Linkedin - How to use it for job-hunting.

Raskolnikov

Linkedin is great. A friend of mine put a profile up on a Monday and accepted a job offer by Thursday.

linkedin is Awesome. I get approached every couple of weeks for new job opportunities.

ABajaninCork

I must admit. I joined LinkedIn last year after hearing about it at a seminar, but never did much with my profile until I read this post yesterday. But the OP's right. It is very much a Facebook for careers, and I never looked at it this way before.

But I got cracking and found loads of people I know on it, and have sent invitations with a little note. It's proved useful as it seems a lot of ex-colleagues didn't even know I'd moved!! I've already got a dozen contacts.

But all (except for one) are people I knew back home in London...Dunno how useful this will be, but if anyone's got any similar sort of experience in using this, let me know. Would love to know if this has been successful in finding work in Ireland...

belongtojazz

ABajaninCork wrote: »

I must admit. I joined LinkedIn last year after hearing about it at a seminar, but never did much with my profile until I read this post yesterday. But the OP's right. It is very much a Facebook for careers, and I never looked at it this way before.

But I got cracking and found loads of people I know on it, and have sent invitations with a little note. It's proved useful as it seems a lot of ex-colleagues didn't even know I'd moved!! I've already got a dozen contacts.

But all (except for one) are people I knew back home in London...Dunno how useful this will be, but if anyone's got any similar sort of experience in using this, let me know. Would love to know if this has been successful in finding work in Ireland...

I was wondering about the new country aspect also. I have a linkedin profile (not a particularly brillaint one, but I will work on that) but all of my contacts would be back in the UK as that is where I spent the majority of my career.

I'm going to have a search through my contacts and see if any of them are connected to people in a similar field here.

Great post OP. Thanks

RATM

As a recruiter LinkedIn is gold to me. Its excellent for finding passive candidates.

Another rising star is Worky.com which is more of a mash between Facebook and LinkedIn- again this is useful- if you have a profile up there I can see you and reach out.

Hiring 3 x graduate web designers and 3 x graduate online marketeers for a new website that is going to compete with iTunes btw. Get in touch if this is you.

none

A few more tips on LinkedIn usage.

Looking for jobs:

1) On the Jobs tab in your main menu (http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?displayHome=&trk=hb_tab_findjobs). If you like some job, you can either apply formally or ask the poster (if this info available) about it informally.

2) On the Jobs tab in your Group. For example, for Java jobs, Java EE Professionals (http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestions=&gid=52795&forumID=5) and Java Developers (http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestions=&gid=70526&forumID=5) are very handy. Again, ask privately the poster if you like something.

Checking companies/eployees profiles.

3) On the Companies tab (http://www.linkedin.com/companies?trk=hb_tab_compy), add the ones you want to follow. Thsi will allow you to track job posts as well as people leaving and joining the company.

4) On the Search screen (http://www.linkedin.com/search?trk=advsrch), enter company name to see who ever worked for it.

Checking who checked your profile.

5) Examine "Who's Viewed Your Profile?" page (http://www.linkedin.com/wvmp?showMore=&trk=nmp_profile_stats_viewed_by). Recently, LinkedIn changed a lot and one of the things is that now profile stats are only available when you also make your profile public. So if you want to check some personal profiles (Item 4 above) anonymously, first change your visibility to private, then do your studies, and then change it back to public to records visits to your profile again.

I think that's pretty much it. All more or less useful stuff about LinkedIn for me.

There are other similar sites, e.g., xing or naymz, but they're inferior. Xing is actually more popular in German-speaking countries (because it's German!) but lags behind in most other markets.

finisklin

Anyone subscribe to linkedin using the business premium upgrades. It works out at €25, €50 & €100 per month.

Whats the benefit to job seekers, career development?

ABajaninCork

Mods - Any chance of this being made into a sticky?

Lots of good information on here, and it'd be a shame to see the thread submerged as time goes on.

TIA

jonny_b1

Ive been waiting for weeks to get introduced to others on LinkedIn,especially via recruiters. Whats the norm on getting introduced? Each request has been personalised for each person and why I want to get in contact with them.My 5 introduction request are used up now...

Dempo1

jonny_b1 wrote: »

Ive been waiting for weeks to get introduced to others on LinkedIn,especially via recruiters. Whats the norm on getting introduced? Each request has been personalised for each person and why I want to get in contact with them.My 5 introduction request are used up now...

Good luck with trying to get connected with recruiters, i've had the same issue albeit waiting over a year now. Seems to me this LinkedIn is more about who you know and not what you know. A complete waste of time unless you want to recieve mundane updates from contacts you connected too or updates on whom they have connect to, complete load of bollox, along with worky which is just bizzare!

none

Dempo1 wrote: »

Good luck with trying to get connected with recruiters, i've had the same issue albeit waiting over a year now. Seems to me this LinkedIn is more about who you know and not what you know. A complete waste of time unless you want to recieve mundane updates from contacts you connected too or updates on whom they have connect to, complete load of bollox, along with worky which is just bizzare!

That's very true. But I don't think it's waste of time. Some companies advertise here before or instead of Monster and other conventional job sites.

Don't rely on any heavy weaponry like InMails or Introductions. I'm yet to figure out what's their use unless your a corporate recruiter with a lot of money and little enthusiasm.

Use simple messages if they're available. If they're not, just try adding the other person to your network and in the connection request write your message (just be concise as its size is very limited).

You'll get more and more views and requests to connect once you become more interesting. I'd say it normally takes a year and/or 100 connections to get noticed. I mean, either you keep annoying every one for a long period of time even without accumulating many real connections or quickly get a big and funky bunch of prominent fellows - either way you will become noticed and, perhaps, interesting.

Put your detailed cv in your profile, create a neat LinkedIn URL with your name (http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname) and add it to your signature in all recruitment-related emails. It's really all about promoting yourself.

Jumpy

I have been headhunted via LinkedIn. Its still majorly in the technical area at present.
For instance, I doubt sales and marketing companies would chase this way as they take a little longer to adopt the techincal methods, especially if those methods are still relatively new.
But for IT people you may find you are approached directly by companies as opposed to recruiters.

Note: Its a recruiters job to try and keep you apart from their major company contacts unless they are selling you to them. Do not expect them to connect you to them.

Sleepy

I've gotten two jobs from it and been approached for others.

It's also the first place our company advertises new positions.