Many people are flummoxed when it comes to choosing a LinkedIn profile headline.  What keywords should they include?  How do you get that up and down symbol ( | )?  (Hit shift and the backslash key.) Is it more important to have keywords or a Tagline / Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

This article will mainly address the last question:  Keywords or USP?  The answer to the question depends on your main goal with your LinkedIn profile.

Below you will find several situations you might be in.  Find yourself as closely as possible and handle your headline in the most appropriate way for your situation.  If you don’t find yourself exactly, find the nearest match and adjust from there.

1.  You are a job seeker and you want to be found in searches.*

If you are a job seeker, your main goal is probably to be found and contacted by recruiters and hiring managers.  If so, you need to focus on keywords in your headline.  Keywords are the terms a recruiter would be searching for if looking for someone like you.

The prevailing wisdom is to choose 4-5 words as keywords and leave it at that.  Adding extra words or extra characters like your email address may serve to dilute the effectiveness of your headline.

Examples of good headlines are:

Manufacturing & Supply Chain Executive | Asia

Procurement & Contract Specialist | Treasury Manager

Account Executive | OEM Sales | Field Sales | Territory Manager

Director Communications | Branding | Online Marketing | Social Media

Note these headlines zero in on the most essential keywords and do not add any fluff to dilute their impact.

Some job seekers write “Open to New Opportunities” in their headline.  Some recruiters actually search on the term “opportunities” and might find you that way.  Other recruiters will skip over you if you put that phrase in your headline.  My advice is to try it one way, and if you’re not getting the attention you want, try it another way.  That’s the beauty of social media …  nothing is ever engraved in stone.

2.  You are a job seeker and your main goal is to look good when people find you.

Perhaps you are currently employed and doing a very selective and confidential job search.  Or perhaps you want people to look for you primarily after you have contacted them.  If so, you may not particularly be looking to be found in searches.  In this situation, you have more flexibility when crafting your headline.  I recommend that you write your job title and a catchy phrase, tagline, or Unique Selling Proposition.

Examples:

High-Powered Financial and Analytical Trainer | Propelling International Business Teams to the Top

Program, Process and Project Manager | Creating and Implementing Innovative Technological Solutions

Managed Care Professional | Building relationships with attention and integrity

For more ideas on catchy headlines, see my article, Your LinkedIn Profile *HEADLINE* – What Would Draw You In?

3.  You are a business owner or professional and you want people to find you.*

If you are a business owner or professional wanting to attract clients, stack your headline with the keywords your clients would be searching on.  My headline says:

Essay & Resume Writer | Executive Resumes | Personal Statements | LinkedIn Profiles | Web Copy

The result of having these keywords in my headline (and also in my summary, specialties and job titles) is that many people find me when they are seeking the services I provide.

During admission season I change my keywords to emphasize college essays and MBA Admissions consulting.

Change your keywords as much as you want until you get the number of visitors to your site each day that you’re looking for.

4.  You are a business owner or professional and you just want to build a close network of solid business connections.

If you are laying low on LinkedIn and selectively building a network, really all you need is your job title and organization.  LinkedIn will take care of that for you.

*NOTE TO THOSE IN CATEGORIES 1 & 3:  Remember that the number of hits you get on your LinkedIn profile will always increase when you increase your number of connections.  For more on that topic please view my signature webinar, How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Profile.

BEWARE of the LinkedIn Default! 

If you update your current job position, LinkedIn automatically changes your headline unless you catch the box that lets you opt out.  If this happens, take control and change your headline if you want it to say something different!

Like so many things, there is no “one size fits all” answer to the LinkedIn Headline question.  If you’re not sure what the best way is to approach yours, comment below or contact The Essay Expert for assistance in crafting a KILLER LinkedIn Profile!

On December 13, 2011, LinkedIn released its “most overused” buzzwords list for 2011.  Here is the list of the top 10, with “creative” reigning at the top.  When a particular country or countries stood out for overuse of a term, the country name(s) are listed in parentheses:

1. Creative (Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States)
2. Organizational
3. Effective (India)
4. Extensive experience
5. Track record (Singapore)
6. Motivated (Ireland)
7. Innovative
8. Problem solving (Italy)
9. Communication skills
10. Dynamic (France)

The good news?  Some people heeded last year’s list and stopped overusing at least some of the following 2010 Overused Buzzwords:

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

The four exact matches between 2010 and 2011 years are “motivated,” “dynamic,” “innovative” and “extensive experience.” There are also some near matches with “problem solving” vs. “problem solver” and “proven track record” vs. “track record” (I personally have tired of all of these terms).

