5 Great Ways To Use LinkedIn to Network Your Way Into a Job

Networking has changed over the years. It used be that the only way to network your way into a job was to do a lot hands-on networking - as in, pressing the flesh. In other words, you had to go to an event, work the room, and hand out business cards.

Nothing replaces human contact, those networking events still matter, because you get the chance to meet people in person and make a positive impression. Keep in mind, interviews still (usually) happen in person, and most major decisions are made with face-to-face contact.

But LinkedIn is an amazing tool. It's changed the networking game. In many ways, it's democratized networking, making it easy to make meaningful connections. For the job seeker, it's a boon, because it gives visibility into key contacts as potential employers. 

Here are 5 great ways you can use LinkedIn to network your way into a job!

1. Grow your network, strategically. This is a long-term strategy. Add people with whom you've had contact, whether it be in person, by phone, or by email. The more people your contacts know, the more people you'll be able to access in their network. By the way, LinkedIn is crawling with recruiters - they're good connections to have.
2. Build your brand. Your LinkedIn page is your platform, and an opportunity to present yourself in a positive light. Develop a clean, crisp, and professional profile for yourself, and obtain good, solid recommendations from former bosses and coworkers. Write blogs (LinkedIn calls them Posts) that highlight your expertise in your professional area. All recruiters I know use LinkedIn to actively search for talent. Many will check out somebody's LinkedIn profile after receiving a resume to get an idea of the person's presentation. You have full control over your profile and what's published under your name on LinkedIn, take advantage of it!
3. Get introductions through LinkedIn. If you see that one of your connections is directly connected with a key contact at a company you'd like to reach, ask your connection for an introduction. Better yet, ask them if they have the person's email so you can reach them directly.
4. Apply on the job boards, then reach out to a company contact via LinkedIn. Go to Indeed, Monster, or any job board, and complete the online application for a position. Then, do a search on LinkedIn for a company recruiter, HR person, or appropriate line manager, and send them an InMail letting them know you've applied to the position, you're qualified, and you're interested. Sometimes this can get you moved to the top of the resume pile; recruiters will easily get over 250 applications for an open position online, and they won't have time to review everybody. By taking this approach, you present yourself as a potential solution to their problem.
5. Ask for informational interviews. People, by nature, like to help. Find a strategic contact at your target company through LinkedIn, then send them a note requesting an informational interview. Offer to bring your contact a cup of coffee in exchange for their time. Remember, don't ask for a job - your only mission here is to get information. If you present yourself well, you may be considered for open positions, or your contact might refer you to somebody they know for an opportunity at another company. The key here is to come loaded with great questions and a heap of modesty.

Remember, maintain every relationship as if it's critical - because it is. Don't just be a "taker"; make productive introductions on behalf of others, too. Not every connection has an immediate payoff, but you can certainly move the job search 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.

7 things I've Learned as a Professional Career Coach and a Resume Writer

About a year ago, I hung it up as a corporate recruiter. I had been recruiting for about 19 years, and during that time, I reviewed a LOT of resumes – tens of thousands by my rough estimation. My eyes hurt just thinking about it.

Not too long after that, I became a full-time resume writer and career coach. Since then, I've developed and written quite a few resumes for and with my clients.

It's been a great journey. I've learned, and continue to learn, quite a few things about writing resumes, and the resume writing/career coaching field. Here are some of my observations.

1. Writing a resume can be freakin' hard. There's a lot that goes into a resume. If you think about it, a resume is several things - it's a marketing brochure, a spelling and grammar test, and an exercise in desktop publishing all rolled into one. It has to look attractive, read well, and be compelling. The formatting needs to be immaculate. The very first exposure a candidate gets to an employer is through their resume, and the job seeker will be judged harshly.

2. Microsoft Word is a bear. 95% of resumes are done in Word because most employers use Word. And the program has more quirks, trapdoors, and tricks that you could ever imagine. There are at least three ways (that I know about) to create a space between lines - which one is the correct one to use? And it's essential that in a resume the columns line up where they should, tabs go where they need to, and that formatting stay in place regardless of your edits. If you are working on your own resume and you don't know how to use Word effectively, pay a friend to help you maneuver it if necessary - it's money well spent. The good news is, if you don't know how to do something in Word, the answer is usually a Google search away. But you need the answer for the specific version of Word you're using, because Microsoft may have moved the function. I can attribute 10% of the gray hairs on my head to learning how to use Word more effectively.

3. A sounding board helps. It can be difficult for an individual to figure out what to include on their resume – and what to leave out. The truth is, we can often become attached to an accomplishment or experience from long ago that may detract from the resume. Similarly, it can be difficult to remember the accomplishments from your jobs, because we may not think of that part of our work as important. That's why having somebody else to bounce off your ideas for the resume (and in career coaching, in general) is such a fantastic thing - they can help put words to your experiences and let you see yourself in a different mirror.

