Use Technology To Find a New Career

Use Technology to Find a New Career

The world of work and networking has been transformed by the Internet. New tools are now available to help you connect with professionals around the world. As Thomas Friedman pointed out in his book, The World is Flat, the world is flat and distance is no longer a factor. Au contraire! In a few seconds, you can communicate with people around the world, identify jobs around the world, and speak with people from around the world at practically no cost!

I am going to review how you can use these new on-line networking tools in your job search. I will NOT be focusing on job posting websites in this discussion. I will start with LINKEDIN for this discussion. I encourage people to share their experience with using LinkedIn if I have missed some important features or benefits.

LINKEDIN: THE CADILLAC OF PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING

LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) is definitely the CADILLAC and SUPERHERO of professional networking. It has so many wonderful features such as

-Your own personalized professional profile that gives you a presence on the web so that people can look you up. This eliminates the need for you to create a web site, which can be quite costly.

-A repository for professional recommendations where colleagues and client can describe you and the services you provide. What a terrific way to showcase your experience skills and talents! Hopefully, recruiters will be looking you up on LinkedIn to see your recommendations and references eliminating the need for paperwork, emails and phone calls!

-Contacts: through LinkedIn, you can create a vast network of contacts with former and current colleagues, alumni of schools and others to create a huge personal professional network that can help you identify new professional opportunities. This is truly the most powerful aspect of LinkedIn. The power of number is at play here. For example, I have 366 network connections (contacts) on my profile. This, in fact, translates into more than 7,231,000 potential contacts in my own private professional network!

-Company listings in different fields so that you can create a targeted list of companies for your job search

-Job listings that only appear on LinkedIn

-Professional Associations that you can join to connect with professionals in your field. This can help you network to a new job as well as find candidates for jobs. You can also let people know about information, jobs and services through these associations for a targeted approach to the market. These professional associations are natural conduits for Knowledge Sharing with people sharing and seeking insights, tips and jobs in an open professional environment.

-People listings to help you locate former colleagues or people who work for companies you have targeted in your job search or potential candidates for jobs to be filled.

-Applications such as presentations where you can upload presentations to highlight your services or accomplishments.

-Ask a Question to get answers to different types of questions (like ASK.com)

-Email inbox where you can communicate with your contacts

-Listing of your personal or company web site

As LinkedIn is constantly adding new features, the list above is just a start. To say the least, this professional networking tool will transform your career transition.

LinkedIn comes in different flavors. There is the free service as well as premium services that cost a monthly fee. The free service limits you to 500 searches that you can do in a certain period of time and also limits the amount of invitations that you can send to add people to your network. The premium services offer you a greater amount of searches and invitations. Personally, I have never felt the need to get the premium service but depending on how you use it, it could certainly be worth your while to upgrade to the premium services.

HOW TO USE LINKED IN FOR YOUR JOB SEARCH

Here are some tips on how to use LinkedIn in your job search:

-Complete your Professional Profile on LinkedIn, listing your work experience and positions, education, recommendations, your website address, awards, interests and professional associations which you have joined in LinkedIn. Include a professional picture to personalize your site.

-Build your Contacts. LinkedIn will copy your address book from your email address book and let you know which people are using LinkedIn. You can then request these people to join your network by sending a Join my Network invitation. Using the people Search function, you can also search for people in the companies where you have worked or look up friends and alumni of schools you have attended and invite them as well.
It is recommended that you start your network with people you know as you will turn to them for advice. However, you may expand your network to include others who are in the field in which you would like to work or people with whom you share a common professional interest.

-Request recommendations from colleagues and clients so that you can showcase your skills and abilities. You may also recommend colleagues with whom you have worked to do the same for them. Keep your recommendations short but extremely relevant to highlight the special skills of the person you are recommending.

-Join Professional Associations: This is the key to opening the door to professionals like yourself with whom you can network, share information and identify job opportunities. The relationships you forget can change your life. Identify the groups you want to join by using the Search function. Use these associations to ask questions, share information, get job listings, network to get advice and feedback and identify career opportunities and identify candidates for jobs.

-Identify Companies you would like to target to develop a targeted company list. Once you have identified the companies, start searching for people who work in these companies. You can invite them to be part of your network and start networking with them.

-Contact People in Your Targeted Companies: you can contact people in the targeted companies by calling them or emailing them. You can email them through LinkedIn if they have their email on their address. Or you can communicate with them if they become part of your network. Another way is calling them at work after being connected through the main number of the company, introducing yourself as a member of LinkedIn and asking if you would be able to send them an introductory email to introduce yourself and set a time to speak or meeting with them to get their advice and feedback on your career plans. Networking is the best approach to contacting people to establish a reciprocal relationship to get their advice and feedback on your career plans as opposed to asking them for a job. Asking for a job can be a negative experience with a lose-lose outcome whereas asking for their advice, feedback and contacts linked to your job search can be a win-win situation.

-Use Professional Associations you have joined to ask for advice and feedback on your career plans. People are always posting job listings on these sites.

-Use the Job Site to identify potential jobs that may be exclusive to LinkedIn.
Search for recruiters to let them know about your career plans and send them your resume. Recruiters have been using LinkedIn as a recruitment tool and may contact you if you meet their search criteria.

-Use LinkedIn when you respond to a job advertisement: as a member of LinkedIn, it will appear on your screen when you look at a job ad and let you know how many people are in your network who work for the company in which you are interested! This is truly cutting edge!

I hope that this tutorial has given some insights into how to use this powerful professional networking tool. It is truly a remarkable professional networking tool that can transform your career transition by combining so many important functions in one professional networking tool.

One word of warning about LinkedIn: it is definitely addictive and you can spend all your time on the Internet and not enough time out of the house networking with people at professional associations, meetings and other events. So budget your time and make time for meeting with people outside the house. Use LinkedIn as tool to meet and network with people in person as well as on the Internet!