I am not a recruiter, nor have I ever been one. I have been self employed and have not looked for a job in over ten years. What would possibly make me believe I have advice to offer for those who are looking for a job?
In order to gain exposure for CompareHRIS.com, I have written a tremendous amount of content and submitted it to a large number of online sites. I also became very active in a number of social networking sites. The result of all of this work beyond the exposure for my website is that it has given me a tremendous online profile as an expert of HR Information Systems and HR Management Software systems. As a result of this exposure, I have been interviewed by HR Magazine, been contacted with job offers, and been contacted with consulting offers. I’m not looking for a job but I have been able to refer others for positions related to SEO work or sales positions, specifically related to HR Software and Payroll software systems.
I have personal and work profiles on a large number of sites but by far, the best site I have seen for professional networking and network job hunting is LinkedIn.com. I wanted to provide a few tips I have found to boost your online exposure and as a result, hopefully, provide some assistance for those looking for employment.
Your profile – Your LinkedIn.com online profile is more important than even your resume. Your resume is seen by only those you send it to. Your online LinkedIn.com profile can be read by your connections or by anyone searching for specific terms related to your experience. This means your profile needs to be professionally written and be free of spelling errors.
An extra important kick LinkedIn.com provides is recommendations. You are able to recommend the work of others for specific jobs they have held in the past and, for the job hunter, others are able to recommend your work. I recently saw that an ex-employee of one of my vendors had over 30 recommendations. If you were a recruiter and took a look at that individual’s background on LinkedIn.com, it would be hard to not at least provide an interview based on that type of profile. Don’t be shy about asking your business associates and friends to recommend your work.
Reconnecting with prior co-workers – I’ve been self employed for almost eleven years now. The last company I worked for was Sage Abra. When I left Sage, they had roughly 150 employees. I have, through LinkedIn.com, been able to reconnect with over 70 individuals I worked with at Sage. Those individuals are now spread over a huge number of software companies. Many are still working in the HR and payroll software industry. If I were looking for a job, asking ex-coworkers if their companies were hiring is where I would start. In just the past month, I have been able to get interviews for two of the people I worked with at Sage ten years ago. I have not heard if they have gotten the jobs yet but at least they are getting the interviews and all because of LinkedIn.com.
Joining groups and getting involved – I’ve joined a large number of LinkedIn.com groups and even have a group set up for CompareHRIS.com. To find groups related to your expertise, use the LinkedIn.com search bar to search for groups based on terms you enter. When we create new articles, such as this one, we add this information to the news sections of the various groups of which we are members. From this effort, we receive impressive traffic to CompareHRIS.com and exposure for me.
There is no guarantee that any of this will work but, at the very least, it can’t hurt. I personally have seen others land interviews based on their LinkedIn.com activities. In this job market, every effort is important. If you have additional tips or advice for job hunters, please feel free to add your comments.