Last week I covered the issue of Facebook privacy in my article Facebook Privacy? What’s that?  While Facebook raises many privacy issues, your online footprint as a job seeker extends far beyond your Facebook profile. Even if you have avoided Facebook altogether, chances are you have not completely avoided the internet; and this means that you have an online reputation that can be explored—and exploited—by potential employers.

The Harvard Business Review published an article on April 3, 2012 by Michael Fertik entitled, “Your Future Employer is Watching You Online. You Should be Too.”  Before I read this article, I had not fully considered all the different ways employers might be researching candidates. I had seen statistics, which  Fertik also shares, that more than 75% of employers actively research candidates online (note this was a December 2009 statistic from Microsoft and is probably higher now), and that more than 70% of employers have decided not to hire a candidate based on what they have found online. I assumed that recruiters were looking at major social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn; but according to this HBS article, recruiters dig much more deeply, looking through “shopping profiles, online gaming sites, classifieds and auction sites (think eBay and craigslist) – and even in virtual worlds like SecondLife!”

You are always a shopper – and you are always the shopped

Are you as amazed as I am at the extent of targeted advertising on the web? I get Facebook ads put in front of me for services relating to yoga, healthy diet and personal growth, probably because of the yoga videos, green drinks and books I search for and/or purchase on Amazon. Google has made it spookily easy for advertisers to discover my personal preferences. Clearly, if advertisers can do it, employers can too. There is basically nothing to stop employers from profiling their ideal candidate based on qualities like political inclinations, preferred leisure activities, diet, languages, etc. Of course job history and skills are still the primary considerations, but to narrow down the field, screening for other traits seems a natural extension of what advertisers do every day.

Employers can search for you almost like they would for a pair of shoes. What Fertik drives home is that in today’s world, you are really always a job seeker whether you want to be or not. You *are* being researched. Whether you are found is another story. But if you are, you’ll want to look good when the right company finds you.

Steps to take

In addition to shopping only for items that do not cast doubt on your character, and of course ensuring that your Facebook and LinkedIn profile are professionally presented, there are additional steps you can take to manage your online reputation. Here are three important ones mentioned by Fertik:

1. Check your own Google results. The first five results should make you look good. If they don’t, it’s time for an overhaul of your online reputation. Maybe it’s even time to create a website with the URL firstnamelastname.com or as close as you can get. Does an unsavory character share your first and last name? In that case, address it up front with employers whenever possible so they know to look beyond those initial results.
2. Establish yourself as a skilled professional online. Participate in reputable forums, LinkedIn groups, and anywhere else where you can establish thought leadership online.
3. Don’t assume anything is private. There is always a chance that emails, e-photos, etc. will somehow be discovered or appropriated by a spammer. Privacy settings do not protect you the way you might like.

Have you Googled yourself lately? What did you find? Are you active in online forums? Do you think you would be chosen by an employer for the job you want? Please share your thoughts below.

“I can’t even see it.”

In a Facebook chat with a friend of mine, we were discussing his college-aged daughter’s posts to her Facebook profile. I won’t share the details, but let’s say what she was writing could easily prevent her from being hired if a prospective employer were to see it. I commented to my friend that if his daughter ever wanted to look for a job, she had better delete all those postings. “But her profile is private,” he replied. “I can’t even see it.”

As many people are aware, it has become common practice for hiring companies to view candidates’ LinkedIn and Facebook pages if they are available. This fact causes little concern for most people, since they believe they can keep their profiles, especially on Facebook, private. A private profile is safe from public scrutiny, right?

Wrong. According to a Mesh Report article entitled Job Seekers Getting Asked for Facebook Passwords, nothing could be farther from the truth. In actuality, if you are a job seeker you have essentially given up your right to privacy.

How employers mess with your privacy

First of all, a company might use a third party application such as BeKnown that can often gain access to your profile. You would be surprised how often companies use this tactic. And job seekers might not be aware that when they log in to a company’s website using their Facebook profile, they are likely giving that company full permission to snoop.

