating that some sort of action will be taken.
However, employees who post offensive tweets on Twitter or Facebook posts are not protected, the NLRB states.
Along with creating social media policies and procedures, the NLRB also recommends employers remind employees that company e-mail and computers are not private. It also recommends companies have employees sign an acceptable use policy and to define the disciplinary plan if that policy is violated.
“I always recommend calling a lawyer, though, before making a decision,” Moore said. “It may take five or 10 minutes, but this is a major decision.”
West Virginia is an at-will employment state, which means that employers do not necessarily have to give a reason why they are firing someone. This can make matters complicated.
Employers simply could say that the firing was due to work ethic, which is why Moore says it’s difficult to prove intent in a discrimination suit.
“It ultimately comes down to who the court or jury believes,” he said.
But a good rule of thumb is to imagine one’s self in front of a crowded auditorium before posting anything, Moore said.
“If I wouldn’t say it out loud for the world to hear, then I wouldn’t put it on my social media site,” he said. “It’s just common sense. Treat the social media world the same way you would the real world.”
http://www.cbs59.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=108772
In fact, if a person’s profile is not set to private, potential employers could be watching as well. Many legal issues abound because social media allows an employer to see information that was once private. Yet, it’s not just about what one posts.
Brian Moore, a partner with the Charleston Dinsmore & Shohl law firm, said using social media to check a candidate’s background is gaining popularity.
“The important thing is it’s not a free-for-all, and there are legal implications,” he said. “You possibly could have discrimination claims or invasion of privacy claims.”
Jilted candidates could argue they were the target of discrimination because of race, as shown by a profile picture, or religious/political views.
“People used to have photos submitted with their resumes but that stopped for that reason,” Moore said. “Now you have social media, where you can’t un-see the information when you look at it on the Internet.”
Rick Wallace, a labor and employment lawyer at Spilman Thomas and Battle says employers who routinely use social media to screen candidates are putting themselves in a dangerous situation.
“This is because you have a picture, you know the race of the employee, their birthdays, religious information, political information,” Wallace said. “You’re getting all kinds of protected characteristics that you wouldn’t on a job application.”
Of course, this danger decreases the further along in the interview process, Wallace said. After a candidate has come in for a first interview, social media could be a good way to get “uncensored profile information.”
However, if a person’s profile is set to private and an employer finds a way to bypass it in any way, this could raise claims of an invasion of privacy.
“It’s common sense,” Moore said. “If someone has a password-protected profile or it’s set to private, employers shouldn’t use fraudulent means to access it. If it’s set to public, it’s public information. I don’t think individuals have done enough to protect themselves for their privacy rights.”
How can one find out if potential employers are discriminating based on one’s social media information? One can never be sure, but if the issue was brought to court, it could come out in discovery.
“If they filed a lawsuit and discovered that they screen all applicants using social media, they could accuse you of eliminating people of a certain race or religion,” Moore said.
This is why employers should have policies and training on social media, Moore said. Healso recommended businesses have a non-decision maker with an HR background to pass on relevant information found on a public social media profile.
“Well, if I saw something like illegal drug use or someone disparaging the company name or anything not legally protected, that could classify as fair game,” Moore said.
Moore recommends decision-makers to compile a list of what they’re looking for in an employee and run it by an employment lawyer. Gaining perspective of an employment lawyer is a vital step, Moore said.
Yet even when a person gets a job, he or she has to worry about keeping it.
Wallace said the same rules apply for firing an employee based on social media posts.
“It’s common sense,” he said. “For example, if a guy said he had an emergency and posted on Facebook a picture of him in a Halloween costume partying that same day, then it would come down to that.”
Yet Wallace cautioned that there are many federal regulations in place to enforce free speech on Facebook. In particular, the National Labor Relations Board issued a report Aug. 18 summarizing recent social media cases along with what is constituted as protected speech.
People should think twice about posting negative comments about supervisors. However, the NLRB ruled in favor of an employee who did just that.
This was more than just a run-of-the-mill negative remark about a supervisor, however. According to the NLRB, the employee posted the remark after she asked for a union representative in the context of a customer complaint.
Although this was against the company’s Internet and blogging policy, the NLRB states that the employee’s speech was protected.
“Complaining or grousing, saying you hate a co-worker or something would not be protected but when it gets into the territory of talking about taking action to deal with pay issues or workplace safety issues — any type of activity that would be aimed in theory to changing the condition of work or forming a union is protected,” Wallace said.
The NLRB also ruled in favor of another employee who was fired for posting photos and critical commentary of an event sponsored by his employer.
“At issue in this case was the salesperson’s activity in taking photographs of hot dogs and other inexpensive food and beverages offered by the luxury car dealership in connection with a sales event,” the document explained. “The message conveyed by the employee was that the cheap food and beverages offered sent the wrong message to clients and thus, negatively affected sales and commissions.”
This form of speech also was protected, the document states.
According to the NLRB, speech is protected if it raises concerns about one’s working conditions on behalf of other employees, or indicating that some sort of action will be taken.
However, employees who post offensive tweets on Twitter or Facebook posts are not protected, the NLRB states.
Along with creating social media policies and procedures, the NLRB also recommends employers remind employees that company e-mail and computers are not private. It also recommends companies have employees sign an acceptable use policy and to define the disciplinary plan if that policy is violated.
“I always recommend calling a lawyer, though, before making a decision,” Moore said. “It may take five or 10 minutes, but this is a major decision.”
West Virginia is an at-will employment state, which means that employers do not necessarily have to give a reason why they are firing someone. This can make matters complicated.
Employers simply could say that the firing was due to work ethic, which is why Moore says it’s difficult to prove intent in a discrimination suit.
“It ultimately comes down to who the court or jury believes,” he said.
But a good rule of thumb is to imagine one’s self in front of a crowded auditorium before posting anything, Moore said.
“If I wouldn’t say it out loud for the world to hear, then I wouldn’t put it on my social media site,” he said. “It’s just common sense. Treat the social media world the same way you would the real world.”
http://www.cbs59.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=108772
Social Media Job Postings Up 600%
Social media seems to have taken over just about every other aspect of our lives, why not jobs? The demand for social media jobs has virtually exploded, up some 600% according to one job site. Some industry observers say it all could be happening too much too fast to last.
Even with unemployment nearing 10%, one of the sectors that is sprouting jobs is social media. A recent study published by SocialMediaInfluence.com shows that 59 of the Fortune 100 companies have at least one employee who works full time in social media.
It adds that job postings directly related to social media have soared 600% in the last five years.
Working with the job site Indeed.com. the Social Media Influence report researched online job listings. It found more than 21,000 postings related to social media. In 2005, that number was in the low thousands.
Curtis Hougland, founder of the New York-based marketing and social media firm Attention, warns that just as social media hiring has picked up, the pool of qualified talent has failed to keep pace and the resulting imbalance of supply and demand is a sign of hiring inflation.
Hougland says that demand for social media skills in the corporate world has outstripped the supply of candidates with training in communications and the analytical skills to track the effectiveness of a media campaign. He says this void has been filled by a burgeoning workforce of self-proclaimed social media experts, some of whom are qualified, but many are not.
Hiring for social media jobs started picking up steam in about 2005, though it still constitutes only a small percentage of overall post-college job placements. New York University's Trudy Steinfeld, director of the university's office of career services, says only a few students, 1 to 2%, take jobs in social media specifically, but that those numbers have been increasing.
She says more often, companies looking to fill social media jobs, actually look even younger, asking student interns to chart their new media course. That can be a dangerous strategy, says Bernhard Warner, director of Custom Communication, the London-based consultancy that publishes Social Media Influence.
That hasn't stopped recent graduates from adding Facebook and Foursquare to the skills section of their resumes. Nor has it stopped colleges from promoting social media classes or even adding a Master's degree in social media.
There are several levels of expertise within the social media profession. Some of the more common positions include the community manager - who oversee a company's online communities; the analyst or strategist -- who builds and monitors social media campaigns; the product developer -- who is responsible for keeping the company's software up to date; the editor or publisher -- who oversees content and the brand; and the executive -- a rare position, usually filled by a public relations professional.
Typically, companies hire some combination of these positions. The field also stays along the edges of customer service, IT, public relations, marketing and sales, according to the Social Media Influence report.
It can be hard to separate those with legitimate qualifications for a social media manager from those who pretend to have the appropriate skills. It presents a serious challenge for hiring managers, especially those unfamiliar with social media. In a field less than five years old, can anyone claim to be an expert?
And then there's the question, how long will this last. Social media careers may not even exist 10 years from now. After all, isn't social media evolving into a skill set, not a profession?
Remember the dot-com boom-and-bust? After the bubble burst, Internet companies were left with an oversupply of programmers, which had been the hot job of the day. But you rarely hear about programmers going hungry.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/12/the-social-media-sector-is-booming-especially-for-new-jobs.html
Even with unemployment nearing 10%, one of the sectors that is sprouting jobs is social media. A recent study published by SocialMediaInfluence.com shows that 59 of the Fortune 100 companies have at least one employee who works full time in social media.
It adds that job postings directly related to social media have soared 600% in the last five years.
Working with the job site Indeed.com. the Social Media Influence report researched online job listings. It found more than 21,000 postings related to social media. In 2005, that number was in the low thousands.
Curtis Hougland, founder of the New York-based marketing and social media firm Attention, warns that just as social media hiring has picked up, the pool of qualified talent has failed to keep pace and the resulting imbalance of supply and demand is a sign of hiring inflation.
Hougland says that demand for social media skills in the corporate world has outstripped the supply of candidates with training in communications and the analytical skills to track the effectiveness of a media campaign. He says this void has been filled by a burgeoning workforce of self-proclaimed social media experts, some of whom are qualified, but many are not.
Hiring for social media jobs started picking up steam in about 2005, though it still constitutes only a small percentage of overall post-college job placements. New York University's Trudy Steinfeld, director of the university's office of career services, says only a few students, 1 to 2%, take jobs in social media specifically, but that those numbers have been increasing.
She says more often, companies looking to fill social media jobs, actually look even younger, asking student interns to chart their new media course. That can be a dangerous strategy, says Bernhard Warner, director of Custom Communication, the London-based consultancy that publishes Social Media Influence.
That hasn't stopped recent graduates from adding Facebook and Foursquare to the skills section of their resumes. Nor has it stopped colleges from promoting social media classes or even adding a Master's degree in social media.
There are several levels of expertise within the social media profession. Some of the more common positions include the community manager - who oversee a company's online communities; the analyst or strategist -- who builds and monitors social media campaigns; the product developer -- who is responsible for keeping the company's software up to date; the editor or publisher -- who oversees content and the brand; and the executive -- a rare position, usually filled by a public relations professional.
Typically, companies hire some combination of these positions. The field also stays along the edges of customer service, IT, public relations, marketing and sales, according to the Social Media Influence report.
It can be hard to separate those with legitimate qualifications for a social media manager from those who pretend to have the appropriate skills. It presents a serious challenge for hiring managers, especially those unfamiliar with social media. In a field less than five years old, can anyone claim to be an expert?
And then there's the question, how long will this last. Social media careers may not even exist 10 years from now. After all, isn't social media evolving into a skill set, not a profession?
Remember the dot-com boom-and-bust? After the bubble burst, Internet companies were left with an oversupply of programmers, which had been the hot job of the day. But you rarely hear about programmers going hungry.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/12/the-social-media-sector-is-booming-especially-for-new-jobs.html
5 Tips for Aspiring Digital Copywriters
So you’ve come to the conclusion that digital copywriting is the career for you, but where do you go from there?
Write a sparkling resume, pull together a stunning portfolio and craft some superlative cover letters — these should all be obvious entries on your find-a-job to-do list. We can offer some further assistance.
We’ve quizzed a select handful of top copywriters, creative directors and content executives from both the U.K. and U.S. for some behind-the-scenes career tips that could well give you the edge on your competition.
Have a read of the been-there-done-that professional advice below and good luck with the job hunting!
1. Write!
So you want to be a digital copywriter? Great! No doubt you’ve written your resume, organized your portfolio and are actively applying for positions. Don’t stop there.
“Being is a matter of doing. Runners run. Fighters fight. If you want to be a copywriter, do what a copywriter does,” advises Dylan Klymenko, junior copywriter at Mullen. “Concept ideas for this space you’re interested in. Write up scripts for video content and then shoot it, edit it and put it on YouTube (who knows? Maybe you can make being a viral celebrity your back-up career).”
“Or grab a buddy who knows code — concept and create a website that could win an FWA [Favourite Website Awards] award. The point is: don’t wait. No one is going to ask you to do it, and you don’t need anyone’s approval. Just jump right into the digital fray, get messy every single day and you’ll become through doing.”
These sentiments are echoed by Sara Williams, head of content at Made by Many, who implores those looking to get into the industry — “For God’s sake, write!”
“When you go for jobs, people are going to want to see your work and you’d better have work to show. No one hires a junior or even a mid-level writer on the basis of ideas, chat and banter. You’ve got to show you know how to write, and ideally show that you can do this across different tones and purposes. Write your own briefs if you have to, but for God’s sake, write,” says Williams.
“Once you’ve started writing, share your work, says Williams, “The web makes it ridiculously easy to showcase all your work — portfolio, long copy blog, short copy and image blog, micro blog –- in a pretty package. Don’t be shy about putting your work in front of people.”
Not sure how to improve your digital presence? Williams advises, “Comment on blogs, join conversations on TwitterTwitterTwitter, submit your work wherever you can. The web democratizes communication like nothing else. Want to be heard? Speak. Comment. Tweet. Be funny, be wise, be out there, be heard, be hired.”
2. Get Knowledge
It’s a cliche, but knowledge is power. Or in the case of a digital copywriter — fuel. In order to be successful, you need to know the product, your audience and the space which you’re writing for, intimately.
The only way you can do that as far as audience goes, says Trisha Brandon, a content strategist at iCrossing UK is to “get in there and be social to be relevant,” after all as she puts it “you’ll need more than the basics (age, gender, demographic) to really get it right.”
As far as knowing the product goes, George Tannenbaum, executive creative director at R/GA advises digital copywriters to “cultivate their curiosity.”
“Good writers know things. They find out interesting things out about products or services. Things that may be hidden on page 32 of a long brochure. Be curious about everything. Learn all you can about the product you’re working on. Go to the supermarket and talk to people who buy the product. Read the buff books. Use the product. Learn the language of the product,” says Tannenbaum.
Keeping up with what’s new online can be a challenge (may we suggest regularly reading MashableMashableMashable as a potential solution?), but it’s essential that you understand the current zeitgeist if you’re going to mastermind the next big meme.
“There’s always something new happening online: be it the next big social idea or a funny cat video. It’s your responsibility to be up-to-date on memes and internet pop-culture as much as business developments and technological advancements,” states Klymenko.
“Why do people love FarmVille so much? How do they use it? Stop asking questions and learn. Play it for a little bit. How about Chatroulette? Same deal. Let’s talk technology that could be a relevant channel for your brand. Geolocation is all the buzz lately. First you had FoursquareFoursquareFoursquare and GowallaGowallaGowalla tapping into it, then Twitter jumped on, now FacebookFacebookFacebook is doing it through ‘Places.’ But you wouldn’t know about any of that if you weren’t paying attention. Read up. Do it up. Know where you live.”
And even though you may be writing for the web, don’t forget the offline world. Many lessons can be learned from looking back to a time before online social media.
“Today, if you want to get employed and stay employed, you have to be aware of, into and willing to explore every type of media — digital or analog — and maybe even make up a few types of media along the way,” says Tannenbaum.
3. Deal with Rejection
If you’re just starting out in your copywriting career and trying to find your first position, then you’re going to have to deal with a certain amount of rejection letters. The simple answer is to grit your teeth and persevere.
“Writing is an awesome job that will take you a million brilliant places,” says Williams. “Sure, lots of people want to be writers, but if you’re talented and dedicated to crafting your skills and developing your online brand, there’s no reason you can’t be one of them.”
Be prepared for the rejection theme to continue. Once you find your feet on the first rung of the copywriting career ladder, then the next round of rejection starts when your ideas, or copy — or both — will be rejected, either by colleagues, or clients, or both.
Knowing when to ditch an idea and when to push it further is something that will come with experience, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take on board advice on the topic.
“Don’t fall in love with your own copy,” suggests Tannenbaum. “It’s better to throw your work out and start over than to do what many writers do, which is ‘fix things to death.’ If the client is being difficult about approving your copy, keep coming back with better, fresher work. The best revenge is always a better ad.”
However, particularly in the digital space, remember that some more traditional clients may need encouragement to take a risk, try something new and be bold online.
“While some clients may be less open than others, you, as copywriters, should continually try to challenge them,” says Brandon. “Increasingly, it’s what digital audiences expect.”
And finally, when you find yourself in a junior position, be humble, take your lumps and listen to feedback, but know the difference between being a lowly staffer with a lot to learn and finding yourself the whipping boy at the mercy of other people’s egos.
“Harsh but fair feedback is part of the game, and so, unfortunately, are sadistic creative directors,” says Williams. “Spot the difference and do everything you can to learn from the former and limit exposure to the latter. A harridan partner once told me that copywriters were hired to be clever and creative, but I was ‘neither clever nor creative.’ I got the hell out of there. Even as a lowly junior, these people are not worth your time or your talent.”
4. Less is More
Crucial advice as far as your copy goes is the old adage “less is more,” especially in the online world where attention spans are ever-decreasing.
“‘Less is always more’ is good advice for pretty much any writing, but I think it’s particularly apposite when talking about digital copy,” says Lewis Raven, associate creative director at glue Isobar, an advertising agency specialising in digital creative work.
“It’s so, so easy for readers to get distracted online. If you make your point with precision and originality your reader will appreciate it. They might even follow your instruction to ‘click here’, ‘roll over’, or ‘buy now!’ Go on too long and they will be straight off to to watch skateboarding dogs on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube. I know I would be.”
“Remember, if people want to, there are lots of places they can go to read really good, long copy. It might be a newspaper or a favorite blog,” continues Raven. “It almost definitely won’t be a brand website.”
Eloise Smith, creative director at Euro RSCG London takes the less-is-more-online wisdom a step further by suggesting that people read copy differently online than they do offline, so advises “writing visually” as something to take into consideration when writing for the web.
“Online users view text rather than read it,” says Smith. “They scan, skim and scroll. Normally at high speed. Online text behaves differently from print – it’s clickable, scrollable, copyable and searchable. So part of a digital copywriter’s job is to visually guide the user through text.”
While Smith suggests tactics such as indents, sub-headings, super-short paragraphs, bold captions, bullet points and numbered lists, “write less and communicate more” is her main advice:
“A digital copywriter’s portfolio doesn’t need to contain reams of copy, enigmatic headlines, complex sub-clauses and atmospheric intros. The digital copywriter writes for a notoriously distracted, impatient
audience. So the skill is to be able to write succinctly and informatively without losing charm.”
“Limit your word count,” Tannenbaum suggests. “Copywriters who grew up writing in TV and print grew up with strictures around copy length. So they became parsimonious with words. They learned to make every one count. Writing in digital media doesn’t impose those important limitations on writers. So, frankly, they tend to ramble, rather than say things quickly and succinctly.”
5. Write Well
“The principles of good writing remain the same, whatever sort of copywriter you are. Cliched metaphors, misplaced apostrophes and unnecessary jargon are just as depressing online as offline. Writing in a way your audience relates to is key to any good writing. If that means writing in a familiar, conversational manner and using the word ‘awesome’ a lot, so be it. Ultimately, to be a successful digital copywriter, you need to be a good copywriter in the first place,” concludes Smith.
“And finally — always proofread. Especially your C.V. A C.V. with typos is embarrassing for everyone.”
http://mashable.com/2010/09/11/job-search-digital-copywriters/
Write a sparkling resume, pull together a stunning portfolio and craft some superlative cover letters — these should all be obvious entries on your find-a-job to-do list. We can offer some further assistance.
We’ve quizzed a select handful of top copywriters, creative directors and content executives from both the U.K. and U.S. for some behind-the-scenes career tips that could well give you the edge on your competition.
Have a read of the been-there-done-that professional advice below and good luck with the job hunting!
1. Write!
So you want to be a digital copywriter? Great! No doubt you’ve written your resume, organized your portfolio and are actively applying for positions. Don’t stop there.
“Being is a matter of doing. Runners run. Fighters fight. If you want to be a copywriter, do what a copywriter does,” advises Dylan Klymenko, junior copywriter at Mullen. “Concept ideas for this space you’re interested in. Write up scripts for video content and then shoot it, edit it and put it on YouTube (who knows? Maybe you can make being a viral celebrity your back-up career).”
“Or grab a buddy who knows code — concept and create a website that could win an FWA [Favourite Website Awards] award. The point is: don’t wait. No one is going to ask you to do it, and you don’t need anyone’s approval. Just jump right into the digital fray, get messy every single day and you’ll become through doing.”
These sentiments are echoed by Sara Williams, head of content at Made by Many, who implores those looking to get into the industry — “For God’s sake, write!”
“When you go for jobs, people are going to want to see your work and you’d better have work to show. No one hires a junior or even a mid-level writer on the basis of ideas, chat and banter. You’ve got to show you know how to write, and ideally show that you can do this across different tones and purposes. Write your own briefs if you have to, but for God’s sake, write,” says Williams.
“Once you’ve started writing, share your work, says Williams, “The web makes it ridiculously easy to showcase all your work — portfolio, long copy blog, short copy and image blog, micro blog –- in a pretty package. Don’t be shy about putting your work in front of people.”
Not sure how to improve your digital presence? Williams advises, “Comment on blogs, join conversations on TwitterTwitterTwitter, submit your work wherever you can. The web democratizes communication like nothing else. Want to be heard? Speak. Comment. Tweet. Be funny, be wise, be out there, be heard, be hired.”
2. Get Knowledge
It’s a cliche, but knowledge is power. Or in the case of a digital copywriter — fuel. In order to be successful, you need to know the product, your audience and the space which you’re writing for, intimately.
The only way you can do that as far as audience goes, says Trisha Brandon, a content strategist at iCrossing UK is to “get in there and be social to be relevant,” after all as she puts it “you’ll need more than the basics (age, gender, demographic) to really get it right.”
As far as knowing the product goes, George Tannenbaum, executive creative director at R/GA advises digital copywriters to “cultivate their curiosity.”
“Good writers know things. They find out interesting things out about products or services. Things that may be hidden on page 32 of a long brochure. Be curious about everything. Learn all you can about the product you’re working on. Go to the supermarket and talk to people who buy the product. Read the buff books. Use the product. Learn the language of the product,” says Tannenbaum.
Keeping up with what’s new online can be a challenge (may we suggest regularly reading MashableMashableMashable as a potential solution?), but it’s essential that you understand the current zeitgeist if you’re going to mastermind the next big meme.
“There’s always something new happening online: be it the next big social idea or a funny cat video. It’s your responsibility to be up-to-date on memes and internet pop-culture as much as business developments and technological advancements,” states Klymenko.
“Why do people love FarmVille so much? How do they use it? Stop asking questions and learn. Play it for a little bit. How about Chatroulette? Same deal. Let’s talk technology that could be a relevant channel for your brand. Geolocation is all the buzz lately. First you had FoursquareFoursquareFoursquare and GowallaGowallaGowalla tapping into it, then Twitter jumped on, now FacebookFacebookFacebook is doing it through ‘Places.’ But you wouldn’t know about any of that if you weren’t paying attention. Read up. Do it up. Know where you live.”
And even though you may be writing for the web, don’t forget the offline world. Many lessons can be learned from looking back to a time before online social media.
“Today, if you want to get employed and stay employed, you have to be aware of, into and willing to explore every type of media — digital or analog — and maybe even make up a few types of media along the way,” says Tannenbaum.
3. Deal with Rejection
If you’re just starting out in your copywriting career and trying to find your first position, then you’re going to have to deal with a certain amount of rejection letters. The simple answer is to grit your teeth and persevere.
“Writing is an awesome job that will take you a million brilliant places,” says Williams. “Sure, lots of people want to be writers, but if you’re talented and dedicated to crafting your skills and developing your online brand, there’s no reason you can’t be one of them.”
Be prepared for the rejection theme to continue. Once you find your feet on the first rung of the copywriting career ladder, then the next round of rejection starts when your ideas, or copy — or both — will be rejected, either by colleagues, or clients, or both.
Knowing when to ditch an idea and when to push it further is something that will come with experience, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take on board advice on the topic.
“Don’t fall in love with your own copy,” suggests Tannenbaum. “It’s better to throw your work out and start over than to do what many writers do, which is ‘fix things to death.’ If the client is being difficult about approving your copy, keep coming back with better, fresher work. The best revenge is always a better ad.”
However, particularly in the digital space, remember that some more traditional clients may need encouragement to take a risk, try something new and be bold online.
“While some clients may be less open than others, you, as copywriters, should continually try to challenge them,” says Brandon. “Increasingly, it’s what digital audiences expect.”
And finally, when you find yourself in a junior position, be humble, take your lumps and listen to feedback, but know the difference between being a lowly staffer with a lot to learn and finding yourself the whipping boy at the mercy of other people’s egos.
“Harsh but fair feedback is part of the game, and so, unfortunately, are sadistic creative directors,” says Williams. “Spot the difference and do everything you can to learn from the former and limit exposure to the latter. A harridan partner once told me that copywriters were hired to be clever and creative, but I was ‘neither clever nor creative.’ I got the hell out of there. Even as a lowly junior, these people are not worth your time or your talent.”
4. Less is More
Crucial advice as far as your copy goes is the old adage “less is more,” especially in the online world where attention spans are ever-decreasing.
“‘Less is always more’ is good advice for pretty much any writing, but I think it’s particularly apposite when talking about digital copy,” says Lewis Raven, associate creative director at glue Isobar, an advertising agency specialising in digital creative work.
“It’s so, so easy for readers to get distracted online. If you make your point with precision and originality your reader will appreciate it. They might even follow your instruction to ‘click here’, ‘roll over’, or ‘buy now!’ Go on too long and they will be straight off to to watch skateboarding dogs on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube. I know I would be.”
“Remember, if people want to, there are lots of places they can go to read really good, long copy. It might be a newspaper or a favorite blog,” continues Raven. “It almost definitely won’t be a brand website.”
Eloise Smith, creative director at Euro RSCG London takes the less-is-more-online wisdom a step further by suggesting that people read copy differently online than they do offline, so advises “writing visually” as something to take into consideration when writing for the web.
“Online users view text rather than read it,” says Smith. “They scan, skim and scroll. Normally at high speed. Online text behaves differently from print – it’s clickable, scrollable, copyable and searchable. So part of a digital copywriter’s job is to visually guide the user through text.”
While Smith suggests tactics such as indents, sub-headings, super-short paragraphs, bold captions, bullet points and numbered lists, “write less and communicate more” is her main advice:
“A digital copywriter’s portfolio doesn’t need to contain reams of copy, enigmatic headlines, complex sub-clauses and atmospheric intros. The digital copywriter writes for a notoriously distracted, impatient
audience. So the skill is to be able to write succinctly and informatively without losing charm.”
“Limit your word count,” Tannenbaum suggests. “Copywriters who grew up writing in TV and print grew up with strictures around copy length. So they became parsimonious with words. They learned to make every one count. Writing in digital media doesn’t impose those important limitations on writers. So, frankly, they tend to ramble, rather than say things quickly and succinctly.”
5. Write Well
“The principles of good writing remain the same, whatever sort of copywriter you are. Cliched metaphors, misplaced apostrophes and unnecessary jargon are just as depressing online as offline. Writing in a way your audience relates to is key to any good writing. If that means writing in a familiar, conversational manner and using the word ‘awesome’ a lot, so be it. Ultimately, to be a successful digital copywriter, you need to be a good copywriter in the first place,” concludes Smith.
“And finally — always proofread. Especially your C.V. A C.V. with typos is embarrassing for everyone.”
http://mashable.com/2010/09/11/job-search-digital-copywriters/
What Companies Want in a Social Media Intern
As well as looking good on your resume and netting you college credit, interning in social media can offer you incredibly valuable experience in the world of work, where social media experience is becoming ever-more important.
However, competition for good placements can be fierce, so it’s important to know what companies look for in a social media intern, so you can focus on improving or highlighting those skills.
From big companies, small businesses, non-profits, educational institutions and commercial ventures, we talked to the people who recruit social media interns to find out just what it is they want in a candidate.
If you’re a recruiter with a few pointers on what you look for in a social media intern, add your ideas in the comments below.
Q. What Qualities Do Companies Look For in a Social Media Intern?
Good Communication Skills
Kelly Lux, the Online Community & Relationship Manager at Syracuse University & Syracuse University iSchool, puts “good communication skills” at the top of her list of desired qualities in an intern. Being able to communicate well is valuable in many areas, but in the social space it’s essential.
Nicole Ravlin, Partner, at PMG Public Relations echoes the sentiment. “We want to know that their communication skills are sharp,” says Ravlin. “So we evaluate the content that they are putting out there.”
Solid Writing Skills
The ability to string a decent sentence together, to get a message across in your writing, or be able to communicate in short-form writing are all important qualities, as well.
Dan Klamm, Outreach & Marketing Coordinator at Syracuse University Career Services, looks for “solid writing skills” in a candidate, and he’s not alone.
“To me, someone with a good sense of wit and charm in their writing is appealing. Some of the best brands in social media have that combination and it’s attractive to users,” says Sexton.
Top-Notch Social Skills
Although taken for granted by many, it can be argued that social skills can’t easily be taught, so if you’ve got good ones, then make a point of showcasing it, as social panache is attractive in a social media intern.
“I look for social people to begin with, whether that’s internal at the corporate office or from the local campus, I want people who are already socially active in their own spheres,” says Jonathan Sexton.
Klamm agrees. “When I’m hiring a social media intern, I look for someone who has a strong personal network. I place emphasis on ‘a strong personal network,’ because I really want the intern to be able to leverage his/her connections to generate buzz around the messages that I am trying to communicate.”
And working well with others is another quality that will appeal to employers. “We are interested in people who will fit in with the group. We often have students recommend others who they know would be interested, and that they feel would be good team members,” says Lux.
Enthusiasm!
A bit of enthusiasm for the social space can go a long way, and it will help show any potential employer that you’re going to be active in your role, rather than need constant chivvying.
“Students who are actively involved on campus and ‘connected’ are very attractive to us,” says Lux.
“We look for those that are incredibly enthusiastic about the space. There are so many new developments each day that we would expect an applicant to do their homework and know what is happening in real-time, that day,” says Danielle Ellis, Digital PR Evangelist at The brpr Group.
“And not so much as ‘do your homework’ as to know what is the latest because you love it,” Ellis explains. “Enthusiasm for the space is number one. The rest can come. Enthusiasm can quickly turn into social media addiction, which we do not frown upon here. We are all addicted to our Twitter handles and ‘checking in.’ This is what provides us with the stamina to keep up with an industry that changes minute-to-minute.”
Q. What Experience Do Companies Look For in a Social Media Intern?
“I want to see that they are already using basic tools on their own (TwitterTwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebookFacebook, LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn, etc.),” says Ravlin, who suggests having a personal blog set up is also a good way to convince employers of your good communication skills.
Lux looks for the same thing. “We look for someone who already has a presence in social media, either active on Twitter, blogging, etc.” Although as representatives of the university, her interns also have to project a positive presence. “There are plenty of students who are active on social media but who would not be appropriate as representatives of the university,” reveals Lux.
It’s a point that people are becoming more aware of. By now we’ve all grasped that sprawled-naked-drunk pics aren’t a great idea on social sites, but taking that further, be aware that your past tweets can all be evaluated, so you have to decide a level of sensible self-censorship that won’t make you look unattractive to potential employers.
“If I can see that the applicant has been active on their social media handles, handling themselves professionally, that is a huge plus,” says Ellis.
“Basically I make sure they’ve been on the InternetInternetInternet once or twice,” jokes Sexton. “And obviously I look for their knowledge of social media, especially in their personal networks. I look for that individual who ‘gets it’ or is already branding themselves and they may not even know it.”
Q. What Makes a Good Social Media Intern?
“Someone who is creative, good at coming up with ideas — willing to take an idea and run with it without a lot of micro-managing by me, has tons of enthusiasm for what they are doing and is always looking for what we can do next,” answers Lux.
And of course, says Lux, you have to be prepared and willing “to work hard, at a moment’s notice, at all hours of the day and night.”
“A great social media intern is someone who can think outside-the-box and help brainstorm new ideas,” adds Klamm.
Nicole Ravlin considers a good social media intern “someone who wants to learn and be part of a team.”
“We work in teams at PMG to build social strategy and then help clients execute. If an intern is truly interested in learning how we approach things and participates in the process it is a win-win. That participation, desire to contribute and being part of the team is key,” says Ravlin.
“It is also great for the intern to take what they actually did, turn it into a portfolio piece, and show it (not just talk about it) to a future employer.”
http://mashable.com/2010/10/09/social-media-interns/
However, competition for good placements can be fierce, so it’s important to know what companies look for in a social media intern, so you can focus on improving or highlighting those skills.
From big companies, small businesses, non-profits, educational institutions and commercial ventures, we talked to the people who recruit social media interns to find out just what it is they want in a candidate.
If you’re a recruiter with a few pointers on what you look for in a social media intern, add your ideas in the comments below.
Q. What Qualities Do Companies Look For in a Social Media Intern?
Good Communication Skills
Kelly Lux, the Online Community & Relationship Manager at Syracuse University & Syracuse University iSchool, puts “good communication skills” at the top of her list of desired qualities in an intern. Being able to communicate well is valuable in many areas, but in the social space it’s essential.
Nicole Ravlin, Partner, at PMG Public Relations echoes the sentiment. “We want to know that their communication skills are sharp,” says Ravlin. “So we evaluate the content that they are putting out there.”
Solid Writing Skills
The ability to string a decent sentence together, to get a message across in your writing, or be able to communicate in short-form writing are all important qualities, as well.
Dan Klamm, Outreach & Marketing Coordinator at Syracuse University Career Services, looks for “solid writing skills” in a candidate, and he’s not alone.
“To me, someone with a good sense of wit and charm in their writing is appealing. Some of the best brands in social media have that combination and it’s attractive to users,” says Sexton.
Top-Notch Social Skills
Although taken for granted by many, it can be argued that social skills can’t easily be taught, so if you’ve got good ones, then make a point of showcasing it, as social panache is attractive in a social media intern.
“I look for social people to begin with, whether that’s internal at the corporate office or from the local campus, I want people who are already socially active in their own spheres,” says Jonathan Sexton.
Klamm agrees. “When I’m hiring a social media intern, I look for someone who has a strong personal network. I place emphasis on ‘a strong personal network,’ because I really want the intern to be able to leverage his/her connections to generate buzz around the messages that I am trying to communicate.”
And working well with others is another quality that will appeal to employers. “We are interested in people who will fit in with the group. We often have students recommend others who they know would be interested, and that they feel would be good team members,” says Lux.
Enthusiasm!
A bit of enthusiasm for the social space can go a long way, and it will help show any potential employer that you’re going to be active in your role, rather than need constant chivvying.
“Students who are actively involved on campus and ‘connected’ are very attractive to us,” says Lux.
“We look for those that are incredibly enthusiastic about the space. There are so many new developments each day that we would expect an applicant to do their homework and know what is happening in real-time, that day,” says Danielle Ellis, Digital PR Evangelist at The brpr Group.
“And not so much as ‘do your homework’ as to know what is the latest because you love it,” Ellis explains. “Enthusiasm for the space is number one. The rest can come. Enthusiasm can quickly turn into social media addiction, which we do not frown upon here. We are all addicted to our Twitter handles and ‘checking in.’ This is what provides us with the stamina to keep up with an industry that changes minute-to-minute.”
Q. What Experience Do Companies Look For in a Social Media Intern?
“I want to see that they are already using basic tools on their own (TwitterTwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebookFacebook, LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn, etc.),” says Ravlin, who suggests having a personal blog set up is also a good way to convince employers of your good communication skills.
