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Slide 1: The Job Seeker's Guide to Online Networking and Using LinkedIn® by Andrew Brandt Copyright 2009 by Andrew Brandt March 26, 2009
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Slide 3: Table of Contents Preface The Professional Services Group-Dover Morris County Career Network About the author Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Appendix Online Networking and Setting Goals ............................................................................. 1 Protecting Yourself and Your Reputation on the Web ............................................. 4 Getting Started on LinkedIn ................................................................................................ 7 Connecting with Individuals on LinkedIn .................................................................... 12 Connecting with Groups of People on LinkedIn ........................................................ 17 Networking Styles .................................................................................................................. 22 The Job Hunting Tools on LinkedIn ................................................................................ 24 LinkedIn and Collaborative Applications .................................................................... 28 Some Warnings and a Free Tip ........................................................................................ 29 Learning More about LinkedIn on LinkedIn .............................................................. 30 Other Social Networking Sites and Job Resources ................................................... 31 References and Resources .................................................................................................. 35 Copyright ©2009 by Andrew Brandt
Slide 4: Preface The Job Seeker's Guide to Online Networking and Using by Andrew Brandt This guide was originally written for the Professional Services Group of Dover, NJ, which is supported by and affiliated with The New Jersey Department of Labor. If you are unemployed in New Jersey, look up the PSG state network for a site near you. You are also welcome to attend the weekly meeting for PSG Dover on Wednesdays at 9:00 AM which includes information and guest speakers about the job hunting process. If you want to participate in the PSG classes and volunteer program, please call 973-361-1034 to reserve a place at one of the group's orientation meetings, at 1:00 PM on Wednesdays (space is limited). All classes are at the: Dover One-Stop Career Center, 107 Bassett Hwy., Dover, NJ 07801 Currently the Morris County Career Network, formed by PSG members, meets on the second and fourth Mondays of the month at 9:00 AM at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 70 Maple Ave., Morristown, NJ 07960, the church's phone: (973) 538-0555. Although the meetings are for professionals seeking new positions, we also invite HR professionals, counselors and other interested people. If you want to check on the next session, please call PSG at 973-361-1034. About Andrew Brandt Andrew Brandt helps nonprofits meet their mission by organizing their fundraising and improving their communications. He has experience in annual fund drives, special event management, grant writing, database design and maintenance, donor communications, newsletter creation, print projects, ad sales, writing and editing, and working with printers. In addition to being a professional nonprofit fundraiser and administrator, he is currently an instructor at PSG-Dover. His previous career was as a professional bassoonist. He founded the Baroque Artists of Shreveport in Louisiana, was principal bassoonist with the Shreveport (Louisiana) Symphony Orchestra, and was president of the Regional Orchestra Players' Association, a national labor group for orchestra musicians. He has also served fundraising and administrative positions with the Jackson (Tennessee) Symphony Orchestra and the Long Bay Symphony (South Carolina). He also taught at Centenary College of Louisiana and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA. See his LinkedIn profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andybrandt1. If you like this presentation, send an invitation to Andrew Brandt on LinkedIn and write him a good recommendation. If you have additions, suggestions or corrections, or job offers, please email him at andybrandt531@yahoo.com. If you want to share this book with your friends and fellow job-hunters, first email him for the latest edition, or even better, have them email him directly, introduce themselves, say how they heard about the book, and ask for a free copy. Thanks to all who have made suggestions for web sites to list and improvements to this text. This book is dedicated to you and to job seeker's around the globe.
Slide 5: Chapter One Online Networking and Setting Goals What is Online Networking? Online networking, or Internet 2.0, or internet social networking all refer to using resources on the Internet to help you connect with others while looking for a job or to enhance your job activities or just to connect with friends. Particularly, it involves using one or more of the social networking sites (i.e. Facebook or LinkedIn) to make contacts. You can use those sites (and many others) to create an online presence so potential employers and others can find you and learn more about you. After establishing yourself on a social networking site, you may also go on to create an online résumé, write a blog, use contact management sites, create online videos, participate in discussion groups, tweet on Twitter, and use other resources to make it easy for potential employers to find you online. What is a social networking site? A social networking site is a large web-based business which allows you to contact others of like mind to socialize. Some networking sites were started by university students mainly for social purposes and have since added business networking tools to their site. Other social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, began with business networking tools as the main focus, and have added employment, news, and social networking tools to their business. Many people on LinkedIn prefer not to use the term "social networking site" to define the service (preferring to use "business networking"), but others use the expression. Why should I network online? Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton in Seven Days to Online Networking (Indianapolis: JIST Works ©2008) say "It's all about relationship Building": EVERYBODY WINS             It's 24/7 networking. It works for you day and night. It's a screening tool: By reading profiles, webfolios or reading contributions to blogs and discussions, you can evaluate whether "someone's knowledge, experience, and style are compatible with the goals you have for your network." It gives unprecedented access with the utmost convenience. You can participate in several networking "meetings" in the same day or night from your computer, putting you in touch with thousands of people you could not have met so quickly. It's less threatening or intimidating.  It lets you show off your technical skills and appear tech savvy. It gives you a wide platform for communicating who you are. It's a way to build your credibility. It levels the playing field (for those with disabilities or without regard to physical appearance, or mobility issues). It's a springboard to offline meetings, appointments, and relationships. What downsides are there to online networking? You have to watch how you spend your time. Online networking can be a major time-eater, so set limits. Don't spend all your time online; remember to connect with people offline. (It's all about people, after all.) Page 1 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 6: What can I expect from my networking and other online services? First, set your objectives or targets for networking in general, and your job hunt in particular, online and off. Advice Get advice on defining your career objectives and narrowing your job search to a manageable size Evaluate suggestions on general types of employers or recruiters to target, and names of specific organizations or search firms to approach Get marketing advice to set up Me, Inc. – learn how to be noticed as a professional resource Research Gather info about occupations and industries to target Job Listings Corporate web sites Regional job sites (multistate, state, regional, city) Specialized career sites for your industry or job title People Live networking allows you to connect with a few people at a time; online networking allows you to connect with or get noticed by, potentially, thousands of people Research people: CEO's, HR professionals, current and former employees of a business you are targeting Learn how to present yourself in writing for: résumés, cover letters, biz cards, online profiles, etc. Learn how to survive while unemployed. Research unemployment benefits, temp work, temp agencies, state benefits; find babysitters, counsellors, and other help Research volunteer groups available to help (such as PSG), networking groups, job hunting clubs Find names, addresses, email addresses, and web sites for job applications Web-based classifieds (Craig's List, professional societies) Find: Counsellors, HR professionals, Specialists in your field Learn how to present yourself in person for: interviews, meetings, presentations, networking forums. Get advice on how to evaluate and negotiate job offers Use online wage research and cost of living tools Find books, blogs, web sites, and atttend web conferences to learn more about job hunting and career advancement Newspaper-based classifieds: local and national, (i.e. CareerBuilder, Monster, Washington Post, New York Times papers, Chronicles of Philanthropy & Higher Education, etc.) Find Role Models and Educators Get introductions and make connections online Get direct leads Research the corporate culture, strengths and weaknesses, hiring methods or other characteristics of your target employers Aggregators (Sites which collect opportunities from a wide variety of sources): LinkedIn, Indeed, SimplyHired, others (See Chapter 11) Research and connect with recruiters Helping others helps your self-esteem which, in turn, helps you in your job search Get emotional support throughout the job hunt Page 2 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 7: Online networking (just like regular networking) is useful for people in their career who are NOT job hunting, too. Here are some potential goals (or ideas) for online networking after you landed the job: Advice and Research Learn best practices for your job and industry. Learn how to innovate, be creative and improve efficiency. Keep up-to-date on advances in your industry and job category. Become more savvy and improve your value to your employer. Watch your competition Communicate with your customers or client base, suppliers, and vendors. Find potential customers. Use the social tools you learned in your job search to get feedback from your customers and clients, and those you work for and with. Using Internet 2.0 techniques to promote your business will make you look tech-savvy. Get strategic negotiating advice from your network to position yourself for promotions, advancement, and raises. Research Career 2.0: the future of your industry and the potential for new and different jobs and industries. People and Networking Continue and expand your network (online and off); don't forget your jobhunt supporters. Compare notes with professionals in similar roles in your industry. Find mentors and role models Find professional networking groups and keep up-todate on meetings and celebrations. Become part of your professional community. Use your online network for passive job searches. (Let your next job find you.) Stay visible to recruiters and colleagues on LinkedIn and other sites without upsetting your employer and sabotaging your current job. Develop collegiality and build self-esteem. Keep in touch with PSG members and other networkers and lend a hand. Be more prepared if you should suddenly be looking for a job again sometime soon. OK, I've selected my goals. Who should I try to network with online? Michelle Tullier, in her book Networking for Job Search and Career Success (JIST, 2004), suggests networking with STARS, namely:    Strategists: The people who help you plot a course toward your goals. They give advice, feedback, and coaching to direct you down the right path. Targets: The people most closely linked to your career or business goals—the people you’ve set your sights on reaching, such as prospective employers, customers, or clients. Allied forces: The professionals who provide expertise to strengthen your networking efforts and brand expression. They might be image consultants, Web site designers, career coaches, communications consultants, and more.   Role models: The mentors or sages who serve as role models for your business or career and who can offer advice and wisdom. Supporters: The people who provide emotional support and cheer you along the path to reaching your goals. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 3