Additionally, not long ago both private companies and government agencies began requesting Facebook login information from candidates. Receiving quite a bit of pushback, some of these organizations have modified their requirement, now demanding during interviews that candidates log in to their own Facebook accounts in order to reveal what they contain. Other organizations require candidates to “friend” the hiring manager or other company figurehead so that their profile can be viewed.

One job seeker interviewed by Mesh withdrew his application when asked for his login information. But as requests for social media access become more and more common, many candidates feel that they can’t afford to refuse.

Privacy rights anyone?

One George Washington University law professor says this practice is “an egregious privacy violation.” I tend to agree, and I am encouraged that Illinois and Maryland have legislation in the works that would make it illegal for public agencies to demand access to candidate’s social media profiles. (Police departments are some of the most active seekers of Facebook login information.)

Whether or not this practice is made illegal for public agencies, it seems private companies will be able to invade candidates’ privacy all they want. If you feel strongly enough that this practice violates your rights, and if you can afford to refuse the request, go ahead. But as the practice becomes more widespread, it might become impractical to do so.

Interestingly, it is against the terms of service at Facebook to share login information. But according to the Mesh Report, the Department of Justice will not be prosecuting any employers for their practices despite the fact that it is a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service.

What will you do about it?

Perhaps the best thing job seekers can do for now is to make sure to rid their profile of any risqué, drunken or other unprofessional pictures; keep their posts clean and sane; and refrain from making disparaging online remarks about anyone, especially past employers.

It seems the practice of coercing job applicants to reveal their social media profiles, albeit masquerading as encouraging them to “volunteer” this information, is not going away without a fight. If you are a job seeker, prepare to be asked to share—or if you can afford it, perhaps you can fight back!

How do you plan to respond if a prospective employer asks you for access to your social media profiles? I’d love to hear your comments below.

In February 2012, the Career Thought Leaders Consortium published their Findings of the 2011 Global Career Brainstorming Day: Trends for the Now, the New & the Next in Careers.

My particular interest lies in resume trends, and you as my readers expect me to be up to date on these matters!  Here are the Top 12 findings in the resume category from the best of the best in the career industry:

1. Resumes are not dead!

Every job seeker still needs one to present to employers, recruiters and network contacts. That said, the LinkedIn profile is becoming as important if not more important as an entry point and must be crafted to complement, NOT duplicate, the information in the resume.

2. Brevity Reigns

The 3-page resume, however, is going extinct. Keep your resume succinct and preferably to one or two pages, even if you are a high-level executive. This means concise writing, short paragraphs, brief lists of bullet points, and good organization and branding to assist the reader in quickly assessing your strengths. The top third of the first page is prime real estate.

3. Extra Extra! Leverage Addenda

Addenda are welcome attachments to short resumes when you have additional accomplishments to convey that did not make it onto the two-pager.

4. Keep it Chronological

Stay away from functional resumes. Hybrids are okay but reverse-chronological resumes are still the preferred format for recruiters and hiring managers.

5. Smart-phone Savvy

Keep in mind that some people will be reading your resume on their phones. This means you need good headlines and a compelling top third to half of the resume to encourage scrolling down.

6. RoboResumes

Keep ATS systems in mind. Preptel is a good way to make sure your resume is formatted properly to make it through the system.

7. Retro Resumes

Resume paper is still in style for when you present your resume in person! And it’s “retro” – you can send your resume in an actual envelope and perhaps get some positive attention for taking the time to do so in this email-centric world.

8. Hyperlink it!

Put links on your resume. QR codes are becoming popular, as well as other URLs that link to additional material about the job seeker.

9. Be human

Don’t skip the community service, continuing education, civic background, etc. Your character is being evaluated more than ever! And you are encouraged to put a testimonial on your resume. Why say it yourself when you can have someone else say it for you?

10. There’s no one-size fits all.

You need a different resume for each position you apply for, and then you need separate versions for the recruiter, the hiring manager, and the ATS software. How overwhelming can that be? That’s what career professionals and resume writers are here for. Hopefully we can make the process just a bit less overwhelming.