Lux looks for the same thing. “We look for someone who already has a presence in social media, either active on Twitter, blogging, etc.” Although as representatives of the university, her interns also have to project a positive presence. “There are plenty of students who are active on social media but who would not be appropriate as representatives of the university,” reveals Lux.
It’s a point that people are becoming more aware of. By now we’ve all grasped that sprawled-naked-drunk pics aren’t a great idea on social sites, but taking that further, be aware that your past tweets can all be evaluated, so you have to decide a level of sensible self-censorship that won’t make you look unattractive to potential employers.
“If I can see that the applicant has been active on their social media handles, handling themselves professionally, that is a huge plus,” says Ellis.
“Basically I make sure they’ve been on the InternetInternetInternet once or twice,” jokes Sexton. “And obviously I look for their knowledge of social media, especially in their personal networks. I look for that individual who ‘gets it’ or is already branding themselves and they may not even know it.”
Q. What Makes a Good Social Media Intern?
“Someone who is creative, good at coming up with ideas — willing to take an idea and run with it without a lot of micro-managing by me, has tons of enthusiasm for what they are doing and is always looking for what we can do next,” answers Lux.
And of course, says Lux, you have to be prepared and willing “to work hard, at a moment’s notice, at all hours of the day and night.”
“A great social media intern is someone who can think outside-the-box and help brainstorm new ideas,” adds Klamm.
Nicole Ravlin considers a good social media intern “someone who wants to learn and be part of a team.”
“We work in teams at PMG to build social strategy and then help clients execute. If an intern is truly interested in learning how we approach things and participates in the process it is a win-win. That participation, desire to contribute and being part of the team is key,” says Ravlin.
“It is also great for the intern to take what they actually did, turn it into a portfolio piece, and show it (not just talk about it) to a future employer.”
http://mashable.com/2010/10/09/social-media-interns/
Use Twitter Hashtags to Boost Your Job Search
About 300 to 500 jobs are posted on Twitter per minute, according to Carmen Hudson, CEO and co-founder of Tweetajob. With that many shared opportunities, the task of filtering information becomes daunting — that’s why we have hashtags. They can help you focus on the tweets you want to see along with the ones you didn’t even know existed.
Hudson, whose company sends job tweets that match a job seeker’s location and career interests, says the numbers are true but come with a caveat. “Many of these jobs are duplicates, or from aggregators. It’s likely the number of real opportunities could be much lower. There is quite a bit of ‘job pollution’ on TwitterTwitterTwitter, because the job boards and many employers don’t target their job tweets.”
Nonetheless, the jobs are still there. The key is finding them. As a way to filter through the noise, Hudson recommends job seekers use hashtags to take full advantage of Twitter’s search functionality.
Here are six hashtag categories that might be useful in a job search, along with some examples of what you could look for. For those who are new to Twitter or just need a refresher, check out this overview of hashtags.
General Job Search
Hashtags such as #jobs, #jobadvice, #jobhunt and #jobsearch offer both job openings and general job search advice. If you’re looking for high-level information about how to conduct a job search, this could be a great place to start.
Job Postings
You can take your search one level further by using hashtags for specific jobs like #greenjobs, #jobposting, #telecom or #salesjobs just to name a few.
Chats
Since social media is all about conversation, why not engage in chats about job search? There are a few hashtags for chats, including #jobhuntchat, #careerchat, #internchat, and #hirefriday.
Rich DeMatteo, recruiting consultant and author of the blog Corn on the Job, is the founder of the #jobhuntchat group. This “first of its kind” Twitter chat takes place every Monday night from 10-11 p.m. ET. The audience consists of recruiters, resume writers, HR pros, working professionals, job seekers, interns and college students talking about job search. DeMatteo shared that they’ve had up to 300 participants in a single session and the format is working.
Lindsay Goldner shared her experience:
“Finding #jobhuntchat catapulted me into the world of online networking. As a college senior, I’d barely built up a network and had zero connections in the industries I was interested in. #Jobhuntchat — along with its amazing moderators and participants — taught me that it was imperative for me to put myself out there, both in person and online. Connections I’ve made with people online and at networking events have led to great relationships and multiple job offers!”
Resumes
Once you find the job, then you have to send over the resume. Searching hashtags like #resume, #resumewriting and #CV can give you valuable tips to keep your resume current as well as view other job seekers’ digital resumes for inspiration.
Industry Conferences
Hudson suggests following professional conference events via hashtags:
“Conference hashtags are one of the best ways for jobseekers to find industry colleagues with whom they can network. For example, the HR Technology conference just took place. If I were looking for a job in enterprise software or talent management systems, I would certainly search the #HRTechConf hashtag and follow participants who might be helpful in my job search.”
Even if you’re not attending industry conferences, keep up-to-date with them via the web and follow along on their hashtags before, during and after the conferences to tweet along with attendees and other interested professionals in your field. The conversations that you start via Twitter could translate into future opportunities or even long-lasting business or personal relationships.
Career Advice
The learning doesn’t (or shouldn’t) stop once we land a job. Managing our careers is a constant process. Hashtags such as #career, #careers and #employment can help us with the questions and challenges we deal with every day.
And while this piece is focused on hashtags, don’t forget that there are several companies and recruiters with dedicated career accounts on Twitter. The list includes GoogleGoogleGoogle, MTV, Starbucks and more. You can check out the complete list at Listorious.
There’s no denying that the job search takes time. When using hashtags as part of your job search, there is a process to reviewing what exists, identifying the right ones for your own situation and sifting through the information. But it certainly beats doing it the hard way.
http://mashable.com/2010/10/16/twitter-hashtags-job-search/
Hudson, whose company sends job tweets that match a job seeker’s location and career interests, says the numbers are true but come with a caveat. “Many of these jobs are duplicates, or from aggregators. It’s likely the number of real opportunities could be much lower. There is quite a bit of ‘job pollution’ on TwitterTwitterTwitter, because the job boards and many employers don’t target their job tweets.”
Nonetheless, the jobs are still there. The key is finding them. As a way to filter through the noise, Hudson recommends job seekers use hashtags to take full advantage of Twitter’s search functionality.
Here are six hashtag categories that might be useful in a job search, along with some examples of what you could look for. For those who are new to Twitter or just need a refresher, check out this overview of hashtags.
General Job Search
Hashtags such as #jobs, #jobadvice, #jobhunt and #jobsearch offer both job openings and general job search advice. If you’re looking for high-level information about how to conduct a job search, this could be a great place to start.
Job Postings
You can take your search one level further by using hashtags for specific jobs like #greenjobs, #jobposting, #telecom or #salesjobs just to name a few.
Chats
Since social media is all about conversation, why not engage in chats about job search? There are a few hashtags for chats, including #jobhuntchat, #careerchat, #internchat, and #hirefriday.
Rich DeMatteo, recruiting consultant and author of the blog Corn on the Job, is the founder of the #jobhuntchat group. This “first of its kind” Twitter chat takes place every Monday night from 10-11 p.m. ET. The audience consists of recruiters, resume writers, HR pros, working professionals, job seekers, interns and college students talking about job search. DeMatteo shared that they’ve had up to 300 participants in a single session and the format is working.
Lindsay Goldner shared her experience:
“Finding #jobhuntchat catapulted me into the world of online networking. As a college senior, I’d barely built up a network and had zero connections in the industries I was interested in. #Jobhuntchat — along with its amazing moderators and participants — taught me that it was imperative for me to put myself out there, both in person and online. Connections I’ve made with people online and at networking events have led to great relationships and multiple job offers!”
Resumes
Once you find the job, then you have to send over the resume. Searching hashtags like #resume, #resumewriting and #CV can give you valuable tips to keep your resume current as well as view other job seekers’ digital resumes for inspiration.
Industry Conferences
Hudson suggests following professional conference events via hashtags:
“Conference hashtags are one of the best ways for jobseekers to find industry colleagues with whom they can network. For example, the HR Technology conference just took place. If I were looking for a job in enterprise software or talent management systems, I would certainly search the #HRTechConf hashtag and follow participants who might be helpful in my job search.”
Even if you’re not attending industry conferences, keep up-to-date with them via the web and follow along on their hashtags before, during and after the conferences to tweet along with attendees and other interested professionals in your field. The conversations that you start via Twitter could translate into future opportunities or even long-lasting business or personal relationships.
Career Advice
The learning doesn’t (or shouldn’t) stop once we land a job. Managing our careers is a constant process. Hashtags such as #career, #careers and #employment can help us with the questions and challenges we deal with every day.
And while this piece is focused on hashtags, don’t forget that there are several companies and recruiters with dedicated career accounts on Twitter. The list includes GoogleGoogleGoogle, MTV, Starbucks and more. You can check out the complete list at Listorious.
There’s no denying that the job search takes time. When using hashtags as part of your job search, there is a process to reviewing what exists, identifying the right ones for your own situation and sifting through the information. But it certainly beats doing it the hard way.
http://mashable.com/2010/10/16/twitter-hashtags-job-search/
Score a Job Through Facebook
If you’re looking for a job, ask yourself if you’ve tapped every possible resource. Have you scoured Craigslist and made Monster your homepage? Have you set Google Alerts for every possible word combination that could land you a job? Have you checked Facebook? And I’m not talking about Facebook’s rather useless Marketplace.
While Facebook is better known for helping people lose their jobs, it’s largely an untapped resource when it comes to job hunting. With 500 million users, it has the potential to be one of the largest. But finding a job through Facebook isn’t about pestering your friends and junking up their news feeds with status updates like “Unemployed and Looking For Work — Help A Dude Out.” It’s about making the most of your network in a positive way, not by being a nuisance.
By joining groups, keeping track of your friends’ updates and just keeping in touch with your network, you can turn Facebook into a site that does so much more for you than just keep tabs on your exes. Here are five ways to turn Facebook into another resource that can help you land a job. If you’ve scored a job through Facebook, we want to hear your story, so leave us some tips in the comments below.
1. Read Your News Feed
Amanda Flahive is known as the Diva of the Details at Sevans Strategy, a Chicago-based public relations and new media consultancy. She wears many hats in her job working with social media maven Sarah Evans. But Flahive landed the gig just from reading her Facebook feed.
Both Flahive and Evans attended the same college but were in different programs — while they knew of each other, they didn’t know each other well. About a year and a half ago, they were brought back together by a mutual friend’s wedding. Evans threw an engagement party, and the two reconnected. “At that time Sevans wasn’t in existence,” says Flahive. “[Sarah] was still at her old position as the director of communications at a community college. We talked about what we were both doing, but the conversation wasn’t too serious. Sevans might have been something in the back of her brain at the time, but it wasn’t something we discussed that night.”
Since they were both going to be in the same wedding, they decided to keep in touch on Facebook, the way many old acquaintances re-connect.
“I’m a person who pretty regularly reads my Facebook news feed. If it’s not something regarding Farmville or Mafia Wars, then I most likely read it,” she says. “So I was reading through updates on a random day, and had been in one sales and marketing position, and moved to another, and I was OK, but wasn’t loving it.”
Flahive was keeping an eye out — looking on Monster, looking on Career Builder, but wasn’t really hitting anything. “Those sites are quite often so flooded with people that are looking for jobs, that it was my experience that you don’t get very far on those sites. I would send a resume in and either not have it go anywhere or in a direction that wasn’t right for me,” she says.
So on a random day, Flahive saw that Evans had posted that she was looking for a three-quarter time assistant. “From the exact Facebook post: Live in Chicago and love details? Looking for someone to work about 30 hours a week, checking e-mail, booking travel etc. E-mail Jen (her then assistant) for more details.”
Flahive didn’t respond right away, but figured she had nothing to lose since she knew Evans on both a personal and professional level. Evans called her for an interview, and they had a good laugh about it. “I said, I can’t believe we are having this phone call, but if it weren’t for Facebook, we wouldn’t be having it.”
In fact, Evans didn’t post the job anywhere else other than Facebook and TwitterTwitterTwitter (also the method that Sevans uses to hire its interns). The two had a conversation about the position and Evans ultimately offered Flahive the job through a direct message on Facebook.
“It’s not what I expected to get out of Facebook,” says Flahive who says it’s typically used to catch up with friends and look at baby photos. “I never thought I’d get a job out of it. But now that I have, it makes all the sense in the world. And what’s more, my job got a whole lot bigger after I accepted via Facebook. Now it’s full time, I’m doing development and marketing; it led to a much bigger job.”
2. Get Active in a Group
Web developer Enrico Bianco works at Post Rank but found his previous job creating web applications for the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, just by joining a Facebook group.
Bianco was in the middle of job search, looking to switch gears. At the time, he’d been doing mostly Java enterprise development and wanted to get into Ruby on Rails instead. “I started doing rather vigorous networking, and other job searching stuff. I used to answer posts on CraigslistCraigslistCraigslist, go to professional networking events for social media and Ruby on Rails.” On a whim, he says, he found a Facebook group for the Toronto Ruby on Rails community and left a message in the discussion board saying that he had something to offer, if anyone was looking for someone to do some Ruby on Rails development.
Lo and behold, he got a message back from the systems manager at CSIC, who asked for his resume, which in turn lead to an interview, and Bianco landed the job. “So it was really, very much a fluke, but a fortunate one,” he says. “She ended up telling me later that one of the key reasons she hired me was that she saw I was active in the community, and that I was engaging with others on the InternetInternetInternet.”
But Bianco casts it off as a fluke, and he admits it cost him nothing to do. “I wouldn’t use it as a primary tool for job searching, but at the time I was willing to use any resource I could.”
3. “Like” or “Friend” Companies You Want to Work For
Sandra Aaron is a Toronto-based event planner who was looking to expand her knowledge of the destination wedding scene, but she found it a difficult prospect. “It’s really hard to properly plan destination weddings without full knowledge of the travel industry,” she writes via e-mail. “So I decided I wanted to find a side job with a travel agency.”
Aaron spoke with many companies in her search to break into the industry, but the one company she really wanted to align herself with was difficult to get into, as their average new hire had 20 years of experience in the travel industry — something Aaron didn’t have.
Aaron says she spent a few months trying to find her way in, asking everyone she knew if they knew anyone with the company. Then one day, she saw a status update from the company’s Facebook Page that they were seeking experienced travel advisers. “With nothing to lose I commented, asking if they ever hired destination wedding planners. A couple of weeks later their marketing guy sent me a note on Facebook, saying he would be happy to pass on my resume to the right person.” Aaron’s resume ended up in the hands of the general manager who was so impressed with it, that within a few weeks, Aaron scored an interview.
Today, she’s an independent contractor for the company. She works from their offices, and says it’s a great situation. “I have access to their resources, and their staff has access to my knowledge and resources within the wedding industry. I would have never gotten the meeting if it weren’t for Facebook.”
4. Participate in a Contest
Andrew Miller scored his internship at Fast Horse, a Minneapolis marketing firm through a contest on FacebookFacebookFacebook. The company announced that its newest intern would be the candidate who could gain the most “Likes” in a week. Miller was tipped off to the contest by a college professor and quickly went to work on his campaign.
“I tried to tap into every single social network I had ever been a part of,” he said. “And just send out messages that said, hey if you have a few minutes can you help me win this dream internship? All it takes is liking my Page.”
Miller says he didn’t even start out with the most Facebook friends, but he was able to mobilize people by giving them simple directions to vote. That strategy won him 725 “Likes” and the internship.
“Having to market myself in this process has helped me in thinking about how to market actual products. The mobilization that I was able to accomplish is something I do all the time now, contacting blogs and newspapers, trying to get them to run stories,” he said.
Miller, who moved 1,700 miles from Portland, has completed his three month internship and it was extended another three months, which he says is a typical track to full-employment.
“If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that social media can be such a powerful tool for establishing those relationships. There is something so hollow about submitting your standard application, resume and cover letter. With this I was able to be in communication with the decision makers and be sure this was going to be a good fit for me. I would absolutely use social media again to engage with those decision makers.”
5. Start a Dialogue
Fast Horse, the company that hired Andrew Miller as an intern, is a big believer in the Facebook hiring process, according to its creative director and founder Jorg Pierach.
When Fast Horse launched its Facebook Page, it didn’t want the campaign to just be a megaphone for the work they were doing, but rather they wanted to use it as a place to interact with job candidates, sort of a digital informational interview, says Pierach. The company directs job seekers to its Facebook Page so its employees have a place to share information about the company, their culture and what they do.
“So instead of a resume disappearing into a file somewhere, we have a way to keep in touch, and the Fast Horse experience is the way to do that,” he said. “We started this about a year and half ago and we’ve hired about four or five people this way. They started a dialogue, and when a position opened up we already had a good idea of what that [person] was about.”
Pierach says that the intern search was about more than just finding candidates; it was a way to assess them as well, so the candidates could show off their marketing chops. The company asked for video introductions and interviewed 15 candidates before narrowing it down to three finalists who competed for the most “Likes.”
“In a sense it wasn’t about hiring one candidate, but seeing three strong people and their talents. As our needs continue to grow, we know that there are people out there that we liked. It’s about talent cultivation and about them showing us what they can do. But ultimately [it's] about keeping in touch with really talented people.”
Pierach looks at it as a different kind of interview — one that requires people to take the initiative to weigh in with their own thoughts. It’s also a method that saves the company a lot of time when looking to fill a spot. “We have a pre-qualified group of people we can turn to very quickly,” he said, noting that the company saves itself from having to post on job boards and slug through cover letters. They can bring in candidates they know are going to rise to the top, because they have been watching each other on Facebook.
“We recently had a new opportunity that was a very, very quick turn around. We needed a designer the next day. We turned to our Facebook Page and within a couple of hours we had six or seven people who raised their hands, all people we knew, to say they were available. We were able to get them in the next day and keep moving.”
In the future, you can expect to see more companies looking at the hiring process this way, and Pierach suggests that people coming out of college would do well to be aggressive in identifying the companies they want to work with and start the dialogue.
http://mashable.com/2010/10/30/facebook-jobs/
While Facebook is better known for helping people lose their jobs, it’s largely an untapped resource when it comes to job hunting. With 500 million users, it has the potential to be one of the largest. But finding a job through Facebook isn’t about pestering your friends and junking up their news feeds with status updates like “Unemployed and Looking For Work — Help A Dude Out.” It’s about making the most of your network in a positive way, not by being a nuisance.
