In today's job market, you need an edge.

Social Networking for Job Hunters

In today's job market, you need an edge. For most jobs, you can forget about reading the employment ads in the newspaper. The edge you need is social networking, the online interaction you get from professional networking sites. Believe in the old adage, "It's not what you know, but who you know."

Why Networking Works

Employment experts believe that 60–75% of all job openings are never advertised; that's why we network.

Why aren't all of the jobs posted? For one reason, because the hiring company saves money by not posting ads or hiring recruiters. Posting job ads is expensive, and recruiters can charge up to 30% of the first year's salary of the new hire. Often, companies don't want to pay those fees. Instead, they feel that a deep talent pool will find them if they just post the job on the company website, or that they can handpick candidates to interview by using job boards.

A better method for bringing in a new employee is from an employee referral via networking. The benefit to the company is finding someone who is already trusted by one of the company's own trusted employees. In addition, posted jobs may receive hundreds of résumés, many from people who don't meet the job requirements. That situation overwhelms the human resources department. So networking helps you to find out about the jobs that aren't listed, in order to reduce the competition! Makes sense, doesn't it?

Why does networking work? Because people want to help—it's human nature. When asked for help by a friend in need, we generally do whatever we can to assist. When I began searching for a new job, I put the word out to my family and friends. I was overwhelmed by the responses I received. I didn't know that so many other people knew one of my friends. It enabled me to stretch my network larger to encompass more people who were looking out for me. It was a humbling experience.

Here's an important fact about networking—you're not asking for a job. Your task in networking is only to ask for information that may lead to a job. Chances are that the person you're asking isn't an employer who has a job for you, but he or she knows someone else who does have a job opening. Your next employer might be someone already working at that company, who is a friend of a friend of a friend. If I know Brad, and Brad knows Ray, and Ray works for Boeing, then I have someone I can trust to give me an inside perspective on what it might be like to work for Boeing. Ray may also be someone to help pass along my résumé to human resources and the hiring manager, which improves the odds that my résumé will be reviewed for a possible match to a job opening.

Enter Social Networking

We're living in the age of computers, so why not use technology to help with the job search? The following sections list some useful social networking sites and describe their features.

What not to post? Pictures of yourself drinking, scantily clad, brandishing weapons—basically, anything that's unflattering to you shouldn't be anywhere that a potential employer could see it. People have lost jobs and even degrees misusing these social sites. Exercise good judgment. If you already have content on any social networking site, make sure that it's cleaned up before you start your job search. Most employers these days use Google to do an informal background check before considering a candidate. Don't let them find anything that could eliminate you from consideration.

Twitter

Twitter answers the question, "What are you doing now?" in a short text-messaging format. You can post items—called tweets—about whatever interests you. You can also follow people. For example, I follow some of my recruiters. After all, I'm still looking for my next career. (Shameless plug: If you're an employer looking for a senior IT leader, post a comment and I'll follow up.)

Facebook

Facebook is great for reconnecting with friends, finding common interests, sharing photos, etc. Some people use Facebook for job searching, too.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is designed for professional networking, which makes it my preference for use as a job-hunting site. I can't say enough good things about LinkedIn. It's the first place online that I go to bolster my social networking activities.

The following list describes how you can use several features of LinkedIn for your job search:

• Profile. Use your LinkedIn profile as your online résumé, with optional photo. (Employers want to know how you look, so make it a nice shot—in a business suit or dress, if you have one.)
• Within your profile, create a summary of what interests you. You should also list your specialties, the duties from your current or most recent job (at a minimum), and your education.
• Additional Information. Beef up your profile by linking to appropriate websites and listing your hobbies, interests, honors and awards, certifications, and so on. You can also add applications that enable you to enrich your profile, share and collaborate with your network, and get key insights that help you to be more effective. You can even add personal information such as your phone number(s), address, IM handle, birthdate, and marital status. However, as a privacy advocate, I advise against adding personal information beyond what you'd list in your résumé.
• Connections. This is essentially your contacts—people you know who have agreed to establish a relationship with you. I had a good list of connections in LinkedIn already, but in a short period of time I more than doubled my contacts, each of which is a potential link to a new job. The power of networking is amazing! Once you have connections, you can see their profiles, learn more about them, see their connections, and so on. You can only see the connections of someone if you're connected to him or her. For anyone deeper than one connection away, you either need to send an invitation, or be introduced by one of your connections.
• Introductions. This feature lets you meet someone through someone you know. If you want to meet Dan, you can ask him directly to be a connection of yours. However, since Dan doesn't know you, he very likely will decline. A better method is to be introduced via LinkedIn. If one of your connections (let's call him Bob) already knows Dan, you can get introduced by submitting a form that goes to Bob, who can approve the form to send Dan an endorsement for you. If Dan trusts Bob, then Dan will probably trust you, and then you're all connected.
• Inbox. Several of my friends have sent me leads via LinkedIn's Inbox feature. When someone sends you a message, it appears in your LinkedIn Inbox, as well as the email account that you've registered for LinkedIn. You can respond within LinkedIn or from your personal/business email account.
• Recommendations. I have more than a half-dozen of these "ready to go" references on my LinkedIn profile. Potential employers can read references about me before even having to make any calls. Those are solid endorsements! The hiring team can check out my references to ensure that they have a good potential "fit" before even conducting the interview. It saves their time and mine. It might mean fewer interviews, but when you do interview with someone who has already checked out your references, you have a much better chance of making serious progress through the hiring process.
• Groups and Associations. Use these online communities within LinkedIn to interact with peers from various fronts—school, fraternity, business topics, technology committees, etc. By visiting your profile, someone can see that you belong to these groups, but the best use of these groups is signing up for weekly email messages to get more information about the topics being discussed in the groups. You can also post your own questions to get feedback.
• Email Updates. In your LinkedIn profile, you can post a message about what you're working on now, updating it periodically to keep your connections informed. For example, I posted that I had passed the PMP certification. Periodically (approximately weekly), LinkedIn sends everyone in your network an email message about updates that your connections have made to their profiles. The message might say, "Andy Roddick has added a new photo," or "Pete Sampras is now connected to Boris Becker." In my case, it said, "Greg just passed his PMP (Project Management Professional) certification." Within an hour, I received a message from one of my connections indicating that his company was hiring new project managers, and would I be interested in interviewing for one of the positions? Of course I would! That's the power of networking being demonstrated again.
• Blogs. There are many blog spots online where you can talk about what you know, leading to prospective jobs

Old-Fashioned Networking

A topic on networking during a job search wouldn't be complete without discussing traditional networking techniques:

• Family, friends, neighbors. Some of my best leads have come from my scout families. I lead a group of Cub Scouts, and each of the parents of my boys have sent me at least one lead. One terrific mom, named Karen, sent me a dozen! One neighbor got me an informational interview with his firm (more on that in a moment).
• Vendors. Companies from which you've purchased products or services are likely to talk to people like you at other companies. Ask them to listen for opportunities and think of you when they hear something. Since they talk to your peers, they're very likely to find out when a company has a vacancy. Keep in touch with them periodically.
• Recruiters. They definitely know about unlisted jobs. Remember that employers pay the recruiting fee; there's no cost to you. Use them!
• Informational interviews. In this kind of interview, you're finding out about the company and who your contact there might know, even if they aren't hiring.

I've done this kind of interview a couple of times, and it works beautifully! It's a no-pressure interview; because your interviewers aren't sizing you up for a job, they're likely to be open and candid about how they see the job market in their field. You can ask detailed information about their company, the traits they look for in the people they hire, and so on. The intention of this meeting is to ask them if there is anyone the interviewer knows whom you should meet. Ask if you can use the interviewer's name when contacting the person. Hopefully, interviewers will either give you some contacts or forward your résumé with their endorsement. If you've impressed them along the way, they're also going to think of you when they need their next employee. Isn't that a nice side benefit?

• Activities to initiate networking. Lunch, dinner, formal or informal meeting, church group, social clubs, alumni, golf match—I've done all of these kinds of activities, and they help to expand your network to reach more people who can help you in your search.

Networking for Your Future

The rules for job hunting have certainly changed over past years. No longer can you mail a résumé in response to a want ad and hope to be 1 of 10 applicants with a decent chance of getting interviewed. In today's economic climate, hiring managers aren't posting all open jobs, and the ones that do get posted have hundreds of applicants. Use social networking in addition to traditional networking methods to discover unlisted jobs. Use job boards, but also search the private websites of companies that you're interested in targeting.

Use the phone and email to stay in touch with your networking contacts. Follow up on every lead and say "Thank you" often. Try to do as much for the people who help you as they're doing for you. Networking needs to be mutually beneficial. Once you find a new job, don't forget about your network friends. You might be helping them to find a new job next time. Keep your résumé up to date, and watch for new opportunities.

Set goals for networking with a specific number of people per day/week. Try to have at least two meaningful conversations each day. Don't just sit behind the computer and search the want ads. Get out there and make it happen!

Reprinted from www.informit.com.