CONTINUING RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN RECRUITING

Jobvite reports that 92% of companies now use social media networks to recruit candidates, up from 78% five years ago. The rise of the social media powered job search has certainly changed the way people land new positions.

It is really just an extension of the older adage that more people are hired through networking than responding to ads. Research shows that while one in 100 applicants obtain their ideal job through responding to ads, the odds are substantially better for referrals (essentially through networking): one in 7. Often we're separated by only a few degrees from someone who could help us attain our career goals. The degree of separation is something LinkedIn identifies when conducting people and company searches in their system.

QUICK TIPS FOR NETWORKING USE OF THE ELEVATOR PITCH

QUICK TIPS FOR NETWORKING USE OF THE ELEVATOR PITCH

The elevator pitch is famously known as a nutshell description of who you are in career terms -- a summary that you could deliver to someone in the time span of an elevator ride. It is succinct and to the point.

A skillful elevator pitch can get an employer's attention or serve as the basis for a new relationship. A poor elevator pitch can leave a lasting bad impression.

Here are four tips to help you perfect your elevator pitch:

1) Make it sound natural and casual. Don't make it sound memorized. Just focus on key points to emphasize and allow a little room for improvising as appropriate for your audience. Even though it's a self-marketing tool, be careful not to come across as an overly-aggressive salesperson.

2) Keep it "Tweet" size, or in other words, keep it short. It should be considered an introductory summary. Any conversation you have after delivering it can be used for elaboration, but follow the interest of the audience.

3) Make it relevant. Relate it to your audience and use it as a foundational block on which to build the relationship.

4) Engage your audience by closing with a question. As appropriate ask for advice, an opinion, a contact, or other information as relevant to the situation. Do not ask for a job through an elevator pitch - it can come across as desperate. However, consider exchanging business cards or connecting on LinkedIn.

INCREASING YOUR EFFECTIVENESS WHEN APPLYING ONLINE

Do you get frustrated from spending a lot of time applying online with little to show for results? This is quite common and happens to even the most qualified applicants. Because it is so easy and non-threatening to apply online, many people do it. Some do it indiscriminately, applying for as many jobs as they can and including those for which they are only remotely qualified. This has led to some cases in which recruiters receive hundreds of resumes for one job opening, leading to their frustration with the difficulty of identifying the top candidates.

This is the primary reason why we recommend spending no more than 30% of your job hunt time be used on applying on-line. Truly effective job hunts tend to rely more on networking, recruiter relationship management, and other time-intensive strategies. So often who you know is still very important.

However, here are a few tips that can help you to be more effective when you're applying online:

1) Target only those jobs for which your qualifications are an excellent match for the requirements. In today's job market, employers can get exactly what they are seeking. Applying for jobs outside of this guiding principle is a waste of time.

2) Try to identify an inside connection for highest-priority jobs using LinkedIn, Facebook, professional associations, your expanding network, etc.

3) Attend job fairs that feature employers to whom you have applied. Making a good in-person impression will encourage recruiters to bring up your online application and resume.

4) Be sure to customize each cover letter you send out with your resume, succinctly addressing why you are a perfect fit based on your research of the company and what you know of the job.

In summary, job hunting remains a time-intensive, complex activity. As with most things in life, the easy way is usually not the best way. Use your time wisely.

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Support Your Job Hunt

1) First and foremost you need to have a solid LinkedIn profile with at least 30 connections (more for those careers with a strong relationship-focus). Make sure your profile is at 100%.

 

1) If your job hunt is not confidential, use a status update to let your network know that you're looking for a new position, your career target, and that you welcome leads. Be sure you have turned on the "Open to Career Opportunities" option, but watch out using this if you want to keep your job search secret as your employer may see this and become suspicious.

 

2) Get recommendations. The easiest way is to create solid recommendations for others. They will likely reciprocate. Target people whose opinion you highly value and will be perceived as quite credible. You also have the option of asking for recommendations.

