You know that popular saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover?” In this case, that’s exactly what employers do when fishing for new talent.
Resumes are the first thing employees see of your potential character. While this is true, they’re often accompanied by cover letters directed to a hiring authority.
Cover letters are an important piece of the job application, but it’s often overlooked by job-seekers. We encourage people to keep the cover letter in the arsenal.
When job postings request a cover letter, it’s important to provide the company with one; but when they merely ask for a resume, it’s best to not include a cover letter. Be conscious when applying for positions and read the application instructions carefully.
When the application process begins with the cover letter, keep in mind its purpose: to introduce yourself and your resume to the hiring authority, which could be anyone from recruiters and HR professionals, to VPs or the CEO.
If they don’t like your cover letter, there’s a chance they might not even look at your resume.
Writing a cover letter can be a daunting task. So, we have some tips for you on how to write a solid yet simple cover letter, and get noticed above other applicants.
If you can, avoid generic salutations such as “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To whom it may concern.” Instead, address the cover letter to the appropriate person.
This might involve doing some legwork to find out who that person might be. You might have to call the company or find them on LinkedIn. But keep in mind that people are always happier to read something when it’s directed to them personally. Its shows off your tenacity to investigate and get the right information.
A Google search of “cover letter templates” will conjure tons of results. But if templates aren’t your thing, perhaps it’d be better to tailor one for yourself.
Each cover letter you write should be tailored to both the position you’re applying for and the company. If you know someone who is a talented writer, it’s also a good idea to have them proofread it and add some value to your messaging.
“My name is so-and-so and I’m interested in applying for…” Recruiters have frequently seen this opening line. But, it’s boring and redundant. Instead, go for something creative and unexpected.
Highlight your skills and achievements right off the bat. And talk about the value you can bring to not just the position, but the organization overall.
Remember that anyone in a hiring authority reads dozens of cover letters a day. And if anything will stick out to them the most, it’s the opening line. So, do your best to differentiate yourself.
A resume is a story about you. But, it’s not sufficient to merely discuss yourself. You should tie yourself in the organization. So, share your knowledge of what the company does and why you want to work there.
If you have an internal reference at the company, get the inside scoop ( or use LinkedIn to find them). If not, we suggest going through annual reports if it’s a public company.
If it’s a medium-to-small-sized company, leaf through its press releases going back two to three years. Read as much as possible. Organizations love it when you’re aware of what they’ve been up to.
So, use all possible avenues and do your homework. Maybe you’ll dig up some negative info on the company, and realize it’s not the place for you to build a great career.
Similar to the opening line, try to be creative again. Conclude your cover letter with a call to action to build a rapport with the hiring manager.
It’s also a good idea to reaffirm your interest in working for the company.
You can try something short and simple like this: “This opportunity aligns well with my work history. Thank you for taking the time, courtesy, and attention in reviewing my resume. Please feel free to connect with me directly via phone, email or LinkedIn.”
You have no idea how many times recruiters have said they caught typos in cover letters – and serious ones if I might add, which include misspelling the hiring manager’s name or getting the company wrong. For each cover letter you write, make sure you proofread before sending it!
When it comes to writing – and writing cover letters – keep in mind that this is a potential marketing document that will influence the person reading it to move you forward in the hiring process.
So, remember to keep it simple and compelling to stand out from the crowd. Discuss your track record and how it makes you a suitable addition to the company.
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On the surface, it may appear that job-searchers are struggling in their job hunt. But, as we approach the warm summer months, it looks like the job market is warming up too.
I was exceptionally pleased when Statistics Canada released the unemployment numbers on Friday. Its national labour force survey found that the unemployment rate fell to 7.6 per cent with the addition of 58,000 new jobs in April. What this means is that we’re back where we were in 2008 when the recession hit.
Among the hottest industries to show growth have been health care, consulting (sales and marketing), and financial services. Employment in the transportation and warehousing industries also shot up, and industries that were left unchanged include manufacturing and construction, the survey found.
