How To Use LinkedIn for Job Hunting

Image via CrunchBaseOne of myLinkedIn contacts has developed a training course on using LinkedIn to find a job. The course is aimed at executives who have been hurt by the recent spate of layoffs all across North America.

Zale wrote the following article for his blog Success Through Balance. I am happy to share it with you here.

How To Use LinkedIn For Job Hunting by Zale Tabackman

Recruiting firms have more candidates than jobs and established recruiters have long lists of people in their database. For recruiters the goal is to find the “Ideal candidate”. If you are looking for a job you need to be an found by the recruiter and be seen as an “Ideal Candidate”.
The process to be seen as an “Ideal Candidate” is the same steps followed by great marketing people to make a sale. Unfortunately many executives looking for a new position do not have the necessary marketing or sales experiences needed to market themselves.
Ideal candidates are the best asset a recruiter has. To find a job - you must be seen as an “Ideal Candidate”.

In fact job hunting can be viewed as a sales and marketing effort trying to make a single sale.

When viewed this way, the process becomes a straight forward problem involving several stages:

• Creating a advertising campaign that creates desire for you.
• Managing the media that you are advertising in - for job hunting, the media is LinkedIn
• Finding the customer which is an in-house recruiter or an independent recruiter who makes the referral to the company
• And finally performing the interview and negotiating your new job contract.

LinkedIn has become the main source used by recruiters to find job candidates. Recruiter see LinkedIn as a treasure of potential candidates. In fact - many job recruiting efforts start and end with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn levels the playing field for you when you are looking for a job. It makes you available to every recruiter on the planet. You have the same opportunity as everyone else, if you can make your LinkedIn profile the one found first.

On the other hand LinkedIn has increased the challenge for you, because you are now competing with everyone else on LinkedIn.

To be seen among the crowd you need to harness all the power that LinkedIn can provide you.
You need to create a LinkedIn marketing program that will move you to the top of every search made of a company.

While LinkedIn makes your resume available to every recruiter on the planet, every other job hunter is also available to those recruiters.

The 25 million people on LinkedIn means that for a recruiter there are many opportunities to find the “Ideal Candidate”.It’s getting harder and harder to find the “Ideal Candidate” from the thousands of results provided by LinkedIn.

To be found on LinkedIn, you need to learn to accomplish two things on LinkedIn:

• Create a profile that comes up when a recruiter is searching.
• Create a profile that when read, creates the desire for the recruiter to contact you.

LinkedIn can put you in front of every job opportunity that you are qualified for. But you need to learn how to accomplish a few more things on LinkedIn:

• Learn to actively search search out people
• Learn how to sell yourself in writing

I would like to help you by putting my LinkedIn and my marketing expertise to work.
You have two choices, you can read all the different posts on my website and figure it out by yourself, or you can come to a one day session where I will teach you what you need to know.

You can sign up at http://LinkedinForJobHuntersBy.ZaleTabakman.ca

My one day session applies all the marketing techniques I know to the problem of finding a job using LinkedIn.

• By the end of the day, you will have all the knowledge you need to use LinkedIn to find you the job that is perfect for you
• The training is a solid 9:30 to 4:00 with a 1/2 lunch break.
• The training includes a workbook for you to take notes in, so that you can apply what you have learned after the session

We will have a live Internet access, so bring along your computer so you can immediately change your profile as you learn.

Several tasks can be started during the training sessions, others require more time. As part of the training session we will provide you a number of specific tasks to be done.

The training schedule includes:

Morning

Marketing Yourself With LinkedIn 9:30- 10:00

This session explains the mechanics of LinkedIn and how they work together to help you find a job. At the end of this session, you will understand what your priorities need to be on LinkedIn and why you should never ever think of LinkedIn as an online resume.

How The Recruiter Uses LinkedIn To Find You. 10:00-11:00

This session provides a detailed look at the Profile, Questions & Answers, Groups. and Refined Search. At the end of this session, you will understand how the recruiter will find you and what you will need to do to be found.

Creating A Profile So You Will Be Found And Called 11:00 - 12:30

A field by field explanation of the impact on somebody trying to finding you and learn about you. At the end of this session you will understand everything you should put into your profile. For participants who bring their laptop, information can be entered as you go along. This is a highly interactive session.

Lunch 12:30 - 1:00
Students are encouraged to take a break and leave the building for fresh air.

Afternoon
How To Write For LinkedIn 1:00 - 2:00

LinkedIn revolves around the written word. It includes your profile, LinkedIn Answers, e-mails to people, requests for introduction. To be effective with LinkedIn, it is necessary for you to learn how to write effectively. In this session you will learn a direct marketing “Sales Letter” formula that is easy to follow and will generate the leads you need.

Using LinkedIn Answers To Create Credibility 2:00 - 3:00

During this session we will show you how to use the “Sales Letter” formula in LinkedIn Answers to demonstrate credibility.

How to grow your LinkedIn network 3:00 - 4:00

All the registrant in the session will have received an electronic list of recruiters and instructions on how to send invitations to them. In this session, we will show you a number of ways to grow your network. As a bonus for those interested - they can learn how to rapidly create a blog that can be used as an extension of your resume.

You can sign up at http://LinkedinForJobHuntersBy.ZaleTabakman.ca
Click here to read Book Review: What Color Is Your Parachute
Click here to read A Career choice Question
Click here to read Using LinkedIn To Find A Job
An Immediate bonus for joining the class
You will receive a list of recruiters who will immediately accept your LinkedIn invitations. The list of recruiters can be uploaded automatically into LinkedIn and sent. These recruiters have all agreed to accept invitations from members of my classes.

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