Are you LinkedIn for your Job Search?

Written by: Sandi Vidal, BBA '88, Executive Director of Christian HELP

 

 Social Media has become a major player for recruiters to find future employees and for them to research potential candidates.  Having a presence on social media can have its ups and downs.  If you are a crazy party animal and you have a ton of pictures on Instagram that you wouldn’t want your parents to see… you might be taking a risk when it comes to what you put out in the cyberworld.

LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site out there with over 200 million members in 200 countries. It is a trusted source for branding, networking, and research. If you are job seeking, it gives you the opportunity to get your profile out there, connect with people you know, network with those you don’t, share common interests, and share wisdom through relevant articles and comments. It is also the one place where you don’t have to worry about visibly placing your resume when you have a job!

So, how do you get started? 

·         Go to Linkedin.com

·         Set up a profile page- complete it with the care you would give a resume

·         Add a professional picture (I stay away from using my favorite Mr. Potato Head shot that I use on Facebook)

·         If you have a website to list, hit other and it will allow you to name it rather than using the generic

·         Upload your address book

·         Search people you know and invite them to connect

·         Get recommendations (I have seen these work as references!)

·         Look for groups to join (Like the Toppel Career Center )

·         Search for jobs

·         Be a Contributor by posting articles and commenting on postings

 

Having a great LinkedIn profile will give you a chance to connect with and meet people you may not have access to in real life.  Also, you can see how you are connected to people who know people at companies you are interested in.  When I added my company to LinkedIn, I found people who were connected to us rather than having to add them. The great thing for you is that you will be able to find them too.

This is just one of many tools in your search, but it is a powerful one to use, even after you start your career.

Sandi Vidal, BBA ’88, is a graduate of the University of Miami. She currently runs Christian HELP and the Central Florida EmploymentCouncil in Orlando, Florida. She is a subject matter on employment with a bi-weekly column in the Seminole Voice and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. Sandi is married with 3 children and 3 cats.

Don't change your career- change your settings!

By: Bree Blair

Do you have a Facebook and/or Twitter account?

Do you want a job or want to keep your job?

If you answered yes to both of these questions, then this blog is for you! Many people underestimate how much of an impact social networks have on your career. Professionalism takes place in and out of the office, including your appearance on social sites. Companies and organizations want people representing their office well. Of course you can still have fun, live your life, and share it with your friends, but representing yourself well is just as important.

The first thing you should always do is make sure your profile and information are completely private. For Facebook, this makes sure that no one except for your friends can see your wall posts, pictures, or even pages you liked if you make it secure enough. You can even hide your page from specific people or groups, so if you're really worried about someone finding your page, there's always an extra route to take. This is really important to do; you don't want an employer getting the wrong impression of you just because of something or someone you are friends with on Facebook. Unless you are close friends with coworkers, it's suggested to keep that information private. Keeping your social life private from your professional life is usually the safer way out and not worth the risk, with exceptions of course. Plus, I don't think you want your employer seeing some old tagged photo of you from spring break in college that you didn't even know was on there (embarrassing). If for some reason you just really don't want to make your profile private, just remember to never post anything about work or your coworkers!

If you have a Twitter account, definitely consider making your tweets private. There would be nothing worse than having your employer see your ranting tweets about all your pet peeves or how much you can't wait to quit your job. Even if your profiles and tweets are private, always avoid ever mentioning anything about work. You could be as careful as possible, and at some point, word can get back to your employer who knows someone who knows someone who follows your social site, and then a situation comes up that you really don't want to be in. Keeping business and social life separate is an easy way to stay in the clear from looking bad at the workplace. If you just thrive off of people re-tweeting you, then be careful with what you say. You don't want to give off the wrong impression to your employer or coworkers. You don't have to change your whole life just because you have a career; you just might want to change your privacy settings!

3 Things Worse Than Searching for Jobs Online

Written by Thien Van Tran

Nobody wants to apply for jobs online, and understandably so. It's a daunting task. Not only do you have to explore a vast wilderness without so much as a starting point or a map, you have to constantly fight off would-be foes who try to deter your from your path. Like Facebook or Tumblr. And in many cases, you never hear back. Or it takes forever to get a reply. But honestly, it's not that bad. You just need to decide what types of jobs you want to find. This time around, I'll be focusing on USAJOBS, which houses almost all of the hiring opportunities available in the United States government.

If you want a federal job, www.usajobs.gov is the place to go. There are other job boards, but they usually just redirect you to the agency website, where you will need to create an account, upload resumes, documents, etc. before you can apply. This is different. USAJOBS lets you upload documents, almost like your HireACane account, that you can reuse for each additional job you decide to apply for. Almost all USAJOBS postings, with the exception of a few agencies such as NASA, allow you to reuse documents, which drastically shortens the time it takes to complete an application.

Remember what I said about not hearing back from jobs that you've applied to through the internet? Well USAJOBS has a function that mitigates that. You can check the status of your job application, so that you'll know if you're ineligible, qualified, or selected for the next level of the hiring process, so that you won't have to blindly wait for a response that may never come. They'll let you know if you've been rejected almost immediately after the posting date ends, so if you don't hear back, it may be a good thing. It's beneficial to not get attention once in a while.

Another aspect that makes this federal job board so simple to use is its standardized formatting. Every posting is arranged in almost the exact same way. There is a simple description of the agency, followed by duties, then minimum requirements, then required documents, and so on. The job search takes on a much more familiar feel, so that you can quickly find the information you want rather than reading the entire page.

Starting to not look so bad eh? Well to cement this idea, I've compiled an extremely exhaustive list of 3 things worse than searching for jobs online.

3. GOING TO THE DENTIST

I've had bad experiences with dentists. Here's what happens to every patient who has ever gone to get his/her teeth cleaned. Immediately after forcing your mouth open he/she will try to stuff as many instruments as possible at the same time into it. Then he'll ask you some questions to try and make small talk. You reply to each question with, "Errhmfggsjhdf." You know, because your mouth is forced open and stuffed with more metal than Ozzy Osbourne's iTunes. Then he will turn on some tools and immediately slice and dice your mouth. Once there's enough blood to satisfy his twisted Edward Cullen-like needs, he'll make a comment like, "Oh there's a bit of blood. Try to floss more often." Jerks.

2. DRIVING IN MIAMI

If you cannot finish Rainbow Road in Mario Kart, you should not be able to get your license. There are two main reasons why driving in Miami is so infuriating, and both of them are because the drivers here are terrible. But it's not just the drivers from Miami. Everyone who drives here just becomes awful, including myself. When I went back home to Virginia for Christmas Break, it was like returning home from a war zone. I didn't have to worry about running red lights just to fit in, or constantly look over my shoulder to make sure a helmet-less motorcyclist wasn't trying to blend in with the road. Trying to get to work on time? Sorry, the Tour de France is held every morning in Miami, and every biker thinks he's Lance Armstrong and can keep up with cars in the middle of the highway.

1. SPIDERS

Other than existing in general, there are a few things that, for some reason, make us absolutely hate spiders. But just in case you don't already hate them with the burning passion of a twelve-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert, I'll enlighten you. For example, did you know that the microscopic hairs on certain arachnids' legs are so tiny that they exert tremendous forces on their prey? The only way for these poor creatures to escape is to tear their own limbs off. Some of these may be insects you don't want anyway, such as moths (AKA ugly butterflies). To be fair, they are just trying to survive. But also to be fair, they are still spiders.