Slide 8: Chapter Two Protecting Yourself and Your Reputation on the Web I'd like to improve my online network, but when I Google my name, I found stuff that makes me look bad. Should I just ignore online networking and use the traditional methods? Ignoring something on the Internet won't make it go away. Even traditional employers are using Google and online detectives to see what "Digital Dirt" they can find on you. Again, back to our friends Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton in Seven Days to Online Networking: What is Digital Dirt? of executive recruiters  Personal info you’d rather not share in the workplace use search engines to  Controversial associations, opinions, or memberships research applicants.  Embarrassing evidence of unprofessional behavior (such as photos of - CareerBuilder yourself appearing drunk and wild at a party)  Public records or references to lawsuits or felonies  Information about your credentials that contradicts data on your resume or business marketing materials and therefore reveals you to be lying.  Evidence of a moonlighting business that could be a conflict of interest with, or distraction from, your primary work [Digital Dirt might even be something that's not bad (say, when you Google yourself, that Village Voice photo of you winning the Columbus Day pie-eating contest keeps popping up) but it's not consistent with the online image you want to create.] 77% How do I clean my digital dirt?    Wash over it. – Create enough digital content that the “dirt” is buried under newer and more positive content. Also helps when there is somebody sharing your name. Wash it out. – Get it deleted. (Some private sites will delete info; public records and news generally cannot be deleted. Even if it is deleted, backups of the information still exist on many computers.) Wait it out. – Time overcomes even the net. This is helped greatly if you actively write, speak or blog often. Adding new content makes the old stuff harder to find and less relevant. Another technique is to add your middle initial or name, or use a maiden (or maiden plus married) name, to differentiate yourself from others on the Internet. If you do, make sure your résumé, your business card and LinkedIn profile use the same name form. (HR people usually Google your name as it is spelled on your résumé.) If this advice seems too passive or can't remove some nasty digital schmutz, look at the website for Reputation Defender: http://www.reputationdefender.com/index. Lancer Media, Inc. http://www.lancermedia.com/reputation_management.shtml also does some internet reputation scrubbing as a portion of their business. (Other firms specialize in corporate reputation manipulation.) A not-so-difficult search on the internet will find lots of organizations which snoop on you and yours. One place that aggregates information about you is http://www.zoominfo.com/. You may go on the site and do a search for your name. (You may find several people with the same name, so you need to sort through to find Page 4 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 9: your records.) You may make additions, deletions and corrections, but only after you do the free registration. This is apparently a popular site for HR people and other sleuths to find information about you. You could, of course, ask ZoomInfo to delete your file but that may risk searchers digging even deeper to find your records. Another site, somewhat similar to Zoominfo, is Spock.com. A quick look at the site suggests that you can search for and "own" profile information, add info, and upload photos to the site. It is a private-information-aggregator meets social-networking-site. (A somewhat bizarre concept.) Then there are commercial detective agencies, such as People Finders, www.peoplefinders.com, which reportedly controls billions of online records. Unlike Zoominfo, there is no way to access your information without paying for it on this site. They also do checks for criminal records, business ownership, public records, and they will search social networks (like LinkedIn) to locate people. (I did find an incorrect variation in my name, which explains why I started getting junk mail for somebody who doesn't really exist.) You may find many, many other people in the U.S. with your same name. (I found 90 Andrew Brandts.) This could be slightly egodeflating, at the least, or damaging if a criminal or sex offender shares your name. For the modest fee of $29 for three full years, you can spy on all your friends and neighbors on netdetective.com. One employer testimonial prominently featured on the site: "We are using Net Detective to really check out all of our new employees before we hire them. Using Net Detective I have made some rather startling discoveries. One applicant was wanted by the FBI for embezzlement and he was applying for a job in our accounting department." If you believed in the fantasy that there was any semblance of privacy in this world, think again after reading this NetDetective advertisement (shown after entering some search parameters): The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 5
Slide 10: Another even more alarming site (if that is possible) is the Boston-based InstantBackgroundReport.com whose slogan appears to be "WARNING, Looks Can be Deceiving." The site allows various general and background checks. Their Comprehensive Background Report can include: State Criminal Check, Nationwide Criminal Check, Marital Status, Phone Number(s), Date of Birth, Address History, Neighbors’ Names, Neighborhood Info, Alias Names, Sex Offender Check, Possible Deceased Records, Relatives and Associates, Property Information, and Liens, Bankruptcies, and Judgments. This site is run by Complete Investigation Services (CIS), which also runs such entertaining and educational resources as: CellPhoneRegistry.com, CivilRecords.org, CourtRecords.org, CriminalRegistry.org, CourtRegistry.org, Email-411.com, Federal-Records.org, FindPublicRecords.com, GovernmentRegistry.org, InstantBackgroundReport.com, Investigate123.com, LocatePeople.org, PhoneRegistry.com, ReverseGenie.com, ReverseMobile.com, ReverseRecords.org, SSNRecords.org, StateRecords.org, StateRegistry.org, WebInvestigator.org, Webstigate.com, ZipOffenders.com, Marriagerecords.org, Deathrecords.org, Divorcerecords.org, Birth-records.org, Criminal-records.org, Govregistry.us, CISNationwide.com and CISWorldwide.com. And there are probably plenty more sites out there. I don't know about you, but this all makes me want to crawl into a hole and hide! This Guide won't even touch on FBI government background checks for security clearances where they actually talk to living people rather than rely solely on online resources. Nor will we talk about credit reports. Or your phone records. Or those databases which keep data on all your grocery purchases to give you coupons. Or those funny clicking sounds you hear when calling your mother in Islamabad (or Brooklyn). What's the moral of this tale? With the information on your résumé and your Social Security number or your driver's license number, people can find out an awful lot of information about you and your family and not all of it has been checked for accuracy. Think twice before putting your résumé on a search site where anybody can see it. If you DO put it on public job sites, don't put your contact info on it (you don't even have to include your name) and consider using only a unique email address you create just for that purpose. Don't fill in your Social Security number on preliminary job applications if you can avoid it, explaining you'll be happy to share that information if you get a job offer. (They really don't need that information for an application.) If an HR web site requires that info before submitting an online application they are also creating a liability for themselves should that info be misused or stolen. You can try entering zeros, ones, or 123-45-6789 and put a note later that you will supply a real SSN upon job offer or background check stage. This may or may not work. Bad hires are bad news for employers. Background checks are a reality in today's age. When employers have so many choices of candidates, it's difficult to argue against it. If an employer asks for permission to do a background check before offering you a job, it seems reasonable to ask how they will use your information to conduct that search. (I suspect that many of the HR people assigned to collect those forms will have no idea how they do their searches, though.) Forewarned is forearmed. It can be a scary world out there. Being paranoid doesn't improve anything, it just makes you feel worse. So be cheerful, be reasonably careful, and go on with your job search and your life. You may want to consider a job in the burgeoning field of background checking and maybe check that web address for Reputation Defender one more time. Page 6 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 11: Chapter Three Getting Started on LinkedIn Is the only business networking service? No, but it is the largest business network: since 2003 it has grown from 300 to 36 million members in 200 countries and territories around the world. Based in California, it is also the most popular business-networking site in the US but does not have as many members as social networks FaceBook or MySpace. You can now access LinkedIn in English, German, French and Spanish. See Chapter Eleven for a list of other online networking and job hunting sites around the web. OK, I decided to join LinkedIn. How do I start? 1. Go to http://learn.linkedin.com/ for an intro to LinkedIn, including a short video. 2. Set your web browser to www.LinkedIn.com (or click on Join at the above site). You will have to fill out a short application and agree to the Terms of Service. You do not have to pay anything. Do not accept any paid services that might be offered, at least for now. 3. Once you open an account, you create a PROFILE. Your profile is the equivalent of your 30-second elevator pitch plus your résumé plus a marketing statement plus your business card. Some people call it Résumé 2.0. Take time to fill out your profile; you don't have to do everything at once. You can edit, add, delete, and change the settings on who sees what at any time. Jason Alba (author of I'm on LinkedIn, Now What???) emphasizes including keywords to allow HR professionals to find you, even if you aren't actually looking for a job when you create your account. Take the time to correct grammar and spelling. Spending 10-15 hours fine-tuning your Profile (over a period of days or weeks or even months – not in one sitting!) is not unusual and can be well worth the results. 4. Start your profile by entering the names of all the schools you attended (colleges, universities, or professional schools) and the years you attended. (You'll see why dates matter.) These will show in a new Education section. (You can pick which schools others can see in your profile.) 5. Do the same for each employer you've worked for. If you don't have a current employer, you can include volunteer activities (like the volunteer work you do for PSG). These will show up in an Experience section. (You can choose which employers are visible in your profile.) 6. Create a Summary. If you are job hunting, a Summary can be a mini-résumé or your 30-second elevator pitch. If you have a job, explain what it is, what your interests are, and what you hope to do. Take your time and create an attractive, well-written Summary. Remember, HR people and others will read your Profile to learn about you, so it can be the first impression you make online. 7. Click on the Edit Contact Settings link to the right of your name, near the upper right of your profile. Under "What type of messages will you accept?" for now, click on "I’ll accept Introductions and InMail". (InMail is internal LinkedIn email.) The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 7
