In this employers’ market, you need to become 100 times more strategic and savvy in writing OnTarget resumes and getting them to the key decision makers. The generic resume has become a nonstarter, and successful seekers are writing customized resumes.
But have no fear: In Chapter 9, I take you through how to turn a one-size-fits-all Core resume into OnTarget resumes with ease.
The short professional bio is making a comeback as a social profile (see Chapter 2). The short bio helps when you want to apply for a job, network, post on a guest blog, and so on. It tells people quickly who you are, what you do, and why they should care.
More people are living their lives on the Internet, and episodes of name high-jacking are rising. Realization is mushrooming that controlling the exclusive online rights to your own name makes sense, even if you’re not a business owner.
You can protect your identity in its purest web form by buying a domain for your name – YourName.com. You can also purchase a URL (web address) for your resume – YourNameresume.com. See Chapters 2 and 5 to find out why owning your own name has gained red-alert status in a digital age. Claim your name!
Chapter 2
Finding Your Next Job in the Wide World of Social Media
▶ Appreciating what social job search can do for you
▶ Tying into top-rated social networking sites
▶ Creating profiles you’re proud of
The familiar adage claiming the secret to landing a good job “is not what you know, but who you know” is hereby officially stamped incomplete in this era of online social connectivity. Consider this revised version: The secret to landing a good job is what you know, who you know, who knows you, and who your friends know.
All this knowing is exploding on the web’s social networking sites, a big part of social media. The terms overlap in popular usage and definitions vary widely. Here’s my take:
✔ Social networking sites are web venues with huge online databases of information individuals have uploaded about themselves. They do it to mingle with other people in the site’s database – to put themselves “out there.” Their autobiographical information is public or semi-public and usually includes a description of who they are (a profile) and/or a short biography (a bio).
Many social networkers just want to hang around with each other. Others aim to grow their circle of acquaintances. Still others are interested in a specific subject (like dating or business). Social networking sites typically have a personal focus, but a growing number operate with a professional purpose.
✔ Social media is a set of technologies and channels that enable a virtual community to interact in the same space. Social media includes a wide variety of forums, ranging from social sharing sites, such as YouTube and Flickr, to social networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook.
There’s little question that two-way communication on the interactive web is dramatically changing the game for job seekers and recruiters alike. If you’re scratching your head about how social networking actually works, and are unsure how to use it to find a job and promote your career, you won’t want to miss this chapter.
The Sweeping Reach of Social Networking
Reflecting the shape of job search now and job search to come, social networking dominates Internet use. At a half-billion strong, Facebook alone claims 72 percent of the world’s Internet population as visitors. Bigger than most countries, Facebook has more users than the United States has citizens.
What’s more, the growth rate of social networking is startling: The number of people visiting social media sites keeps rising in all age brackets. Social networking is not a fad but an honest-to-goodness paradigm shift in the way people do business around the globe, including the business of finding employment.
Think about how to harness this power that offers a double rainbow of job-search help – from direct access to hiring managers and quick identification of potential allies at prospective employers, to easy look-ups on company profiles and obtaining posted endorsements from your network. Just to keep it interesting, different services offer different features. (Similarly, some charge fees, and others are free.)
But, at root, the many benefits of using social networking services for career management and job-hunting fall into two basic categories. In signing on with one or more social networking services, you are
✔ Showing the world how hirable you are. By filling out profiles and listing your credentials, you advertise your potential or immediate availability on an “e-billboard” that helps recruiters and employers find you.
✔ Gathering supporters to hold open doors. When you collect, connect, and network with friendly contacts, you gain a potential source of referrals, get updates on their employers’ hiring modes, receive insider fill-ins on company culture, and uncover other useful information.
Eyeing the Big Three of Social Networking Job Search
Of the countless social networking services available to you, three services top the charts in career-management and job-search potential: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Regardless of your profession, LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is the big-league social site you want. Its 332 million worldwide members swing for the fences. Totally business focused? LinkedIn (LI) is your online chance to put a home run up on the board.
Unsurprisingly, case histories of LinkedIn members using the professional social network to find jobs keep rolling out. Here are the LI experiences of two people:
✔ A laid-off engineer landed a promising new post paying more money at a financial services website. This happened shortly after a headhunter found the engineer’s job status on LI had been changed from “current” to “past.”
✔ A radio station marketing manager lost his job and decided to post a forthright status note: “I’m up for grabs, who wants me?” Someone in his network saw it and referred him as a candidate for the position of programs and events manager at a city’s chamber of commerce organization. The former radio man cinched the job offer a week later.
Sampling the LinkedIn benefits buffet
LinkedIn keeps new service features coming