4. People can be overly modest. In the American culture, it's normal for us to sell ourselves, and to have a little bit of braggadocio. It's expected that you show what you've accomplished so that a potential employer can see that you have initiative, and can visualize what you may be able to do for them. But people are remarkably modest - often uncomfortable talking about their achievements. One of the most rewarding parts of my job is interviewing a client to learn about their accomplishments, and helping them recognize that they have contributed to their employer more than they previously thought.

5. Brevity matters in a resume. As a recruiter, I generally kind of "knew" what an effective resume looked like. But I've come to realize, through speaking with peers and reading up on the topic, that brief (1-2 line) bullets really help the reader zip through the resume and scan their way to what's important. And unless you have a compelling reason to go beyond 2 pages – don't. Welcome to the YouTube generation.

6. Getting noticed in the job hunt is a lot harder than it used to be. In the old days, you'd see an ad for a job, click send (or, if we're really going back a ways, you'd put together a paper resume and a cover letter and mail it off to an address indicated in the newspaper ad), or upload your resume to Monster, and hope to get noticed. It used to be that recruiters would go through all the applications, and filter the strongest candidates for further consideration. These days, recruiters are letting the technology do it for them - the applicant tracking system (ATS, or that black hole where your resume goes after you click send) will use filters to curry the closest keyword matches for review. Or, recruiters skip the postings altogether, and go straight to LinkedIn to source candidates. Now, if candidates want to get noticed, they need to try to figure out the keywords that matter from the job description and adjusting their resume before submitting, and then reach out to a company contact via LinkedIn to try to get attention. Networking has become incredibly critical to finding a job, so make sure your LinkedIn profile is highly polished and represents you well.

7. Interviewing for a job is a skill. It can be polished and enhanced. It takes practice to master the tools associated with making it through an interview. Behavioral interviewing, poise, salary negotiation, and diction are all learned talents. You can learn them, too. Don't let a lack of polish stop you from getting the job.

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.

Fired? It Might Not Necessarily Be Your Job Performance...

Have you ever been fired? Laid off? Terminated? Cut? Made redundant?

It doesn't matter what it's called, it's often the same thing. The bottom line is that your position, and specifically, your place in it, were eliminated.

The key to ongoing success and promotion in employment is communication. Make sure that you develop a good rapport with your manager and your organization's leaders. Having strong two-way communications can often avoid misunderstandings, help you plan for the future, and maintain your professional reputation.

There are times when a termination is deserved - if you violated a company policy, your performance was sub-par, or you otherwise did something that merits parting ways with your employer, a company is going to exercise its right to let you go.

But in all my years in Human Resources, I've witnessed enough terminations to see clearly that it isn't necessarily due to a "terminatable offense". Here are but a few of the reasons a company may choose to part ways with you, even when you've given your best effort and have followed the company handbook to the letter.

1. Costs need to be reduced. Business is tough all around, and your job is vulnerable. You fall victim to a layoff.
2. Your manager doesn't like you. Perhaps you and your manager just don't share the same outlook on the world. Personalities matter - people like to work with people they like. And sometimes, there's nothing you can do about it.
3. Your manager is new to the company and wants to bring in his/her team. Your manager had a lieutenant and the last company they know and trust. Your job is the one role that person can fill.
4. Topgrading. I'm going to oversimplify here for the sake of clarity. Topgrading is a talent management philosophy where they company rates all its employees every year, and puts them into a forced curve. The individuals perceived to be on the bottom of the curve are culled from the workforce. Even if you met all your objectives and your work has been solid, your performance is perceived to be lower than your peers, so you're out.
5. Changing skill requirements. As the business changes, the skills required in the organization may change. If the company is going to be programming in Visual Basic, and you're a COBOL developer, your role in the organization may not be relevant.
6. The Peter Principle. Individuals who perform well in a role tend to be recognized with a promotion to a higher level. What happens when you lack the skills to survive at that higher level is the Peter Principle, the cynical belief that people rise to the level of their incompetence. I hate to say this, but it does happen. For example, a marketer may be great as a brand manager, but once they get promoted to a leadership role, they don't possess the people and vision skills to survive at this elevated position. Sometimes it's sink or swim.
7. A mistake follows you. Let's say you had a bad day, and were short with a coworker. Somebody witnessed it. Then, in your performance appraisal it comes up that you have poor interpersonal skills, as validated by this same incident. When it comes time to rank the workforce (see #4), you end up in the bottom of the pack due to your lack of people skills.
8. Pressure from above. You give a presentation to the CEO, and it failed to impress. The CEO makes clear to your manager that your fit with the direction of the organization is questionable. Rather than defend your overall performance, which has been solid, your manager feels it would be easier to push you out of the organization and replace you with a new face.

Bottom Line: Do your best to be astutely aware of your work situation. And know that sometimes, it may just be time to move on.

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.