By joining groups, keeping track of your friends’ updates and just keeping in touch with your network, you can turn Facebook into a site that does so much more for you than just keep tabs on your exes. Here are five ways to turn Facebook into another resource that can help you land a job. If you’ve scored a job through Facebook, we want to hear your story, so leave us some tips in the comments below.
1. Read Your News Feed
Amanda Flahive is known as the Diva of the Details at Sevans Strategy, a Chicago-based public relations and new media consultancy. She wears many hats in her job working with social media maven Sarah Evans. But Flahive landed the gig just from reading her Facebook feed.
Both Flahive and Evans attended the same college but were in different programs — while they knew of each other, they didn’t know each other well. About a year and a half ago, they were brought back together by a mutual friend’s wedding. Evans threw an engagement party, and the two reconnected. “At that time Sevans wasn’t in existence,” says Flahive. “[Sarah] was still at her old position as the director of communications at a community college. We talked about what we were both doing, but the conversation wasn’t too serious. Sevans might have been something in the back of her brain at the time, but it wasn’t something we discussed that night.”
Since they were both going to be in the same wedding, they decided to keep in touch on Facebook, the way many old acquaintances re-connect.
“I’m a person who pretty regularly reads my Facebook news feed. If it’s not something regarding Farmville or Mafia Wars, then I most likely read it,” she says. “So I was reading through updates on a random day, and had been in one sales and marketing position, and moved to another, and I was OK, but wasn’t loving it.”
Flahive was keeping an eye out — looking on Monster, looking on Career Builder, but wasn’t really hitting anything. “Those sites are quite often so flooded with people that are looking for jobs, that it was my experience that you don’t get very far on those sites. I would send a resume in and either not have it go anywhere or in a direction that wasn’t right for me,” she says.
So on a random day, Flahive saw that Evans had posted that she was looking for a three-quarter time assistant. “From the exact Facebook post: Live in Chicago and love details? Looking for someone to work about 30 hours a week, checking e-mail, booking travel etc. E-mail Jen (her then assistant) for more details.”
Flahive didn’t respond right away, but figured she had nothing to lose since she knew Evans on both a personal and professional level. Evans called her for an interview, and they had a good laugh about it. “I said, I can’t believe we are having this phone call, but if it weren’t for Facebook, we wouldn’t be having it.”
In fact, Evans didn’t post the job anywhere else other than Facebook and TwitterTwitterTwitter (also the method that Sevans uses to hire its interns). The two had a conversation about the position and Evans ultimately offered Flahive the job through a direct message on Facebook.
“It’s not what I expected to get out of Facebook,” says Flahive who says it’s typically used to catch up with friends and look at baby photos. “I never thought I’d get a job out of it. But now that I have, it makes all the sense in the world. And what’s more, my job got a whole lot bigger after I accepted via Facebook. Now it’s full time, I’m doing development and marketing; it led to a much bigger job.”
2. Get Active in a Group
Web developer Enrico Bianco works at Post Rank but found his previous job creating web applications for the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, just by joining a Facebook group.
Bianco was in the middle of job search, looking to switch gears. At the time, he’d been doing mostly Java enterprise development and wanted to get into Ruby on Rails instead. “I started doing rather vigorous networking, and other job searching stuff. I used to answer posts on CraigslistCraigslistCraigslist, go to professional networking events for social media and Ruby on Rails.” On a whim, he says, he found a Facebook group for the Toronto Ruby on Rails community and left a message in the discussion board saying that he had something to offer, if anyone was looking for someone to do some Ruby on Rails development.
Lo and behold, he got a message back from the systems manager at CSIC, who asked for his resume, which in turn lead to an interview, and Bianco landed the job. “So it was really, very much a fluke, but a fortunate one,” he says. “She ended up telling me later that one of the key reasons she hired me was that she saw I was active in the community, and that I was engaging with others on the InternetInternetInternet.”
But Bianco casts it off as a fluke, and he admits it cost him nothing to do. “I wouldn’t use it as a primary tool for job searching, but at the time I was willing to use any resource I could.”
3. “Like” or “Friend” Companies You Want to Work For
Sandra Aaron is a Toronto-based event planner who was looking to expand her knowledge of the destination wedding scene, but she found it a difficult prospect. “It’s really hard to properly plan destination weddings without full knowledge of the travel industry,” she writes via e-mail. “So I decided I wanted to find a side job with a travel agency.”
Aaron spoke with many companies in her search to break into the industry, but the one company she really wanted to align herself with was difficult to get into, as their average new hire had 20 years of experience in the travel industry — something Aaron didn’t have.
Aaron says she spent a few months trying to find her way in, asking everyone she knew if they knew anyone with the company. Then one day, she saw a status update from the company’s Facebook Page that they were seeking experienced travel advisers. “With nothing to lose I commented, asking if they ever hired destination wedding planners. A couple of weeks later their marketing guy sent me a note on Facebook, saying he would be happy to pass on my resume to the right person.” Aaron’s resume ended up in the hands of the general manager who was so impressed with it, that within a few weeks, Aaron scored an interview.
Today, she’s an independent contractor for the company. She works from their offices, and says it’s a great situation. “I have access to their resources, and their staff has access to my knowledge and resources within the wedding industry. I would have never gotten the meeting if it weren’t for Facebook.”
4. Participate in a Contest
Andrew Miller scored his internship at Fast Horse, a Minneapolis marketing firm through a contest on FacebookFacebookFacebook. The company announced that its newest intern would be the candidate who could gain the most “Likes” in a week. Miller was tipped off to the contest by a college professor and quickly went to work on his campaign.
“I tried to tap into every single social network I had ever been a part of,” he said. “And just send out messages that said, hey if you have a few minutes can you help me win this dream internship? All it takes is liking my Page.”
Miller says he didn’t even start out with the most Facebook friends, but he was able to mobilize people by giving them simple directions to vote. That strategy won him 725 “Likes” and the internship.
“Having to market myself in this process has helped me in thinking about how to market actual products. The mobilization that I was able to accomplish is something I do all the time now, contacting blogs and newspapers, trying to get them to run stories,” he said.
Miller, who moved 1,700 miles from Portland, has completed his three month internship and it was extended another three months, which he says is a typical track to full-employment.
“If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that social media can be such a powerful tool for establishing those relationships. There is something so hollow about submitting your standard application, resume and cover letter. With this I was able to be in communication with the decision makers and be sure this was going to be a good fit for me. I would absolutely use social media again to engage with those decision makers.”
5. Start a Dialogue
Fast Horse, the company that hired Andrew Miller as an intern, is a big believer in the Facebook hiring process, according to its creative director and founder Jorg Pierach.
When Fast Horse launched its Facebook Page, it didn’t want the campaign to just be a megaphone for the work they were doing, but rather they wanted to use it as a place to interact with job candidates, sort of a digital informational interview, says Pierach. The company directs job seekers to its Facebook Page so its employees have a place to share information about the company, their culture and what they do.
“So instead of a resume disappearing into a file somewhere, we have a way to keep in touch, and the Fast Horse experience is the way to do that,” he said. “We started this about a year and half ago and we’ve hired about four or five people this way. They started a dialogue, and when a position opened up we already had a good idea of what that [person] was about.”
Pierach says that the intern search was about more than just finding candidates; it was a way to assess them as well, so the candidates could show off their marketing chops. The company asked for video introductions and interviewed 15 candidates before narrowing it down to three finalists who competed for the most “Likes.”
“In a sense it wasn’t about hiring one candidate, but seeing three strong people and their talents. As our needs continue to grow, we know that there are people out there that we liked. It’s about talent cultivation and about them showing us what they can do. But ultimately [it's] about keeping in touch with really talented people.”
Pierach looks at it as a different kind of interview — one that requires people to take the initiative to weigh in with their own thoughts. It’s also a method that saves the company a lot of time when looking to fill a spot. “We have a pre-qualified group of people we can turn to very quickly,” he said, noting that the company saves itself from having to post on job boards and slug through cover letters. They can bring in candidates they know are going to rise to the top, because they have been watching each other on Facebook.
“We recently had a new opportunity that was a very, very quick turn around. We needed a designer the next day. We turned to our Facebook Page and within a couple of hours we had six or seven people who raised their hands, all people we knew, to say they were available. We were able to get them in the next day and keep moving.”
In the future, you can expect to see more companies looking at the hiring process this way, and Pierach suggests that people coming out of college would do well to be aggressive in identifying the companies they want to work with and start the dialogue.
http://mashable.com/2010/10/30/facebook-jobs/
SEO/SEM Job Search Tips
Companies across every industry are competing for top rankings on search engine results. And whether they turn to a marketing agency, SEO firm or consultant, there is an increasing demand for search engine optimization specialists.
Marketing professionals looking to break into this relatively new niche can’t necessarily rely on prestigious certifications or a long background as a SEO specialist to demonstrate their knowledge.
We spoke with SEO firms to get their advice for aspiring SEO specialists who want to impress potential employers and stand out from the pack.
1. Show, Don’t Tell
SEO
It doesn’t matter how pretty your resume is or how many years of experience you have. What SEO firms are looking for is proof that you can do a good job pulling their clients’ websites to the top of search engines. Do that, and you’re in.
“What I want to look at is sites that they’ve optimized,” explains Nick Spears, the director of search for SEO firm Incredible Marketing. “And I am going to basically open up the source code; I’m going to look at how they’re optimizing title tags and things as simplistic as keyword meta tags and descriptions.”
The best way to present your work is through an online profile. Billy Canu, the co-owner and COO of SEO by the Hour, suggests that you take screenshots of your rankings in case they change. If you’re wondering if something is impressive enough to include in your portfolio, use these guidelines from Spears:
First spot on GoogleGoogleGoogle: “very impressive.”
Anything in the first five results: “generally where you want to brag.”
Obviously, the standards are different depending on the competition for the keywords. “SEO Firm” for instance, is a national search and harder to win than a geo-targeted phrase like “SEO Firm, Irvine, CA.”
2. Work For Anyone to Build Experience
Help_wanted
Nobody (good) is going to hire you if you have no experience. But there are plenty of opportunities to get experience before you get your first SEO job. Here are a few ideas:
* Work on your own site. This is how both Spears and Canu got their start. Spears says he used his first sites as “crash dummies” in order to test what worked and what didn’t work. BillyBillyBilly learned SEO while running an online DVD rental business. Working on your own site can be a great way to not only perfect your trade, but build a portfolio.
* Volunteer to help a non-profit improve its SEO. You’ll be contributing to a cause you care about and building your portfolio at the same time.
* Offer to work on somebody’s site for minimal compensation. There aren’t a lot of SEO internships, but there are plenty of businesses that need the service. Working for little pay now can pay off later.
3. Experience Trumps Degree
SEO_School
Since SEO is a relatively new field, most accreditation programs are relatively new, and universities are just now starting to offer classes on it. There are instructional programs offered through organizations like SEO company Bruce Clay and the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO), but your experience will trump any certification that you can buy.
“[Being certified] is fine and dandy, but what it really comes down to, for me hiring someone, is actually seeing their work rather than their ribbons or their certificates,” Spears explains.
4. Keep Learning
SEO_guy
An SEO specialist’s job changes as fast as the InternetInternetInternet. The rise of social search and social media, for instance, has affected how SEO works.
“Someone who would come to me and say, ‘I have a very good understanding of FacebookFacebookFacebook and Twitter’ is going to be a step ahead of someone who just comes in and says, ‘I understand the SEO strategies and history and things like that,’ ” Spears says.
A good way to stay up to date is to read SEO forums like Digital Point, SEO Guy or Webmaster Talk.
http://mashable.com/2010/11/20/job-search-seo/
Marketing professionals looking to break into this relatively new niche can’t necessarily rely on prestigious certifications or a long background as a SEO specialist to demonstrate their knowledge.
We spoke with SEO firms to get their advice for aspiring SEO specialists who want to impress potential employers and stand out from the pack.
1. Show, Don’t Tell
SEO
It doesn’t matter how pretty your resume is or how many years of experience you have. What SEO firms are looking for is proof that you can do a good job pulling their clients’ websites to the top of search engines. Do that, and you’re in.
“What I want to look at is sites that they’ve optimized,” explains Nick Spears, the director of search for SEO firm Incredible Marketing. “And I am going to basically open up the source code; I’m going to look at how they’re optimizing title tags and things as simplistic as keyword meta tags and descriptions.”
The best way to present your work is through an online profile. Billy Canu, the co-owner and COO of SEO by the Hour, suggests that you take screenshots of your rankings in case they change. If you’re wondering if something is impressive enough to include in your portfolio, use these guidelines from Spears:
First spot on GoogleGoogleGoogle: “very impressive.”
Anything in the first five results: “generally where you want to brag.”
Obviously, the standards are different depending on the competition for the keywords. “SEO Firm” for instance, is a national search and harder to win than a geo-targeted phrase like “SEO Firm, Irvine, CA.”
2. Work For Anyone to Build Experience
Help_wanted
Nobody (good) is going to hire you if you have no experience. But there are plenty of opportunities to get experience before you get your first SEO job. Here are a few ideas:
* Work on your own site. This is how both Spears and Canu got their start. Spears says he used his first sites as “crash dummies” in order to test what worked and what didn’t work. BillyBillyBilly learned SEO while running an online DVD rental business. Working on your own site can be a great way to not only perfect your trade, but build a portfolio.
* Volunteer to help a non-profit improve its SEO. You’ll be contributing to a cause you care about and building your portfolio at the same time.
* Offer to work on somebody’s site for minimal compensation. There aren’t a lot of SEO internships, but there are plenty of businesses that need the service. Working for little pay now can pay off later.
3. Experience Trumps Degree
SEO_School
Since SEO is a relatively new field, most accreditation programs are relatively new, and universities are just now starting to offer classes on it. There are instructional programs offered through organizations like SEO company Bruce Clay and the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO), but your experience will trump any certification that you can buy.
“[Being certified] is fine and dandy, but what it really comes down to, for me hiring someone, is actually seeing their work rather than their ribbons or their certificates,” Spears explains.
4. Keep Learning
SEO_guy
An SEO specialist’s job changes as fast as the InternetInternetInternet. The rise of social search and social media, for instance, has affected how SEO works.
“Someone who would come to me and say, ‘I have a very good understanding of FacebookFacebookFacebook and Twitter’ is going to be a step ahead of someone who just comes in and says, ‘I understand the SEO strategies and history and things like that,’ ” Spears says.
A good way to stay up to date is to read SEO forums like Digital Point, SEO Guy or Webmaster Talk.
http://mashable.com/2010/11/20/job-search-seo/
6 Ways to Score a Job Through Twitter
Twitter has become a great resource for just about anything, including jobs. From industry chats to Twitter accounts dedicated to posting vacancies, there are a ton of resources for landing a gig.
We’ve already chronicled how to get a job through Facebook () and YouTube (), and now we’re taking a look at the job hunting process on Twitter.
We spoke with nine Tweeters who have landed jobs through Twitter () to get their top tips for success on the platform. Below you’ll find a guide to their job hunt strategies on the microblogging service.
If you’ve also been successful in finding a position via Twitter, let us know about your experience in the comments below.
1. Tweet Like an Industry Expert
Words to tweet by: You are what you tweet. Keep in mind that everything you tweet lends to — or takes away from — your online persona. Whether or not you’re searching for a job, make sure your Twitter stream represents you as a professional individual that has important and unique thoughts to contribute. Your goal should be to become an industry expert — or at least tweet like one.
Share links that are relevant to your followers, adding commentary to the latest industry news. This shows that you’re keeping up with industry trends and gives potential employers a look into what you read and care about, which will help them to envision how you may fit into their company’s work environment.
If your commentary on Twitter is interesting enough, you may have employers knocking on your door. Christa Keizer, a recent intern at Cone, a strategy and communications firm, used Twitter during her job search to “[post] relevant, industry-related tweets on a daily basis to establish credibility.” After commenting on one of Cone’s blogs, Marcus Andrews, the New Media Associate at Cone, tweeted to Keizer, thanking her for her comment and asking her about her summer work plans. A few tweets and an interview later, Keizer was hired.
Kate Ottavio, an account executive at PR agency Quinn & Co., had a similar experience. Prior to working at Quinn, she ran her own PR firm. One day, Allyns Melendez, HR Director at Quinn, started following Ottavio on Twitter — she waited for Ottavio to follow back, and then asked her if she’d like to move to New York, where Quinn is headquartered. Little did she know, Melendez was looking for a new hire for the real estate division of the firm. Melendez had first searched for “PR” and “real estate” on LinkedIn (), where Ottavio’s profile popped up.
Although Ottavio wasn’t looking for a job at the time, her Twitter strategy had always been to “represent myself as a knowledgeable and reputable PR professional. I tweet about 10-20 times a day about anything from personal experiences to Mashable () articles to PR blog posts.” Loving the opportunity that Quinn presented her, she promptly accepted.
2. Use Twitter Hashtags
There are lots of ways to use Twitter hashtags to get a job. Here are a few types of hashtags to get you started:
Job Listings: You can find general job advice and lots of listings through hashtags like #jobs, #recruiting, #jobadvice, #jobposting, #jobhunt and #jobsearch. To narrow it down, though, seek out more specific hashtags, such as or #prjobs or #salesjobs.
Industry Conferences: Most conferences these days have their own hashtags — when a relevant industry conference is approaching, get active with attendees using the hashtag. Whether you’re attending the conference or not, you can contribute to the conversation. Many conferences also have live streams, so it’s as if you’re attending anyway! Live tweet panels and speeches that you’re interested in and connect with other tweeters along the way. By using Twitter for networking within your industry, you’ll increase your chances of getting hired down the road.
Job-Related and Industry Chats: Getting involved with industry chats is a way to show your industry in a particular field and represent yourself as a knowledgeable person. Check out this Twitter chat schedule to get a head start. Also, if your search isn’t going so well, get involved in job-related chats, such as #jobhuntchat, #careerchat, #internchat and #hirefriday for friendly advice.
