Not enough connections to make LinkedIn useful? No Problem!

You’re unemployed, and have become convinced by many others that LinkedIn is probably the most effective tool you can use for your job search. It is.


So you register, create a ‘killer’ profile, and start adding connections. You send invitations to former co-workers, friends, family, former vendors, customers, and anyone else you can think of. Then you wait. You start getting a trickle of acceptances and in a few days have 25 connections.

Terrific! So now you start running searches in their People ‘Advanced Search’ page to find contacts at companies you’d like to pursue. Perhaps you’re a Staff Accountant with Retail experience and would love to work for WalMart. You do a search for Title: Accounting Manager at Company: WalMart; and you get no, or maybe one result.

You think: “Surely, out of over 100 Million people on LinkedIn there have to be a few Accounting Managers from WalMart!” and surely there are. However with only 25 contacts, you may not have anyone in your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level connections that fits those search criteria.

So what good is LinkedIn if you don’t have enough connections to do a broad enough of a search? Thank you George Boole and Google!

In case you’re not familiar with him, George Boole is an English Mathematician in the 1800’s that invented “Boolean Logic”. Today, Boolean Logic is a commonly used method of conducting advanced searches on the internet through sites like Google. OK, that’s an interesting tidbit of trivia, but what does that have to do with your problem of not being able to reach enough people on LinkedIn? Everything!

Did you know that you can use Google to search only specific sites? Did you know that most (although not all) people on LinkedIn mark their profiles as “Public” so that they can be found through external search engines like Google? Did you know you can conduct advanced searches on Google to find a multitude of people on LinkedIn that you would not be able to find through a search inside the LinkedIn site? If not, this can be enormously helpful for you in your job search!

If you are on Twitter, be sure to follow @GlenCathey; @GaryCozin; and Irina Shamaeva / @BrainGain.

These are experts with far greater knowledge and ability in this area than I can possibly hope to share here. Also be sure to look at their blogs for more information. However, here are some basics to get you started and will hopefully make your search much more productive.

So, you’re still looking for an Accounting Manager at WalMart. You go to Google… now what?

You will enter a “Boolean” search string that includes all the criteria you are looking for.

The first part of your string is to tell Google to only search LinkedIn. Type:

site:www.linkedin.com

Then, you want to find people that have WalMart in their profile so you add:

site:www.linkedin.com WalMart

Now, you want to find anyone that has Accounting Manager in their profile. You should put any phrases in quotes. Otherwise you will get results of people that may have those words, but not necessarily together. You may get a profile that has: “read Accounting for Dummies” and “Engineering Manager”; not exactly what you are looking for.

So add to your string:

site:www.linkedin.com WalMart “Accounting Manager”

If you click enter now, you will get somewhere around 839 results. That’s overwhelming! However, what you’ll find is that the majority of those results are “Directory” entries in LinkedIn and not actual profiles. So for your search string you want to add a command to subtract, or ignore directory entries.

Do this by telling it to ignore profile directories with a minus sign, like this:

site:www.linkedin.com WalMart “Accounting Manager” -profiles

Now hit enter, and you get around 99 results. That’s manageable. You’ll find that many of those are profiles of people that may have worked at WalMart in the past in some other role and may be an Accounting Manager now somewhere else, or some other such deviation from the ideal profile, however, you will also find several relevant results that would be excellent contacts for you in your job search.

Perhaps you are a Financial Analyst looking for a Finance Director contact at General Mills headquarters in Minneapolis. You could search:

site:www.linkedin.com Minneapolis “General Mills” “Finance Director” -profiles

Or you are an IT Help Desk tech looking for any Help Desk Managers to contact in Des Moines:

site:www.linkedin.com "Des Moines" "Help Desk Manager" -profiles

You get the idea.

When you get their “Public Profile” in LinkedIn, be sure to click the yellow “View Full Profile” button to see more detail.

Get creative, try different phrases, terms, or titles.

Boolean searches in Google can provide you tremendous access into LinkedIn that you may not be able to get with the limited number of connections you may have, no matter what the number!
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The Tyranny of the Urgent!

I’ve been away from adding new content to this blog the last couple of weeks, not because I’m running dry, but because a number of other things kept me busy. I let other things keep me from taking the time to write. They were not more important things, although they seemed like it at the time.

So it is, too often, in a job search! It is so easy to allow ‘busy-ness’ get in the way of getting down to business!

“The Tyranny of the Urgent” obstructs us from doing what’s important.

In a job search, there are dozens of things that keep us from doing the necessary tasks for our search. Tasks that may be outside of our comfort zones and easy to procrastinate.

~ You may choose to trim the hedge in the front yard rather than create a list of contacts

~ You might paint a bedroom rather than dedicate an hour to follow-up calls

~ You might chat with your best friend over coffee rather than customize your resume for a particular position you’d like to apply for

~ You could finish that hobby project rather than attend a new networking function

…and the list goes on!

None of those other tasks are bad in and of themselves, and you should make time for them. However, for many of us, they seem much more important to do right when we should probably be doing something else. Then the ‘prime time’ for doing the necessary tasks has slipped away. Painting the bedroom can probably wait until the evening or weekend, but the follow-up calls can only be done during business hours.

If your job search is taking longer than you hoped, or it seems you are not making progress lately, take a look at how you are spending your time vs. how you ought to be spending your time. Whether it’s in your job search or any other aspect of your life, the proper focus will help you achieve much more, more quickly!

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Footnote:

Thank you for visiting The Wise Job Search. I truly appreciate your interest. If you like the material here and would like to help keep it viable, please peruse and visit book recommendations, and other resources posted throughout the site. Best wishes on your continued search, and feedback is always welcome!

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Time for a Career Change?

It’s a tough economy! No question about it. As people get laid-off, many find that it’s difficult to find their next job. Many decide that since they’re struggling to find a new job in their field, they may be better off making a career change.

Is that the best answer? Will it make their job search easier?
Maybe, but not likely!

There are, at times, very good reasons to leave the old behind and pursue something new. However, good reason or not, and good job market or not, there are real challenges to making a successful career change.

As a general rule, there are four possible moves into a new job. From easiest to most difficult:

1. Old Occupation, Old Field to Old Occupation, Old Field
   (i.e. Accountant in Retail environment to Accountant in Retail environment)
2. Old Occupation, Old Field to Old Occupation, New Field
   (i.e. HR Generalist in Health Care to HR Generalist in Manufacturing)
3. Old Occupation, Old Field to New Occupation, Old Field
   (i.e. Marketing Analyst in Consumer Goods to Product Designer in Consumer Goods)
4. Old Occupation, Old Field to New Occupation, New Field
   (i.e. Engineer in Manufacturing to Counselor in Social Services)

When an employer evaluates potential candidates, usually the easiest and safest choice is someone who’s already ‘been there, done that’. They may decide to hire someone new to the role or field, however, there has to be very compelling reasons to do so. In today’s job market, when companies are hiring, the safest choice is often determined to be the best choice. They often reason that “Now is not the time to be taking a chance on someone without a proven track record in this area.”

While you may be finding challenges finding a new position similar to your old one in this market, and most people are. You will likely find it even more challenging to make a career change!

Certainly there may be good reasons to change careers, even now. Perhaps you’re in an occupation that has ‘dried up’. In Information Technology, if your last position has been as a COBOL Programmer for mainframe systems, it would be very difficult if not impossible to land another position doing the same thing. Perhaps your industry is in shambles. If you’re an automotive designer these days, it’s likely that you would face overwhelming challenges getting the same work. Or perhaps you just can’t stand doing your old job for another day. You may have ‘fallen’ into your career years ago and it just hasn’t been at all what you want to be doing or you’ve found you have no real talent or abilities in that area.

If you find yourself in those, or some other, situations and have determined a career change is necessary, here are a few points to consider:

~ You won’t get a career change position by responding to an ad with a resume. You MUST network and actually talk to people. People won’t respond to a resume that doesn’t seem to fit.

~ Be prepared for a significant pay cut. A company is not likely to pay you as much for a job you have to learn as they will for a job where you have substantial directly relevant experience.

~ It’s easier to make a transition into a related position than a completely new direction. A COBOL Programmer can get a job as a Web Developer easier than they can get a job as an Interior Designer.

~ Getting relevant training helps. Showing initiative to gain training in the new career shows a commitment and relevant knowledge to a potential employer.

~ Network, network, network! And when you network, know what you’re looking for and communicate it effectively and concisely. People can’t help you if they can’t determine what you want.

A career change can be a wonderful thing for your life. However, it’s definitely a challenge to do it successfully. In most cases, it is not a solution to find a job more easily. Decide if it’s the right decision for you and then do the work to make it happen!

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Footnote:

Thank you for visiting The Wise Job Search. I truly appreciate your interest. If you like the material here and would like to help keep it viable, please peruse and visit book recommendations, and other resources posted throughout the site. Best wishes on your continued search, and feedback is always welcome!

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What to do in an effective networking call!

Most advice you read for a job search says to call and network with as many people as you can. That’s fine… but what do you say? What’s the objective of the call? How do you attract your contacts rather than repel them? Here are some ideas to make those calls effective!
First… Why are you calling? What is your objective for the call? Most people get a networking contact, tell them about their background, and ask if they know of anyone hiring. 99% of the time the answer is ‘No’, the call is over, and they conclude networking doesn’t really work.
For most people… here’s news: The primary objective when calling someone to network is not to ask if they know of a job! The primary objective is to obtain more people with whom you can network.
When you give them your ‘Elevator Speech’ they know you’re looking for a job, and that job leads would be valuable to you. If you put them on the spot and ask them, chances are nothing will come to mind, and instead of taking time to think about it right then, they will just say ‘No’. If, however, you ask leading questions that help them think of other people that might be of help to you, they are likely to be very willing to help in that way. So what do you ask?

• “If you were in my situation, who are the first couple of people you would call?”
• “Do you know of anyone else with a background similar to mine?”
• “Who do you know at XYZ Company, or ABC Corporation?”
• “Is there anyone you know from your (church / golf league / professional association / health club / etc.) who seems to be well networked also?”
• “Who do you know that seems to know everyone?”