 

3) Find out where others with similar backgrounds are working. Conduct an advance search using keywords specific to your career and / or industry and location.

 

4) Explore the employment / career path of people you find in your field. The Company Profiles tool can be used for this.

 

5) Investigate the Company Profiles feature further to track other information on organizations in your sector.

 

6) Check if companies of interest are hiring. Company pages include a section called "new hires." You can also examine the background of the new hires to surmise what made them attractive to a new employer.

6) Consider joining groups in your career field / industry and develop an online reputation through participating and providing tips to others.

 

8) Continue to build your network, assisting others as you can and as time permits. People reciprocate.

 

9) Get to the hiring manager whenever possible. When you search for jobs on LinkedIn, pay close attention to anybody (connected to a job opening) who is two degrees away from you. This means that you know someone who knows the person who posted the position. You can ask your contact to connect the two of you through a LinkedIn "introduction."

10) Lure in people seeking your skills by identifying as many as possible in the Skills & Expertise section. Loading up this section helps your profile to emerge in more keyword searches. You can include up to 50 skill terms.

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA OWNERSHIP ISSUES

The embracing of social media in America is causing some interesting transitional issues in the workplace, especially where lines are blurred between work and personal activities.

Be aware that when it comes to LinkedIn, it is possible that your employer could try to claim ownership of some of your contacts and tell you to delete them when you leave your job. This is especially true where contact lists are commercially sensitive, such as in professional services or recruiting. In the past, a network of contacts may have been considered the parallel of a confidential client list. When employees left, they simply would not have access to client databases; however LinkedIn networks change this. Some labor lawyers also say that your employer could also tell you to remove any reference on LinkedIn that you are looking for work elsewhere (such as clicking on "Interested in Career Opportunities").

One possible future trend would be negotiating LinkedIn information in severance packages, where a person's package may be bigger if they are willing to make certain concessions.

Although rare, there have been cases of employees terminated for making negative comments about employers on LinkedIn. Sometimes, too, people mistakenly copy over virtually all information from their resume directly to LinkedIn. It's critical to carefully review this information to consider how your employer would perceive it if read and make changes accordingly before transferring information over.

Facebook recently and very publicly condemned the growing trend among employers to ask job applicants and existing employees for their Facebook password in conducting background, security, and other types of checks.

One thing is for certain is that legal challenges will be brought to ultimately determine workplace issues relating to LinkedIn and other social media sites.

Write Your Resume to the Future, Not the Past

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in composing your resume is to let your past drive the focus of the content. While a resume covers what we have done, proper perspective in using this information is key. Let your career goal, as it relates to the future you want, guide what you choose to include. You can help employers see you as a qualified candidate if you can clearly show them the relevance of your background to their needs.

If you are looking to change your career or industry, be sure to research the new area as thoroughly as possible through job postings and career exploration sites such as American’s Career InfoNet http://www.careerinfonet.org/. You should be able to determine if you need training to get you up to speed. If it appears you do not need training, utilize a concise but strong summary and keyword section to position the change you are making in terms of why you would be successful. Do not include information that would be irrelevant in the experience section, but instead focus on the responsibilities and especially achievements that highlight strengths as could be seen as relating to this new area. Functional resume formats are often recommended for career changers, but be careful. In today’s highly competitive job market, functional resumes are often viewed with suspicion by recruiters and cast aside. A better option would be a chronological - functional hybrid, in which key skill categories are used within the most recent experience descriptions to organize major responsibilities and achievements as relevant to the new area.

If you are staying within the same career and industry, always focus more of the content on the achievements that you feel will impress potential employers, providing context and quantifying wherever possible to easily illustrate your value.

Finally, it is critical to stay on top of new developments in the field through continuing your education, earning certifications, joining professional associations, etc. Be sure to make this evident on the resume. Also, don’t forget to show that you keep up with societal trends by developing and maintaining your LinkedIn Profile connections and groups. Including the URL of a well-developed profile in your contact information indicates that you are a person with a healthy, active career and not stagnating in the past.