I believe job seekers and career professionals have done some good work changing the landscape — four of the terms on the list have changed, and all of them have changed rank.   Let’s face it:  There will be overused words every year.  I’m just glad to see we’re learning lessons along the way.

How Creative are You?

This year’s primary lesson:  Don’t say you are “creative” – demonstrate your creativity!  Design and upload a PowerPoint presentation to SlideShare and post it to your LinkedIn profile.  Give examples of marketing strategies you devised.  Include your artistic portfolio in your profile.  And don’t use the same words everyone else is using!  We now know that asserting you are “creative” is a sure way to prove that you are not.

Met or Exceeded Organizational Goals?

“Organizational” is a bit tougher.  How do you say you met organizational goals without saying you met organizational goals?  One thing to keep in mind is that of course you are going to strive for and meet organizational goals!  What other goals would you possibly want to report?  I admit I will be a little sad to let this term go, but I see the point of finding alternatives.  “Meet targeted goals” would be just as effective (oh did I say “effective”?  Send me to India where I’ll be in good company!)  Or perhaps a chart of goals vs. accomplishments would obviate the need for the term “organizational.”  I predict that next year “goal(s)” and “target(s)” will top this list.

Devise an Effective Strategy Lately?

Thankfully there are a multitude of ways to convey the concept of “effective.”  “Successful” is the clearest alternative, followed by “winning,” “profitable,” “lucrative,” “productive,” “fruitful,” “targeted” and even “efficacious” (I don’t love that last one as a resume/profile adjective).  Take your pick or find another way to say what you mean!  (Sometimes you can just leave out the adjective completely, as I did by avoiding “find another effective way” in that last sentence.)

As for “extensive experience” and “track record,” these terms are like nails on a blackboard to me.  I see them a lot and make short work of them on my resumes.

How many of these top 10 overused words show up in your profile?  Please share below.

And  if you want expert assistance to craft a LinkedIn profile that stands out in a sea of 135 million LinkedIn users, contact The Essay Expert through our Web Form or at 608-467-0067.

Like this article?  You might also enjoy Ten Buzzwords to Take Off Your LinkedIn Profile Now published by Time Newsfeed.

Your Resume:  Humans vs. Computers

When I give webinars on writing resumes, one of the topics I cover is how to make your resume visually appealing.  I often get this question:

Why would I want to spend so much time and money making my resume pretty if it’s just going to confuse the computers?

My answer is that yes, the computers are important, and that you ALSO need to have a resume that’s designed to be read by human beings.  We all know that you are most likely to find your job through networking or the “hidden job market.” When you send materials to someone in your network or to a decision-maker in the hidden job market, you want to include a professional-looking resume.  And when it’s time for an interview, it’s also advisable to have a nicely formatted resume to hand across the table.

For those of you who are hoping to get those interviews by applying online, the question still remains: How can I write a resume that makes it past the computers?  In other words:  How can I raise my odds above 2%?

Keep reading.

There are two issues with submitting online resumes.  One is the format of the resume; the second is the keywords it contains.

Formatting for Robots:

ATS (Applicant Tracking System) software is not the smartest software in the world.  It gets confused by bullets, non-traditional headings, graphs, tables, and text boxes.  So you need to have a version of your resume that is stripped down and organized just for the computers. We call this your “text-based” resume.

Your text-based resume should follow these guidelines:

1. Create it in (or copy it into) a text editor such as Notepad, SimpleText or TextEdit.
2. Use easily understandable headings like “Summary of Qualifications,” “Professional Experience” and “Education.”
3. Don’t get fancy or creative with your headings, and don’t put two categories together in one section.  Do NOT, for instance, use the heading “Education & Certifications” or “Skills & Interests.”
4. Use dashes or asterisks instead of bullets.
5. List your address in standard “tombstone” style, one line on top of the next.
6. Put spaces between sections.