To provide you with more information about job growth in Canada, and what to expect in the next few months and years, as you progress with your job search strategy, I spoke with Sonya Gulati, an economist with TD Bank.
“The jobs gained tended to be in part-time positions, the public sector and lower paying industries such as the service sector,” Gulati says.
Part-time positions tend to be defined loosely as when you work less than 30 hours a week (which, conversely, is the standard for full-time work).
Gulati says she believes the job market will gradually improve in the coming months.
In 2009, during the economic downturn, about one in eight workers had contract work, Statistics Canada’s Diane Galarneau wrote in a report. A lot of contract jobs were centered in the public sector, and industries such as health care, education and public administration.
There’s also an abundance of new start-up companies cropping up across Canada. The popularity of CBC shows such as Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank tell us that companies are successful.
The Canadian Franchise Association reported that, since April, there have been 78,000 franchises in Canada and the number is still growing across all market sectors. Increasingly more executives have turned to entrepreneurship as a result of the recession. So it seems to me that the job market in Canada is improving.
I’m also pleased we received a majority government in the May 2 election. For me, what this means is that the federal government can make furthering the economy and job creation a priority without the possibilities of another no-confidence vote and subsequent election.
Canadians haven’t had a stable majority government in seven years.
This also means that the Conservatives most likely will continue to sustain a stay-the-course policy path, with lowering corporate taxes. When reached for further information on Conservative policies regarding job growth, a spokesperson for the newly elected Conservative government referred me to the budget, which was tabled March 2011 and fell victim to the election call.
The budget highlighted that the government has a “low-tax plan for jobs and growth.”
“Since 2006, the Government has reduced taxes, tariffs and red tape to improve incentives for investment and innovation. It has fostered innovation by making substantial investments in research and development, and has taken action to encourage education and skills development,” the budget explained.
Over the course of the Harper Government’s reign, it took two years to regain all the jobs lost in the recession. This is a considerable improvement from the 1990 recession, which took about four years to reclaim lost jobs.
There’s another budget being tabled in the weeks to come with minor tweaks to the last one. And job growth will be given a priority. It is then that we will get a clearer sense of what the Harper Government plans to do to create jobs.
But, Gulati believes that export-oriented industries and the resource sector will be the star leading performers in 2011 and 2012. From this, we can infer the potential for resource-specific (which includes oil, gas, mining, logging, agriculture) job growth.
Comparatively, because of the government reining in deficits and interest tax hikes, construction and public sector jobs might be minimal.
However, the fact remains is that the economy is re-energizing. Between scoring casual work and working for franchises, Canadians are diversifying their options when it comes to working.
And the fact that we now have a united majority government means the job market will more than likely continue to improve. So, as we approach the summer, we suggest job-seekers remain optimistic. The tide is changing for the better.
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Job-hunting is a funny business. The first glimpse employers have of you is a one-to-three-page document.
That’s why resumes are often the make or break part of your job search strategy. They’re the first thing employers see of your characteristics.
We all want to showcase our best qualities on our resume but it takes a lot of hair-pulling to get it right.
Try to captivate employers with an interesting value proposition about yourself, your top skills and professional work experience. You can include your target opportunity as well as major achievements as well as your top professional skills. Innate talents are also recommended.
To further capture the essence of your personality with your resume, consider the following tips:
Use bullet forms, bolding, italics and even text boxes to make your resume visually appealing.
I suggest choosing among three basic resume styles: chronological, which simply lists your work experience in order, functional, which emphasizes your abilities and functions more, and a hybrid combination of the two.
Your resume is a story – your story. As such, you want to begin with your most recent experiences and any significant contributions to recent employers. Make sure employers don’t have to go back three pages to see your most recent or most significant activity.
Try not to be repetitive. Use a variety of verbs and adjectives when describing your goals and experiences. It’ll spice up your resume with more personality. It would also help to use action verbs. Make your resume come alive with words like “performed,” “led,” “established,” or generated” to describe specific achievements in your career.
