Linked In Archives - The Voice of Job Seekers

How to Use Pinterest and LinkedIn Groups for Your Job Search

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Your job search can use any bit of leverage as possible. Job seekers using Pinterest could glean a little about companies, but they can benefit greatly through the connections made in LinkedIn groups. Although the creative professional in the job search mode will find value in displaying their boards, and following company boards, everyone is sure to be noticed through LinkedIn groups. Today’s episode will clarify how you can maximize both tools potential.

Welcome to the show. Hopefully, you will enjoy and learn how to improve your job search from our show today. You can participate in an easy way. You can go to blog, TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com /45, press the “send voicemail” and leave a voicemail. You can call and suggest a topic or comment on the content at 708-365-9822. We also welcome a review on either iTunes or Stitcher.

I’ve known Ed Han (@ed_han) for three years, primarily through Twitter, and he consistently gives great LinkedIn tips. He is a recruiter, a blogger, and a wordsmith. We are in a few LinkedIn groups together so I know he understands the tremendous value that participate provides.

Here are the highlights of our discussion:

Industry groups are great for networking and professional development and hear peers and colleagues to weigh in on the latest topics
You can always send a message to people in the groups who are not directly in your network, and you can even send a message. People can also tag you in a discussion for you to join a specific topic. It is a great opportunity for the person being tagged to demonstrate your expertise
Users can join 50 groups, but despite that people can participate in all 50, Ed suggested to be active in two or three groups
Groups are opportunities to get useful information about companies. Sometimes jobs are posted in the group before listed in the LinkedIn Jobs section.

I was perusing Alltop.com’s career directory last year when I came across my next guest’s site, The Prepary. Jaime Petkanics (@JaimePetkanics) blog and her advice have been featured in Huffington Post, Forbes, and Business Insider. I invited Jaime on the show to share how job seekers can stand out on Pinterest. If you want to take a lot at The Prepary’s Pinterest board, go here, and you’ll see a very attractive page. The content is outstanding.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:

Job seekers using Pinterest should not expect a conversation with an employer nor job leads directly.
Jaime makes clear that it is great to research a company and gather insights about the company, inspiration, and company products.
Job seekers can also display his or her expertise on Pinterest, although recruiters are unlikely to scour it for a great candidate. Pinning industry articles, pictures, and quotes positively help job seekers.
Companies may find a focused industry related pins, and also a user can keep secret boards to use as a reference for their job search.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

LinkedIn Won’t Run Your Career For You

Recently, someone in my network of friends posted the following message:

“Many of you congratulated me on my “new” job. Thanks, but the company in which I‘ am presently employed, is neither new nor full time. I’am seeking full time employement. Please review my employement background. If you know of a company in my skills and knowledge may “fit” that company, please refer me. Much oblige!”

A cryptic message is misinterpreted as desperate. If public and desperate people will read into it something unintended. Therefore, the messages sent to further employment efforts need to be intentional and strategic, not accidental. If you are putting your best foot forward on LinkedIn, every message you leave for scrutiny counts, and everything is examined when it comes to employment opportunities.

Like many job seekers, this person arrived at the point in her job search she is expecting someone to go the extra yard to help her job search efforts. Yes, all of us need help in our job search, and there is nothing wrong with asking. The cry for help is essential, but there are other issues with the above statement that makes me want to tear up from laughter:

The person who authored this statement misspelled “I am” twice. A closer at the statement, several grammar errors stand out. If you are like me, you are distracted by the lack of perceived professionalism than the “please help me” request.
Most people will not see her message because it is unlikely people will go look at her profile and see where he or she “fits!” She has a current job that does not fit her current profile but even worse, the “unfitted” job is a part of her LinkedIn profile!
She did not invite a conversation, nor desired to screen the potential referral. She was going in for the score (the referral). No invitation to talk, or extended gratitude for taking the time for consideration
She wanted her network to scour her profile for her network to see if she was a fit! Yes, that’s the way to do it. Let someone else do all the hard work for you!
Her laziness that I read into her status update will scream, “RUN!” to everyone else. Any recruiter or God forbid potential employer, will bypass her profile like scruffy hitchhiker.

If you’re like me, you’re trying to avoid your name from appearing on the “Who’s looking at your profile” section, to avoid the desperate inbox message from the same individual.

The point that needs emphasis is in this story by Elie Wiesel in a speech given at the White House in 1999:

“The story is that once upon a time there was an emperor, and the emperor heard that in his empire there was a man, a wise man with occult powers. He had all the powers in the world. He knew when the wind was blowing what messages it would carry from one country to another. He read the clouds and he realized that the clouds had a design. He knew the meaning of that design.

He heard the birds. He understood the language of the birds, the chirping of the birds carried messages. And then he heard there was a man who also knew how to read another person’s mind. I want to see him, said the emperor. They found him. They brought him to the emperor. Is it true that you know how to read the clouds? Yes, Majesty. Is it true you know the language of the birds? Yes, Majesty. What about the wind? Yes, I know. Okay, says the emperor. I have in my hands behind my back a bird. Tell me, is it alive or not?

And the wise man was so afraid that whatever he would say would be a tragedy, that if he were to say that the bird is alive, the emperor, in spite, would kill it. So he looked at the emperor for a long time, smiled, and said, Majesty, the answer is in your hands. (Laughter.)”

Now for my response to this person’s outcry:

“Look through your network and engage people who are in industries and companies you’re interested in. Look at your 1st level and 2nd level contacts equally as either may know someone who knows someone. It takes time to do this but it is well worth the investment of time.”

I received a half-hearted and obligatory, “thanks!”

Although general in nature, my advice is the moral of Wiesel’s story. The answer is in your hands.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

by Mark Anthony Dyson

May Day! My Job Search is Crashing! Panel Discussion

Last Sunday, I facilitated a job search workshop providing job seekers employed, unemployed, and underemployed information to help position them better for employment. We gave away a couple of career books that each winner will enjoy. I also invited two of the blog’s contributors to participate in a panel discussion about using social media for the job search. Bianca Thompson aka “Sassy HR Girl” and Sandra Tedford were both prepared and ready to offer her perspective. Collectively and individually, she displayed expertise and candor that engaged the audience who, I think, received much value from their answers.

They addressed several questions regarding social media profiles and the use of Linked In:

The positive and negative use of having a profile
How an incomplete profile is perceived
What if a candidate has the right components except for his or her Linked In profile
A bad profile picture? What a bad or no picture implies

There were several other questions the audience asked and overall each answer was appropriately offered.