Liz (Pope) Schmidt, now the media and research manager at Sevans Strategy, attested to the power of industry Twitter chats: “I began participating in #Journchat, created and hosted by Sarah Evans [owner of Sevans Strategy, a public relations and new media consultancy]. Although I had known Sarah from a past virtual work experience, I was able to reconnect with her through Twitter. I mentioned her in several tweets and participated in her online discussions. Soon after, based on a direct message conversation with Sarah on Twitter, I came on board at Sevans Strategy.”
Besides scouring job search hashtags, job seekers can also follow Twitter accounts dedicated to posting job openings, use Twitter search to find postings or keep an eye out on the Twitter streams of companies they might want to work for.
3. Connect with Recruiters and Current Employees
Don’t be afraid to research the companies that you want to work for to find out who currently works there and who is involved with recruiting. After all, while you’re searching for a job, recruiters are scouring the web at the same time looking for pertinent information about job candidates. Interacting with current employees and active recruiters is an easy way to learn more about a company and its job opportunities.
Take Connie Zheng’s word — she’s already been hired for two jobs through Twitter. “I got my PR internship at Text 100 using Twitter, as well as my entry-level position at Burson-Marsteller using Twitter,” she explained. She advises job seekers, “Use Twitter as a research tool to identify who the appropriate HR person or recruiter is at the desired company.”
Shankar Ganesh, a student at the Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy in India, recently landed a marketing consulting internship at business apps provider Zoho Corporation by connecting with a technologist employed by the company. “I wanted to spend my summer as an intern at Zoho (), so I approached employees using Twitter,” he recounted. “I showed them what I had done previously and my website for credibility. My interest was forwarded to Zoho’s HR team, and we got in touch.” Soon after, he was offered the internship.
Even if a company isn’t hiring, it’s a good idea to stay in contact with recruiters and employees. When a position opens up, it’s likely that you’ll be one of the first to be contacted, said Alison Morris, an account coordinator at The CHT Group, a strategic communications firm based in Boston. Morris told us how she landed her current position on Twitter:
“In April 2010, Ben Hendricks, Senior VP at The CHT Group, and I began corresponding about corporate communications and social media’s role in the corporate environment. Much to my dismay, CHT was not yet hiring. In June, after a few months distance, Ben sent me an email to let me know the agency was hiring and that he wanted me to apply. Still looking for a job, I sent over my resume, and about a week later, I was employed.”
Keep an eye out for socially savvy companies like CHT — it also recently hired Marissa Green as an account coordinator through Twitter and is now looking for a spring intern, with Twitter being one of its main recruiting outlets.
4. Build a Relevant Network
A lot of successful Twitter job stories actually end with the punchline, “I wasn’t even looking for a job.” In many cases, these lucky new hires just found interesting opportunities serendipitously, which makes sense given that it’s Twitter we’re talking about.
Twitter is all about networking, so build a network that makes sense for you. You’ll find that a lot of the opportunities that are presented to you are simply organic. Here’s an anecdote along those lines from Marketing & Communications Manager for digital agency ChaiONE, Meghan Stephens:
“Through Twitter, I am connected to other marketing professionals, digital creatives, community stewards, and new media experts — simply because those are the types of people that I enjoy interacting with and learning from… When it came time to look for a job in the technology sector, all I did was turn to those who I already gained inspiration from. When glancing through my stream, I saw a job link posted by my now-boss that sounded immediately like what I was looking for. I read through the description, realized I already knew the company through another connection made on Twitter, and sent in my resume.”
5. Start a “Hire Me” Campaign
After seeing a job posting for HeadBlade, a men’s grooming company that makes products specifically for guys that shave their heads, Eric Romer immediately set up a website, Twitter page, Facebook Page and YouTube account all in the name of nabbing the job.
‘The posting for ‘Interactive and Social Media Marketing Manager’ was tweeted from the HeadBlade Twitter account, which I had been following for several months,” explained Romer. “I have been a die-hard ‘HeadBlader’ using their products religiously since 2005, so this was literally a dream job.”
“While there were several channels used, Twitter was by far the most effective getting on HeadBlade’s radar,” said Romer. “I received a call from a company rep within 48 hours of my initial blog posting, and flew from Indianapolis to L.A. within 10 days for an interview.”
While a full-out campaign of this nature may not be the best strategy for every job opportunity that comes along, this type of passion is what really stands out in the job recruiting process. If you encounter your dream job, go all out.
6. Take It Offline
Three simple words: “Let’s get coffee.”
Once you’ve gained a certain level of dialogue with a potential employer, an in-person meeting can really boost the relationship.
DJ Waldow, director of community at Blue Sky Factory, said that he landed his job at the company through connecting with Blue Sky Factory’s CEO Greg Cangialosi on Twitter. After initially “stalking” Cangialosi on Twitter, Waldow began engaging with him. Eventually, all of the tweets lead to an in-person meeting, which Waldow feels really sealed the deal. He wrote of the experience:
“The transition from online to in real life is critical… All of the loose connections you’ve made with that person are suddenly solidified when you put the name/avatar/tweets together with a face. Nothing can replace this. Nothing.”
http://mashable.com/2010/11/27/twitter-job-tips/
We’ve already chronicled how to get a job through Facebook () and YouTube (), and now we’re taking a look at the job hunting process on Twitter.
We spoke with nine Tweeters who have landed jobs through Twitter () to get their top tips for success on the platform. Below you’ll find a guide to their job hunt strategies on the microblogging service.
If you’ve also been successful in finding a position via Twitter, let us know about your experience in the comments below.
1. Tweet Like an Industry Expert
Words to tweet by: You are what you tweet. Keep in mind that everything you tweet lends to — or takes away from — your online persona. Whether or not you’re searching for a job, make sure your Twitter stream represents you as a professional individual that has important and unique thoughts to contribute. Your goal should be to become an industry expert — or at least tweet like one.
Share links that are relevant to your followers, adding commentary to the latest industry news. This shows that you’re keeping up with industry trends and gives potential employers a look into what you read and care about, which will help them to envision how you may fit into their company’s work environment.
If your commentary on Twitter is interesting enough, you may have employers knocking on your door. Christa Keizer, a recent intern at Cone, a strategy and communications firm, used Twitter during her job search to “[post] relevant, industry-related tweets on a daily basis to establish credibility.” After commenting on one of Cone’s blogs, Marcus Andrews, the New Media Associate at Cone, tweeted to Keizer, thanking her for her comment and asking her about her summer work plans. A few tweets and an interview later, Keizer was hired.
Kate Ottavio, an account executive at PR agency Quinn & Co., had a similar experience. Prior to working at Quinn, she ran her own PR firm. One day, Allyns Melendez, HR Director at Quinn, started following Ottavio on Twitter — she waited for Ottavio to follow back, and then asked her if she’d like to move to New York, where Quinn is headquartered. Little did she know, Melendez was looking for a new hire for the real estate division of the firm. Melendez had first searched for “PR” and “real estate” on LinkedIn (), where Ottavio’s profile popped up.
Although Ottavio wasn’t looking for a job at the time, her Twitter strategy had always been to “represent myself as a knowledgeable and reputable PR professional. I tweet about 10-20 times a day about anything from personal experiences to Mashable () articles to PR blog posts.” Loving the opportunity that Quinn presented her, she promptly accepted.
2. Use Twitter Hashtags
There are lots of ways to use Twitter hashtags to get a job. Here are a few types of hashtags to get you started:
Job Listings: You can find general job advice and lots of listings through hashtags like #jobs, #recruiting, #jobadvice, #jobposting, #jobhunt and #jobsearch. To narrow it down, though, seek out more specific hashtags, such as or #prjobs or #salesjobs.
Industry Conferences: Most conferences these days have their own hashtags — when a relevant industry conference is approaching, get active with attendees using the hashtag. Whether you’re attending the conference or not, you can contribute to the conversation. Many conferences also have live streams, so it’s as if you’re attending anyway! Live tweet panels and speeches that you’re interested in and connect with other tweeters along the way. By using Twitter for networking within your industry, you’ll increase your chances of getting hired down the road.
Job-Related and Industry Chats: Getting involved with industry chats is a way to show your industry in a particular field and represent yourself as a knowledgeable person. Check out this Twitter chat schedule to get a head start. Also, if your search isn’t going so well, get involved in job-related chats, such as #jobhuntchat, #careerchat, #internchat and #hirefriday for friendly advice.
Liz (Pope) Schmidt, now the media and research manager at Sevans Strategy, attested to the power of industry Twitter chats: “I began participating in #Journchat, created and hosted by Sarah Evans [owner of Sevans Strategy, a public relations and new media consultancy]. Although I had known Sarah from a past virtual work experience, I was able to reconnect with her through Twitter. I mentioned her in several tweets and participated in her online discussions. Soon after, based on a direct message conversation with Sarah on Twitter, I came on board at Sevans Strategy.”
Besides scouring job search hashtags, job seekers can also follow Twitter accounts dedicated to posting job openings, use Twitter search to find postings or keep an eye out on the Twitter streams of companies they might want to work for.
3. Connect with Recruiters and Current Employees
Don’t be afraid to research the companies that you want to work for to find out who currently works there and who is involved with recruiting. After all, while you’re searching for a job, recruiters are scouring the web at the same time looking for pertinent information about job candidates. Interacting with current employees and active recruiters is an easy way to learn more about a company and its job opportunities.
Take Connie Zheng’s word — she’s already been hired for two jobs through Twitter. “I got my PR internship at Text 100 using Twitter, as well as my entry-level position at Burson-Marsteller using Twitter,” she explained. She advises job seekers, “Use Twitter as a research tool to identify who the appropriate HR person or recruiter is at the desired company.”
Shankar Ganesh, a student at the Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy in India, recently landed a marketing consulting internship at business apps provider Zoho Corporation by connecting with a technologist employed by the company. “I wanted to spend my summer as an intern at Zoho (), so I approached employees using Twitter,” he recounted. “I showed them what I had done previously and my website for credibility. My interest was forwarded to Zoho’s HR team, and we got in touch.” Soon after, he was offered the internship.
Even if a company isn’t hiring, it’s a good idea to stay in contact with recruiters and employees. When a position opens up, it’s likely that you’ll be one of the first to be contacted, said Alison Morris, an account coordinator at The CHT Group, a strategic communications firm based in Boston. Morris told us how she landed her current position on Twitter:
“In April 2010, Ben Hendricks, Senior VP at The CHT Group, and I began corresponding about corporate communications and social media’s role in the corporate environment. Much to my dismay, CHT was not yet hiring. In June, after a few months distance, Ben sent me an email to let me know the agency was hiring and that he wanted me to apply. Still looking for a job, I sent over my resume, and about a week later, I was employed.”
Keep an eye out for socially savvy companies like CHT — it also recently hired Marissa Green as an account coordinator through Twitter and is now looking for a spring intern, with Twitter being one of its main recruiting outlets.
4. Build a Relevant Network
A lot of successful Twitter job stories actually end with the punchline, “I wasn’t even looking for a job.” In many cases, these lucky new hires just found interesting opportunities serendipitously, which makes sense given that it’s Twitter we’re talking about.
Twitter is all about networking, so build a network that makes sense for you. You’ll find that a lot of the opportunities that are presented to you are simply organic. Here’s an anecdote along those lines from Marketing & Communications Manager for digital agency ChaiONE, Meghan Stephens:
“Through Twitter, I am connected to other marketing professionals, digital creatives, community stewards, and new media experts — simply because those are the types of people that I enjoy interacting with and learning from… When it came time to look for a job in the technology sector, all I did was turn to those who I already gained inspiration from. When glancing through my stream, I saw a job link posted by my now-boss that sounded immediately like what I was looking for. I read through the description, realized I already knew the company through another connection made on Twitter, and sent in my resume.”
5. Start a “Hire Me” Campaign
After seeing a job posting for HeadBlade, a men’s grooming company that makes products specifically for guys that shave their heads, Eric Romer immediately set up a website, Twitter page, Facebook Page and YouTube account all in the name of nabbing the job.
‘The posting for ‘Interactive and Social Media Marketing Manager’ was tweeted from the HeadBlade Twitter account, which I had been following for several months,” explained Romer. “I have been a die-hard ‘HeadBlader’ using their products religiously since 2005, so this was literally a dream job.”
“While there were several channels used, Twitter was by far the most effective getting on HeadBlade’s radar,” said Romer. “I received a call from a company rep within 48 hours of my initial blog posting, and flew from Indianapolis to L.A. within 10 days for an interview.”
While a full-out campaign of this nature may not be the best strategy for every job opportunity that comes along, this type of passion is what really stands out in the job recruiting process. If you encounter your dream job, go all out.
6. Take It Offline
Three simple words: “Let’s get coffee.”
Once you’ve gained a certain level of dialogue with a potential employer, an in-person meeting can really boost the relationship.
DJ Waldow, director of community at Blue Sky Factory, said that he landed his job at the company through connecting with Blue Sky Factory’s CEO Greg Cangialosi on Twitter. After initially “stalking” Cangialosi on Twitter, Waldow began engaging with him. Eventually, all of the tweets lead to an in-person meeting, which Waldow feels really sealed the deal. He wrote of the experience:
“The transition from online to in real life is critical… All of the loose connections you’ve made with that person are suddenly solidified when you put the name/avatar/tweets together with a face. Nothing can replace this. Nothing.”
http://mashable.com/2010/11/27/twitter-job-tips/
E-Mailed Résumés
On a recent Monday morning, Olga Ocon, an employment recruiter in Los Altos, Calif., decided to sift through a folder containing e-mails identified as spam. Tucked away among 756 ads for Viagra, cellphones and loan-refinancing offers, which were all set to be deleted after a few days, were eight résumés.
Every week, Ms. Ocon receives more spam, increasing the chances that she could miss a good job candidate. "If it's in there, it's going to be harder to dig out," she says. She suspects that one résumé containing the phrases "four-time winner of sales awards" and "oversaw in excess of $40,000,000 in sales" was caught by a program on her computer that is designed to filter out e-mail containing money-making offers.
As companies have tightened e-mail filters in recent months to keep out spam and a spate of damaging computer viruses, they also unintentionally have blocked all sorts of legitimate e-mail. Few companies are talking about it, but e-mails containing job seekers' résumés are among the files commonly being deleted, according to recruiting-technology experts.
Warning: Don't send your resume to a potential employer using your work e-mail address! Your work e-mail account may not be private. Use a personal e-mail account (e.g. AOL, hotmail.com, etc.).
Do not attach your resume to an e-mail message:
• It may, or may not, get through to the addressee because of the different networks to be transited.
• E-mail messages with attachments may be deleted without being opened.
• Attachments may contain viruses, particularly if they are Microsoft Word documents.
• In large companies, internal systems may stop e-mail attachments from entering the company network to protect against virus infestations.
• Some recruiters are reluctant to take the time to open an attachment.
So, what does work? Copying your resume into the body of your e-mail message works.
NOTE: Before you e-mail your resume to a potential employer, test it by sending it to as many friends and family as you can, particularly those using an ISP different from the one you use. Have the recipients forward the entire message back to you. Check to be sure that it comes through cleanly and readably.
• Make the message Subject interesting! You need to quickly capture the attention of someone who is probably looking at a full e-mail inbox, seeing only the date, subject line, and sender of each message. If they don't know you (and assume that they don't, even if you have spoken with them), they won't automatically read your message. (If you do speak with a hiring manager or HR rep, ask them what you should put in the subject line so that they will recognize your message.)
Hint: "My Resume" isn't going to grab the attention of a busy person. Make the subject relevant to the person who will be looking at it, e.g. "Help Desk Representative with 3 years of consumer products experience," "Job # [use the position identifier from the posting or headline from the ad] Applicant," etc.
• Create a "cover letter" message just as you would in print (don't be long-winded).
• If you have created a Personal Resume Web Page that is available on the web, you can point to it (use the complete URL, including the "http://" at the beginning and most e-mail software will interpret it as a clickable link).
• Type your "signature" at the bottom of your "cover letter."
• After your signature, add a couple of blank lines and the text notation
========= Resume Text Below ==========
• Add 2 more blank lines, and then start your resume.
• Cut and paste the text from your ASCII resume into the body of your e-mail message next, making sure that each line is no more than 60 characters long
• To help with the measurement, make one line 60 (or 50 or 45) characters long by typing an X 60 (or 55, etc.) times.
• Don't let any lines of your resume be longer than that line of X's.
• Use spaces not tabs for indenting.
• Use capitalization and lines of equal signs (see above) or dashes to add some "underlining" for emphasis
• Don't try to center or justify the text.
• Be sure to delete the line of X's before you send your message.
This should keep the margins and indenting of your resume neat.
• Don't accidentally add contact information (your name, address, phone numbers, and "real" e-mail address).
Test Before You Send to an Employer
Test your resume by sending your resume to yourself, first, after you have gone through the steps above. Then, send it to friends who hopefully use a different Internet Service Provider and e-mail software to thoroughly test your resume. Particularly if you use AOL, test your ASCII resume by sending it to someone outside of AOL.
Wall Street Journal
Every week, Ms. Ocon receives more spam, increasing the chances that she could miss a good job candidate. "If it's in there, it's going to be harder to dig out," she says. She suspects that one résumé containing the phrases "four-time winner of sales awards" and "oversaw in excess of $40,000,000 in sales" was caught by a program on her computer that is designed to filter out e-mail containing money-making offers.
As companies have tightened e-mail filters in recent months to keep out spam and a spate of damaging computer viruses, they also unintentionally have blocked all sorts of legitimate e-mail. Few companies are talking about it, but e-mails containing job seekers' résumés are among the files commonly being deleted, according to recruiting-technology experts.
Warning: Don't send your resume to a potential employer using your work e-mail address! Your work e-mail account may not be private. Use a personal e-mail account (e.g. AOL, hotmail.com, etc.).
Do not attach your resume to an e-mail message:
• It may, or may not, get through to the addressee because of the different networks to be transited.
• E-mail messages with attachments may be deleted without being opened.
• Attachments may contain viruses, particularly if they are Microsoft Word documents.
• In large companies, internal systems may stop e-mail attachments from entering the company network to protect against virus infestations.
• Some recruiters are reluctant to take the time to open an attachment.
So, what does work? Copying your resume into the body of your e-mail message works.
NOTE: Before you e-mail your resume to a potential employer, test it by sending it to as many friends and family as you can, particularly those using an ISP different from the one you use. Have the recipients forward the entire message back to you. Check to be sure that it comes through cleanly and readably.
• Make the message Subject interesting! You need to quickly capture the attention of someone who is probably looking at a full e-mail inbox, seeing only the date, subject line, and sender of each message. If they don't know you (and assume that they don't, even if you have spoken with them), they won't automatically read your message. (If you do speak with a hiring manager or HR rep, ask them what you should put in the subject line so that they will recognize your message.)
Hint: "My Resume" isn't going to grab the attention of a busy person. Make the subject relevant to the person who will be looking at it, e.g. "Help Desk Representative with 3 years of consumer products experience," "Job # [use the position identifier from the posting or headline from the ad] Applicant," etc.
• Create a "cover letter" message just as you would in print (don't be long-winded).
• If you have created a Personal Resume Web Page that is available on the web, you can point to it (use the complete URL, including the "http://" at the beginning and most e-mail software will interpret it as a clickable link).
• Type your "signature" at the bottom of your "cover letter."
• After your signature, add a couple of blank lines and the text notation
========= Resume Text Below ==========
• Add 2 more blank lines, and then start your resume.
• Cut and paste the text from your ASCII resume into the body of your e-mail message next, making sure that each line is no more than 60 characters long
• To help with the measurement, make one line 60 (or 50 or 45) characters long by typing an X 60 (or 55, etc.) times.
• Don't let any lines of your resume be longer than that line of X's.
• Use spaces not tabs for indenting.
• Use capitalization and lines of equal signs (see above) or dashes to add some "underlining" for emphasis
• Don't try to center or justify the text.
• Be sure to delete the line of X's before you send your message.
This should keep the margins and indenting of your resume neat.
• Don't accidentally add contact information (your name, address, phone numbers, and "real" e-mail address).
Test Before You Send to an Employer
Test your resume by sending your resume to yourself, first, after you have gone through the steps above. Then, send it to friends who hopefully use a different Internet Service Provider and e-mail software to thoroughly test your resume. Particularly if you use AOL, test your ASCII resume by sending it to someone outside of AOL.
Wall Street Journal
Promoting Yourself on LinkedIn
Q: As a LinkedIn user, I am seeing many people stating, "looking for a job opportunity" and other similar statements in their profile or status. If you are unemployed, is it good to announce that you are looking for a job this way, or does it potentially damage your image?
A: In the past, it was common to try to hide the fact that you'd lost your job. But that has changed in the current economy. "The stigma of being unemployed in this economy is almost non-existent," says Terry Karp, career counselor and co-founder of the Bay Area Career Center in San Francisco. "It is commonly understood that many talented people have been laid off completely due to a business decision by the company, not their performance."
While it's acceptable to let people know that you are looking for a position, it's important to approach it professionally and to be specific about your needs. One way to do this is to use LinkedIn's "professional headline" to establish your identity. Ms. Karp recommends adding the words "in transition" or "seeking a new challenge" to your title. LinkedIn also gives you the opportunity to fill in a status box. "Use this area to describe contract or consulting gigs you have as well as any volunteer work you are doing," suggests Ms. Karp. "This approach enables you to reinforce your brand through the headline as well as highlight current relevant projects."
Dan Schawbel, author of "Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success," also believes in getting the word out. "If your network is unaware that you're job searching, then how are they supposed to support your search?" he asks. "Visibility creates opportunities, both in marketing products and with people."
When crafting your profile, you need to be honest, says LinkedIn spokeswoman Krista Canfield. "Don't list on your profile or résumé that you're doing free-lance work if you really aren't," she says. "Hiring managers may ask you about that free-lance work or consulting gig during the interview and if you don't have the references to back that work up, it could count against you."
If you aren't doing any contract or other work, then you'll want to at least list a position that reflects the type of role you're seeking. For example, you could include something along the lines of: "open to free-lance and consulting work in the graphic design industry" or "seeking a challenging sales position in the real-estate sector," suggests Ms. Canfield.
You'll also want to update your status regularly. "Status updates remind your network that you're looking for a position and what types of jobs you're looking for," she says. "Plus, you never know. Someone in your network might know someone that works at the company you're researching."
Andrew Ravens, assistant vice president for corporate communications at Eastern Bank in Boston, credits LinkedIn status updates for helping two friends land jobs. One friend mentioned in her update that she was moving back to the Washington, D.C., area. Mr. Ravens saw the update and immediately put her in touch with an old college roommate who works in the same field. Through the connection, the friend eventually landed a job. In the other case, a friend posted an update that she was looking for broadcast journalism work. Again, Mr. Ravens was able to connect her with someone in the field. "It made me feel really good to help them out, especially with things so tough out there," says Mr. Ravens. "If it weren't for their status updates, I wouldn't have even known they were looking."
In order to have your status updates seen, you'll need to grow your network, say the experts. "The larger your LinkedIn network is, both in volume and in real relationships, the better your chances are at finding a job," says Mr. Schawbel. "Most jobs come from second- and third-degree contacts anyway, so it's not just who you know but who they know and who knows you."
Wall Street Journal
A: In the past, it was common to try to hide the fact that you'd lost your job. But that has changed in the current economy. "The stigma of being unemployed in this economy is almost non-existent," says Terry Karp, career counselor and co-founder of the Bay Area Career Center in San Francisco. "It is commonly understood that many talented people have been laid off completely due to a business decision by the company, not their performance."
While it's acceptable to let people know that you are looking for a position, it's important to approach it professionally and to be specific about your needs. One way to do this is to use LinkedIn's "professional headline" to establish your identity. Ms. Karp recommends adding the words "in transition" or "seeking a new challenge" to your title. LinkedIn also gives you the opportunity to fill in a status box. "Use this area to describe contract or consulting gigs you have as well as any volunteer work you are doing," suggests Ms. Karp. "This approach enables you to reinforce your brand through the headline as well as highlight current relevant projects."
Dan Schawbel, author of "Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success," also believes in getting the word out. "If your network is unaware that you're job searching, then how are they supposed to support your search?" he asks. "Visibility creates opportunities, both in marketing products and with people."
When crafting your profile, you need to be honest, says LinkedIn spokeswoman Krista Canfield. "Don't list on your profile or résumé that you're doing free-lance work if you really aren't," she says. "Hiring managers may ask you about that free-lance work or consulting gig during the interview and if you don't have the references to back that work up, it could count against you."
If you aren't doing any contract or other work, then you'll want to at least list a position that reflects the type of role you're seeking. For example, you could include something along the lines of: "open to free-lance and consulting work in the graphic design industry" or "seeking a challenging sales position in the real-estate sector," suggests Ms. Canfield.
You'll also want to update your status regularly. "Status updates remind your network that you're looking for a position and what types of jobs you're looking for," she says. "Plus, you never know. Someone in your network might know someone that works at the company you're researching."
Andrew Ravens, assistant vice president for corporate communications at Eastern Bank in Boston, credits LinkedIn status updates for helping two friends land jobs. One friend mentioned in her update that she was moving back to the Washington, D.C., area. Mr. Ravens saw the update and immediately put her in touch with an old college roommate who works in the same field. Through the connection, the friend eventually landed a job. In the other case, a friend posted an update that she was looking for broadcast journalism work. Again, Mr. Ravens was able to connect her with someone in the field. "It made me feel really good to help them out, especially with things so tough out there," says Mr. Ravens. "If it weren't for their status updates, I wouldn't have even known they were looking."
In order to have your status updates seen, you'll need to grow your network, say the experts. "The larger your LinkedIn network is, both in volume and in real relationships, the better your chances are at finding a job," says Mr. Schawbel. "Most jobs come from second- and third-degree contacts anyway, so it's not just who you know but who they know and who knows you."
Wall Street Journal
Turn Off PC, Check Résumé
Q: I was let go from my job last November after 20 years but haven't been able to find a new one even though I am constantly on the Internet and the phone. Should I be doing something else?
A: You need to spend less time at your computer and more time meeting people who can help you. Join trade, industry and community groups that will allow you to mingle with a cross section of people, says Jan Cannon, a career adviser in Boston.
When people ask what you do, reply with a short, focused statement that includes your professional title and a brief description of your abilities. Employees who have spent many years at one company sometimes have trouble describing themselves professionally because they've done so many things, says David Walker, managing director of the Denver office of Drake Beam Morin, an outplacement firm.
Companies prefer to hire people who are referred to them or make themselves known in other ways. This saves employers the trouble and cost of advertising or hiring a recruiter. Your goal should be to find out about jobs before they're advertised and before other job hunters hear about them.
In some communities, driving around can help turn up a variety of leads, says Dr. Cannon. Read signs posted on new construction to learn if employers are moving to your community and visit office parks. "What happens a lot in job hunting is serendipity," says Mr. Walker. "One person introduces you to the next, and they introduce you to a third, and that's the person you were supposed to meet."
When a search stalls, it sometimes helps to start fresh. If you haven't been invited to interview, your résumé may lack focus or be cluttered with too much detail. Consider asking a professional for help.
Wall Street Journal
A: You need to spend less time at your computer and more time meeting people who can help you. Join trade, industry and community groups that will allow you to mingle with a cross section of people, says Jan Cannon, a career adviser in Boston.
When people ask what you do, reply with a short, focused statement that includes your professional title and a brief description of your abilities. Employees who have spent many years at one company sometimes have trouble describing themselves professionally because they've done so many things, says David Walker, managing director of the Denver office of Drake Beam Morin, an outplacement firm.
Companies prefer to hire people who are referred to them or make themselves known in other ways. This saves employers the trouble and cost of advertising or hiring a recruiter. Your goal should be to find out about jobs before they're advertised and before other job hunters hear about them.
In some communities, driving around can help turn up a variety of leads, says Dr. Cannon. Read signs posted on new construction to learn if employers are moving to your community and visit office parks. "What happens a lot in job hunting is serendipity," says Mr. Walker. "One person introduces you to the next, and they introduce you to a third, and that's the person you were supposed to meet."
When a search stalls, it sometimes helps to start fresh. If you haven't been invited to interview, your résumé may lack focus or be cluttered with too much detail. Consider asking a professional for help.
Wall Street Journal
Job Hunters Beware
There's been no shortage of warnings about the career dangers of posting racy content on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Yet many job hunters still don't heed that advice, and others don't realize they're doing just as much damage by doing things like bending the truth or spamming their résumés. Recruiters say such faux-pas can result in immediate and lasting career damage.
"You're going to be remembered—and not in a positive way," says Colleen McCreary, chief people officer for Zynga Game Network Inc., a San Francisco developer of social games including FarmVille. "Recruiters move around a lot from company to company, and that can carry on with them for a long period of time."
Ms. McCreary says candidates consistently damage their reputations by sending cover letters that disingenuously claim a specific position at the company is their dream job. With a check of Zynga's applicant-tracking system, she can see that those people submitted the same letter for several other openings, too. "They've now lost all their integrity," she says. As an alternative, she recommends that job hunters write about the two or three positions they're most qualified for in a single letter.
Job hunters also regularly flub by submitting their résumés to multiple recruiters and hiring managers at a single firm. "What they're doing is a huge turn off because it sucks up a lot of time for people," says Ms. McCreary.
Likewise, job hunters repeatedly derail their chances by applying for positions for which they don't even meet the basic requirements. "There are a few people out there who seem to see it fit to apply to every job we ever post," says Dan Goldsmith, a managing partner at AC Lion, an executive-search firm in New York. "Those people just go right in the trash folder."
There are also job hunters who repeatedly send the same recruiters their résumés year after year, which can give the impression that they're desperate or a job hopper, adds Mr. Goldsmith.
Liars make up another category of memorable job hunters. "People will say they graduated from [a] school and you find out from looking online that... they just took a course," says Ms. McCreary.
Executive recruiter Russ Riendeau says he checks candidates' résumés against their LinkedIn profiles and often discovers discrepancies. "It's helping me assess whether candidate is indeed who they say they are," says Mr. Riendeau, a partner at East Wing Group, a search firm in Barrington, Ill. Résumés should tell a candidate's full story, he says.
Meanwhile, many job hunters are also continuing to overlook the dangers of posting provocative photos and other dubious content on social-media sites. Case in point: Recruiter Lori Fenstermaker says she lost interest in a recent candidate for a legal-assistant job after finding her raunchy MySpace profile. "She represented herself in a way that would not align with the company's philosophy and ethics," says Ms. Fenstermaker, founder of Automatic LLC, a search firm in Grand Rapids, Mich. "Anything someone publishes online could knock a person out of the running per se."
There are also some job hunters who are unwittingly going out of their way to spoil their prospects. Last year, a candidate for a senior client-services position invited Mr. Goldsmith to be part of his Facebook network. After accepting, the recruiter found a semi-nude photo of the candidate, prompting Mr. Goldsmith to withdraw this person from consideration. "It was so horribly inappropriate," the recruiter recalls. "To flaunt that with such a lack of sensitivity to professional decorum is very disquieting."
Wall Street Journal
"You're going to be remembered—and not in a positive way," says Colleen McCreary, chief people officer for Zynga Game Network Inc., a San Francisco developer of social games including FarmVille. "Recruiters move around a lot from company to company, and that can carry on with them for a long period of time."
Ms. McCreary says candidates consistently damage their reputations by sending cover letters that disingenuously claim a specific position at the company is their dream job. With a check of Zynga's applicant-tracking system, she can see that those people submitted the same letter for several other openings, too. "They've now lost all their integrity," she says. As an alternative, she recommends that job hunters write about the two or three positions they're most qualified for in a single letter.
Job hunters also regularly flub by submitting their résumés to multiple recruiters and hiring managers at a single firm. "What they're doing is a huge turn off because it sucks up a lot of time for people," says Ms. McCreary.
Likewise, job hunters repeatedly derail their chances by applying for positions for which they don't even meet the basic requirements. "There are a few people out there who seem to see it fit to apply to every job we ever post," says Dan Goldsmith, a managing partner at AC Lion, an executive-search firm in New York. "Those people just go right in the trash folder."
There are also job hunters who repeatedly send the same recruiters their résumés year after year, which can give the impression that they're desperate or a job hopper, adds Mr. Goldsmith.
Liars make up another category of memorable job hunters. "People will say they graduated from [a] school and you find out from looking online that... they just took a course," says Ms. McCreary.
Executive recruiter Russ Riendeau says he checks candidates' résumés against their LinkedIn profiles and often discovers discrepancies. "It's helping me assess whether candidate is indeed who they say they are," says Mr. Riendeau, a partner at East Wing Group, a search firm in Barrington, Ill. Résumés should tell a candidate's full story, he says.
Meanwhile, many job hunters are also continuing to overlook the dangers of posting provocative photos and other dubious content on social-media sites. Case in point: Recruiter Lori Fenstermaker says she lost interest in a recent candidate for a legal-assistant job after finding her raunchy MySpace profile. "She represented herself in a way that would not align with the company's philosophy and ethics," says Ms. Fenstermaker, founder of Automatic LLC, a search firm in Grand Rapids, Mich. "Anything someone publishes online could knock a person out of the running per se."
There are also some job hunters who are unwittingly going out of their way to spoil their prospects. Last year, a candidate for a senior client-services position invited Mr. Goldsmith to be part of his Facebook network. After accepting, the recruiter found a semi-nude photo of the candidate, prompting Mr. Goldsmith to withdraw this person from consideration. "It was so horribly inappropriate," the recruiter recalls. "To flaunt that with such a lack of sensitivity to professional decorum is very disquieting."
Wall Street Journal
Manage Your Online Reputation—Before Someone Else Does
Did you know you’re being Googled right now? You are.
Google isn’t the only search engine that recruiters are using to find out more information about you. Social networks have search engines too. A recent Microsoft survey, “Online Reputation in a Connected World,” stated that 78% of recruiters are using search engines, and 63% are using social networks, to conduct background checks on candidates.
As an employer myself, I’ve received a lot of internship applications from students who are just plain careless about their online reputation. For instance, I searched for a student’s name on Facebook, and a group appeared that was protesting her getting kicked out of her dormitory. I decided to hire someone else!
The Internet is the global talent pool, which means that everyone in the world, including you, has to have an online presence. It also means that you have to own it, and manage it, for the rest of your life.
Here are the top ways to control your online reputation:
Purchase your domain name. For approximately $10 a year at GoDaddy.com, you can claim your full name as a domain name. This will help you protect yourself from others who may share the same name as you. If your name isn’t available, then use your middle initial, your full middle name, or a shortened version of your name. The .com extension carries the most weight in search engines and then .net. Don’t bother registering .org, .us, or another domain name extension, because they aren’t authoritative in search engines. In addition, if you buy hosting, you can create a Web site that displays your credentials under your domain name. Domain names usually rank first for those keyword terms. For example, if you Google “McDonalds,” McDonalds.com comes up first.
Develop a blog and connect it with your name. You may choose to either have a static Web site or a blog under your name. To get started, I recommend installing Wordpress.org on your hosting service. Your blog doesn’t have to be under yourfullname.com either. You can purchase an additional domain of your choice, as long as you put your name in the description and title. This way, the search engines will recognize the site as being associated with your name, and it will rank high accordingly. A blog can help you control more of your digital presence because you have more opportunities for “backlinks” (links pointing back to your site) and you can publish multiple posts, which is looked upon highly by search engines.
Claim your name on social networks. You should own vanity URLs for the following networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google. Just like your Web site or blog, these are all web properties that you can manage. For Facebook, go to Facebook.com/usernames to claim your short URL. For LinkedIn, create a custom URL when editing your profile. For Twitter, just register your full name as your account name. Finally, for Google, go to Google.com/profiles and fill out your profile completely, because the most thorough profiles (for each full name) will appear at the bottom of the Google search results. If you want to know if your name is available on other social networks, go to KnowEm.com.
