LinkedIn: New One-Click Skills Endorsements

LinkedIn recently introduced a new feature on its site, one-click skills and expertise endorsements. Now you can go to a friend or colleague’s profile find the skills and expertise area and click on a listed skill (or even add some skills or other areas of expertise that aren’t yet listed). This new feature makes it very easy to endorse your connection on LinkedIn. Think of it as LinkedIn’s version of a Facebook “Like”.

This is very different from a recommendation on LinkedIn. A recommendation requires that your connection actually sit down and take the time and energy to write a thoughtful and articulate testimonial regarding your work and performance. For a recruiter or decision-maker reviewing a job candidate’s profile, the recommendations can give additional insight into a prospective candidate’s background.

The ease of the one-click skills endorsement begs the question of how much weight someone reading the profile will give to these “likes” on LinkedIn. To me, gathering these endorsements is reminiscent of Valentine’s Day back in elementary school. Do you remember (I know, for some of us this goes back a little ways) running home with your little cardboard box filled with Valentine’s and counting and comparing with your friends how many Valentine’s you’d received. Most with “Roses are red, violets are blue . . .” not exactly the quality love notes we come to expect as adults from a single special admirer.

Which brings me to my point, quantity versus quality. Are we just becoming a one-click “Like” world and moving away from quality assessments that actually add value and insight into a person’s background and capabilities. I’d love to hear from recruiters and HR professionals on their feelings regarding the new one-click endorsements and how much they will impact their decisions in contacting potential candidates.

~Linda

4 Tips to Leverage LinkedIn

LinkedInI’m on LinkedIn, now what? That’s a question I hear from time to time. Or, I’ve filled out my profile on LinkedIn and nothing is happening. Those are comments from passive job seekers, those that are sitting back and waiting to be “discovered.”

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for job seekers, but like any tool, it takes more than just having it in your toolbox, you have to use it. First, you should optimize your LinkedIn profile with your most marketable attributes and skill sets. Include quantifiable successes, key words, a professional picture, recommendations and make sure your profile is 100% complete. For some people, with skills that are in high demand, just having a great profile on LinkedIn can be enough because recruiters do use LinkedIn to mine for candidates.

However, if you’re truly interested in making a career move and doing so in a timely manner it takes time and effort. Spending quality time on LinkedIn can lead to a rewarding position. The following are four tips your competitors who are waiting to be “discovered” are not doing:

1. Build your professional network.

Once you’ve perfected your profile now’s the time to show it off. Reach out to friends, colleagues, alumni, and acquaintances. It’s not necessarily about the quantity of your connections, it’s more about the quality. True, having a lot of connections will give you more information when you run searches on LinkedIn, but having quality connections who you can reach out to for introductions is more effective when you’re trying to network into a company.

2. Use the Advanced Searches.

When you see a job posting anywhere, your first step should be to run an advanced search on LinkedIn and see if your connected to someone at that company. It is about who you know to get your foot in the door. But more importantly, LinkedIn is best if utilized to target the unpublished market by networking. If you’re serious about finding a job, you should be using LinkedIn to build your network and target the unpublished job market.

3. Target and follow companies for whom you’d like to work.

Use the advanced search to target companies and identify people at those companies to connect with. Also, if you follow companies where you’d like to work you’ll see their posted activities including job openings or updates about their business that may inspire you to reach out to them regardless of whether they have an opening. Yes, companies will create positions for the right candidate.

4. Participate in Groups.

You can expand your network on LinkedIn by joining groups in your area of interest and asking to connect to other group members. Additionally, by participating in group discussions you can show off your expertise and become recognized in your industry.

Remember, just having a hammer and some nails won’t get that house built, like everything worthwhile, it takes applying yourself thoughtfully and intentionally to build a solid career.

Linda Lupatkin – The Imagemakers, Ink! LLC – Resumes, Bios, Career Coaching and Consulting

 

Job Search: Google+ As A Complement To LinkedIn

When it comes to social media and job hunting, everyone immediately thinks of LinkedIn and rightly so. A great LinkedIn profile (which we can accomplish for you here at The Imagemakers, Ink!)  can go a very long way towards giving a prospective employer a good overview of your skill sets and abilities. So while we can all agree that LinkedIn is a must, you should also be aware that there’s an up and comer that can help you in more ways than you may have thought of  when it comes to conducting a job search. Who’s the new guy? Well it’s Google+ and here’s how it can complement your LinkedIn Profile.

 In a word, “personality”, which when you think about it, is the one aspect that LinkedIn lacks with it’s Dragnet like “just the facts mam” way of doing things. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not a complete picture of who you are and what you bring to the table.

I would argue that a well manicured Google+ profile (with smartly placed public posts and photos) can act as an complement to LinkedIn that can shine a little light on your fun side, intelligence and interests that LinkedIn has a hard time with because of it’s obvious “business” mission. Of course when I say “well manicured” I’m talking about a public profile and posts that stay away from controversy and nonsense (save those posts for your “close friends” circle) and that paint a positive picture of you to anyone on the outside looking in.

In the case of job hunting that would be any HR professional or decision maker who Googles you (and yes, they do Google you) looking to find out more about you other than just what’s contained in your LinkedIn profile. Add to that the fact that Google+ is tightly integrated into the rest of the Google ecosystem (Google docs and other business tools as well as it’s own cool features) and I believe that it can be a very real complement to LinkedIn when “they” go searching…and trust me…”they” will. So give them some fun stuff! Give them some intelligent stuff! Give them some interesting stuff!

Who knows, it may be just the right “stuff” that gets you the job!

~Stu