After creating a profile:
o make it a point to add all of your daily contacts
o list your accomplishments
o Consider a Professional resume writing service; $100 is a small price to pay for several thousand in salary
o Deal with recruiters who deal in the right areas; some are in manufacturing; some are in IT; project management; etc - if you're going to deal with a recruiter *once you do, ANY company they deal with is obligated to pay them if they hire you, even if the recruiter didn't get involved with the process* navigate carefully
o Keep in touch with people & companies you previously interviewed with – they may hire you in the future
o Learning more about your interviewer before the interview. If I see they went to school somewhere, I ask them what it was like to break the ice in opening conversations.
Follow Company
- to find out who’s hiring & firing (openings)
- Has a replacement been hired for the position? find out (call if needed) “What company did he come from?”
o Chances are that company had to back fill the position and their may be a position there. Contact them.
Join groups
- (not so much social groups) – alumni groups, associations., company groups
- This lets you message other people in the group free
Advanced search
- For people who have your skills & background to find companies that employ people like you.
- Get to know a company. Advanced search on a company and uncheck “current companies only” to see what kind of talent has left the company, and how fast. Contact them to see what they have to say about their former employer & add them to your network
When you get partial info.
- if the person is “Out of your network” you may only have restricted access to their details, and receive only their First Name and Initial of last name
- To find the last name, open a separate window run a google search on their name and position/company. Google usually locates their LinkedIn public profile which displays their full last name and details.
Advanced search by:
o title
o current employment
o company
o postal code
- to get name of employees
- CALL and ask to speak with them
- leave msg if needed “Hi this is ______ I’m a _______ and wanted to talk with you.”
Your goal is to establish contact
o Once they call you, there may only be a 1-2 minute window
o “I’ve been _____________________ for (x) yrs. at ____________, and have also helped other companies with parts of their ___________________.” (this is what I’ve done).
o “I’m interested in _______ and have been doing ________. I was on LinkedIn and noticed you ________.”
o Ask them “Where in (co. name) can you use _______ (my skills)?”
**Do Not mention the position, there may be others they will bring up you don’t know about.
He may try to pass you off to HR
- If you need to speak with him more “I understand HR has an important role but they don’t understand ________ as well as you do”; or “I will definitely take the name of the person you recommend in HR, but I’ve found those who are currently involved with doing the work have a much better understanding of that area and what’s involved; who I really need to speak is your manager, what’s his name?”
o If you end up speaking with HR, say “(name of the person who passed you off) the (their position) asked me to contact you regarding ____________.” HR is more likely to listen if it sounds like an internal recommendation.
Jobs
- when doing a job search, the job will often display who it was posted by, usually the person hiring. Contact them directly as well as add them to your network for future opportunities.
Even better than LinkedIn is to find events you can attend to meet/network with people face to face.