Contribute content to other sites. By writing a guest article, or blog post for another site, you’ll not only be able to include links back to your profiles or Web site, but it will increase the number of search-engine results that appear under your name. Create a Web site or a blog before you reach out to others asking to write, so that you can direct traffic back to your Web site, and increase its authority in search engines.
Get attention from the media. If you have a story to tell or expertise to share, locate bloggers and traditional journalists online and build relationships with them. Comment on their blogs or articles for a few weeks, and then send them a note with resources, tips, or even your story. Who knows, you might even get your name in The Wall Street Journal or a small niche blog. When you receive media attention, your name will not only appear in your search engine results, but it may also emerge in Google news feeds.
Review your social network privacy settings. It’s easy for students or young professionals to neglect their privacy settings on Facebook. You now have complete control over how you’re viewed by each one of your Facebook friends. You can set your privacy settings, and then use the PrivacyDefender application to view a graphical representation of what information you’re sharing with your network. This is important, especially when you start connecting to coworkers, managers, and other professionals online.
Use reputation management tools. To protect, and monitor, your online reputation, use a variety of tools, along with Google Reader. Google Reader will capture alerts for your name as they appear across the Web. First, set a comprehensive Google alert for your full name, and common misspellings, so that when you’re mentioned on a blog or in a news story, you’ll be aware of it. Next, use Backtype.com to set an alert for your name within blog comments, and then BoardTracker.com so that you’re notified when your name appears in a discussion forum thread. Use TweetBeep.com to get alerts for when your name is mentioned on Twitter. Finally, use Social Mention occasionally to search through all social sites for your name.
By being proactive with your online reputation, you’re able to have more control over what other people see when they search for you. This will not only help you right now, but for the rest of your career, as long as you keep tabs on it and manage it.
Dan Schawbel is managing partner of Millennial Branding LLC and founder of the Student Branding Blog.
Wall Street Journal
Google isn’t the only search engine that recruiters are using to find out more information about you. Social networks have search engines too. A recent Microsoft survey, “Online Reputation in a Connected World,” stated that 78% of recruiters are using search engines, and 63% are using social networks, to conduct background checks on candidates.
As an employer myself, I’ve received a lot of internship applications from students who are just plain careless about their online reputation. For instance, I searched for a student’s name on Facebook, and a group appeared that was protesting her getting kicked out of her dormitory. I decided to hire someone else!
The Internet is the global talent pool, which means that everyone in the world, including you, has to have an online presence. It also means that you have to own it, and manage it, for the rest of your life.
Here are the top ways to control your online reputation:
Purchase your domain name. For approximately $10 a year at GoDaddy.com, you can claim your full name as a domain name. This will help you protect yourself from others who may share the same name as you. If your name isn’t available, then use your middle initial, your full middle name, or a shortened version of your name. The .com extension carries the most weight in search engines and then .net. Don’t bother registering .org, .us, or another domain name extension, because they aren’t authoritative in search engines. In addition, if you buy hosting, you can create a Web site that displays your credentials under your domain name. Domain names usually rank first for those keyword terms. For example, if you Google “McDonalds,” McDonalds.com comes up first.
Develop a blog and connect it with your name. You may choose to either have a static Web site or a blog under your name. To get started, I recommend installing Wordpress.org on your hosting service. Your blog doesn’t have to be under yourfullname.com either. You can purchase an additional domain of your choice, as long as you put your name in the description and title. This way, the search engines will recognize the site as being associated with your name, and it will rank high accordingly. A blog can help you control more of your digital presence because you have more opportunities for “backlinks” (links pointing back to your site) and you can publish multiple posts, which is looked upon highly by search engines.
Claim your name on social networks. You should own vanity URLs for the following networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google. Just like your Web site or blog, these are all web properties that you can manage. For Facebook, go to Facebook.com/usernames to claim your short URL. For LinkedIn, create a custom URL when editing your profile. For Twitter, just register your full name as your account name. Finally, for Google, go to Google.com/profiles and fill out your profile completely, because the most thorough profiles (for each full name) will appear at the bottom of the Google search results. If you want to know if your name is available on other social networks, go to KnowEm.com.
Contribute content to other sites. By writing a guest article, or blog post for another site, you’ll not only be able to include links back to your profiles or Web site, but it will increase the number of search-engine results that appear under your name. Create a Web site or a blog before you reach out to others asking to write, so that you can direct traffic back to your Web site, and increase its authority in search engines.
Get attention from the media. If you have a story to tell or expertise to share, locate bloggers and traditional journalists online and build relationships with them. Comment on their blogs or articles for a few weeks, and then send them a note with resources, tips, or even your story. Who knows, you might even get your name in The Wall Street Journal or a small niche blog. When you receive media attention, your name will not only appear in your search engine results, but it may also emerge in Google news feeds.
Review your social network privacy settings. It’s easy for students or young professionals to neglect their privacy settings on Facebook. You now have complete control over how you’re viewed by each one of your Facebook friends. You can set your privacy settings, and then use the PrivacyDefender application to view a graphical representation of what information you’re sharing with your network. This is important, especially when you start connecting to coworkers, managers, and other professionals online.
Use reputation management tools. To protect, and monitor, your online reputation, use a variety of tools, along with Google Reader. Google Reader will capture alerts for your name as they appear across the Web. First, set a comprehensive Google alert for your full name, and common misspellings, so that when you’re mentioned on a blog or in a news story, you’ll be aware of it. Next, use Backtype.com to set an alert for your name within blog comments, and then BoardTracker.com so that you’re notified when your name appears in a discussion forum thread. Use TweetBeep.com to get alerts for when your name is mentioned on Twitter. Finally, use Social Mention occasionally to search through all social sites for your name.
By being proactive with your online reputation, you’re able to have more control over what other people see when they search for you. This will not only help you right now, but for the rest of your career, as long as you keep tabs on it and manage it.
Dan Schawbel is managing partner of Millennial Branding LLC and founder of the Student Branding Blog.
Wall Street Journal
How LinkedIn will fire up your career
If you need a job, or just want a better one, here's a number that will give you hope: 50,000. That's how many people the giant consulting firm Accenture plans to hire this year. Yes, actual jobs, with pay. It's looking for telecom consultants, finance experts, software specialists, and many more. You could be one of them -- but will Accenture find you?
To pick these hires the old-fashioned way, the firm would rely on headhunters, employee referrals, and job boards. But the game has changed. To get the attention of John Campagnino, Accenture's head of global recruiting, you'd better be on the web.
To put a sharper point on it: If you don't have a profile on LinkedIn, you're nowhere. Partly motivated by the cheaper, faster recruiting he can do online, Campagnino plans to make as many as 40% of his hires in the next few years through social media. Says he: "This is the future of recruiting for our company."
Facebook is for fun. Tweets have a short shelf life. If you're serious about managing your career, the only social site that really matters is LinkedIn. In today's job market an invitation to "join my professional network" has become more obligatory -- and more useful -- than swapping business cards and churning out résumés.
More than 60 million members have logged on to create profiles, upload their employment histories, and build connections with people they know. Visitors to the site have jumped 31% from last year to 17.6 million in February. They include your customers. Your colleagues. Your competitors. Your boss. And being on LinkedIn puts you in the company of people with impressive credentials: The average member is a college-educated 43-year-old making $107,000. More than a quarter are senior executives. Every Fortune 500 company is represented. That's why recruiters rely on the site to find even the highest-caliber executives: Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) found CFO Jeff Epstein via LinkedIn in 2008.
The reason LinkedIn works so well for professional matchmaking is that most of its members already have jobs. A cadre of happily employed people use it to research clients before sales calls, ask their connections for advice, and read up on where former colleagues are landing gigs.
In this environment, job seekers can do their networking without looking as if they're shopping themselves around. This population is more valuable to recruiters as well. While online job boards like Monster.com focus on showcasing active job hunters, very often the most talented and sought-after recruits are those currently employed. Headhunters have a name for people like these: passive candidates. The $8 billion recruiting industry is built on the fact that they are hard to find. LinkedIn changes that. It's the equivalent of a little black book -- highly detailed and exposed for everyone to see.
For a generation of professionals trained to cloak their contacts at all costs, this transparency is counterintuitive. So far most conversations about how to use social networks professionally have focused on what not to do: Don't share drunken photos on Facebook. Don't use Twitter to brag about playing hooky from the office.
0:00 /4:42LinkedIn wants you
But as companies turn to the web to mine for prospective job candidates, it's no longer advantageous to refrain from broadcasting personal information. Instead, the new imperative is to present your professional skills as attractively as possible, packing your profile with keywords (marketing manager, global sourcing specialist) that will send your name to the top of recruiters' searches.
At the same time, you can connect your online professional interactions in one place, joining groups on the site (LinkedIn has more than 500,000 of them, based on companies, schools, and affinities), offering advice, and linking your Twitter account and blog updates to your profile.
"You Google other people, so don't you think they're Googling you?" LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman asks. "Part of a networked world is that people will be looking you up, and when they do, you want to control what they find." Helping you present yourself well online is just the start. LinkedIn plans to go far beyond, making itself an active and indispensable tool for your career path. The secrets lie buried in the data: those 60 million profiles, including yours.
In a business where data wonks are rock stars, Dipchand ("Deep") Nishar is Bono. During his five-year tenure at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Nishar, 41, was instrumental in developing its ad platform, its mobile strategy, and products for the Asia-Pacific region. Hoffman spent almost a year recruiting him to be vice president of products, until finally, in January 2009, Nishar took a right out of Google's Mountain View, Calif., parking lot and drove two blocks to his new office at LinkedIn's headquarters.
Having so much experience in Asia, where mobile messaging and other social networks were adopted even faster than in the U.S., Nishar understood the value of a system that would help consumers organize all those digital relationships.
But it was one personal interaction that really sold him on LinkedIn's potential. Nishar was trying to decide whether his daughter, who was 12 at the time, should spend her summer at a program offered by Johns Hopkins University. He posted the question to his status update on both Facebook and LinkedIn. While he received more comments on Facebook, they were casual and congratulatory. Only four of his LinkedIn contacts wrote him, but they offered a rich analysis, describing experiences with the Johns Hopkins program that left them better off academically; they persuaded him to enroll his daughter. "People are in a different context and mindset when they're in a professional network," he says.
This was Hoffman's bet when he founded the site in 2003. It was just after eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) paid $1.5 billion to buy PayPal, where Hoffman had been a founding board member and executive vice president, and he was casting about for his next big project. Hoffman, 42, was already one of Silicon Valley's most hyperconnected players, with investments in dozens of other startups (including Facebook), so it was natural for him to think of a way for people to build on their links.
"I realized that everyone will have their professional identity online so they can be discoverable for the things that will be important to them," he remembers, waving his hand as he sits back in his chair. "The obvious one is jobs, but it's not just jobs. It's also clients and services. It's people looking to trade tips on how you do, say, debt financing in the new capital markets." Backed by other angel investors like him, Hoffman and four others put up the initial funding and gathered a tiny staff to launch the site as a bare-bones operation in his Mountain View home.
At first, users were slow to embrace the service. Plenty of Web 2.0 entertainment websites were enjoying meteoric rises and monstrous buyouts by big media companies. (In fact, after helping fund YouTube, Hoffman gave its founders office space for three weeks in their early days.)
By comparison, LinkedIn seemed a little static; it was only for résumés. As Facebook caught on among bona fide adults, it created a population of web users fluent in updating their status, posting links, and microblogging. Hoffman could sense that social networking was finally becoming mainstream, and he needed to give LinkedIn's users a reason to stick around before they moved their résumés and other professional information to platforms like Facebook. So last December he recruited former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner to step into the CEO position. And he won over Nishar.
John Klodnicki wasn't looking for a job when he took the call from an IBM recruiter who had found his profile on LinkedIn. As a program director for data-storage company EMC, he spent five days a week on the road consulting with pharmaceutical companies. "I was moderately happy," he said. Sure, all that traveling was a drag.
On that Friday afternoon Klodnicki was scarfing a sandwich while standing in the security line at the airport in Providence, trying to get home to his family in New Jersey. The line was long, so he had the time to chat about opportunities. After going through several rounds of interviews, the initial job fell through, but the relationship had been started. He kept in touch, and last September, Klodnicki started work as an associate partner developing new business with pharmaceutical companies at IBM's Philadelphia office, just half an hour from his home.
Thanks to LinkedIn, people like Klodnicki are increasingly easy to find. "It's a great equalizer for us. It gives the recruiter an opportunity to reach out directly to a candidate," says Annie Shanklin Jones, who heads U.S. recruiting for IBM (IBM, Fortune 500). "In a company the size of IBM, that's significant."
IBM has always been one of the first companies to experiment with new social technologies. Its recruiters use Twitter to broadcast job openings, and the company organizes its own talent communities. But Jones says LinkedIn is the most important social-media site for reaching prospective hires.
Cost saving is a major motivation for companies looking to bypass big headhunting firms. "If I were going to go out to a major recruiting firm, for example, we could potentially pay upwards of $100,000 to $150,000 for one person," says Accenture's Campagnino. "Start multiplying that by a number of senior executives, and you start talking about significant numbers of dollars very quickly."
If anybody should be nervous about that, it's L. Kevin Kelly. As CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, one of the most prominent recruiting firms, he has made a living out of the hiring market's opacity. As he watched the rise of LinkedIn, he knew it was a disruptive force he would have to learn well; last summer he flew to the Bay Area to have dinner with Hoffman.
Their companies have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, LinkedIn is a welcome tool for recruiters, and Heidrick & Struggles is a customer. LinkedIn's software allows recruiters to search its database without access to photographs, thus keeping in compliance with antidiscrimination laws, and to contact anybody in the LinkedIn network. But the recession forced companies to cut back on their budgets for outside firms.
Heidrick & Struggles' revenues fell 36% in 2009, and while business has started to creep back, Kelly is aggressively trying to remake the company as an adviser rather than simply a search company, offering consulting on ways to handle staffing issues and select board members. Now it's just 7% of the business, but he expects it to grow to half of what Heidrick & Struggles does.
There will still be a need for headhunters and traditional methods of hiring, though, because LinkedIn doesn't work for everything. And it has to be used carefully.
"If you're not managing that site, you can erode your brand," says Arlette Guthrie, the vice president of talent management at Home Depot. Guthrie has learned how to use the site through trial and error. Over the past few years she experimented with using LinkedIn for all hires -- including seasonal workers, Home Depot will need 80,000 people in the next year -- but discovered that LinkedIn didn't offer better applicants for the bulk of the company's positions, mostly in their retail stores. Though plenty of cashiers and doctors and teachers join LinkedIn, the site's primary membership is corporate professionals.
Now Guthrie uses LinkedIn mostly for three hard-to-fill areas: supply chain, information technology, and global sourcing. Some of Guthrie's recruiters spend time daily on the site, reading up on potential candidates, chatting with them in groups and on message boards, and responding to inquiries. The approach has worked well. Using services like this on the Internet she has been able to bring down the time it takes to fill the positions, an important metric among recruiters, by nearly half.
At the entry to the "Hope" classroom on the satellite campus of Belhaven University in Houston, Susan Thorpe passes out a small book called 12.5 Ways to Get Ahead on LinkedIn. Up front, her husband, Doug Thorpe, who self-published the guide, has drawn a diagram on the whiteboard that looks like an elaborate football play. A series of circles labeled one, two, and three stretch out from a central bubble labeled you. A dozen job seekers take notes as Thorpe describes how to call upon first-level contacts -- those former colleagues and friends you've befriended on the site -- to reach second-level contacts. It's a process as old as human relations: Hey, could you introduce me to your friend? Thorpe explains the etiquette and technique of doing it digitally. "Write a personal note when you ask someone to connect," he tells his students.
Thorpe, 57, is one of hundreds of consultants who have sprung up to help professionals establish themselves online. After he lost his mortgage company two years ago in the real estate crash, he started Jobs Ministry Southwest, a religious nonprofit that offers free support for job seekers in the greater Houston area. A dozen of the 160 people who attended the previous day's support group have paid $24.95 for a half-day introduction to LinkedIn.
Thorpe's main message to his clients is that it's important to complete your profile. Get recommendations from former co-workers. Use keywords to bring out the skills you want to highlight. Join groups: Recruiters often scour professional groups to round up potential candidates. Answer questions from colleagues that showcase your professional expertise.
One of the students, Heinz Meyer, exhales audibly at the prospect of all that time online. "This could turn into a 24/7 thing real quick," says Meyer, 67, who had just lost his job at Universal Pegasus, a pipeline construction company. Thorpe responds by suggesting the class spend a concentrated amount of time on the site each day, say 30 minutes. Believe it or not, LinkedIn doesn't pay this guy.
There is much debate in the class about Thorpe's suggestion that job seekers should include professional photographs with their profiles. ("Don't use dogs, horses, cats, or cows in the background," he says.) Older job seekers in particular are worried that their gray hair will trigger age discrimination. There are drawbacks to so much transparency, they argue. Doesn't it ensure that employers potentially know more about you than they should?
It's a question Hoffman considered right from the start. For all the benefit that LinkedIn brings to the job hunt, it can't erase fundamental challenges in the job market. One big reality is that plenty of baby boomers are out of work as the industries in which they've developed three decades of expertise move overseas or change irrevocably.
These job hunters will need to reinvent themselves in new careers. The thing about social-networking profiles is that they don't lie, at least not successfully. You can't fudge your experience or hide your age, because your connections know you in real life. So Hoffman is inclined to agree with Thorpe's advice: Post your photo. "A LinkedIn profile lets you represent yourself as strong as you can, so build that to your advantage," he says.
Okay, but how do you finally land a job? It's the last question that Thorpe's students ask as he wraps up his lecture. Thorpe turns back to the elaborate diagram on the board, pointing to the circled numbers. Social networking is just a more efficient way of reaching out to people you know -- and people they know. You work the network. You connect with people like John Campagnino at Accenture if you want a job in consulting. Then you turn off the computer, and you call your connections on the phone. And you invite them to lunch.
