Be Your Own Headhunter

Add A Second Email Address To Your LinkedIn Profile

I wish I had written this post two years ago before the Great Recession started.

Last week during a job search webinar I was asked how to get back access to a LinkedIn profile. The woman asking the question had been let go by her employer, she had used her work email address on the account and now cannot remember her password.

So when she sends a password request it goes to the work email she no longer has access to.

That sucks.

I suggested she contact LinkedIn Customer Service but I would bet this is not an easy process.

4 Ways to Launch A Successful Job Search Campaign

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Jessica Holbrook

 

After countless hours of tweaking your resume or finally deciding to have a professional write it for you, you now have your masterpiece in hand. With renewed confidence you’re ready to step out in faith and start your job search. But where do you start? The following four strategies will help you successfully start your job search campaign with your new resume.

POST YOUR RESUME ON JOB BOARDS

The first place to start is to take your resume and post it to the major job boards. You can do this yourself (it may takes many days to get all of the major job boards) or you can purchase a resume distribution service that will post it to approximately 100 job boards for you. Prices are reasonable and it saves you about 60 hours doing it yourself. Start here because this is a passive way to get noticed. Recruiters and hiring managers searching job boards will find you and contact you. Don’t just post to monster and careerbuilder. Those job boards have significant fees and some employers won’t pay to search or post. Instead post to a large selection of job boards free and fee based for employers you increase your chances of being discovered.

Email Etiquette for Job Seekers

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: MJW Careers

• Keep your emails as short and to the point as possible.
• Use HTML to take advantage of tracking, but keep it simple.
• Intrigue your reader with the email message and get them to find out more by clicking your resume website.
• Spend most of the time on the top three inches of the email, because it is what people see if they are using “preview” in Outlook.
• Ask them to forward the email to other people who may be looking for your skills.
• Use an effective subject line.  It must reflect the contents of the email, but you also want to make it stand out.

Research Strategies to Prepare for the Interview

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Christina Archer

You've submitted your resume to a prospective employer, and they've called you to schedule a face to face meeting.  This is what you've been waiting for!  Being prepared for your interview, and armed with information to ensure you stand out from your peers is an essential goal.  Performing research in advance of the meeting is the most effective and efficient means to achieving this objective, and landing the job.

Here are the top five tips to help any job seeker uncover information about a potential employer.

Four Reasons You Might Be Bummed If You Aren’t Working And What To Do About It

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Dorothy Tannahill-Moran

What do the following people have in common?

•    Retired engineer

•    Laid off project manager

•    Stay at home parent

•    Newly graduated student

•    Trailing spouse to a military soldier

•    Injured and recovered worker

•    Out of work actor

These people have much more in common than you probably realize.  The commonality is what they are missing.  All of these people are missing the many benefits we get from working.  Of course, we all know that they are missing the paycheck, but there are other aspects to work that most of us take for granted, until we no longer have them.   When you are in the work trenches it’s kind of hard to think you would miss anything.  You probably think the idea of not working sounds like a dream, and it can be, but not without recognizing what things you are missing and taking action to replace them.

Jobs from the Fortune 500 Vol 11

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: CareerAlley

“Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.” - Peter Lynch

Excellent quote, and I'm sure we've all known an idiot or two. I'd like to think that any company that makes it to the Fortune 500 is run by an intelligent person, but I'm also sure that this group of companies has seen its fair share of idiots as well.

That being said, the Fortune 500 is a rich field for job search (no pun intended) and these companies are generally the best placed for bad times and many have strongly recovered in the current recession. Of course, some also did not do well and some are no longer with us (not to say they were run by idiots, I'm sure there is some correlation).

How to Find Hidden Jobs From Last Year’s Job Applications

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Lorraine Russo

How many of you applied for dozens, if not hundreds, of jobs last year? If you’re like most people, chances are pretty good that your resume went into the stratosphere, never to be seen by the overworked eyes of our nation's recruiters.

But what if some of the jobs you applied for are still open?

It's possible when the company originally posted the job, there was a reasonable expectation that they would fill it. However, consider that the last quarter of the year is typically when department heads submit their budgets for the following year.

It’s entirely possible that hiring for certain positions was put on hold until the budget was finalized.

Who Is Looking For Your LinkedIn Profile?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Laura Vezer is an IT recruiter and creator of the blog, IT Matters Canada! The blog contains resources and advice for IT Professionals looking for work in Canada.

Recently, the Recruiting Animal had a LinkedIn specialist on his online radio show. Neal Schaffer spent the hour analyzing various LinkedIn profiles that were sent by courageous volunteers through Twitter.

This got me thinking. Who do you think is looking for YOUR profile?

There are recruiters out there who conduct searches through search engines like Bing and Google, to find their candidates. They can even key in search commands to search LinkedIn beyond their own networks. When you come up in one of these searches, it is the information that you have on your profile, is it going to sell your capabilities in the most effective way?

Here are a few points that came up during the show.

Uncover Hidden Jobs Through Federal Business Opportunities

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Lorraine Russo

At any given time, the Federal Business Opportunities website has tens of thousands of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that allow vendors to bid on the opportunity to provide goods and services. By law, the government is required to conduct an open and competitive bidding process for any purchases meeting certain criteria. (The federal regulations for government contracts are known as the FAR: Federal Acquisition Regulations.)

A provider that has registered at fbo.gov can bid on any opportunity. Also, subcontractors (which include small and minority-owned businesses), can add themselves as an Interested Vendor for any posted opportunity. Go to any new opportunity and you’ll see the Interested Vendors List tab. Click here for an example.

Jobs in Marketing & Advertising Vol 1

"Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on." - Jerry Della Femina

Closing the sale. That's what it is all about in Job Search, selling yourself, closing the deal, elevator speeches, etc. Intuitively, you would think that someone who is good at marketing and advertising would have an easier time selling themselves at a job interview than non-marketing types would have. And, that may just be the case.

But it doesn't make the search process any easier and closing a deal for a product is very different from closing a deal on yourself.

So what are the basics? Well to start, review some sites that focus on exactly this topic - Market yourself. There are plenty of these sites (two are listed below). Most have similar information, although a few have a slightly different slant.