Slide 12: Under Opportunity Preferences check the ones which you feel are appropriate. For now, don't be too restrictive. Under "What advice would you give to users considering contacting you?" Say you'll accept InMails, introductions and, if you want to broadcast your email address, include your email address. (i.e. "Will accept InMails and invitations as well as Email to yourname@provider.net"). 8. If you are asked to Add Featured Applications, say "no." Concentrate on your network for the moment (unless you already have a blog you want to link to your profile). 9. If you have other websites with info about you that you want to share (say a corporate website for your employer, your blog, or an online biography or resume), you may add links to up to three of these sites. 10. Interests – add what you wish, or not. This is not critical info. 11. Groups and Associations – you may include fraternities, sororities, and professional associations. 12. Under Public Profile click [edit] to create a more user- friendly web address for your profile (using your name). You can then advertise your LinkedIn profile in your email and on your résumés and business cards. 13. Upload a photo, if you wish. Some older job-hunters, worried about age discrimination, might not want to include a photo. Yes, age discrimination is rampant, even as it is illegal. However, a photo is also a useful "hook" if you are active in discussions and Answers. People are more likely to recognize your photo than your name if it pops up often (even on other online services). A well-made headshot also gives you an aura of professionalism (and can be tweaked in Photoshop to take out wrinkles and other blemishes). If you still don't want to include a photo, you could use a small piece of artwork instead, which is more interesting than the blank space LinkedIn leaves next to your name. (Create a personal logo if you like.) At any time, click the tabs Edit my Profile or View My Profile to toggle between the editing and viewing modes of your profile to see how it looks to others. You can use Settings to control what others see. (Account & Settings at the top of each page also takes you the same controls.) Note that when you enter your zip code in LinkedIn, if you live in northern New Jersey, it will list your geographical location as the "Greater New York area" in your profile. There is, apparently, no option to list yourself from NJ, just greater NYC or greater Philadelphia, although I haven't checked the Cape May area. How do I navigate around LinkedIn? The main tools for navigating around LinkedIn are at the top and the upper left of each screen. On top of each screen you will see: which will connect you to the main functions of LinkedIn. You may click on the general title to go to that area of LinkedIn, or click on the small arrow to get a choice of sub-categories. Clicking on the LinkedIn logo at the top left of page takes you to your Home page. If you are looking for a specific person, group, company, message, answer, or job, you can also use the Search tool: Page 8 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 13: For example, with the Search People function selected, try typing in your own name and see if anybody else with the same name is also on LinkedIn. You may also click on the Advanced button to go to a much more advanced (and slightly more complicated) search table. The Advanced Search is a very powerful tool for locating people, companies, and other info on LinkedIn and i t's worthwhile spending some time exploring it: For example, from here you can search by first and/or last name, location (click undefined to go to a zip code finder), current or former job titles, name of company, or name of school. Note the Groups: box. This area is The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 9
Slide 14: personalized with the names of the groups that you belong to, so it looks different for each user. You can then restrict a search to one of your groups, or a particular career, or language, or to people only in your network, or who have joined LinkedIn since your last login or the last day or last week (or longer). You can also use Boolean search terms AND, OR, NOT with parentheses to create sophisticated searches. (For example, if you're trying to remember the last name of somebody in your Well-dressed Professionals group who works in accounting with the first name Barb OR Barbara OR Barbie OR Babs, you can narrow down the search rather quickly.) If you have a complicated search you want to repeat (i.e. people living within 100 miles of Los Angeles in the Defense and Aerospace industry from one of several companies, who joined LinkedIn in the last week) you can save the search and run it each week. You may also sort by several criteria: Curiously, LinkedIn eliminated the ability to sort search results by the total number of 1st level contacts. (Perhaps they were trying to reduce the amount of competition between some super-networkers to grab more people into their network.) To learn more, scroll down to the bottom of the page, select Learning Center and, then, click on Search (under Site Features) and read the tutorials there. How do I find all my personal information? If you want to navigate around your personal records, tools, contacts, and groups, look on the upper left side of your screen and you will see your personal navigation box: Home is your personal communication center. It shows all the activity going on in your network and has tools you can use to grow your network. This is all customizable, but can include:  Build Your Network (more on this later);  your InBox where you can read and respond to your LinkedIn email (called InMail), invitations, and referrals;  Network Updates, where you hear news about your network members;  Groups Updates (assuming you've joined at least one group – more on joinng groups later);  Statistics on how often others view your profile  some other customized applications and various other modules which you can open or shut as you desire. Of particular note is the untitled section which lists your first, second and third degree connections: .One of the things LinkedIn is very good at is checking your connections, everybody else's connections, and showing how these lists overlap with each other in different levels of connections and groups. Going back to the navigation box (above left), you also see links to connect you with any Groups you've joined, your Profile, Contacts, your Inbox and Applications which you may add to your Profile area. Page 10 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 15: On Designing Your Profile People who have used other social networking sites will quickly notice that the presentation of your profile on LinkedIn is comparatively rigid. For example, you can only upload one photo of yourself and it is in the same size and location on each member's profile. You also cannot edit the font or styles for your profile. This keeps all the Profiles uniform in appearance and more professional looking. Unlike Facebook and other services, nobody can add anything to your LinkedIn Profile without your permission (and that's only a recommendation). To personalize and show (or NOT show) sections of your profile, click on the Accounts & Settings button on top of the screen. User Trick: Some people who do not want to reveal their age (for whatever reason) on LinkedIn are dismayed to find that they cannot show which schools they attended without also revealing the years that they attended. This information is useful when looking for classmates (which is probably the main reason LinkedIn asks for those dates). But if you go to Edit the entry for each school, LinkedIn won't simply let you delete the dates. The work-around to hide that info is to click Edit (next to each school), scroll to the bottom of the edit page, and click on Remove this education. Then re-type the information back in without entering the years. Voilá, dateless school entries. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 11
Slide 16: Chapter Four Connecting with Individuals on LinkedIn Why should I invite people to connect with me on LinkedIn? In real life, you have close friends and colleagues, people you know less well (through others), and people you know only by reputation. The same occurs on social networking sites, but LinkedIn is one of the few that tries to quantify this reality with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree connections. LinkedIn also rewards you for adding people to your personal network (or connections, in LinkedIn parlance) by allowing you to see more information on the profiles for 1st degree connections (and also group members). Why? One reason is that LinkedIn makes money by selling upgraded memberships which show you more complete information on non-connected people. This is something of great value, for example, to people who are HR professionals or looking for potential employees. LinkedIn also makes money selling InMails to contact people outside your network. (At $10 apiece, this writer thinks they are over-priced for what email does for free outside LinkedIn.) By joining groups and growing your network, you have more access to data in searches and can access more people more easily. How do I add people to my LinkedIn list of contacts? You add contacts by inviting people to join your network. LinkedIn is a bit formal and insists that you send people a written invitation (albeit via InMail, not an engraved printed invitation). There are many ways to find people to join your network. For example, let's go back to your Home page. You should have a box (mine has a green border) with the headline: Build your network (Why?). Go ahead and click on the Why? button for a popup screen if you like. For now, let's skip down to Former Classmates. Click on the Find button. Abracadabra! You now see a list of the different schools that you entered into your profile and the years that you attended. Click, in turn, on one of those schools and (Abracadabra again), LinkedIn gives you a list of all the other people on LinkedIn who also attended that school. You have a choice of listing those who attended any year you were there, or restrict the list to classmates who graduated the same year as you. Find somebody whose name you recognize or think you recognize and click on their name. Abraca... (well, you get the idea), and you see their public profile. (Looks a little bit like the one you've been working on.) If that is, indeed, the person you wanted to contact, click on the link Add [name] to your network. If the person was named Deborah, you will see a screen something like: Page 12 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 17: Since you were classmates, that option was checked and, depending what you entered in your profile about your activities at the school, you can select from the activities or societies you listed, if that is appropriate. While we're looking at this screen, notice the other options. Colleague is somebody you worked with (or, at least, worked for the same company), We've done business together will allow you select your company and title to remind them of another business relationship, Friend will then prompt you to enter their email address, Groups & Associations, refers to LinkedIn groups, and Other prompts you for their email address before allowing you to send an invitation. If you don't have any connection to the person and select I don't know Deborah, well, LinkedIn won't allow you to send a connection. Sorry, no spamming and no strangers allowed. (It's a trick question.) Note also the box with the Include a personal note: (optional) button. Well, this shouldn't be optional and you should always send a personal note. (Hey, this is a classmate you haven't seen in years and you can't even bother to write a note?) The person receiving the invitation may or may not remember you (or may remember you not-so-fondly). You should ALWAYS send a personalized note and be as creative as you feel comfortable. DO NOT SEND THE CANNED "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn" unless it's part of a longer note, even if it's just, "I haven't seen you since we graduated from Enormous University's School of Industrial Cosmetology and just found your name on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with you, catch up with what's happening in your life and pick your brain about the cosmetology conglomerates in your area. Please join my network on LinkedIn." OK, that's pretty lame, but it's certainly more personal than the canned snippit. If, in your off-line (a.k.a. "normal") life, you were at a party and went up to somebody and asked, "I'd like to add you to my professional network of contacts," you'd probably only get some strange looks. However, if you said, "Several of my friends at Intercontinental Eyeliner told me about the terrific work you did on their recent ad campaign. I'd like to buy you a cup of coffee sometime, discuss your work at IE, and see if you have suggestions for contacts there," that might get a very different response. (Flattery works wonders.) When you click Send Invitation, it will go to your friend and he or she will have a choice to view your profile and then:  Accept the invitation,  Archive the invitation (take no action), or  Tell LinkedIn "I don't know [your name]. Here's why it's a good idea not to send an invitation to a stranger. If five of your invitations get the "I don't know you" response, LinkedIn automatically stops your ability to send invitations to others. You can go to Customer Service and send an apologetic note saying you'll be careful and would like to have your invitations restored and they will probably restore it. The policy is there to prevent spammers, con artists, idiots, slimeballs, social trash, criminals and politicians from sending out invitations all over LinkedIn. To avoid this response, you could also add to your invitation something like: "If you decide that you do not want to link with me, instead of clicking the 'I don't know Andrew Brandt and wouldn't speak to him if he were the last person on the planet' option, please just archive it or email me at andybrandt@slimeball.com and I'll be happy to withdraw the invitation." If the person understands LinkedIn's policies, he or she might actually email you, asking you to withdraw it. You might want to consider the same courtesy if somebody you don't know (or don't like) sends you an invitation. Note that accepting an invitation is NOT a permanent commitment. Either party can disconnect The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 13