Here’s what your text-based resume might look like (beautiful, isn’t it?):

Robots Beat Robots

Now, you’ve done your best to create a resume the computers will understand.  But how will you know if it really worked?

The best way to find out what a computer understands and what it doesn’t is to use a computer program that tells you.  Thankfully, there is a service where you can put your resume into a box on your computer screen, and the program will tell you what information is recognized and not recognized by the ATS software.

Here’s where you can find out about it:

How will you know what keywords to use in your resume?

Just because the computers can read your resume doesn’t mean you will have the right keywords to make it past their screening systems. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the keywords that truly make a difference with computer scanners are the ones you have on your resume that not everyone else includes.  Preptel’s service (called “Resumeter™”) will tell you what those unique words are so that you can add them to your resume.  All you have to do is paste a job description onto the page, and you will get a list of the keywords you MUST include in your resume for it to be viable.

Example:  One of my clients was applying for a job with INTUIT.  When I put his resume and job description into the Resumeter™, the resume was rated as “Weak.” I discovered that he needed to have certain keywords in his resume, including the phrase “QuickBooks, Quicken.”  We added a line about how eager he was to market QuickBooks, Quicken and other INTUIT software through compelling graphic design.  His Resumeter™ grade changed from “Weak” to “Strong.”

Without using Preptel, this client wouldn’t have stood a chance.  As you know, the online job search market is highly competitive and statistics are not encouraging.  You can change your odds of making it past the ATS systems with just a few clicks and adjustments.

Please do yourself a favor and try out this service, Preptel’s Resumeter™, for 7 days for free.  It is normally $25/month after that but with the link provided here it is only $19.99/month.

I have no doubt that you have great experience that qualifies you for many positions. If the computer can’t understand and rank it properly, it won’t help you a bit. Please check out Preptel and let me know what difference it makes!

Are you a talented professional with amazing accomplishments, but who is getting nowhere applying for jobs through job boards?  If so, you are not alone, and you are fighting an uphill battle.  The fact is, job seekers get only a 1-3% response rate from the major job boards.  That means you might have to send out 100 resumes to get just one response!

There is a trick to getting a higher response from the job boards, which I talk about in detail in How to Write a Resume that Beats the Computers.You also need some other strategies. There are plenty of jobs out there that are not posted on job boards, and that even your networking contacts don’t know about. The company itself might not even know they want someone like you until you show up!   Mary Elizabeth Bradford, who won a Career Innovator Award at the 2011 Career Directors International conference, has packaged a Job Search Success System that will help you present yourself powerfully to find those hidden jobs.

The basic premise of Mary Elizabeth’s system if that you need strategies to connect directly with companies.  You cut out the “middle man” (recruiters, HR, job boards, etc.).

Most companies go through at least five steps to fill a position before they will post the position to a major job board. They get on the phone to a few trusted colleagues. They look to see if anyone internal is qualified to be promoted. They alert their staff to refer someone they might know. They launch an intimate campaign to try to fill the position waaaay before the general public is notified. And if after a few weeks, the position is still not filled, perhaps they contact a related association to post the job on their “Members Only job” — or they contract a recruiter.  Job boards are a last resort.

Can you break through to the Hidden Market?

Mary Elizabeth emphasizes, “ANYONE (and I mean even if you are right out of college) can enjoy the benefits of the hidden job market. These jobs are available on all levels and in virtually all industries.  The trick is to hone your focus so you actually achieve the results you want.”

What are the advantages to you of connecting to the hidden job market?  You get more job opportunities, more market leverage, less competition, a shorter interview process and bigger offers.  You still might want to send resumes out via the internet as part of your strategy; but why would you focus there exclusively when you can have so much more control over your next career move?!

You might be wondering precisely how to tap into the unadvertised job market. There are three strategies recommended by the Job Search Success System that help you focus on and find great jobs that will never see a major job board.

Tip #1: Have a plan

Launch a proactive job search. Know precisely what you are looking for, then reach out to get it. Know your primary target market(s), primary positions sought, geographic parameters, and timeline.

Tip #2: Pick three main job search strategies for tapping into your market

Here are two examples of techniques you can utilize:

Offer your skills to growing or changing companies: Companies that are expanding, merging, acquiring other companies, rolling out new products or services, or moving are likely to be seeking new employees to help them with their transition.

