So you’re looking for a job. People tell you to use LinkedIn as it’s the professional network and full ‘o recruiters and vacancies. But if you have a limited network and you have exhausted it, what do you?

I got a LinkedIn message last night from a connection who is looking for a a new job. Shiraz Bashir is actively looking for a new role in the Cloud and to get his message to reach out on LinkedIn, he cleverly asks people to click ‘like’ on his current status update. When I click ‘like’ on his update, my entire network will be notified about Shiraz’ job search through me. If he gets 10 people clicking ‘like’ you’re looking at a potential reach of about 2,000 LinkedIn users (as most LinkedIn users have around 200 connections).

Is this what they mean by going viral’? Well, this is how viral starts. If clicks carry on you get the snowball effect of free advertising.

I asked Shiraz what the response has been like and he says the response he gets is reflective of who is in his network. Traditionally when his network was just of existing and former work colleagues the stream of updates and content was pretty poor, mainly because most were busy with their 9-5 jobs. He has now added more recruiters and managers to his network and his homefeed of data is a lot more useful.

As for results – lately it’s managed to about 50 ‘likes’ which I think is a good start. The odd thing is that as Shiraz puts it: “I find people far more willing to ‘like’ to those other crazy threads like …. My boss will give me $1 for every click I get so I will get myself an iPad etc”. I think we have all seen those updates although I never click on them.

The most interesting finding I think is that Shiraz says new connections are far more willing to help him than his legacy contacts. I think this has to do with the fact that people we tend to connect with on LinkedIn are active on social media and want to help, ‘old’ contacts have grown organically over the years and they have possibly not seen the benefit of social yet.

I clicked the ‘like’ button as it’s a very simple way of helping someone in your network, if any of my contacts are looking for someone then I’m actually helping them as well.

Thinking beyond job search, anyone can go a bit viral on LinkedIn if they get enough clicks and comments on their status update. The typical updates that get reactions will be humor, controversy, useful information and asking questions. If you do try this yourself, let me know and I’ll be there to click your ‘like’ button!

Another useful LinkedIn tool for job seekers is the LinkedIn Resume Builder.

I always recommend graduates and students to join up LinkedIn whenever I'm giving a personal branding talk at a university. The trouble is that most students have barely even heard of LinkedIn, although they are prolific users of Facebook. I tell them LinkedIn is Facebook's boring cousin, where there are very few graduates so your personal brand will really stand out if you join up. I am very happy to see that LinkedIn have made an effort to target students with their new LinkedIn Student Job Portal. It's here to help recent graduates find jobs easily.

Honing in on jobs for graduates and students

It's basically just a function of their job search engine but they have neatly repackaged it with a flashy landing page and the compulsory smiling faces (as per above). When you click on the LinkedIn Student Portal, you get a choice of industry for your job search. Pick the one that interests you and LinkedIn will generate any relevant job opportunities for graduates in that field. You will also notice that they have chosen a very Seth Godin-esque title here…

 

At the bottom of the page you also get recommended student jobs based on your education and interests. LinkedIn will specifically target job for you on the landing page or to your email inbox if you so wish. LinkedIn are leading by example here as you can see!

 

 

 

LinkedIn tips for graduates and students

 

This is what LinkedIn themselves recommend students and graduates do:

 

• Put your network to work: Each connection you make expands your network, adding people who can provide insights into opportunities, or who can even help you land a job. Connect to fellow students and see where they’ve found jobs, reach out to alumni whose companies are hiring, and leverage the networks of your parents, family friends or mentors.
• You can research companies: Linkedin Company Pages provide rich insights to help you explore where you want to work.  Learn who companies hire, what products and services they sell, what professionals are saying about them, and who you know who works there.
• Companies find you: At the end of the day, it’s also a great opportunity to be found by leading companies. Companies continually comb LinkedIn’s member profiles for the best candidates. The more complete your profile, the better your chances of being found.

 

Are you a student? Do you use LinkedIn? Please share your experience!

   

LinkedIn launched a free resume building service the other day which I have just been testing out. At first I thought it would be very basic and not all that useful. I was wrong.

The resume builder was developed by LinkedIn labs, meaning it’s an experimental tool but still developed in-house by the LinkedIn team. We can safely say that there is a need for a resume builder function on LinkedIn and I assume this is the Beta testing of it before they integrate it fully on LinkedIn proper.

How does the resume creator work?

Very simple. First off make sure you are logged in to LinkedIn. Then click on to the LinkedIn resume tool and sign in with your LinkedIn passport. The next thing you know you’ll have an auto-generated CV which mirrors all the information on your LinkedIn profile. This obviously means that the better that’s been filled in, the better the CV.

How do you edit your resume?

There are eleven different templates that you can play around with to suit your industry, seniority and purpose of the resume. Just like with your LinkedIn profile, you can shuffle the sections of your resume around and even hide the ones you think are irrelevant to your new resume.

The one thing you cannot do in the resume builder tool is to change specific details like job titles, dates and so on – this is done on your regular LinkedIn profile and updated automagically to your resume or CV.

Benefits of using the resume builder

As we all know it’s a bit tricky to keep your LinkedIn profile and resume completely synched. On top of that, it’s a slog to have to update stuff in two places. You can easily change the template, style and decide exactly what goes up on the resume as opposed to the LinkedIn profile.

You can choose to share the resume straight from the application or you can set it to private. Finally, you can download your new CV as a PDF and email or print.

Is this the kiss of death for resume writers?

I don’t think so, whilst the LinkedIn resume creator does churn out pretty good looking resumes it doesn’t customize them at all. A resume writer’s main role in my opinion is to write excellent copy and lay things out in a compelling fashion for your target audience.  LinkedIn’s new tool does provide the average job seeker with a nice template resume but this has never been the be all and end all when there is any competition for a particular vacancy.

Final thought

LinkedIn know that their platform is the place to be for all things career and professional networking. By giving the world this free resume and CV feature, they ensure that everyone that uses the resume builder will keep their LinkedIn profile up-to-date and perfectly crafted for success.

Have you tried the tool yet? Please let me know your feedback!