Garth Beams
Title: Animator, Art Director, Graphic Designer, Illustrator
URL: linkedin.com/in/garthbeams
Garth is a creative professional with an impressive background, having worked as the Head of the Graphics Department for nine years on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Because he's done so much visual work, it's worth noting that samples of it can't actually be found on his profile. He should use either the SlideShare or Google Presentations application to build a presentation of his work to give visual proof of his design and artistic strengths.
And for richer examples, Garth might also want to link to an online portfolio.
Jodi Glickman Brown
Title: President
Company: Great On The Job
URL: linkedin.com/in/greatonthejob
Jodi has yet another example of a great LinkedIn profile that clearly shows her work history and offers a glimpse into her day-to-day professional life via her blog.
Still, she could make some improvements to the Experience and Education areas. First, she doesn't indicate the years she attended, making it difficult for former classmates to connect with her. Her Experience section doesn't list details about her positions. (Vague titles like "volunteer" don't tell us much.)
Adding information about them would make her easier to find in searches and give readers a better sense of her work. Also, she has the same position of "Policy Analyst" listed three times consecutively. This is probably a mistake, but colleagues pay attention to these kind of details.
Rob Dalton
Title: Dir. of Business Development
Company: Big Belly Solar
URL: linkedin.com/pub/rob-dalton/4/aa7/8a9
The first thing we see when looking at Rob's profile is his apparent distaste for capital letters. In the professional world, presentation goes a long way, and Rob's profile looks like it was written without much care or attention to detail. His headline, "I've got a big belly," trivializes things.
Changing that to a more descriptive title would help those who don't know Rob get a better sense of who he is and what he does.
Still, Rob's profile has some very compelling data hiding beneath the rough presentation. He lists impressive accomplishments, and it's a shame that many interested parties may write him off simply due to the fact he writes in sentence fragments and doesn't capitalize.
Cleaning up the various elements would take his online professional identity to a whole new level.
Nicolette Toussaint
Title: Showroom and marketing manager
Company: Keane Kitchen Showrooms
URL: linkedin.com/in/ntoussaint
Nicolette has a list of glowing recommendations that lend a lot of credit to her well-organized list of skills and specialties, and she's rearranged her profile to bring them closer to the top of the page.
This is an excellent strategy for guiding the viewer to the best areas of a profile.
Also listed is a thorough and complete job history, noting the highlights and measures of success for each as a bulleted list in each section. Applications powered by TypePad, WordPress, and SlideShare feature her Home Design blog and a visual presentation she has created, though it's worth pointing out that the first two apps serve the same purpose and thus are actually a bit redundant.
Lucas Manfield
Title: Student
Company: Stanford University
URL: linkedin.com/in/manfield
It's not too early for students to start building professional profiles. These temporary positions he's listed serve as great opportunities for young professionals to ask for recommendations from mentors and colleagues.
First, Lucas should add a professional profile photo to boost his recognizability. In the description area for his work as Stanford research assistant, he should discuss the project he was involved in. He may also be able to leverage LinkedIn Applications such as Box.net Files to upload work samples from his classes to highlight his academic prowess.
To build his network, Lucas should search for classmates and professors and connect with them. As he enters the job market, he will find that the work and connections he has made over the course of his school career will give him a great head start.
Fortune Magazine
To pick these hires the old-fashioned way, the firm would rely on headhunters, employee referrals, and job boards. But the game has changed. To get the attention of John Campagnino, Accenture's head of global recruiting, you'd better be on the web.
To put a sharper point on it: If you don't have a profile on LinkedIn, you're nowhere. Partly motivated by the cheaper, faster recruiting he can do online, Campagnino plans to make as many as 40% of his hires in the next few years through social media. Says he: "This is the future of recruiting for our company."
Facebook is for fun. Tweets have a short shelf life. If you're serious about managing your career, the only social site that really matters is LinkedIn. In today's job market an invitation to "join my professional network" has become more obligatory -- and more useful -- than swapping business cards and churning out résumés.
More than 60 million members have logged on to create profiles, upload their employment histories, and build connections with people they know. Visitors to the site have jumped 31% from last year to 17.6 million in February. They include your customers. Your colleagues. Your competitors. Your boss. And being on LinkedIn puts you in the company of people with impressive credentials: The average member is a college-educated 43-year-old making $107,000. More than a quarter are senior executives. Every Fortune 500 company is represented. That's why recruiters rely on the site to find even the highest-caliber executives: Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) found CFO Jeff Epstein via LinkedIn in 2008.
The reason LinkedIn works so well for professional matchmaking is that most of its members already have jobs. A cadre of happily employed people use it to research clients before sales calls, ask their connections for advice, and read up on where former colleagues are landing gigs.
In this environment, job seekers can do their networking without looking as if they're shopping themselves around. This population is more valuable to recruiters as well. While online job boards like Monster.com focus on showcasing active job hunters, very often the most talented and sought-after recruits are those currently employed. Headhunters have a name for people like these: passive candidates. The $8 billion recruiting industry is built on the fact that they are hard to find. LinkedIn changes that. It's the equivalent of a little black book -- highly detailed and exposed for everyone to see.
For a generation of professionals trained to cloak their contacts at all costs, this transparency is counterintuitive. So far most conversations about how to use social networks professionally have focused on what not to do: Don't share drunken photos on Facebook. Don't use Twitter to brag about playing hooky from the office.
0:00 /4:42LinkedIn wants you
But as companies turn to the web to mine for prospective job candidates, it's no longer advantageous to refrain from broadcasting personal information. Instead, the new imperative is to present your professional skills as attractively as possible, packing your profile with keywords (marketing manager, global sourcing specialist) that will send your name to the top of recruiters' searches.
At the same time, you can connect your online professional interactions in one place, joining groups on the site (LinkedIn has more than 500,000 of them, based on companies, schools, and affinities), offering advice, and linking your Twitter account and blog updates to your profile.
"You Google other people, so don't you think they're Googling you?" LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman asks. "Part of a networked world is that people will be looking you up, and when they do, you want to control what they find." Helping you present yourself well online is just the start. LinkedIn plans to go far beyond, making itself an active and indispensable tool for your career path. The secrets lie buried in the data: those 60 million profiles, including yours.
In a business where data wonks are rock stars, Dipchand ("Deep") Nishar is Bono. During his five-year tenure at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Nishar, 41, was instrumental in developing its ad platform, its mobile strategy, and products for the Asia-Pacific region. Hoffman spent almost a year recruiting him to be vice president of products, until finally, in January 2009, Nishar took a right out of Google's Mountain View, Calif., parking lot and drove two blocks to his new office at LinkedIn's headquarters.
Having so much experience in Asia, where mobile messaging and other social networks were adopted even faster than in the U.S., Nishar understood the value of a system that would help consumers organize all those digital relationships.
But it was one personal interaction that really sold him on LinkedIn's potential. Nishar was trying to decide whether his daughter, who was 12 at the time, should spend her summer at a program offered by Johns Hopkins University. He posted the question to his status update on both Facebook and LinkedIn. While he received more comments on Facebook, they were casual and congratulatory. Only four of his LinkedIn contacts wrote him, but they offered a rich analysis, describing experiences with the Johns Hopkins program that left them better off academically; they persuaded him to enroll his daughter. "People are in a different context and mindset when they're in a professional network," he says.
This was Hoffman's bet when he founded the site in 2003. It was just after eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) paid $1.5 billion to buy PayPal, where Hoffman had been a founding board member and executive vice president, and he was casting about for his next big project. Hoffman, 42, was already one of Silicon Valley's most hyperconnected players, with investments in dozens of other startups (including Facebook), so it was natural for him to think of a way for people to build on their links.
"I realized that everyone will have their professional identity online so they can be discoverable for the things that will be important to them," he remembers, waving his hand as he sits back in his chair. "The obvious one is jobs, but it's not just jobs. It's also clients and services. It's people looking to trade tips on how you do, say, debt financing in the new capital markets." Backed by other angel investors like him, Hoffman and four others put up the initial funding and gathered a tiny staff to launch the site as a bare-bones operation in his Mountain View home.
At first, users were slow to embrace the service. Plenty of Web 2.0 entertainment websites were enjoying meteoric rises and monstrous buyouts by big media companies. (In fact, after helping fund YouTube, Hoffman gave its founders office space for three weeks in their early days.)
By comparison, LinkedIn seemed a little static; it was only for résumés. As Facebook caught on among bona fide adults, it created a population of web users fluent in updating their status, posting links, and microblogging. Hoffman could sense that social networking was finally becoming mainstream, and he needed to give LinkedIn's users a reason to stick around before they moved their résumés and other professional information to platforms like Facebook. So last December he recruited former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner to step into the CEO position. And he won over Nishar.
John Klodnicki wasn't looking for a job when he took the call from an IBM recruiter who had found his profile on LinkedIn. As a program director for data-storage company EMC, he spent five days a week on the road consulting with pharmaceutical companies. "I was moderately happy," he said. Sure, all that traveling was a drag.
On that Friday afternoon Klodnicki was scarfing a sandwich while standing in the security line at the airport in Providence, trying to get home to his family in New Jersey. The line was long, so he had the time to chat about opportunities. After going through several rounds of interviews, the initial job fell through, but the relationship had been started. He kept in touch, and last September, Klodnicki started work as an associate partner developing new business with pharmaceutical companies at IBM's Philadelphia office, just half an hour from his home.
Thanks to LinkedIn, people like Klodnicki are increasingly easy to find. "It's a great equalizer for us. It gives the recruiter an opportunity to reach out directly to a candidate," says Annie Shanklin Jones, who heads U.S. recruiting for IBM (IBM, Fortune 500). "In a company the size of IBM, that's significant."
IBM has always been one of the first companies to experiment with new social technologies. Its recruiters use Twitter to broadcast job openings, and the company organizes its own talent communities. But Jones says LinkedIn is the most important social-media site for reaching prospective hires.
Cost saving is a major motivation for companies looking to bypass big headhunting firms. "If I were going to go out to a major recruiting firm, for example, we could potentially pay upwards of $100,000 to $150,000 for one person," says Accenture's Campagnino. "Start multiplying that by a number of senior executives, and you start talking about significant numbers of dollars very quickly."
If anybody should be nervous about that, it's L. Kevin Kelly. As CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, one of the most prominent recruiting firms, he has made a living out of the hiring market's opacity. As he watched the rise of LinkedIn, he knew it was a disruptive force he would have to learn well; last summer he flew to the Bay Area to have dinner with Hoffman.
Their companies have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, LinkedIn is a welcome tool for recruiters, and Heidrick & Struggles is a customer. LinkedIn's software allows recruiters to search its database without access to photographs, thus keeping in compliance with antidiscrimination laws, and to contact anybody in the LinkedIn network. But the recession forced companies to cut back on their budgets for outside firms.
Heidrick & Struggles' revenues fell 36% in 2009, and while business has started to creep back, Kelly is aggressively trying to remake the company as an adviser rather than simply a search company, offering consulting on ways to handle staffing issues and select board members. Now it's just 7% of the business, but he expects it to grow to half of what Heidrick & Struggles does.
There will still be a need for headhunters and traditional methods of hiring, though, because LinkedIn doesn't work for everything. And it has to be used carefully.
"If you're not managing that site, you can erode your brand," says Arlette Guthrie, the vice president of talent management at Home Depot. Guthrie has learned how to use the site through trial and error. Over the past few years she experimented with using LinkedIn for all hires -- including seasonal workers, Home Depot will need 80,000 people in the next year -- but discovered that LinkedIn didn't offer better applicants for the bulk of the company's positions, mostly in their retail stores. Though plenty of cashiers and doctors and teachers join LinkedIn, the site's primary membership is corporate professionals.
Now Guthrie uses LinkedIn mostly for three hard-to-fill areas: supply chain, information technology, and global sourcing. Some of Guthrie's recruiters spend time daily on the site, reading up on potential candidates, chatting with them in groups and on message boards, and responding to inquiries. The approach has worked well. Using services like this on the Internet she has been able to bring down the time it takes to fill the positions, an important metric among recruiters, by nearly half.
At the entry to the "Hope" classroom on the satellite campus of Belhaven University in Houston, Susan Thorpe passes out a small book called 12.5 Ways to Get Ahead on LinkedIn. Up front, her husband, Doug Thorpe, who self-published the guide, has drawn a diagram on the whiteboard that looks like an elaborate football play. A series of circles labeled one, two, and three stretch out from a central bubble labeled you. A dozen job seekers take notes as Thorpe describes how to call upon first-level contacts -- those former colleagues and friends you've befriended on the site -- to reach second-level contacts. It's a process as old as human relations: Hey, could you introduce me to your friend? Thorpe explains the etiquette and technique of doing it digitally. "Write a personal note when you ask someone to connect," he tells his students.
Thorpe, 57, is one of hundreds of consultants who have sprung up to help professionals establish themselves online. After he lost his mortgage company two years ago in the real estate crash, he started Jobs Ministry Southwest, a religious nonprofit that offers free support for job seekers in the greater Houston area. A dozen of the 160 people who attended the previous day's support group have paid $24.95 for a half-day introduction to LinkedIn.
Thorpe's main message to his clients is that it's important to complete your profile. Get recommendations from former co-workers. Use keywords to bring out the skills you want to highlight. Join groups: Recruiters often scour professional groups to round up potential candidates. Answer questions from colleagues that showcase your professional expertise.
One of the students, Heinz Meyer, exhales audibly at the prospect of all that time online. "This could turn into a 24/7 thing real quick," says Meyer, 67, who had just lost his job at Universal Pegasus, a pipeline construction company. Thorpe responds by suggesting the class spend a concentrated amount of time on the site each day, say 30 minutes. Believe it or not, LinkedIn doesn't pay this guy.
There is much debate in the class about Thorpe's suggestion that job seekers should include professional photographs with their profiles. ("Don't use dogs, horses, cats, or cows in the background," he says.) Older job seekers in particular are worried that their gray hair will trigger age discrimination. There are drawbacks to so much transparency, they argue. Doesn't it ensure that employers potentially know more about you than they should?
It's a question Hoffman considered right from the start. For all the benefit that LinkedIn brings to the job hunt, it can't erase fundamental challenges in the job market. One big reality is that plenty of baby boomers are out of work as the industries in which they've developed three decades of expertise move overseas or change irrevocably.
These job hunters will need to reinvent themselves in new careers. The thing about social-networking profiles is that they don't lie, at least not successfully. You can't fudge your experience or hide your age, because your connections know you in real life. So Hoffman is inclined to agree with Thorpe's advice: Post your photo. "A LinkedIn profile lets you represent yourself as strong as you can, so build that to your advantage," he says.
Okay, but how do you finally land a job? It's the last question that Thorpe's students ask as he wraps up his lecture. Thorpe turns back to the elaborate diagram on the board, pointing to the circled numbers. Social networking is just a more efficient way of reaching out to people you know -- and people they know. You work the network. You connect with people like John Campagnino at Accenture if you want a job in consulting. Then you turn off the computer, and you call your connections on the phone. And you invite them to lunch.
Garth Beams
Title: Animator, Art Director, Graphic Designer, Illustrator
URL: linkedin.com/in/garthbeams
Garth is a creative professional with an impressive background, having worked as the Head of the Graphics Department for nine years on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Because he's done so much visual work, it's worth noting that samples of it can't actually be found on his profile. He should use either the SlideShare or Google Presentations application to build a presentation of his work to give visual proof of his design and artistic strengths.
And for richer examples, Garth might also want to link to an online portfolio.
Jodi Glickman Brown
Title: President
Company: Great On The Job
URL: linkedin.com/in/greatonthejob
Jodi has yet another example of a great LinkedIn profile that clearly shows her work history and offers a glimpse into her day-to-day professional life via her blog.
Still, she could make some improvements to the Experience and Education areas. First, she doesn't indicate the years she attended, making it difficult for former classmates to connect with her. Her Experience section doesn't list details about her positions. (Vague titles like "volunteer" don't tell us much.)
Adding information about them would make her easier to find in searches and give readers a better sense of her work. Also, she has the same position of "Policy Analyst" listed three times consecutively. This is probably a mistake, but colleagues pay attention to these kind of details.
Rob Dalton
Title: Dir. of Business Development
Company: Big Belly Solar
URL: linkedin.com/pub/rob-dalton/4/aa7/8a9
The first thing we see when looking at Rob's profile is his apparent distaste for capital letters. In the professional world, presentation goes a long way, and Rob's profile looks like it was written without much care or attention to detail. His headline, "I've got a big belly," trivializes things.
Changing that to a more descriptive title would help those who don't know Rob get a better sense of who he is and what he does.
Still, Rob's profile has some very compelling data hiding beneath the rough presentation. He lists impressive accomplishments, and it's a shame that many interested parties may write him off simply due to the fact he writes in sentence fragments and doesn't capitalize.
Cleaning up the various elements would take his online professional identity to a whole new level.
Nicolette Toussaint
Title: Showroom and marketing manager
Company: Keane Kitchen Showrooms
URL: linkedin.com/in/ntoussaint
Nicolette has a list of glowing recommendations that lend a lot of credit to her well-organized list of skills and specialties, and she's rearranged her profile to bring them closer to the top of the page.
This is an excellent strategy for guiding the viewer to the best areas of a profile.
Also listed is a thorough and complete job history, noting the highlights and measures of success for each as a bulleted list in each section. Applications powered by TypePad, WordPress, and SlideShare feature her Home Design blog and a visual presentation she has created, though it's worth pointing out that the first two apps serve the same purpose and thus are actually a bit redundant.
Lucas Manfield
Title: Student
Company: Stanford University
URL: linkedin.com/in/manfield
It's not too early for students to start building professional profiles. These temporary positions he's listed serve as great opportunities for young professionals to ask for recommendations from mentors and colleagues.
First, Lucas should add a professional profile photo to boost his recognizability. In the description area for his work as Stanford research assistant, he should discuss the project he was involved in. He may also be able to leverage LinkedIn Applications such as Box.net Files to upload work samples from his classes to highlight his academic prowess.
To build his network, Lucas should search for classmates and professors and connect with them. As he enters the job market, he will find that the work and connections he has made over the course of his school career will give him a great head start.
Fortune Magazine
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