Slide 18: the Link at any time. Of course, if Mr. or Ms. Slimeball does send you an invitation, tell LinkedIn you don't know him or her before you threaten to call the police. You can only have a maximum of five outstanding invitations at a time (unless you pay LinkedIn for extra services). If you get no response you may withdraw the invitation. As invitations are accepted or withdrawn, you can re-use them. (If you are unsure how many invitations are outstanding, check the Account & Settings tab on the top of the page). Five invitations doesn't sound like a lot, but if you're gradually growing your network, it should be enough. (The time between sending an invitation and getting a response from an active networker can be less than a day.) The invitation process is pretty much the same when you find people who are not classmates. LinkedIn will automatically search for people who worked at the same companies as you (at the same years) under Current and Past Colleagues. I've got a large collection of email addresses. Do I have to search each person's name to see if they are on LinkedIn? No, you can actually automate this process (at least partially). If you've been doing networking for a while (or if you have used email at work), you should have an electronic address book with lots of names of people you know. Depending on whether your email directory is an online email service, Microsoft Outlook, or another contact manager, there are several ways to import your address list into LinkedIn and check for possible contacts. If you use an online email service, such as Hotmail, Gmail (from Google), Yahoo!, or AOL, you can instruct LinkedIn to Upload contacts from that site automatically, and then search the LinkedIn database to see if they are also on LinkedIn. For example, if you get your email from Yahoo!, select the Yahoo! button, click Login, and you will be prompted for your Yahoo! password. You will then be shown a legal document from Yahoo! saying that you give them legal permission to share data with LinkedIn. This will look scary and might be intimidating to novices, but if you aren't paranoid about "Big Brother," you can click the permission button. If you thought THAT was scary, LinkedIn can automatically do the same thing with your computer's contact manager software. If you use Microsoft Outlook, you can install a LinkedIn toolbar to Outlook and, with a click of a button, it will search your address book and your email messages for people on LinkedIn who you could, conceivably, send an invitation. (As an added Outlook bonus, it will look through your Outlook contacts and see if it has updated contact info on any of those on LinkedIn.) If you don't want to install the Outlook toolbar, you can still click on the green Add Connections box on your navigation box and follow the instructions. If you use Act!, Palm Desktop, or the Mac OS X Address Book, or most other contact managers, there are a few extra hoops to jump through. You have to export a file from your address book and then upload it to LinkedIn. First, open up your contact or email program and find the Export command (it's probably under the File menu). Select Export. You may then need to select Export to a file and then select a format. You want to create a Comma Separated Values text file, also known as a .csv text file. (If you want to see if the export worked properly, you may import the file in Excel, tell the program to look for commas, and the fields should line up in nice columns.) The only field that LinkedIn really needs is the e-mail address, but names are nice, too. Page 14 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 19: After you've created your .csv file, remember where it is located on your computer. Then go to LinkedIn. In your personal navigation box (on the upper left of each page), you will see a green box that says Add Connections. Click it. You will see the Add Connections tool box. You could manually type names and email addresses, but what you really want to do is look on the right, and find the button on the bottom of the box that says Don't use webmail or Outlook? Click it. You will see a box that looks like: From here, it gets easy. Click on the Browse... button, select that .csv file you saved earlier, and import it. First, LinkedIn will show you a list of five names with their email addresses. Check and make sure the correct email addresses are lined up with the correct names and titles. If everything looks hunky-dory, click on Finish upload. You will now see a list of all the contacts you uploaded to LinkedIn. This might be a large collection if you had a large contact file. You will probably see that all the names have a checkmark in a box next to them. If so, click on the Select All button to DE-select all the names. As you scroll through the list, you will see some names have a box next to them. Those are the email addresses that LinkedIn matched with profiles. Click on the checkbox next to one of those names, then click next to Add a personal note to your invitation. Write a personalized invitation to that person, click on the Invite selected contacts button, and vavoom, your personalized invitation is sent. Repeat until all your friends have been invited. A plausible alternative is to have your online email service (such as Gmail) import your .csv file and then have LinkedIn import that file, in turn. If you have some addresses online and some on your computer, you could consolidate both lists before sending the data to LinkedIn. You could take ANY list of e-mail addresses in text format (say, copied from an Excel sheet or a Word document) and upload that file to LinkedIn in the same fashion as the exported .csv file we described above. Again, all LinkedIn really needs to match is the email address. Note that most people have more than one email address and if the one you have isn't one of the addresses that your friend registered with LinkedIn, it won't find a match. In that case, you have to do a manual search. When importing names (from whichever list you use) DO NOT select all the names and have LinkedIn send invitations to all the matches it finds! This will send a generic invitation to EVERY match LinkedIn finds. Genesius Jaromsky (on blogspot.com) warns that this can get you the dreaded "I Don't Know" response many times, and The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 15
Slide 20: get you "LockedOut" instead of LinkedIn. Besides, do you really want to connect with that boss who fired you, that pesky insurance salesman, your child's fifth-grade teacher, or your mother-in-law? Note that just because LinkedIn matches a name with a LinkedIn profile, that doesn't always guarantee that they are the same person! Check their profile and make sure. (I found someone on LinkedIn with the same name as my sister and I have a doppelganger or two.) With 36 million users, there will be many duplicate names. HOT TIP: If you're not sure if a person in your contact list will want to connect with you, it is entirely proper etiquette to send them an email (outside of LinkedIn) asking them if they want to join your network before sending them an official LinkedIn invitation. You may do the same for LinkedIn members who post their email addresses on their profile. Some contacts, appreciating the courtesy, will send you an invitation in response. HOT TIP #2: If you use Microsoft Outlook as your contact or email manager, go to the site Xobni.com and check out (and download) this free Outlook add-on. Xobni (a different perspective on the word "inbox") is an amazing little tool that will automatically look up any email correspondent's LinkedIn (or Facebook) profile, including their photo, when you click on an email message. It also has excellent tools for searching your messages (sorted by conversation) and files sent and received. What are recommendations? If you link with somebody on LinkedIn who you worked with and respect, you may send a short recommendation to that person for their Profile. Recommendations are THE best way to show off for prospective employers on LinkedIn. When writing a recommendation, keep it short (one paragraph should do), and double check your spelling and grammar. When your friend receives the recommendation, they have the options of showing it on their profile, not showing it, or asking you to make changes. This is an excellent way to help colleagues build their profile. While LinkedIn recommendations may not have the same weight as a live, personal recommendation, it can be a big help to others in their job search. Be honest, but be generous. Who should I ask for a recommendation? It's completely appropriate to ask others to write you a recommendation if they actually know you well enough to write you a good one. Some people you may ask: former supervisors, people you contracted with or provided services for, former work colleagues or collaborators, fellow volunteers for a nonprofit, or anybody familiar with your work. (You may ask classmates and fraternity and sorority members to write recommendations, especially if you are a recent grad, but they might not appear as impartial as business partners.) Do not ask people who don't know you well or don't know your work to write you a recommendation. (It's embarrassing to get a request for a recommendation from somebody and you can't even remember what they looked like.) A European correspondent notes that it is very unusual to approach others for a recommendation in Europe and doing so violates unwritten social taboos. The same may occur in other countries and cultures. (There are no such taboos in the United States, especially in business.) If you are job hunting in a difficult job market, perhaps it is better to break a few social taboos and get the recommendation and the job. Page 16 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 21: Chapter Five Connecting with Groups of People on LinkedIn Are there more ways to connect with people on LinkedIn? Yes! You can also add contacts by sending invitations to people you see in Groups. What are Groups? Glad you asked. Remember that navigation box on the upper left side of your LinkedIn windows? Click on Groups (it won't hurt). Then click, in turn, on the Groups Directory tab. This gives you a simple search box to type in a school name, a business, a professional description, or even a hobby. Try it: enter "New Jersey Marketing" (pretty esoteric interest, right?) and click Search. Zooom! I found 11 Search Results: groups which are connected with marketing and New Jersey in some way. Enter "Accounting." You'll get the names of at least 686 groups on LinkedIn dealing with accounting. Enter "Underground living," you'll find a group (in this case, the Sustainable Living Underground Group, or SLUG). It is difficult to find a professional topic that DOESN'T have a group on LinkedIn. (If you do, then you can start your own group, but that's a topic we don't want to get into right now.) So, find a group you want to join. Click on the name of the group in your search list, and you'll see a page with a bigger description about the group and who it's for. A typical sample: Click the Join this group button. You'll see another Join Group screen where you can choose whether to include the group's logo on your LinkedIn Profile (why not?), whether to get a digest of the group's messages via email, and which email address to send it to (you might want to send professional info to your work computer, alumni info to your home computer). Again, when all is right with the world, click the Join this group button. You may be prompted to send a message to the group's "owner" (especially if the group restricts its memberships). For example, if you want to join the PSG-Dover group, you need to email the owner and give her your PSG member number for faster processing. What do I do when I join a Group? When you join a group, a clickable link will show up in your personal Groups directory on your Profile (which you can hide if you don't want others to see); or go back to your navigation box (upper left) and click on Groups. If necessary, click on the My Groups tab. Click on the group's name and you will see a directory for that group which might look something like: The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 17
