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

Top Job Search Myth . . . Busted!

CalendarWe’ve all heard it, the so-called “rule of thumb” that you can expect to add one month to your job search for every  $10,000 you make in salary. For instance, if you’ve been making $100,000 it will take you 10 months to find your next position.  I’ve been working with clients, specifically with more senior level professionals and executives, on their job searches for more than a decade and I can tell you that that’s just not true.

For example, I was recently working with a Vice President who was making $250,000 in base salary. We started working together in mid-July, 2011 and by the end of November, 2011 he had an offer with a company he’s very excited about. So according to the aforementioned “rule of thumb”, instead of the five months his job search took, it should have taken five times as long, or 25 months (over two years).

I know what you’re thinking, in the current economy and tight job market, he must have accepted a lower base salary. In actuality, we worked on the negotiation together and he ended up with not only a higher base salary, but a better overall compensation package for a new, more challenging and appealing position.

Another six-figure executive I was working with found his COO position within one month of beginning his search. Now, I will say that such a short turnaround is very unusual, but he was obviously in the right place at the right time. Of course, sometimes a search can go on much longer.

There are many factors involved that can impact the length of a job search like industry, geography and level of expertise as well as individual preferences such as opportunity for growth, challenge, or the ability to “give back”.  Some people want to take their time and find the perfect fit, while others may not have that luxury. Another consideration is the amount of time and energy a person is willing to invest in their career transition. Because of these many variables, there is no average time for a job search and there are certainly no rules about how long it will take.

I don’t know who first introduced that “rule of thumb” or how it became an urban legend, but it’s just not the case. The bottom line, running a successful job search involves hard work, applying proven job search strategies, ensuring you’re presenting the best representation of your career with an attention grabbing resume, biography and cover letter,  and yes . . . a little luck and timing.

~Linda

 

 

Job Hunting Horror

In honor of Halloween, I felt it was only fitting to write a job hunting horror story. It’s a story that everyone searching for a job knows very well. It involves nail biting apprehension, tense anxiety and gut wrenching anticipation.

From the most qualified candidates to those that are, shall we say, a little more challenged, job seekers today really require intestinal fortitude. Nowadays, waiting for the phone to ring goes far beyond the job seekers’ jitters of yesteryear.

A frightfully frustrating aspect of job search for all job seekers, but especially so for executives who are used to being in control and calling the shots, is that someone else is in charge of making a key decision that impacts their lives ~ whether to hire them and if so, when.

Well, there’s nothing new there, that’s how hiring has been since the beginning of time. The thing that’s new now and has been growing more disturbing over the years is the lack of common courtesy and consideration for job search candidates.

I consistently hear horror stories of calls and emails never acknowledged or returned and broken promises made about future communication or the timing of a decision. Back in the day, if you applied for something you either got a phone call for an interview or a rejection letter, granted it was usually a form letter, but at least it was something.

Nowadays, I’ve even heard stories from people who’ve been invited in to interview, that never heard boo from the company again. Now I realize HR professionals, recruiters and hiring managers are getting inundated with resumes and since it’s so easy to apply online, a lot from candidates who have no business applying. But, I also know there is software out there to at least notify the job seeker the status of the search process.

No one likes to be kept in the dark, especially during such challenging and scary times, so how about a treat instead of a trick for job seekers, now that we have all of these great newfangled tools to communicate with, let’s try using them and treating others how we’d like to be treated during a trying time.

~Linda