11. Vital Stats

You don’t need to include your street address in your resume header anymore! DO include your LinkedIn URL, web address if you have one, your city and state, ONE phone number and ONE email address.

12. Ever heard of Twitrez?

If you are media-savvy, you may have used the Twitrez tool to communicate your value proposition in a series of 10 tweets, 140 characters each. The idea is that each message can stand on its own and the combined 1400 characters “create a cohesive overview of a candidate’s core qualifications and value.” Or maybe you’ve tweeted your twesume?

I can see what’s next for The Essay Expert – it’s writing Twitter resumes!  Stay tuned…

“Resume Oblivion” has been a hot topic in the news. The Wall Street Journal published an article, Your Resume vs. Oblivion, reporting that the percentage of large companies using computerized Applicant Tracking Systems to screen candidates is in the high 90%; almost all Fortune 500 companies rely on these programs.

The article points out that “the systems, which can cost from $5,000 to millions of dollars, are efficient, but not foolproof.”  Specifically, “Tracking software …  may miss the most-qualified applicant if that person doesn’t game the system by larding [sic - I think they mean loading] his or her résumé with keywords from the job description.”

The article offers advice, which I recommend reading, on “How to Beat the ‘Black Hole.’” However, the advice is not comprehensive.  The first item, for instance, instructs job seekers to “mimic the keywords in the job description as closely as possible. If you’re applying to be a sales manager, make sure your résumé includes the words ‘sales’ and ‘manage’ (assuming you’ve done both!).”

Pardon me for saying so, but the above advice is 1) rudimentary, 2) a no-brainer and 3) limited in its value. The problem is that 99% of the people applying for a sales manager job are going to have the words “sales” and “manage”  in their resumes! Therefore, you will not get higher on any list by including these keywords. The same goes for most of the keywords in the job description, since many job seekers are getting savvy about matching their resumes to the posting.

The Wall Street Journal is not the only major news provider who delivered misleading or incomplete information on this topic. Take NPR’s 16-minute segment entitled Keeping Your Resume Out of Online Oblivion, where callers related stories of how they got interviews despite the reign of Applicant Tracking Systems.  View it here:

You will hear some creative solutions in this spot on how to make it past the computers. You will also hear something misleading:  that hiring managers (i.e., human beings) program the ATS software to screen for certain terms.

Do you really think that a company like Google or Starbucks is going to have a human being sit there and punch keywords into a computer for each of the thousands of jobs they post every day? Think again.

No, human beings do not program these systems — the systems program themselves! The keywords the computers are looking for are determined by the computers. And this is why qualified candidates are so often overlooked.

In my estimation, to beat a computer you need a computer. That’s why I make sure that every one of my clients who applies to a mid- to large-sized company puts his or her resume through a computerized system, Preptel’s Resumeter. I have written about this program before (see How to Write a Resume that Beats the Computers), and I keep becoming a bigger and bigger fan. Preptel gives an actual view of how your resume is read by the computers, and, starting later this week, will coach you step by step through the process of fixing the formatting. Isn’t that better than the vague advice given in the WSJ article to “keep the formatting on your résumé simple and streamlined”?

Preptel will also tell you what keywords the computers have deemed important. Trust me, you won’t figure these out on your own. Here’s a sample:

adding creative input
bim publishing software
or ad tags
the bim publishing
widgets pages content
with station contacts

If you include even one or two of these wacky strings of words in addition to the ones in the job description, your resume will move up in the pile. Add three of the strings and you will have a great chance of success, especially if you also meet the other qualifications in the job description. If you’re not sure how to incorporate the keywords you need, and don’t want to register for Preptel yourself, The Essay Expert will be glad to work with you and give you a free report on how your resume is stacking up.

If you’re a do-it-yourself-er, sign up for Preptel’s Free Trial and get a reduced subscription price of $19.99/month. I can’t think of a better investment to make in your job search.

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!

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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