Slide 22: Notice the tabs. Discussions are a great way to find others of like mind or people who might be good mentors or teachers or helpers. (Remember that STARS list on page four?) From the Overview tab, you can see the most recent discussions, the group's updates, and its newest members. From here you can: 1) click on a title to read or add to a discussion, 2) click on the Start a discussion button to start a new discussion on some topic of interest to you, or 3) send a link to a news article on the web you think will be of interest to the group. Click on Discussions for a more complete list of discussion topics. Click on Settings to view or hide the group's logo on your profile and to set your e-mail settings for this group. Most importantly, click on Members to see a complete list of who has joined the group. Since you belong to the same group, you can now send them an Inmail or an invitation for free. (But just because you belong to the same group doesn't necessarily mean they will accept an invitation. See the styles of networking in the next Chapter.) Whenever a name is listed on LinkedIn (in a message, a group list, or in search results), you can click on their name and see their personal profile. From there, you can click on the link to send them an invitation, compose a nice, personalized invitation (remember what I said above?), and send it. When you are in Groups and Discussions, however, you can just place your cursor over a name, wait a second or two, and basic info about that person appears in a floating box. How much easier can it get to learn about other people? (Wouldn't it be fun in real life to be able to point at a person, click your fingers, and get a floating text box with their name and job hovering over them?) What are some LinkedIn groups we can join? PSG Dover has a LinkedIn group you may join when you complete your classes and you may continue to participate, as an alumnus, when you do land. When joining the PSG Dover group, tell the "owner" (who administers the group) that you are a new member and give your PSG number (if you have it). CIT (Careers in Transition), another local networking group, also has a LinkedIn group, as do many other networking groups in New Jersey, including PENG, FENG and the other 'ENGs. The Well-Dressed Professionals will accept anybody on LinkedIn – it’s easy to be well dressed when you're online (you don’t have to tell them you check LinkedIn in your pajamas). They actually do discuss clothes and business attire – and everybody wears clothes to work! Page 18 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 23: Be sure to check your areas of professional interest for groups of people sharing the same interest. As in real life, you never know where you might connect with somebody who can help you get a new job! Also, Grouplinked! has the goal of being the one group to join to connect with everybody on LinkedIn without having to become a LION or Power Networker and be obligated to accept hundreds of invitations. Currently, they only have 11,300 members, so it has a way to go (but it's a very good start). They also have a website www.grouplinked.com/ which explains the group. See who the top linkers on LinkedIn are at www.toplinked.com/. CAUTION: If you join the TopLinked Open Networkers group , the OpenNetworker group (www.opennetworker.com), the Invites Welcome group (www.InvitesWelcome.com) or similar groups, you will be expected to accept virtually all invitations from other members of that group, since that is their main purpose. These groups are for professional or "promiscuous" networkers, not novices. People who have joined these networking groups claim to have received hundreds of invitations within a day or two of joining the group. Read the section below on Networking Styles and decide on whether this is the style of networking you want to do BEFORE joining one of these groups. Note that these groups have two parts, their LinkedIn group (accessible only through LinkedIn) and their website, accessible to anybody on the Internet. TopLinked.com, for example, claims to have networkers not only on LinkedIn but also on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Ecademy, Xing, Bebo, Blue Chip Expert, Ecademy, Fast Pitch, Friendster, hi5, Konnects, Affluence.org, Naymz, Orkut, Perfect Networker, Plaxo, Ryze, Tagged, and UNYK. Wow! That's a lot of ways to connect with others! As they say on late-night TV ads, "Wait, there's more!" Another way to connect is through asking questions and giving Answers. Just like there are groups for discussions, there are groups for asking questions. Click on the Answers link on top of the page and then on the Answers Home tab. Here you can type in a question to ask all of LinkedIn or view new Questions from your networking partners. On the right hand side of the page, look for a box titled Browse. Look at the categories there. Click on one (say, perhaps, Non-Profit). There you will find questions asked by people in or about the Non-Profit field. Note also the sub-groups listed under Non-profit on the right hand side of the page. You can read and answer questions which are shown to all members of LinkedIn (that's a lot of people, but also a lot of questions), or narrow your question to a specific group of people (say, Nonprofit Fundraisers, or Business Air Travellers). You can also crosspost to several groups. Answering these questions is one of the best ways to get noticed by others on LinkedIn! After a question is asked, normally it is left open for seven days for others to answer (less if the questioner closes it earlier). After the question is closed, it is still visible for others to read but no new answers are accepted. When the question is closed, the person who asked the question is requested to select one answer as the Best. If he or she selects your answer, you get an actual star in your Profile and you are recognized as an expert, having given one (or more) best answers. Other than actual recommendations, this is a great way to be recognized as knowledgeable in a field. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 19
Slide 24: When answering a question, you have the option of entering relevant web links in their own field, or suggesting somebody else who is an expert on the topic. Keep your answer civil and mostly on-topic. Note that anybody reading the answer can flag your message as an ad, spam, excessively pompous ("gaming of expertise points"), inappropriate or a misrepresentation, any of which could get the answer removed and, if repeatedly done, get you removed from LinkedIn. It's like using The Hook on stage on amateur night, or the networking equivalent of Donald Trump yelling, "You're Fired." Can I use RSS feeds to follow Answers? If you find a topic you want to follow closely in Answers, you can read them regularly on LinkedIn or use RSS feeds to have these questions automatically downloaded to your browser, your email reader, a program designed just to read RSS feeds, or to special web sites to read these feeds, or even to your smart phone. For more info, click on Accounts and Settings and scroll down to RSS settings. What is the difference between LinkedIn's Answers and Discussions? Why are they different? Discussions and Answers are two tools that sound like they should be alike. But LinkedIn implemented the two in different ways, in different areas, at different times. Here are the main differences: Discussions Discussions are found only in Groups (such as alumni groups, social groups and professional groups), They allow for two-way discussions between the original poster and other participants. Discussions, as the term implies, may go back and forth on a topic. Answers Answers are accessible to all LinkedIn members at all times. Answers encourage one-way interaction. Once the poster asks a question, he or she only has one chance to refine the question. All other participants may post answers, but only once. Although a questioner could answer their own question to continue a discussion, you don't see the back and forth possible in a Discussion. (In this writer's opinion, that is the major flaw with the Questions area.) Answers are visible to all members of LinkedIn. LinkedIn does provide interest groups for these questions. For example, you can ask a question to all the members of LinkedIn or to people who follow questions in Philanthropy. There is no privacy. Anybody on LinkedIn may view questions and their answers. After a Question is closed (usually no later than a week after the original question is posted), the original poster is asked to rate the responses. He/She may select one answer as a "Best Answer." The person who wrote that answer will Discussions may be viewed only by other members of the Group. Depending on whether the group owner restricts membership, the discussion could be largely private (or as private as any Internet discussion could be). Strangers cannot read the postings without joining the group. Discussions are not rated. Nothing is posted on participant's Profile. Members of the group might see that a discussion is occurring without entering the group or in email updates of the group's activities. Page 20 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 25: NEW: When you post something to a discussion, you may click or unclick a box to read new messages in that discussion via email, so you can respond more quickly. Discussions may be best for developing relationships and sharing info with members of the same group. Curiously, in Discussions you can see a popup box with the name, photo, and field of a person just by pointing at their name on the screen, which makes it easier to send them an invitation without going first to their Profile. This does not occur in Answers (where you have to physically click the mouse button to see the same info – it's so tiring.) Both Answers and Discussion postings can be rated by readers as inappropriate and be deleted. You can click on the names of participants in either tool to see their Profiles. then find a star in their Profile with a listing as an Expert in whichever area the question was posted. Also, viewers of your profile may view a collection of your Questions and Best Answers. Answers are good for showing your expertise in a field and in helping fellow LinkedIn members you have no relationship with. Since the answers are rated competitively, collecting Expert points gets you noticed in your profile and shows, at a glance, what your areas of expertise may be. Answers may be better at attracting the attention of HR professionals. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 21
