Quick Tip: Keep In Touch

The Career Coach Quick TipWe live in an amazing time where we can communicate literally at the touch of a finger. Not only can we text, tweet, buzz, IM, and email, we can still even call each other from our mobile phones and yes, even from landlines. Oh, and of course there’s also snail mail. But, the sad truth is, we don’t.

Time and time again, I hear from frustrated clients who’ve reached out to people in their network, never to hear back. In our communication age it seems we’ve lost touch with common courtesy. While we may feel inundated with information and bombarded by status updates, we should still make an effort at etiquette. Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but in this age of constant career moves you never know when that connection you snubbed just might come in handy.

-Linda

Quick Tip: Hot Times For Job Hunters

The Imagemakers, Ink! LLC

The dog days of summer are winding down, which means it’s time to turn up the heat on your job search. The fourth quarter can be a great time for job seekers; as companies are winding up their books, those that have a surplus in their hiring budget may be hot to hire because they don’t want to lose those hiring funds in next year’s budget.

Also, Labor Day marks an unofficial end to summer (and wearing white). With kids heading back to school and hiring managers returning from summer vacations everyone is getting their head back in the game. That means if you’re on the hunt for a new position, Labor Day is a good time to motivate and rejuvenate your job search efforts.

The fall hiring window is between September and November with summer vacations over and the winter holidays yet to begin. But even if you don’t find your dream job this fall, looking now and through the holidays lays the ground work for a highly productive first quarter, another hot time for hiring.

~Linda

Quick Tip: Connecting on LinkedIn

The Imagemakers, Ink! LLCA client of mine recently asked me whether she should connect with someone who had contacted her on LinkedIn. I asked her if there was any reason why she shouldn’t connect with this person. She said she was worried it would be construed as an endorsement of someone whom she didn’t really know very well.

Which leads to this quick tip: just connecting with someone on LinkedIn is not an endorsement nor is it a recommendation, it’s just a new connection. So go ahead and become part of their professional network.

A recommendation on LinkedIn takes more effort than just connecting to someone, but it’s still easy to write and receive a recommendation and they’re an important part of your profile.  Remember, you need to have at least three recommendations to have a profile that’s 100% complete. In addition, they’re a great way to market yourself to future employers.