Job Search Tips

I’ve written about Linkedin before. This social media web site is a great job search resouruce. But be warned this and similiar sites are one of the many job search tools available. Here is a great article on how to use this valuable resource for your job search.

If you are in the middle of a job search, you should consider utilizing social networking sites. The problem is that there are thousands of social networking sites so how should you proceed?

One thing I see people do and I don’t recommend is to create hundreds of accounts on every site you can get your little cyber fingers on. This is kind of like blasting your resume to thousands of employers on an online job board. Shotgun approaches like this tend to not work. I suggest you pick one (maybe two) social networking sites and focus your time and energy there.

I know of no better site, from a job search perspective, then linkedin.com. This site has a focus on professional networking, to that end it excels. Linkedin combines the elements of a job board with the tools of  a social networking site.

Getting started is simple. Point your web browser over to www.linkedin.com and create an account. Creating a linkedin account is almost the same as creating a resume. You will list your work and education history. Put as much information as possible as you will be using your work and education to find past classmates and coworkers.

The next step is to find people to link with. Linkedin will help you out by suggesting people based on your profile. For example if you worked at Company X five years ago, linkedin will suggest people who worked at the same company. Once you find people who you know simply send them an invitation t link with you.

Once they accept you can communicate with them and catch up. This is a great way to reconnect with people from your past and is one of the primary reasons I love linked in so much. You are able to reconnect with people from your past and build a network in almost no time.

Linked also offers some other features which you can discover yourself. I’ll write about them in future posts, but for know go out and start learning how to use linkedin. It’s a great tool for finding career leads.

Here is a great article on dealing with a job search during difficult times. One great point that the article makes is to not switch careers in a down market. If you have a stable job I recommend that you stay put and ride out the storm.

If you are looking for your next opportunity then this article has some great advice. One resource that I’ll mention is linked.com. I don’t advocate the overreliance of online tools, but linkedin.com, if used properly, is a great resource for a job search.

Happy Job Hunting!