Make direct company contact: Contacting a company directly is a great way to take leadership and control over your job search. Are you interested in looking at the higher education market in your state or the top organic food manufacturers in the US? Or maybe the fastest growing healthcare oriented businesses in your city? All of these “lists” are accessible to you and allow you to tap right into your market of focus.

Tip #3: Manage your job search like a marketing campaign

Make a simple plan to move forward. Pick the hours and days each week that you plan to invest in your next career move. Block out those times and stick to them! Honor your commitment to your job search just like you would honor your commitment to your present employer to show up on time each day.

During your job search, keep things simple and focus on your actions, not their immediate results! This way you can celebrate your initial “successes”  – the completions of your daily and weekly goals. The results will unfold elegantly and abundantly and you will enjoy the satisfaction of success whether you are investing in marketing yourself or basking in the warm glow of landing your third or fourth interview!

How are job boards sounding now?  If you are ready to try a new strategy, I highly encourage you to look into Mary Elizabeth’s award-winning Job Search Success System.

And please report your success to both Mary Elizabeth and me.  I love success stories and look forward to hearing yours!

Everyone is saying to post your resume to Google…  so how do you do it?

I received this question from one of my subscribers, and will answer it soon.  But first, are you an online job seeker?  If so, I have some important recommendations for you.  Seriously…  keep reading!

Here are my top 4 recommendations:

1. Have a 100% complete profile on LinkedIn.  If you need help, contact The Essay Expert.
2. Fill out all the information on your Facebook profile completely, and post only professionally appropriate photos.
3. Maintain a Twitter account with your first and last name as your Twitter handle (eg. @BrendaBernstein).
4. Post your resume on line and link to it from all the above accounts.

Who recommends this four-pronged strategy? At least one highly successful recruiter, Shally Steckerl of Arbita, Inc. EVP, who presented to a group of career professionals at the Career Directors International annual conference in Savannah, Georgia on October 21, 2011. I was there and I was convinced.

Issues to Consider When Posting an Online Resume

Before posting your resume on line, consider privacy issues. You probably do not want to post your home address details to the entire world. City and state will suffice. You may or may want to make your phone number available to the public. (In my opinion, a public phone number is a relatively low risk and will allow recruiters to contact you.)

For an email address, consider creating a designated email for your job search and use that one on your resume. You will then cut down on any spam and you’ll be able to keep all your job-search related emails in one place, with a low risk of having them get lost amongst other messages.

How do you post your resume on line?  The answer is coming very soon…

There are many ways, and I will suggest just a few here:

1. Post it on Google docs. Here’s an article from SimplyBlog that does a great job of explaining how to do that! How to Post Your Resume with Google Docs You might need to change your Google Docs view to the old version of Google Docs if you can’t figure out some of these instructions, or you might be able to translate the instructions to the new version. I went ahead and published my resume to Google Docs. See Brenda Bernstein’s Resume!
2. Post it on indeed.com. Indeed is a highly recommended job posting site, free to both you and employers who post jobs there. If you post your resume, you will be given a URL for your resume page. The cool thing about indeed.com is that you will get a resume Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS’s) can read! You can then save it as a pdf and use it to apply to other jobs that use ATS software.
3. Create a website. The Essay Expert can help you with this. You can have a page with your resume and link to it from your other social media profiles.  BTW, everyone reading this article, if you haven’t done so already, should go ahead and purchase the domain name for your first and last name or some version of it!  Be ready with the domain so when you want to create your website you can do it.
4. Attach it to your LinkedIn profile.  First download the application Box.net and then you will be able to upload your resume.  The resume will then be available to people who visit your LinkedIn profile.

Following the above recommendations will set you up to be successful with your online job search.  Stay tuned for more tips and tricks for online job searches coming up in the next few weeks!

Were these tips helpful?  What other questions do you have?  Please comment below!

Breaking News about LinkedIn’s Company Follow

LinkedIn announced on October 10 that it was rolling out yet a new feature that will change the face of what it means to follow a company on LinkedIn.  For a year and a half prior to this development, it has been possible to follow companies on LinkedIn.  But the information available was rather limited, i.e.,  1) when employees join, leave or are promoted; 2) new job opportunities; and 3) company profile updates.