Tell them: “For my search, my job is to follow a trail of breadcrumbs, from one person to another until I find the right position. I’m primarily interested in talking to as many people as I can, especially people that are well networked. Who would be 2 or 3 other people you might suggest I connect with?”
What NOT to say:

• “Do you know anyone hiring someone in my field?”
• “What kind of jobs do you think I should be looking at?”
• “My last job was a big mistake, I have to find a better one this time.”
• “I’m sure glad to be out of that place, they were slave drivers.”
• “With the problems I’ve had, I’m having trouble getting another job. Who can you refer?”

These may sound contrived, but are common in one form or another. When networking with someone, think of the conversation as a job interview. People are much more willing to refer you to someone they know if they view you as professional, concise, sharp, polite, and unassuming. If you don’t impress them, they are not going to be willing to refer you to their connections. If they feel like you’re pressing them too hard or make them uncomfortable, they are also not going to want to refer you to their friends.
I’ve seen people come to job networking groups that tell all the reasons they can’t get a job (age, poor job history, fired from last job, etc.) and then ask for referrals. I hear people ramble on and on about their background and the type of job they are seeking abusing the time they’ve been given and trying patience. I see people show up to a networking coffee with an acquaintance in jeans, tell them about all their problems and how bad their last boss was, and then ask for an introduction to their company. Even your best friend is not likely to be willing to introduce you to their best business contact if they don’t think you will represent them professionally and with a positive attitude!
Effective networking is presenting your value to someone succinctly, inspiring them to provide you more connections where you can repeat the process. The process repeated enough times will put you in front of someone that will have your next position in mind.
Spend time preparing yourself, your ‘Elevator Speech’, your list of questions, your list of contacts, and start calling. Be professional, be concise, be upbeat, and be ‘Pleasantly Persistent’. You’ll be on your way to your next career opportunity!

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Do References Really Matter?

No one actually checks references anymore, do they?

Even if they did, my company can’t say anything negative about me because of the potential liability, right?

Besides, who would list someone as a reference if it wasn’t a positive one anyway?

These are some of the questions I hear from candidates from time to time. The truth is that references DO matter! Do you know what yours will say? Do you know how they will say it? You should. It may mean the difference between getting an offer or not!

This topic just became very evident to me as I placed a candidate at one of my client companies this week.  After a long search process, several initial candidates, and many interviews, the company narrowed their choice down to 2 candidates. They invited both of these final candidates in for a 3rd interview with multiple managers and potential peers. One candidate, “John”, was their favorite. “Susan” was also thought of highly, but the consensus was not leaning her way.

As usual in the process, I called references for each candidate and presented the results to my client. Everything changed.

Both candidates had good references. I connected with four references, two for each candidate. None of them had anything negative to say at all. However, the difference between them were enormous.

John’s references answered each question, spoke well of him, and each said that they would definitely re-hire him if they had an opportunity available.

Susan’s references gushed! They answered each question, and added superlatives about her to each one. They were enthusiastic. They volunteered strong examples of how she excelled in various situations, and they each wished they had an opportunity to be able to hire her now.

In listening to them on the phone, and transcribing what they said, the differences between the two were obvious. The decision by the client became a “no-brainer”… Susan got the job!

Often, a good reference is not good enough. Your references need to be fans. Are yours? Do you know what they will say and how they will say it?

Many times people think that companies don’t give meaningful reference information anymore due to liability issues. Certainly a company’s Legal department, or the HR department may wish that to be the case, and often train their Managers in the importance in not providing reference information. All a company is obligated to provide is the person’s title and dates of employment.

The reality is, people want to give references! In 23 years of checking references, there has only been a small handful of times that I have not been able to get one. 

At times they may say something to the effect of: “Our company policy prohibits me from providing reference information.”

My response: “I can appreciate that, however, generally you can at least confirm their title and dates of employment, is that right?” 

Them: “Sure, I can do that.”

We exchange that information…

Me: “So how did they work out for you?”

They: “They were terrific!” OR “They were OK.”

Me: “Really? How do you mean?”

…and the conversation rarely lasts less than another 10 minutes.

And yes… sometimes they are bad references.

So what should you do?

• Pick your references carefully.
• Make SURE you have their permission to use them.
• Ask them what they would say about you! Then listen carefully.
  • Are they enthusiastic about you?
  • Do they have examples of your accomplishments?
  • Would they love the opportunity to rehire you?
  • If not… think about picking someone else!
• Let them know that especially in this market, the tone of references often makes the difference in getting a position or not.
• Let them know how much you appreciate their help in getting a position you want.

References DO matter! Doing a little preparation in advance can make the difference between getting an offer, or coming in 2nd!

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Footnote:

Thank you for visiting The Wise Job Search. I truly appreciate your interest. If you like the material here and would like to help keep it viable, please peruse and visit book recommendations, and other resources posted throughout the site. Best wishes on your continued search, and feedback is always welcome!

Read more!