One of the biggest resume mistakes seen by recruiters and HR professionals is that job-seekers often undersell their skills and achievements. Highlight your experiences creatively, and don’t be afraid to self-promote and embellish them a little bit.
Instead of merely listing your degrees, include any certificates or licenses you’ve gotten as well. This way, you have more credentials to showcase. Also, put in any volunteer groups you’ve been a part of.
The web is a great way to further market yourself. So, include a hyperlink to your blog, showcasing your writing skills and knowledge about issues relevant to your industry.
We recommend you put it in the header of your resume, underneath your email address. It will make it much easier for hiring managers to get you on their radar.
If you have any extracurricular talents like drawing, piano or martial arts, don’t be afraid to put them in your resume to expand on your skills. But, use judgment on whether they relate to the job for which you’re applying.
While writing your resume, keep in mind that the key is simplicity. Hiring managers don’t want your whole life story. They merely want a glimpse of you. Try to give them that in a powerful and meaningful way.
Resumes are marketing tools, with the product you’re trying to sell being your credentials, work ethic and track record of success.
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I once wrote that LinkedIn is when Facebook and Twitter meet for coffee.
I explain LinkedIn to my clients and friends in one sentence: “LinkedIn is Facebook for Professionals only”.
It’s a social networking tool designed specifically for business professionals, companies, job-seekers and employers.
It has over 200 million members in a plethora of industries. A majority are white collar workers hoping to further their career through this enhanced networking tool.
So, how can you make the most of this increasingly popular professional networking tool? Let’s go through nine ways you can use LinkedIn to enhance your job search strategy.
Let people know that you’re looking for a new opportunity by updating your status. This tells your network of connections that you’re interested in new career opportunities.
This will be even better if you beef up your network with more connections – colleagues, professors (if you’re a new graduate) or former colleagues.
LinkedIn is a great resource to share your references virally. It enables you to ask your connections for recommendations and post them on your LinkedIn page.
Having your colleagues, peers and vendors vouch for your track record can go a long way in advancing your credibility. Make sure your recommendations are not fluffy or sound fake, potential hiring authorities view solid recommendations as insights to the way you operate.
Scope out companies in your industry and find out which people are working there. You can even do an advanced search to see if anybody you know works for those companies.
If there are, this is a good opportunity for you to connect with them and ask them if their company is recruiting new talent. This is a great way to tap into the hidden job market.
LinkedIn offers a special tool that allows you to see the career paths of individuals who’ve worked for a particular company.
It’s called “Company Profiles” and it’s a very useful application to find out what kind of experience a company is looking for in new hires as well as job functions, years of experience, educational degree and even the university they attended.
LinkedIn’s “Company Profiles” tool also lets you see where people at a certain company go next, after leaving the company.
You can track down exactly where employees go after working for one company and find out where other people go from other companies in your sector. This could help you decide which places to work for and which to avoid.
You can optimize your job search by going to the company pages on LinkedIn and accessing the “New Hires” section. It lists all the people who’ve joined a company and if you’re really curious, you can ask these new employees how they managed to get their first job.
Activate your Sherlock Holmes-like qualities to learn the backgrounds of these people, to find out what made them so attractive to the manager.
Not only does LinkedIn provide the option of searching for jobs, but you can also see who posted the job. Pay close attention to the ones who live two degrees away from you. You may even know the person who posted the job!
If you’re unable get in touch with the hiring manager, you can also use LinkedIn to find someone inside the company and ask them to deliver your resume to the hiring manager or HR department.
Hiring managers are likely to pay more attention to resumes when they get it from internal co-workers. A great way to become your own headhunter!
Job postings rarely list all the skills a hiring manager is seeking in a new employee. LinkedIn is a great way for you to get the inside scoop on what’s required.
To do this, search for the company name and look up the people in your network who connect you to that company. If you don’t have an inside connection, just view the profiles of the people who work for that company to get an idea of their specific background and skills.
Widen your spectrum of opportunities, there’s always great start-up companies. You can try working for a new company especially if you’re just starting out in your job search.
It’s a great opportunity especially for new graduates to gain some experience before jumping in with the bigwigs. Use LinkedIn’s advanced search engine and enter keywords like “start-up” in the company field.
You can also narrow your job search by industry (e.g. start-up in Web 2.0, wireless or biotech sectors).
Keep in mind that in this day and age, professional networking tools like LinkedIn can be great assets. It’s all about marketability. So, optimize your profile, connect with professionals in your industry and get yourself out there!
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Have you ever had to leave your job for an interview at another company? It happens, and it’s a tricky situation to be in. You want to show up for the interview at the time your potential employer requests, but you also don’t want to upset your current employer.
It is possible to attend job interviews while at work, but you have to be careful! Here are a few ways that you can sneak out for an hour or two without risking your current position.
Some ways to tell your employer you have to take an interview include:
If this long list of excuse ideas doesn’t impress you, you can always come up with your own. But at least they can get you started on thinking about excuses to leave work if you really need to at some point.
Going to an interview during work is not easy, especially if your boss is really demanding, but if you have no other choice, you have to come up with a convincing idea to leave for that interview or you may miss your chance to get hired in a higher level of profession.
Lastly, don’t let your fear of being fired hold you down, as long as you build really tight relationships with your bosses and tell them beforehand of the meeting you scheduled; they may let you go for the day.
It’s not easy making up excuses to go to an interview during work, but when opportunity strikes, you can’t just let the chance pass you by.
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For anyone who is looking to build a stronger presence on LinkedIn and utilize the site to forge new opportunities.
LinkedIn is home to over 200 million professionals. Enhancing your profile can give you an advantage so that recruiters, consultants, entrepreneurs and hiring authorities can’t resist connecting with you.
LinkedIn is not a place for social networking; it is strictly for professional networking and for staying informed about your contacts and industry. It’s a place where you can exchange information, ideas and opportunities.
As the website says, LinkedIn is to reconnect with your past and present colleagues and classmates; it is to help power your career; and it is to share advice and expertise with other professionals in your industry.
With that said, here are some important insights I believe you need to be mindful of when fine tuning your LI profile:
The first step in setting up an effective LinkedIn profile is taking your existing or most current resume and professional bio and filling in all the fields on your profile page – you can adjust the format later.
The summary section on your LinkedIn profile is by far the most important piece of information there. It has your value proposition and your branding statement. It is prudent to research and identify the keywords and terminologies in your industry and include them in your profile.
You can also make use of the summary section to identify your strengths and core capacities. The content in your profile must come across as compelling information presented in a grammatically correct and coherent way, so you must proofread your account.
LinkedIn offers the opportunity to ask for recommendations or endorsements from your former colleagues. This can be a useful tool in providing evidence of real world experience and work ethics.
Including your email or phone number is a personal call, if you want to be contacted via telephone or email leave that info in the top 1/3rd of your profile. Be clear on the reason you are on LinkedIn. Last but not least, please use a professional picture to represent you.
Once you have all the pertinent information on your profile page, it is crucial that you organize it in the most relevant way for your target audience.
The least known fact about LinkedIn is that on your profile page you can rearrange the boxes based on the most compelling piece of information about your professional life.
For instance, if you are a recent graduate with little or no work experience, it might be in your favour to move the education box on top of experience. The idea is to draw attention to your strengths and not weaknesses.
Most recruiters will glance over your profile at first, so make your profile stand out by simply dragging and rearranging sections of your profile to help differentiate your personal style.
There is no cut and dry answer when it comes to page optimization but there are definitely highly recommended best practices that can help you get one step closer to a perfectly optimized page.
LinkedIn public profiles can be found in searches on Google, Yahoo!, and other major search engines. Search Engine Optimization or SEO improves the visibility of your profile page in search engines.
In other words, an SEO-friendly page on LinkedIn can help a recruiter find you easily in a search string based on your industry using a geographic location, remember that most recruiters look for talent locally.
There are several ways to optimize the prominence of your profile page within these search results. Writing content that uses potential search terms and keywords relevant to your profession is the most common one.
Using lists instead of paragraphs makes it easier to incorporate your keywords in an unseemly manner. You can also add links and format your keywords to stand out. Keep in mind that writing SEO-friendly content does not mean bad or incoherent content.
While optimizing, you are still writing for human readers. Make sure that the content is unique and regularly updated. You can also utilize Search Engine Marketing or SEM tactics if you are hoping to drive some of your audience to your website.
I recommend adding targeted keywords in your Skills Profile section, this will help with your SEO slightly and can also help influence people to connect with you.
Customize your public profile URL, it is your real estate online.
An intuitive and professional sounding public profile URL not only makes you easy to find and remember, it also creates a unique public identity for you in the virtual and real domain.
By personalizing, you let those looking at your profile know that you are not only creative but you are also serious about your professional image. Make sure that once you set up your public custom URL, you don’t change it as the search engines will not pick it up quickly.
If your name is taken, or it’s too long, consider referencing an email you already have or use a shortened URL, i.e.: your last name and first initial.
Customize your work website information by incorporating your company’s slogan or branding.
For instance, If you work for Coca Cola, you might want to use “Open Happiness” or if you work for Nike, consider putting in “Just Do It.” If you are a small business owner, incorporating your company motto or slogan is an effective way of showcasing your branding statement.
Check your “profile completeness” score on your profile page. While it does not impact the effectiveness of your profile, it provides a simple checklist to ensure your profile is thorough and updated.
A professionally updated resume can provide a strong basis for your LinkedIn profile and make the whole process of setting up a profile not only effective, but also efficient.
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Getting hired or headhunted is not a magic trick – all it takes is hard work and the right formula to position yourself as a candidate in demand.
In my six years of headhunting top talent through LinkedIn, I found that not only does the professional network allow me to connect with amazing market leaders and industry players, but the referrals are also exceptional.
Practice good LinkedIn etiquette and you too can be a Harry Houdini of job offers, opening doors of opportunity!
In the present economy, it is easier to keep a tab on jobs lost than jobs found.
It is also not difficult to find people who have been applying for jobs, as many as ten jobs a day on an average, but to no avail. If you are looking for work, the secret to getting hired might just be a click away.
Lets face it, in the 21st century, it is not possible to avoid technology. Even if you are not active in the virtual world, chances are that you have an account on Facebook and/or Twitter.
But, with a clear emphasis on professional networking, LinkedIn is different.
LinkedIn is an online community of thousands of employers, large and small, recruiters, job seekers and those who are simply on the website to network with industry professionals. LinkedIn has more than 200 million members around the globe and a new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second.
Meet Stephen Weinstein. Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Stephen has over 25 years of professional corporate communications and public relations experience with large scale enterprises and Fortune 500 companies.
Stephen joined LinkedIn about five years ago after doing extensive research to establish the credibility of the website. Soon after registering, Stephen saw that LinkedIn was a lot more than a tool to reconnect with friends from school and former colleagues.
“After realizing that the site was a legitimate social and professional networking site, the actual experience of setting up my LinkedIn account was painless and somewhat introspective.”
“I had to remember and describe my professional past, had to find a photo which I wanted to use to represent myself to my connections and others, had to start the process of social networking – asking others to join my network, and, as I became more comfortable, asked people for professional recommendations. I quickly formed groups which I still manage, and find groups which I wanted to join,” says Stephen.
At the time, however, Stephen was comfortable in his job as a Public Relations Manager. Stephen remembers getting a phone call from a recruiter who came across his profile while scanning LinkedIn.
“I wondered if I knew of anyone who may be interested in a position she was looking to fill. I told her that I had a pretty broad network, and would be willing to pass the job description around for her, if she would send it to me… I opened the document, and as I scanned it, it read like my dream job,” says Stephen.
