The world of job hunting is changing, gone are the days where seeing an advert in the paper and posting off your CV was enough. Employers and recruiters are now wired into new ways of attracting future talent for their businesses and job seekers need to be aware of their visibility.
LinkedIn has changed the way job seekers apply for roles, some schools of thought argue that it may replace the traditional CV in years to come. Whether this is true or not it is suddenly imperative that if you have a social media presence; it needs to be a good one.
Stage one: Ensure you have a good initial LinkedIn profile, for a how to guides please have a look at Gregory Saukulak’s blog here.
Your profile should be concise, details, match the info and the dates on your CV and include a decent head shot – try and make it a professional one rather than a facebook style image! Make sure your profile is 100% complete – what message are you sending to your future boss if you can’t make time to complete your profile – is that the right first impression?
Include referrals – ask for testimonials from your peers and previous managers, enhance your own personal brand.
Don’t spam – always connect with those you know or give someone a reason to want to connect with you, too many blank invites will result in you being reported as spam and linked in limiting your account activity.
Connect with others – it is not social unless you talk and most importantly listen. To expand your own networking circle join groups of interest and speak to like minded people – you never know where these referrals may lead you.
If you use other popular social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or blogging include a link – but remember to only post content that you want your future employer to read. If you cancel an interview because you are too ill to attend it is probably not a wise idea to tweet later on that you are queuing to ride Nemesis at Alton Towers…..
Use linkedIn to get ahead of the competition; when interviewing LinkedIn will tell you about the people you are going to meet, you can find out their job history, their interests and see who you know in common. Never has it been so easy to make a good first impression on a future employer.
For more details on how to use LinkedIn – go to LinkedIn’s own job seeker page here.