How The $%&! Did That Recruiter Find Me On LinkedIn? We're Not Even Remotely Connected!

You're checking your LinkedIn account, and you notice you've got a note from somebody you've never heard of. She's a recruiter from a company you may have heard of, but you're not even remotely connected.

How did she find you? Aren't there limits on who people can see and connect with on LinkedIn?

I'm sure you've seen the offers for LinkedIn Premium subscriptions. These give you extra bells and whistles, and let you go a little bit further than you can with the free account. For example, you get InMails you can use to reach out to folks who aren't first level connections, or you can search further beyond your immediate network.

But did you know that LinkedIn also markets corporate subscriptions to companies big and small? These give corporate recruiters better search capability, visibility into almost everybody with an account, and a beefy number of InMails so that they can reach hundreds of job seekers.

Guess What!: LinkedIn is a job board. Whether you want it to be, or not.

In other words, recruiters are constantly combing the outer reaches of LinkedIn to find their next employee. Are you ready?

Here's how you can be ready:

• Make sure your profile picture is ready for prime time.  I'm not going to go into depth on this here, but I wrote a previous piece about the appropriateness of your profile picture. A clean, professional head shot will leave a positive impression. Don't do anything silly on your LinkedIn picture. Recruiters will make their initial judgment on your professionalism based on your photo alone, and you may never get a call if your picture is goofy or too revealing.
• Maintain a professionally constructed profile. Employers want to see a complete profile. It's essentially a temporary substitute for your resume, so make sure that it has all your key details and jobs in there. By the way, if you send a resume to a company first, they will likely compare it to your LinkedIn profile to ensure there are no discrepancies.
• Include your contact information somewhere in the profile. Not everybody checks their InMails all the time, so including an email address will often ensure a quicker response.
• If you don't want to be found, make sure your settings reflect this. Go into your settings, and turn off your profile visibility. Although, there's not really much point to being on LinkedIn if you don't want to be seen.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Ten Reasons You're Going to Get Hired!

Ten Reasons Get Hired

Yesterday, it was all about why you can't get the job. Today, let's explore everything that's going right for you - here's the reasons they're going to hire you!

1. "My guy just quit today. Let's see if this uniform fits you."
2. You're so tall! And that full head of hair is such a nice shade of silver!
3. The boss sees on your resume that you were in the college bowling club. They really need a fourth for league night.
4. You went to Northwestern. Their manager went to Northwestern.
5. "Wait, you heard about this place? And you still want to work here?"
6. You whitened your teeth yesterday with Borax. Your gums hurt, and your liver wants to escape, but your smile looks so good!
7. "I can't believe you like money too. We should hang out."
8. The manager hates her objectives. But she realizes she can get you to do them for her.
9. The job's been open for eight months. GIVE ME A BODY!
10. You have a degree. And an immaculate employment history. And a clean resume. And no dandruff. And you used a good deodorant.

Life may not be fair, but it sure as hell is interesting. Do the best you can do in terms of preparing for the interviews, and you'll do what you can to stack the odds in your favor.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

My Background Check Sucks, I'll Never Get the Job!, -OR- What to do When You've Made Some Mistakes Along the Way

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When you apply for a job, chances are the employer will have you sign a form allowing them to run a background check on you before deciding to hire you. They want to make sure you can be trusted not to run the company into the ground. Do you know what the background check consists of? It could contain the following:

• Criminal history - Almost every background check includes this one. Often it goes just seven years back, but I've seen checks that pull data as far back as Noah's ark.

• Work verification - Validates your prior dates of employment with a company, plus potentially your title, salary history, and other minutiae.

• Education verification - Validates your time at MooseJump University, including dates attended and whether you graduated.

• Credit history - Some companies run this one across the board. Others limit it to those positions where employees handle money. Employers may view your credit history as a reflection of how responsible you are as a person.

• Motor Vehicle reports - If you drive a vehicle for the company, they will want to see if you have a clean record. Tickets, accidents, and other citations of note will show up.

Companies can run other things, too. Like whether you have civil litigation against you. Or a Social Security Number search to validate all the addresses you've lived so that they can ensure you're the person you claim you are.

Invasive? You bet.

Part of applying for a job today? Absolutely.

You know there are things in your background which may come back to haunt you when your background check is run. You got into trouble, and your hijinks could prevent you from getting your dream job. What do you do? PLEASE NOTE: I am not an attorney, and I'm not giving legal advice. But assuming you have your ducks in a row, I have found these strategies to be effective in managing a potentially difficult situation.

• Accept that there are some jobs you may never qualify for due to your background check. Certain law enforcement positions may require a clean criminal record, which you may not have. A truck driver position requires a clean driver's license. A bank teller role may require a good credit report. Learn about the obstacles you may face based upon your personal situation. Don't waste your time applying if you know you won't get the job due to a legitimate reason which will emerge through the background check results.

• Never lie. Never. Never ever. Not on a resume. Not on an application. Not in an interview. An employer will find out if you fudge dates of employment, a fake degree, or a hidden criminal offense. And you will be blackballed when lies or deception come to light.

• Own your mistakes. The first step in building trust with the employer is to own the fact that you made an error in judgment in the past. Own up to your mistakes in a proactive manner. In the case of a criminal matter, for example, it's often best to disclose what happened, indicate what you learned from the situation, and that you (hopefully) have stayed out of trouble since then. By the way, even if a court tells you that a conviction was sealed or expunged (as if it never happened), that doesn't mean it won't necessarily show up on the background check - be prepared for this, as more and more court records wend their way across the internet.

By taking control of the situation up front, you may or may not get the job, but nobody can accuse you of hiding anything.

I've seen candidates sell themselves wonderfully through the interview process to the point of background check, then the check itself conflicts with the candidate's story. As much as the hiring team loves the candidate, as soon as HR find's the candidate lied about having a degree (which, by the way, they may not even need for the job) or didn't disclose a recent felony, they're out.

The candidate (by law) has an opportunity to rebut what's found on the background, but unless the candidate can prove the records are incorrect, trust between candidate and employer has been destroyed.

Scott Singer is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost 20 years of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience. He has expertise in the intricacies of the hiring process, corporate staffing strategy and the intricacies of the HR department.

You can reach Scott at scottcsinger@gmail.com.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottcsinger