Written by Julia Churan
LinkedIn was created as a tool to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. It has single-handedly redefined job search in the past decade.
Keynote
Laura Williams – City Profile Manager, LinkedIn
Every second two people join LinkedIn. Since 95% of job applications today never receive a response, job seekers must use their network and standout more than any time before. Laura came from the LinkedIn offices to share secrets on doing this.
Your goal as a job seeker is to get in front of the right people:
- Connect
- Stay Informed
- Get Hired
To make the most of the LinkedIn site, you must:
Create a Strong Profile
Your Profile is your professional brand and how you engage with others: recruiters, hiring manager, other job seekers, and employed professionals. It is your online resume but needs to function differently than a written resume. Your profile needs to be specific, highlight your strengths and be concise.
Keys to a strong online vita:
- A professional photo makes the biggest impact – it will get get you 14X the views. It must be professional — no dogs, no hats, no babies – but tell your story.
- A great headline – can include your last job title but also tell a little more about you and what you are seeking. Be careful of buzzwords and use keywords strategically.
- Your education – this is not just your degree but consider also continuing education, seminars or certifications.
- Work experience – minimum of 2 past roles that highlight what you did and what you learned.
- A compelling summary – tell your story, if it is complicated you can explain it here. Focus on your accomplishments and aspirations.
- Add skills – they can be managed, rearranged, removed, then request connections to endorse you on these qualities.
- Multi media portfolio, if applicable – should be used only if you have visuals that will benefit your story.
- Recommendations – a variety of community leaders, co-workers, managers, and professors — offer direction when requesting a referral.
Search for Jobs
The database currently holds 4 million jobs. It is unique from others online search tools because you can connect directly to the company’s network. You can:
- Search for jobs
- Set up alerts for new opportunities
- Filter results to save time
- Follow companies of interest to stay informed
- Apply easily to jobs of interest
Make Connections
The key is to use your connections (and second degree) to make a difference in your search. You will want to follow companies that you are interested in to keep a pulse on the organization to help prepare for your interviews.
Policy, Philanthropy and Vision of LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s Vision – Create economic opportunity for every memember of the global workforce
Laura provided an enthusiastic Q & A session on topics that included:
Privacy – Anyone who you connect with can see your information, but you can set up a public profile and select only what you want to display to non-connections.
Recruiters – This is how LinkedIn makes money – companies purchase subscriptions for sales and recruiters
Skills – They are working on improving the relevancy of the skills section.
Importance of stats in your profile – it is different than your resume so if in Sales, highlight some of the numbers in your summary, but don’t cut and paste all details into each job. People don’t scroll much so maximize the above the fold space.
Profile – managing different skills for searching different roles – Don’t build multiple profiles. It is OK to tell a complex story in one profile. If you have a side business, consider a business profile that is different from your personal profile.
Applying through LinkedIn – Most jobs that offer this service, are companies paying for this service. Companies that push back on why they don’t use this: don’t want the cost, many HR systems are still old school and not up with the technology. Recommend that after you apply – find the recruiter, follow the company page, reach out to the recruiter, and see how you rate over others who have applied, if you pay for Premium.
To download Laura’s presentation, click here: L. Williams_LinkedIn Phx_Jan 2017
| More Great LinkedIn Resources |
Resources and Hiring Companies
Arizona@Work – City of Phoenix
Rob Stenson, Business and Workforce Development Center Supervisor – @phxecondev
The organization’s mission is to help job seekers in Phoenix and Maricopa County find work.
Rob’s team works to evaluate the needs of companies in the area to find employees with the right skills or help seekers get the right skills to land the jobs. They offer everything from resume assistance, job leads, workshops, to training. They also offer grants to help seekers get certification training to enhance their skillset.
Tools to help you:
- Arizona Job Conection (AJC) – seekers post resumes and get hiring information
- Maricopa Career Planning System (MCPS)
- Arizona@Work
Other great public resources: Phoenix Public Library – 500 online courses, adult online learning, video resume resources, learning language skills
Asurion, @AsurionCareers
Tasha Ford, Talent Acquisition Consultant
Asurion is a technology company that provides customer service and device protection (repair and replacement) for electronics. They employ 17,000 employees globally and ensure 290 million customer devices. They offer great benefits, great managers skilled in mapping a career path for each employee, and a relaxed and fun environment. Their main opportunities now are for customer support technicians.
Visit their Careers website for more details on opportunities
TEKsystems – @TEKsystemsJobs
Nick Bielinski – Technical Recruiter
TEKsystems is a top technology staffing agency that places 800 – 1000 positions in the Phoenix area each year. They work with approximately 90 companies for consultants and contract-to-hire, including Wells Fargo, Amazon, Dignity Health, and ASU. Some jobs are posted online but it is best to call in to speak with a recruiter.
Opportunities are primarily in the following areas:
- Hardware (servers, data centers) – Apple, Amazon
- End User Support (great area if you are looking to transition)
- Communications (VOIP, data, cable installs)
Freedom Financial Network, @FreedomFamily
John Hasna, Director of Talent Acquisition
Freedom Financial Network is a debt consulting company that provides financial solutions and services to enable consumers to achieve financial freedom. They are based in San Mateo with 3 AZ locations – 1300 employees. They will be hiring approx. 1000 individuals this year primarily in negotiations and sales and are building a new central campus in the Tempe area. They were recently named as a Phoenix Business Journal “Best Places to Work” Winner.
To apply: www.freedomfinancialnetwork.com/join_our_team.
New Horizons Learning Center, @nhphoenix
Zack Hiscock – Vice President of Learning and Development
New Horizons is an international training organization that serves the needs of top companies to help individuals enhance their current skills and go to the next level in their career.
They offer 3 styles of training depending on your needs:
- In classroom
- Live online training
- Self-paced online courses
They offer courses in IT, Office Mgmt, Healthcare Records and Management, Project/Production Mgmt Certifications. Their Phoenix location is near the airport.
Closing
Jessica Pierce, Executive Director of Career Connectors, graciously thanked all of the day’s speakers, volunteers and job seekers for participating. She encouraged job seekers to take advantage of the many Career Connector services like having your resume reviewed, a free professional portrait and visit all of the other services and hiring companies. She also encouraged everyone to expand their professional network by introducing themselves to other attendees.
There will be a special event on Feb 22 – partnered with BestCompanies AZ – Military Career Event. This event is especially for military veterans and significant others.
The next regular event will be in Gilbert, Jan 24 in Gilbert with Abby Kohut speaking on “Taking Your Job by Storm”. Register here.