If you are a job seeker interested in working at a company, or if you are a recruiter, the three pieces of information listed above can be quite useful.  You can keep track of useful tidbits like how many and what type of people a company is hiring, how many people get promoted, and how many employees leave the company.  As LinkedIn suggested in its April 2010 announcement about the Company Follow feature, Get on the inside track with “Company Follow,” if you are geography teacher you might be quite interested if you see web technology companies hiring people like you!

What was missing from the Company Follow feature was the ability to get news and information from the company itself. That has now changed with the advent of…  Company Status updates!

Yes, it’s true. Companies on LinkedIn can now act just like people and post updates to their very own status bar.  With a 500-character limit, these updates can be substantial. And you can follow them with a simple click of the mouse!

Here’s a video about the new feature:

Click here to watch a video about this new feature!

What’s in it for you?

How might company updates help you as a job seeker?  Well, you have probably heard a lot about the “hidden job market.”  Most high level positions are actually filled without being advertised. Note well:  Status updates allow you to find out any news that a company thinks is important to share.  If you read these updates carefully, you might find a good reason to contact the company, comment on these new developments, and make a positive impression on a decision-maker.

You might be thinking, “Well, if company updates are available to everyone, won’t everyone be pestering these poor decision-makers with congratulatory notes and other correspondence?” My best guess is that most people will not take advantage of the opportunities presented by Company Follow. They might not be paying attention, or they might be too scared to write a letter to a decision-maker. By truly utilizing the information that is available, you will set yourself apart.

You may already have ideas of companies you want to follow.  Start following them!  In addition, take a look at the Search for Companies homepage.  You will be given “Companies You May Want to Follow,” much the same as you can find “Groups you Might Like” under the Groups tab.

Follow The Essay Expert’s Company Page on LinkedIn

Here’s a great idea: How about starting by following The Essay Expert! I will be updating my status from time to time to let you know of developments that might interest you. And I will always be happy to hear from you in response to my updates.

For any company owners reading this, you have a new task to add to your list:  updating your company status bar and starting to gather followers.  As of now, posting is a “by hand” type of job, though I hear HootSuite is working on integration. LinkedIn might not catch up to facebook when it comes to creating company buzz, but for job seekers LinkedIn is still the place to be…  and to follow.

Follow The Essay Expert!

I need your help.

LinkedIn announced on August 9, 2011 that they have rolled out yet another new feature on their site:  the “Improve Your Profile Tool.”  According to the LinkedIn blog, this tool “analyzes your profile and offers you personalized profile recommendations to help you put your best foot forward.”

Clichés aside, this tool could be extremely useful to you if your profile is not 100% complete, or if you have failed to include key information.

Here’s my problem: 

I ran the Profile Makeover on my own profile, and all it told me was that I didn’t advertise my date of graduation from high school (I left it out by choice, as some of you might as well); I didn’t list the degree I got from high school (pretty obvious isn’t it?); and I didn’t specify the concentration of my J.D. (there wasn’t one – a J.D. is a J.D.).

Where I’m left, as a LinkedIn profile writer and editor, is that I have no idea what other types of suggestions LinkedIn might make to its users who have not optimized their profiles.

That’s where you come in.

I would love for you to put your profile through the Improve Your Profile process and report back on this blog what the tool tells you is missing or incorrect in your profile.

I will then know what advice I should be giving to people about LinkedIn, and what information LinkedIn will take care of.  I don’t want to be duplicating things unnecessarily!  The data you provide will greatly inform the content I choose to convey in my e-book and LinkedIn webinars.

To use the tool, start at LinkedIn’s article, LinkedIn Profile Makeovers just got easier, and then click in “Improve your LinkedIn Profile today!”

Are you game?  I look forward to learning from the community what improvements LinkedIn thinks you should make to your profile.

I promise to make good use of your comments.  And I don’t really think I am out of a job…  I just won’t be doing the things a computer can do quite well on its own.  Just in case, though, maybe I should make sure my LinkedIn profile is updated.

Any ideas on how I can do that?

On July 24, 2011, LinkedIn announced their “Apply with LinkedIn” system.  According to LinkedIn’s Blog, Apply with LinkedIn will allow you to “submit your profile for any job application on the web with one simple click.” Most notable about this program is that companies will be able to install a button on their websites, allowing applicants to apply using a LinkedIn profile!