A week later Stephen called her back and began the interview process. “Six interviews, three months and one psychological evaluation later, I was hired, all thanks to social networking.”
Still not convinced? Meet Jill Gaynor, a recruiter from New York City.
Jill started using LinkedIn to tap into a new candidate pool and to reach passive candidates. “On the job boards and with internal databases, you tend to come across a lot of the same candidates but on LinkedIn, you can find the exact candidates you are looking for. LinkedIn is more about building relationships, whereas other outlets it’s purely about sourcing,” according to Jill.
If you are looking for a job, it would be in your best interest to understand the difference between LinkedIn and job boards, such as Monster or CareerBuilder.
“With job boards you know that everyone who is on there is actively looking, so it’s a matter of picking up the phone, calling that individual and assessing their viability. With LinkedIn, you need to take a totally different approach. You need to connect to people from a networking stand point. Something that my company prides itself on is never invasively recruiting, so when I am approaching someone about a position, I state that upfront and let them make the call whether they want to pursue or not,” says Jill.
So, if you are looking for a job, know that unlike job boards, LinkedIn comes with a level of credibility and professional camaraderie. Both Jill and Stephen agree that the most important advice they can offer is to have a complete profile on LinkedIn, irrespective of whether or not you are job hunting.
According to Stephen, “Network. It’s the most valuable asset you have.”
In times like this, it is certainly not WHAT you know, but WHO you know that will do you the most good. Conduct informational interviews, look at LinkedIn for potential contacts, arrange lunch dates and morning coffees with acquaintances. Ask for referrals – “Who else do you know that I might be able to call and who might be willing to talk with me about my search.”
Remember, when back in the 90s the Online Career Center was launched as a non-profit organization, backed by 40 major corporations as a system for job hunters to store their resumes within the databases as well as for recruiters to post job openings to the database?
It revolutionized the whole process of job hunting. Similarly, according to Jill, “LinkedIn is the new rage and every recruiter is trying it out and excited to make new connects… Every company is using LinkedIn to post jobs these days, especially to groups because it’s free. And, I can say from my own experience, we don’t get a ton of replies, so when we do, every response stands out.”
So, if you are one of those people who feel overwhelmed by technology and have inactive accounts on Facebook and Twitter, it may be time to have just one active account on LinkedIn.
Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members. LinkedIn can help you get a job, if you are looking for one, but if you are already employed, you may want to join simply to network and keep up with the professionals in your industry.
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As an executive recruiter and head hunter, let me start by saying that I have helped clients use just about every means of social media in their quest for a fulfilling career.
It is the modern-day job fair that never ends. I have always viewed the two icons of social media, Facebook and Twitter, as such.
Facebook is the place where you reconnect with friends from school and share stories or hear about their marvellous jobs. Twitter is the place for the creative and the motivated to share information instantly; this is where ideas and advice are exchanged.
Now one might ask, surely there must be a place that would merge the two ideas into a unified experience?
In walks LinkedIn.com with its swagger and charm.
LinkedIn is like Facebook dressed in a suit and Twitter carrying a briefcase. The emphasis of LinkedIn is on making the network of professional contacts visible. It helps you see who you know and suggests new connections for you to forge.
It follows the familiar “friending method” of Facebook. Using a streamlined interface, which mirrors aspects of the social icons, LinkedIn offers a forum and online community of thousands of employers, large and small, from Microsoft and Nike to your local home town poutine truck simply trying to do business.
In my opinion, LinkedIn is like facebook but for professionals only.
I posed the question on Recruitingblogs.com about other recruiters’ impression of LinkedIn and how would they explain LinkedIn to people who might not have heard of it using just one sentence.
While most recruiters agree on LinkedIn being the most relevant professional networking platform of our times, others like Tony Palm liken it to “going to a business after hours event on line.” Katrina Collier writes, “LinkedIn allows you to reach hiring managers without going via HR or an agent.”