Slide 26: Chapter Six Networking Styles Finding your LinkedIn "Style" of Networking There are all kinds of networkers. Each has their own style, related to their networking goals and desires. One way to think of networking style is to think of a continuum of networking groups ranging from a private, select group of contacts to a gregarious, recruit-everybody-in-my-personal -network style. Since the beginning of LinkedIn, there have been emotional debates arguing Quantity vs. Quality. Although LinkedIn officially recommends caution when adding people to your network, they also reward those who collect many contacts by allowing them to see more connections when they search People. "Power networkers" thumb their noses at LinkedIn's warnings, arguing that you wouldn't attend a live networking meeting and only talk to people you already know. The whole purpose of networking is to find new connections. I suggest a somewhat moderate style for your consideration, which I call the "Normal Networker." Closed Networker Power Networker Lurker Not a Networker They created a LinkedIn profile because somebody told them to (often their boss). They only have 1-3 connections in their network, which means they're not even trying. They do not join groups. They have no recommendations. Some have not even have finished filling out their profile basics. (One profile I saw only had the person's initials and no viewable info. Ironically, he listed his career as "Communications.") Novice Networker Timid Connectors Novice Networkers may network because they have to or because they are curious about all this talk of online networking, but they are not yet enthusiastic about it. They have a few people in their network, but those may be people they already network with in person. They might belong to a few discussion groups, but only participate occasionally. They may connect only once a week or a couple of times a month. They're not growing their network and they're still trying to figure out what all the fuss is about. Normal Networker Normal people like you or me. Gradually more active networkers, you may have anywhere from 25 to 250 first level connections. Don't invite everybody into your network, but DO try to get a variety of people (alumni, co-workers, other people in your field, some creative types, PSG members, and a few Power Networkers) into your network. Also join groups so people can find you and contact you without having to use expensive InMails. One group which exists to allow easier connections is called GroupLinked, which also has a separate website on GroupLinked.com. Best Dressed Professionals is also a network with a wide base. Download the software to add LinkedIn features to Outlook and/or your Internet browser. Answer questions in the appropriate user groups and collect some "Best Answer" credits and some Recommendations. Grow your network gradually and steadily. Set LinkedIn to forward InMails, Invitations and Introductions via email and respond to them promptly. Communicate with the people in your personal network from time to time, but don't pester them and NEVER send them sleazy marketing invitations. Power Networker or "LION" LION - LinkedIn Open Networker Includes many HR recruiters, salespeople, politicians, and other Power Networkers. These people will normally allow almost anybody into their personal network. Some have thousands or tens of thousands of 1st degree contacts. They like being able to see almost everybody's profile on LinkedIn and find a connection with every company. They are often also bloggers, writers, speakers and get leads for future gigs online. Some are very generous with their time on discussion groups and may spend hours per day on LinkedIn as well as other services. You may visit TopLinked.com to see the top networkers on LinkedIn. (Barack Obama is 20th on the list with only 24,000 1st degree contacts.) Invite a couple of LIONs into your network and see your 3rd Level contacts grow while you sleep. (Pres. Obama is not accepting invitations now, I'm told.) Page 22 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 27: Your decision on what networking style you want to use should depend on your networking goals. (Remember those goals we talked about in the first chapter? There was a reason for thinking about them!) Your personality and approach to marketing Me, Inc., are also factors. Some people who are bashful in person to person networking (my kind of people, actually) may find online networking more comfortable. Those who are trying to create networks in new career fields or in other physical locations (say, Chicago, San Francisco, Boise, Lubbock or Shreveport) may find online networking and phone networking essential. Old-schoolers may find the thought of sharing info online like having pen pals in grade school. The type of networking usually referred to as Internet 2.0 didn't even exist until the final years of the twentieth century (although many nonprofit groups were doing email and listserv social networking by the mid-1980s, well before the creation of the World Wide Web). Most of the current popular web-based networking resources were created after 2002. If you are job-hunting, there are practical reasons for creating a large network. Many companies are now using employee referrals to vet potential hires. (Some companies even give bonuses to employees for referrals which result in hires.) So, if you are interested in working for Enormous-Mart, it makes sense to make connections with people in that company. The way to do that, though, is not to announce to everybody you write, "I want a job at your company," or "Will you give me a recommendation?" but to suggest a conversation, "Mary Slimehook suggested I contact you to discuss E-Mart and get an idea what directions you think the company is going in. Can we email or have a phone conversation?" In your subsequent conversations you might get additional referrals, learn where they might be hiring soon, get the hiring manager's name, and learn how to tweak your cover letter and résumé to attract attention. (One caveat: this approach might not work well with employees with security clearances. CIA and NSA agents and defense contractors might not be terribly receptive to chatting about internal affairs with strangers. You want interviews with hiring managers, not FBI agents.) A job search is like dating: you're looking for an employer to say, "I love you," make you a proposal, and start a mutually beneficial commitment. Networking for a job, like dating, also brings up dreaded issues of self-esteem (at the same time you're mourning the loss of a job and broken professional relationships), fear of rejection, and fears of public speaking in front of live networking groups. At least you don't have to learn to dance for networking sessions. (Hmm, there's an idea. Samba networking instead of speed networking!) Job hunting is no more logical or systematic than the dating scene. (You'd think it would be after all these years of companies looking for employees.) So, just as there is no ONE way to date or job-hunt, there is really no ONE way to network online. The choice is yours. The only wrong way to network is to not network at all. Likewise, people who are proponents of one style of networking should not be judgmental of people who chose another style for their own needs. Those on one extreme or another of the Quantity vs. Quality debate are often the guiltiest of this particular sin. Those people who insist that you network the same way they do should be avoided at all costs. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 23
Slide 28: Chapter Seven The Job Hunting Tools on LinkedIn So how do I actually look for a job on LinkedIn? LinkedIn gives both job hunters and HR professionals tools to search for jobs and employees. Just setting up your profile is a passive way of getting noticed by HR people. Being active online can draw others to your Profile. But there are other tools on LinkedIn, as well. For example, LinkedIn is a "Job Aggregator," meaning that it collects job listings from all over the web. First, look on the very top of any LinkedIn page and you will see Jobs. (It's between People and Answers.) Click on the link and it takes you to Jobs Home. There are some hints there on how to hunt for jobs, and a simple Job Search box, but I recommend that you click on the tab Advanced Job Search. Here you find a job search tool similar to what you find on CareerBuilder, Monster and many other job search websites. What's different? Go ahead, do a quick search on any job type.... (Take your time, I'll wait.) When you do a search on LinkedIn, the first thing you notice are two tabs. LinkedIn Jobs gives you a list of jobs based on your search criteria only available on LinkedIn (or at least, not advertised in the mainstream media). Believe it or not, some companies (or HR search firms) don't want to wade through hundreds or thousands of résumés every time they have an opening. One thing they can do is create a special search only on LinkedIn. But click on the tab right next to LinkedIn Jobs, The Web. Here you find other jobs posted on many other websites like CareerBuilder, Monster, Idealist.org, Craig's List and who knows where else. At first it resembles other job sites, but look to the right at the column JobsInsider. Find a job you are interested and click on the blue link. Voilá, here is a list of all the people in LinkedIn who work in that company, sorted (by default) by how close a link they are to you in your network! The first time I clicked on a job at random I found a first level contact with a fellow PSGer! This can be a great tool for finding contacts and researching a company. Wouldn't it be nice to have this convenience when searching other job sites on the Internet? Wait, you can! Download the JobsInsider Toolbar from LinkedIn and you will find new icons on your browser which allow you to search for connections with different companies you see on the Internet. (This toolbar may be buggy in some browsers, however. I had to remove it from mine.) What can't you do on LinkedIn? There are a few things that LinkedIn doesn't offer that some other job sites do. You can't save a search; if you have complicated criteria for an advanced search, you have to enter it every time. Also, LinkedIn won't automatically send you an email when they get a job fitting your job search criteria. But, if you did a search as described above, you may have noticed that the aggregate job searches are done with the help of an independent service called SimplyHired (see list of job aggregator sites in Chapter 11). While you cannot save a search and get notification from LinkedIn, you can do the same search on SimplyHired.com, save the search, and get daily or weekly updates via email. Also, if you are on SimplyHired.com, you can link that site with your LinkedIn account. That gives you the ability to look at a job description on SimplyHired, click on a company name, and see who (if anybody) in your LinkedIn network has connections with that company! That's synergy! Page 24 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 29: Even if you don't download a browser toolbar, and you don't use the job tools available on LinkedIn, you can use the Search tool to find people AND corporations represented on LinkedIn. Want to connect to some of these people? Here is where a larger network on LinkedIn comes in really handy. If you have some connection to a person, either in your 3 levels of connection, or through a group you joined on LinkedIn, you can see that person's name and Profile. Wouldn't it be nice to do a little research on that interviewer you're meeting on Friday? Now, sometimes, you can! Can I research employers on LinkedIn? Absolutely. In fact, LinkedIn has recently added several unique, new features to do your corporate research (or, if you're employed, competitive intelligence). To start, click on Companies on top of any LinkedIn page. This will take you to a search page which looks like... From here you have several ways to start a search. First, you see a keyword search tool which allows you to search by the type of company. You can search for a company or business in another country, or restrict it by Zip Code (or postal code in Canada). Click the small blue Lookup link to look up a zip code, or leave Postal Code blank for a national search. (Click on Show more options to restrict the search results.) You can also Browse Industries. This list changes according to your personal job description. (Pretty neat.) If you were doing searches for specific services for your business, Service Providers would be the way to go, but let's continue on our employer reconnaissance. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 25