You now have another incentive to write a KILLER LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn claims that over one thousand companies are jumping on the bandwagon, including big names like Netflix, TripIt and Photobucket.

The following are LinkedIn’s 3 advertised selling points for job seekers:

1.  You can modify your profile for each position.

If you want to cater your profile to each job position, this is your chance.  Of course, you could get in trouble if the company were to go back and check your profile to find that it looks completely different from the profile you submitted…  so don’t modify too much!

2. LinkedIn will show you the names of people who can introduce you to someone in the company.

We all know that the way to get a job is through networking, and LinkedIn apparently will help you get started.  I wonder how effective these leads really are, however, since if everyone who applies for the position is given contact information of people at the company, these contacts might be inundated with communications from hundreds of job seekers. This feature could lose its power pretty quickly.

3. LinkedIn will track all your applications for you!

Tracking services and historical information on your job search?  Now that is a huge advantage, especially for the organizationally challenged!  All you have to do is go to the “Saved Jobs” tab under the Jobs category, and you’ll be able to view a record of all the jobs you’ve applied to.  Imagine twenty or thirty years from now looking back nostalgically on those first Apply with LinkedIn attempts.

Your STELLAR LinkedIn Profile!

The most important takeaway of this roll-out as I see it is that if you are planning to apply to one of the thousands of companies who soon will be using the Apply with LinkedIn button, you will really need to make sure your LinkedIn profile is 100% complete – and that it sparkles!

The Essay Expert is here to help you, through webinars and direct services, to create a profile you are proud of.  View The Essay Expert’s LinkedIn Profile Services and contact us through our web form or at 608-467-0067.

The end of June 2011 brought a lot of hype in the blogging world about TheLadders’ new “Signature” Program. Have you heard of it? Signature promises that “selected participants who actively engage in all components of the Signature program are guaranteed a job offer or their money back.” The price tag?  $2,495. The claim of success? 90%.

[I’m taking the existence of this program, and the price tag, on faith since TheLadders’ website is seemingly impenetrable without a username and password – see www.theladders.com]

Criticism of the Signature program abounds. Forbes’ Susan Adams points out what might be the obvious in her article, The Ladders Guarantees a Job Offer or Your Money Back: TheLadders self-selects the people who may enroll in the program. They don’t guarantee a job to just anyone! And, as it turns out, 75% of the people accepted into the program are already employed and looking to move up the ladder or make a lateral move into a larger company. These folks are much better positioned to succeed in their job search than the unemployed. The 90% success rate doesn’t sound quite so impressive anymore, does it?

Furthermore, explains Ms. Adams, if you read the fine print you find out that participants are required to “apply to 6 well-fitted positions per month.” Hmmm…  who determines what constitutes a “well-fitted” position?  What if there are not 6 positions the candidate wants to apply to? It seems the $2,495 fee will then be forfeited. For additional criticism of this aspect of the program, see  A Six Figure Job Guaranteed or your Money Back in the bnet.com blog (authored by Kimberly Weisul).

And what if a participant applies to 6 jobs in order to comply with the program, even though they are not jobs she wants to accept because of location, company culture or some other factor? What if she gets an offer from one of them? She has then paid $2,495 to get a worthless job offer.

The Signature program reminds me of a “deal” offered by Match.com in my internet dating days. Match, as I remember, offered 6 additional free months if I did not meet someone I liked within 6 months. The catch? I had to contact 6 people each month for 6 months to remain eligible for the offer. Eek. There just weren’t that many guys who appealed to me enough to make the effort. I contacted an average of 2 guys a month for 6 months, didn’t make a love connection, and cancelled my service.

And cancelling services is what a lot of people might start doing around The Ladders. Snarky career blogger Nick Corcodilos refers to The Ladders as a “beleaguered organization” in his article, TheLadders: A lipstick pig’s death rattle? He suggests that if TheLadders CEO’s Marc Cenedella’s claims are correct, and he has 4.5 million subscribers at $35/month, then those 4.5 million are not getting the results promised by their subscription. Why else would TheLadders need to dangle a pricey “guaranteed” job offer carrot in front of these subscribers?