Recruiting Animal sums it up as “an online database of professional profiles” – Read more here: http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/how-do-you-explain-linkedin-to
LinkedIn is aggressively trying to have white collar workers everywhere make LinkedIn their number one choice. In the past 7 years, LinkedIn has grown to over 200 million users.
LinkedIn gives you options on how deep you want to expand your connections, offering a variety of packages to increase your modes of communication with existing and new connections.
The value in these packages is unmatchable and crucial for success. If you are just starting out and want to connect to someone you have no connection with, Bill Gates for example, it says to that potential new connection, “I would like to do business with you,” but it doesn’t say that half-heartedly at a bar over drinks. It says it with a pressed (electronic) business card and a firm handshake.
So, if you are starting out your career, LinkedIn for you can be like an exclusive contact list in a brand new smart phone.
Speaking of smart phones, LinkedIn also has a mobile app. This allows you and the new connections you make to instantly connect via LinkedIn. The mobile app has a very intuitive interface that allows you to navigate many of the common features of LinkedIn.
Just like the Twitter and Facebooks apps, it is free. As a result, you are not only on the market for a professional social setting, you now also have the ability to find and access your online community anywhere you go, plane, train or long commute, and you can keep your LinkedIn account with you at all times.
And of course, the most important thing to remember is that this is not the place to share your every thought or opinion; you have Twitter and Facebook for that.
Nobody on LinkedIn needs to know what you did last night, in fact, it might even harm your chances of getting that new opportunity. This is the place where you share advice on anything and everything concerning your career, including resume tips. So no sharing pictures of your “exciting” weekend.
Be prepared, LinkedIn could be the ticket to your next interview.
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Just like your cover letter, resume and job interview, social networking sites have also become an important component in which employers base their decision to hire you or not. Preserve your professional image by always being cautious.
For the very reason that Facebook is beneficial during a job search, it has been getting the attention of prospective employers. Aside from googling possible employees, 53% of employers, according to the statistics of PC Advisor, also check job applicants on social networking sites like Facebook.
Despite the fact that they help you open doors of opportunities, they can also ruin your chances of getting a job if you’re not cautious.
Take for example, the case of two car-detailing workers at Pitt Meadows who were fired for posting homophobic slurs against their bosses who were their Facebook friends.
If you think your chances of getting hired may be affected by your Facebook account, you should learn to exercise these five cautious steps:
The primary picture you post in your Facebook account should be generally wholesome and proper. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a professional image, but you should avoid questionable poses and lurid images.
It’s no comparison to the shock that an employer gets when he sees you stoned, wasted or clad in women’s clothing.
If you allow everybody to view your profile, be careful of the pictures and comments you post on your wall.
Always do an inventory of the things you want to post and make sure they won’t cause any damage on your professional career. It’s always best to keep everything clean so you don’t have to worry about a thing.
Some Facebook users make the mistake of putting every bit of personal information into their account from their sexual preferences, to their political views, as well as religious beliefs.
While this may be a good thing if you’re looking for the perfect lifetime partner, this may set the grounds for discrimination issues if employers want to hire you.
Whether you love to trash talk your previous employer or you’re having a word war with your ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend or you just like to express yourself through expletives, employers see this as regressive behavior that is not good for the company.
They want someone who’s got the right attitude to produce results and you just missed your chance when you’ve done these things.
One of the important and safest things you can do to safeguard your privacy is to tweak your Facebook settings to display only certain amounts of information. When you’re job searching, you never really know what comes your way so it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Don’t make your life a public spectacle; reserve that privilege for you and your closest friends. When it comes to impressing the employers, it’s all about having a clean and professional image.
From being a college-based networking site in 2004, Facebook has come a long way of revolutionizing social networking. The latest count of active users has surpassed the 1 billion mark.
More than 50% of users are from around the globe and Facebook usage continues to grow with each passing second.
Don’t let your personal life get your professional life in trouble!
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