Slide 30: If you know the name of the company you want to research, enter it into the Company box. As you type, you will see a list of choices on a changing list that scrolls down from where you are typing. For example, if I was entering "Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts," before I finished typing I would see: Don't even finish typing, click on the correct name as it shows. (No need to click on the Search button.) Try the same search and you would then see something like: This particular profile was researched by Capital IQ from Standard and Poors. If you see the box, click on More research and this will take you to Business Week magazine's website. If you were researching a publicly traded company, you'd see very different information (including NY Stock Exchange or NASDAQ charts). But going back to the LinkedIn search results, there is lots of other valuable data of use to your job search. First you see a list of LinkedIn members who work for (or used to work for) that business. This might even include the name of the hiring manager you want to address your cover letter too! Seeing that manager's profile could give you a few clues on what to say in your cover. Also check out the New Hires. First of all, seeing names here means the company is hiring. Second, click on the names to see their profiles, and you can tell how long ago these people were hired. If there were a lot of new people hired in the past month or two, that's a good sign for job applicants. Also look on the right side of the page for Key Statistics. Here you can find the office's address. (Note that this may only be a headquarters address, not necessarily where you would want to go for an interview.) Also see a link to the business's web site. There may also be some interesting statistics, like which schools the business has been hiring from. (If they hire mostly from the Wharton Business School, the chances of them hiring a new applicant from the WBS is probably higher than an applicant from Morris County Community College – depending on the job description. Fair or not, this is good Page 26 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 31: intelligence to have when applying.) Also study the median age (it always seems much too low to me), and the ratio of male to female employees. Scroll down the page a bit further and you may find links to recent press articles about the company. There are other commercial online databases (i.e. Reference USA, Hoover's, Dun From Lincoln Center's Company Profile. & Bradstreet) which might have more complete business data than you will find on LinkedIn (charging expensive fees to access it, too), but you probably won't find a better tool for researching and networking into a corporation than you will find on LinkedIn. The combination of free business intelligence with lists of people who you can research and connect with makes this a unique and valuable resource for job hunters. Kudos to LinkedIn for creating this new system! The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 27
Slide 32: Chapter Eight LinkedIn and Collaborative Applications What are these "Applications" I keep seeing ads for on LinkedIn? One of the big changes that LinkedIn is implementing in 2009 is the addition of new applications (from third parties) which can change your static LinkedIn Profile to your online office, presentation and communications center. The entire "Applications" section is a Beta (meaning a test) project. Opening up LinkedIn to third party programmers means that there will be lots of experimentation and continually changing features. Some of the ones listed as of February, 2009: Presentations: SlideShare and Google Presentations – both allow you to add PowerPoint or PowerPoint-like presentations to your profile. SlideShare also has its own website with tools for building and sharing PowerPoint presentations. What are they saying behind my back? Or in front of my back?: Company Buzz allows you to see Twitter activity about your company. Polls allows you to do surveys on LinkedIn. Working collaboratively: Huddle Workspaces (Huddle.net) is working with LinkedIn to create private, secure online workspaces. Box.net Files allows you to manage files online, share content from your profile, and collaborate online. Other tools: Blog Link connects your blog to your LinkedIn profile. Supports bloggers based on the platforms TypePad, Movable Type, Vox, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, Blogger, LiveJournal, and others. WordPress, another blog hosting site, has its own plug-in for sync-ing your blog posts My Travel by Tripit, Inc. allows you to see where the people in your LinkedIn network are travelling and gives you opportunities to connect with others in another city. For those who travel from their armchairs, see what your connections are reading with Reading List by Amazon. If these tools can be considered clues to the future of LinkedIn, it appears that LinkedIn may be morphing from a site solely for business networking to a place for businesspeople to collaborate on work projects and to share additional personal info. Since other online services like Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Adobe are also experimenting with collaborative "cloud computing," this might be a logical next step. The only thing one can predict with certainty is that as LinkedIn allows more outside providers to provide services, the offerings will get more varied, more complex, and allow you to customize the way you use LinkedIn. Page 28 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 33: Chapter Nine Some Warnings and a Free Tip Is there anything I shouldn't do on LinkedIn?   In online networking, as in live in-person networking, don't lie and don't try to use or abuse others. Do not falsify attending a school in order to find people who attended that school and/or to join their alumni group. Those people won't recognize you, will refuse your invitations to connect, may notice your lack of knowledge about the school, and you can get kicked off LinkedIn for that. Do not falsify working for a company to find people for the same reasons. Do not spam. Do not try to sell things on LinkedIn to people who don't want them. Do read the User Agreement and find out what can get you kicked off LinkedIn. Do not get upset if people don't accept your invitations or click the "I Don't Know..." box. Do not send angry or nasty or sarcastic emails to people. (In any case, true sarcastic irony is difficult to pull off properly in email; leave it to professional writers.) Never, ever create a second fictitious account on LinkedIn for the purpose of writing a recommendation for your first account. It's been tried. HR people can sniff out fake recommendations and fake LinkedIn profiles and get you thrown off. It's immoral and dishonest. Don't even think about it. Don't use your work email account to create your LinkedIn account. Use a private account, even if it's a free Gmail or Yahoo! account you can access from work. If you use a business email account and you are fired, your employer might claim that THEY own the account, keep all your contact lists and throw you off your LinkedIn account just when you need it most. (Yes, it has happened!) Likewise, it's best to keep all your forwarded email on your personal computer or storage device (or online at the aforementioned web sites), not on your company's server. You may, however, include your current corporate website as a link on your LinkedIn profile. Don't block other LinkedIn users from viewing your connections on your profile. Yes, some people feel that they've worked hard to There are two words create a useful list of connections and they don't want to just give which can greatly them away to anybody viewing their profile. However, the process of enhance your networking is based on the idea of facilitating connections. If you networking ability online don't allow others to see your contacts and refuse to facilitate and off. They are introductions, you're not being a friendly networker. This, in turn, gives others a disincentive to connect with you. (Why should I allow "Thank You." you to see my connections if you won't allow me to see yours?) They are easy to use, Don't just ask for favors. Do remember that networking is more people appreciate about giving (or "paying forward") than it is about getting. them, Don't be obnoxious. Ever. Really. It will never help your job search.         AND THEY'RE FREE!!!! The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 29
Slide 34: Chapter Ten Learning More about LinkedIn on LinkedIn Are there resources on LinkedIn to learn more? Yes, there is a section at the bottom of every LinkedIn page which has helpful links, including: Learning Center – short tutorials on how to do almost anything on LinkedIn. About LinkedIn – corporate facts and PR about LinkedIn. Customer Service – a large FAQ-sheet on LinkedIn, plus the venue to send email to LinkedIn's Customer Service department. LinkedIn's Customer Service is pretty good about answering queries and problems (most times). Blog – a corporate blog for LinkedIn – of limited usefulness. The JobsInsider link allows you to download software to your Internet Explorer or your Firefox web browser which allows you to add LinkedIn functionality to your browser. Outlook Toolbar adds tools to your copy of Outlook. You can quickly look up names and companies in your email and read LinkedIn profiles inside your email software. It can also turn your email window into a LinkedIn web browser, which is pretty nifty. The User Agreement is located in the "fine print" on the bottom of the page; most people don't even know it is there. It probably is a good idea to read it once in a while because it is your legally binding contract with LinkedIn. If you're thinking of marketing or spamming on LinkedIn, or registering your 15-year-old child to the service, you better read this first! Upgrade your account – allows you to purchase premium memberships on LinkedIn. Unless you are using LinkedIn specifically for your job, you probably will never need to upgrade to these services. From here, if you click on the Accounts and Settings link (also found at the top of the page) you can purchase InMails, the emails you get from LinkedIn. There will be a time you will be tempted to buy additional InMails. You get a few free InMails when you join LinkedIn, but then have to buy more at $10 apiece, which is awfully expensive. You do get free InMails for an introduction, for most invitations, and to anybody in your personal network or in any of your groups. So, if you use LinkedIn wisely, you may never need to buy extra InMails. NEW: LinkedIn now offers OpenLinked messages which allows people to send you InMails "toll free." You don't need to post an email address for potential networkers to contact you. They also have an OpenLink Network of premium subscribers to connect with each other, which sounds a little bit country-club-ish, if you're so inclined. Page 30 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 35: Chapter Eleven Other Social Networking Sites and Job Resources Some others social and business networks are: – Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, it has 6.5 million users and is accessible in 16 languages. It is especially strong in Europe and Asia, but has many US members, too. XING is very similar to LinkedIn but also sponsors live networking events, appointments tools for setting up meetings, and BestOffers for member discounts. – France's answer to XING. It originally was a private networking venue, now a public site for business networking. Accessible in 7 or more languages; over 7 million members. – based in the United Kingdom, it's for businesspeople worldwide. It has a strong entrepreneurial focus and less of a job search focus. Their Marketplace allows for advertisements. Unlike LinkedIn, it has official live networking events and includes online blogging. www.ziggs.com. Based in Boston, Ziggs's niche is enabling you to market Me, Inc. on the web. Its profiles are a bit more extensive than LinkedIn's, including a self-interview where you select the questions to answer from a list (you do have to write the answers) and you may upload your résumé. For $4.95/month, the Ziggs WebPro Service™ will place your Ziggs profile at or near the top of the search list on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL when your name is searched. You will also be alerted each time your profile is read. Ziggs recently added a Job Search function. Their I'net-wide searches are done by Indeed.com (see below). Also unique: you can send Paypal payments between members; for the over-caffeinated, you can buy Starbucks (and Amazon) gift cards; and you can create private groups and conference with online chats. Over 3 million members. – California; has over 500,000 members from all around the world. Ryze hosts special networks to help members interact with each other as well as having live meetings in many major cities. Unlike LinkedIn, Ryze gives each member an HTML page so you can upload several pictures and sound files and have more formatting options for your homepage. Ryze appears to place itself somewhere between the business focus of LinkedIn and the social focus of FaceBook. – now in California, it was founded as a social networking site for Harvard students in 2003. It is increasingly being used by professionals for business networking. Because of its social roots, it makes it easy to communicate with other members and claims 175 million active members! It is often compared with... , Facebook's main competitor, also founded in 2003, which advertises itself purely as a social networking site. It has 110 million customers in 23 countries. Now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, it also has its own record label and promotes amateur and professional music, movies and MySpaceTV. If you are searching for work in new media venues or advertising sales, check it out. www.zaabiz.com.au and India, http://zaabiz.co.in/ -- are new Asia-Pacific business networking sites. Based in Australia, it reports that the majority of its members are Indian (from India and around the world). It also has a presence in New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore and Dubai. Launched in Australia in 2007 and in India in 2008, it appears to be English-only so far. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 31