Another suspicious promise of Signature is their claim that the program will reduce the amount of time necessary to spend on a job search from 30 to 4 hours per week. Silly me! Here I was thinking that job searching was a full-time job. It takes time to make connections and work networks, and a Manpower study recently found that 41% of successful jobhunters got their jobs through networking. Does TheLadders claim that significant networking is now unnecessary in the job search process?! I am wary of any program that encourages job searchers to stop engaging in this essential and necessarily time-consuming aspect of their search.

What do you think of this grand offer by TheLadders? Would you front the dough if you were chosen as a qualified candidate? Or would you prefer to get a great resume and cover letters and find your job the old fashioned way?

Many people approach me to ask whether it’s worth the price to subscribe to LinkedIn Job Seeker Premium.  One of my subscribers, Susan Poseika, signed up for the one-month free trial and was kind enough to share her evaluation of the service.  Her experience is anecdotal — only one person’s experience — and does not necessarily predict what anyone else will experience. Still, I thought it would be valuable to share.

As background, I invite you to read an article I wrote about LinkedIn’s Job Seeker Premium.  You might also want to view LinkedIn’s VIDEO about the service, available HERE.

LinkedIn claims the following advantages of Linkedin Job Seeker Premium on the subscription page:

• Get noticed by recruiters and hiring managers with a JobSeekers Badge
• Zero in on $100K+ jobs with detailed salary information
• Move to the top of the list as a featured applicant
• Contact anyone directly through InMail – response guaranteed
• See who has viewed your profile with details
• Get introduced to the companies you are targeting
• Let recruiters message you for free through OpenLink
• Get Priority Customer Service

Below is what Susan reported as her experience with Job Seeker Premium:

Get noticed by hiring managers and recruiters with LinkedIn badge:
I did not notice a difference with this feature. Recruiters had contacted me when I did not have the badge; however, during the month I had the badge, there was nothing.

After I took the badge off (after the free month) I still did not see any change.

Move to top of the list as Featured Applicant:
I did not notice a difference from this feature.

InMail:
With InMail, Linkedin members can contact anyone without knowing their contact information or going through introductions from other LinkedIn members. However, if you get a deep enough network, there would be a way to connect with the same people, if not through direct invitations, then through introductions.

Note from Brenda:  Two other ways to connect with people you don’t know are 1) by joining a group where you are both members 2) by looking for the person’s email address, either in the person’s profile (many members include their email address) or by searching the web.  If you know a person’s company then often you can figure out their email address.  For instance, if you are looking for Peter Cantor who works at samplecompany, go to samplecompany.com and find an email address.  If you find sarahj@samplecompany.com, then you have a good chance that Peter’s email address is peterc@samplecompany.com.

Who has viewed your profile:
With the Free version, you can see who has viewed your profile over the last week only. With Premium, however, you can see who has viewed your profile over the last week, last month, or more.

In both cases, you can view a trend chart of profile viewing. The trend chart is an excellent feature that allows you to see whether profile viewing is going up or down. For those job seekers who check once a week, the Premium account won’t really give you anything you don’t already have.

Note from Brenda:  With the paid service, you can see the full list of the people who viewed you. With a free account you can only see the most recent five viewers.  Whether you have a paid or free account, you can see the names of your viewers IF they set their privacy settings to allow you to see them. Otherwise you will get only a description of their industry.

Get introduced to target companies:
With the Free version, you can get introduced, through one of your contacts, to up to a maximum of five targeted companies. With the Premium version, you have the potential of twenty-five.

OpenLink Networker:
I did not notice a difference with this option.

Back to Brenda:

Where I’m left with all this is that if you can afford it and you are targeted in your job search, you may as well use the enhanced service.  One thing Susan didn’t mention is that the service provides tools to help keep your job search organized.  She tells me she did not have a chance to test-drive that aspect of the service, and believes it would be quite useful over time.

“If you can,” recommends Susan, “take advantage of any free one-month offer, have a targeted strategy, and use the service to its maximum potential. By doing so, you should see this feature leading to off-line/personal contact, which is the goal of using of Job Seeker Premium.”

I couldn’t agree more.  And if you have a story to share about LinkedIn Job Seeker Premium, you might be featured in a future blog!

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