Slide 36: Other, more specialized sites: www.brightcircles.com specializes in helping current and former employees from leading companies keep in touch. It does accept advertisements. www.konnects.com allows companies to connect their corporate websites to Konnects services for networking. It allows "individuals and organizations around the world to create their own branded online professional communities." www.gobignetwork.com According to their web site, "The Go BIG Network allows professionals to connect with small businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, customers, vendors, employees and advisors. The Web site is like a 'virtual rolodex' that people like yourself can use at any time to connect with people that can help your business." Fast Pitch www.fastpitchnetworking.com Is another business networking site geared a bit more towards a company's presence online rather than an individual's, with an eye more towards marketing than you'll see on LinkedIn. Unlike LinkedIn, you have sections in your profile for PR announcements, blogs, events, classifieds, photos, videos. www.idealist.org is not a commercial site but a foundation-supported website for nonprofits around the globe with headquarters in the U.S. and Argentina. It has visitors from over 50 countries, communicating in many languages. Of interest to job seekers: it has a huge collection of job openings for nonprofits and a free downloadable book on job hunting in the non-profit sector. It does have discussion groups and allows members to post photos and comments for general viewing. www.EventMe.com Click on Subscribe to get email notices of New York area events, including Networking events. www.networkingforprofessionals.com does online networking like LinkedIn, but also sponsors live regional business networking events (in places like New York City) including Shakers and Stirrers Business Networking Mixer, High Speed Networking, and Power Lunch. www.spoke.com Spoke.com is a site for connecting with business people. It aggregates names and contact info, so it can be a valuable search tool. You can create a profile. Unlike LinkedIn, you may contact anybody with a Spoke account, or use email addresses you find on their lists. Full search capability involves a paid membership upgrade. It includes software for Outlook, Google and Yahoo!, but PC only, not Macs. www.vault.com The impression is that the site exists solely to sell you things: gold memberships, its many career and grad school guides ($19.95 to $39.95 each – the info free elsewhere on the web), corporate reports (free on LinkedIn), and expensive résumé and cover letter review services (free at PSG). A "Recession Survival Package" for $999 seems designed to help THEM survive the recession, not the job hunter. Although Vault encourages you to enter a personal profile, there are no tools for linking with others. There is some free advice, but you have to dig a little to find it. Its jobs lists are not impressive (for my field, at least) and entries not dated, so you can't see what's current at a glance. Their "Pink Slip" blog is entertaining, but not particularly useful. Not recommended. Page 32 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 37: Job Search Sites of Interest Job Aggregators are sites which collect job listings from around the web. LinkedIn is a job aggregator and also has its own listings. Here are some specialized aggregators and job match sites. www.indeed.com Has job search tools to integrate with your Firefox browser, Google toolbar, Google home page, and your Google sidebar (if you use sidebar applications on your computer desktop). It will also forward new listings through email and RSS feeds. www.simplyhired.com In addition to job listings, it has salary tools and industry trends as well as Job Widgets to connect their listings with MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, and your cell phone as well as RSS Feeds and Email alerts. Unlike LinkedIn, both Indeed and SimplyHired will retain your search criteria and continue to find matches and forward them to you. A nifty trick on SimplyHired allows you to click on an employer's name in a job description and see who in your LinkedIn network works for that company – all without leaving the job description. (LinkedIn's internet job listings currently come from Simply Hired.) www.linkup.com/ Unlike the two sites above, LinkUp claims to grab job leads directly off business web sites (instead of collecting them from job search listings) and make them available for searching. (LinkUp is not connected with LinkedIn.) www.realmatch.com/ Unlike other job sites, RealMatch does a detailed online interview of the jobseeker and then matches the info against their job listings. Employers list their openings, get a list of prospective employees, and only pay for those résumés they ask for. (Surprisingly similar to PSG's Op Center.) www.jobcentral.com/ This resource (a.k.a. DirectEmployers.com) is run by an industry collaborative, the Direct Employers Association (DEA). The site has useful resources hidden under the "Career Resources" link, including many articles about résumés and careers, salary and cost of living calculators, lots of info for relocators (including crime statistics), and links to many military veteran info and career sites. Although there is a prominent photo of the US Capitol Building placed on every page (why?), the organization is located in Indianapolis. Also has scattered links to many corporate job sites. Worth a look. www.dice.com/ Billed as The Career Hub for Tech Insiders, it has jobs, a résumé bank, discussion groups, and lots of videos (including some games!), mostly related to job hunting. It is also a portal to www.clearancejobs.com/ for those looking for jobs requiring security clearances (including US Departments of Defense, Energy and State and defense contractors). Includes resources for those leaving the military. www.militaryexits.com Specialized site for US military personnel and their families making the transition to the civilian sector. It allows hiring companies to search Veterans' résumés. Includes links to military bases and DoD jobs. www.sologig.com/ provides listings of temp, contract, and short-term jobs only. www.jobsincanada.com , www.jobbankcanada.com and www.workopolis.com are good entry points to Canadian jobs, the first two, at least, include info on immigrating and moving to Canada. The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 33
Slide 38: www.jobpilot.com/ International job site based in Bad Homburg, Germany. Appears to be strongest in middle Europe. It has detailed information on how to get jobs in Europe and lists what requirements each country has for foreigners to work there. www.orkut.com/ -- A social networking site begun in 2003 by Google in California. Curiously, most of its members are from Brazil and India. It has since moved its HQ to Brazil. If job hunting in those areas, check it out. Other tools www.visualcv.com/ An online résumé / curriculum vitae site which allows you attach print, photo, audio and video samples to your résumé. There are many other websites which can help you in networking, sharing info, sharing news, blogging and getting your personal brand out to the public, including: From Network World's 20 Most Useful Social Networking Sites http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2008/031108-most-useful-social-net-sites.html Page 34 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
Slide 39: Appendix References and Resources Web Resources: What are best practices for a LinkedIn job search? http://www.askdavetaylor.com/what_are_best_practices_for_a_linkedin_job_search.html How do I use LinkedIn to find a job? http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_use_linkedin_to_find_a_job.html Etiquette for LinkedIn and the Professional Networking World http://www.intuitive.com/blog/etiquette_for_linkedin_and_the_professional_networking_world.html 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn http://www.linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin/ Guy Kawasaki's 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/10-ways-to-use.html "Job Seekers' Guide to Resume Databases: Twelve Resume Posting Truths" by Pam Dixon http://www.pamdixon.com/resumedatabaseguide.htm Read this before posting your résumé online! Network World's 20 Most Useful Social Networking Sites (slideshow) - see graphic on page 34. http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2008/031108-most-useful-social-net-sites.html The Dirty Dozen Online Job Search Mistakes by Susan P. Joyce http://www.job-hunt.org/jobsearchmistakes.shtml LinkedIn's Most Unusual Members: Meet The Super-Connected - LinkedIn's LIONs from CIO.com: http://www.cio.com/article/470122/LinkedIn_s_Most_Unusual_Members_Meet_The_Super_Connected?source=artrel_top How to Build Your Network by Brian Uzzi and Shannon Dunlap (Harvard Business Review) http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/ftp/uzzi%27s_research_papers/uzzi_dunlap%20hbr.pdf Searching the Hidden Job Market for Opportunities by Debra Feldman http://www.cio.com/article/326363/Searching_the_Hidden_Job_Market_for_Opportunities Note that CIO has a nasty habit of blocking access to articles unless you view the commercial before it. Job-hunt.org http://www.job-hunt.org/ . "Best of the Web for Careers, Job Hunting, and Finding Work" Great site with lots of articles on job-hunting (including networking) as well as links to lots of government resources and networking groups listed by state. Visually, it's a bit cluttered and disorganized, but there is a LOT of good information accessible through this site. hotjobs.yahoo.com and hundreds of articles related to job hunting. jobsearch.about.com each have The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn Page 35
Slide 40: JobSeeker101 Blog: http://jobseeker101blog.blogspot.com/ Women for Hire http://www.womenforhire.com/ Job board and advice. Books (including those quoted in this guide): Seven Days to Online Networking by Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton; Indianapolis: JIST Works ©2008 In this writer's opinion, the best book on using the Internet for networking. Happy About Online Networking by Liz Ryan; Cupertino, CA: HappyAbout.info ©2006. The Ask Liz Ryan blog is also a useful resource: http://www.asklizryan.blogspot.com/ Networking for Job Search and Career Success (Paperback) by Michelle Tullier; St. Paul, Minn.: JIST Publishing. I’m on LinkedIn, Now What??? by Jason Alba; Cupertino, CA: HappyAbout.info ©2007 Of course, there’s a web site connected to the book: imonlinkedinnowwhat.com/ . Formerly the best book on networking on LinkedIn. The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for Sector Switchers –and– The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for First-time Job Seekers www.idealist.org/en/career/guide/index.html Written by the staff and friends of the nonprofit site Idealist.org, they focus on job-hunting for the nonprofit sector, but have lots of information appropriate for other job-hunters as well. Available free as a downloadable PDF file (or a printed version for sale), you can also download individual chapters. The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online by David Teten and Scott Allen. Published by the American Management Association. Not only does it have its own website, for a while you can download a free PDF copy at http://thevirtualhandshake.com/free-book-download.htm. And for real live networking: Never Eat Alone And Other Secrets To Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz; NY: Doubleday, ©2005 How and why to network with lots of personal stories, anecdotes, and extensive name-dropping. The Networking Survival guide, Get the Success You Want by Tapping into the People You Know by Diane Darling. New York, et al., McGraw Hill, ©2003. Page 36 The Job Seeker's Guide for Online Networking and Using LinkedIn
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