Executive LinkedIn profiles can help your job search.
There are a few classic elements of job searching that will always remain: resumes, cover letters and making a good first impression on the people in charge of hiring. It is the approach to many job hunting principles that has changed, all thanks to today’s technology, which has made it far easier to communicate than it was in the past. In order to succeed in today’s job market, you’ll have to know how to navigate it.
You Have to Know How to Type
The common QWERTY keyboard is a staple in today’s world, so much so you will be expected to know how to use it. No longer is the ability to type efficiently highly coveted! Instead, other skills are much more important to today’s jobs. It will be on you to figure out which skills you have that are most relevant to the job you want,and how you can tailor them to appeal to different employers. Consulting with executive resume writing services is one way to learn the ropes.
Google Is Important!
Google is a far more powerful tool now than it was a decade ago, evidenced by its position within the workplace. You will have to stay on top of your online presence and make sure its squeaky clean in order to get ahead. Quite a few employers run searches on individuals they’re considering hiring or even to find the right people to hire in the first place! Since the first page of a Google search is the one people pay the most attention to, focus your efforts on doing some spring cleaning there. This tip is especially relevant to senior-level executives with established brands.
Establish or Edit Your Brand
If you don’t have a brand already, it’s important you set one up for yourself. Your online presence is a major part of your brand because all a brand does is display who you are to employers and to the world. Make sure your brand is stable and easy to interpret. This is easiest to do by simply monitoring how you interact online. Setting up executive LinkedIn profiles is a great way to start customizing your brand for employers.
Be Brief!
Remember: employers don’t have a lot of time to spend on your application! The most they will be able to devote to your resume is about half a minute, or 30 seconds. Your resume should only summarize your employment history and experiences as efficiently as possible. As the old adage goes, less is more! Any number of top rated resume writing services can help you figure out how to pare your resume down into something that will appeal to employers.
How and Why Your LinkedIn Profile and Resume Aren’t the Same Thing
An executive LinkedIn profile can help you stand out.
When you are looking for employment, there are many tools at your disposal. Some of them are online, and a few of them are off. One of the most powerful online platforms for professionals is LinkedIn. This social platform is different from many other online networks because it caters to the professional. For anyone looking for a job in today’s competitive market, having an executive LinkedIn profile is a must. However, your executive profile on LinkedIn is meant to be much more than a place to post your resume. There are some distinct differences between the two.
Intended Audience
Your resume and your executive LinkedIn profile are written with totally different audiences in mind. Resumes are written with the intent of distributing them to hiring agents or recruiters. They are geared toward trying to obtain a specific position or take advantage of a specific opening or opportunity. Your LinkedIn profile development, on the other hand, is for the purpose of letting everyone in your industry become familiar with your professional work. Instead of being written for a single recruiter like a resume, your LinkedIn profile is written for anyone in your industry to read, from colleagues to supervisors to potential clients.
Search Engine Optimization
When you are writing a professional resume, you have to be succinct and remember space is limited. For most purposes, resumes need to be kept to a page or two max. When you are working on your LinkedIn profile development,there are character limits you should keep in mind. Because you don’t have an unlimited amount of space in your professional LinkedIn profile, you need to both stick to your highlights and try to incorporate as many keywords as possible. This will allow companies to pull you up in a search and see the most important details of your work history and skills.
Use Different Tones
A resume is straightforward when it comes to the tone. It is impersonal and you need to refrain from using “I.” However, in your LinkedIn executive profile, you can use first-person expressions. And you should! It’s important to share your personality and personal story with the audience. Your online profile lets others in your industry become acquainted with who you are as a person, not just a resume trying to get a specific position. Resumes are effective and have their purpose, but your LinkedIn profile needs to be more engaging and personal, while remaining professional.
In conclusion, your resume and LinkedIn profile are essential tools for making contacts within your industry. However, there are some distinct differences between the two. If all you do is post your resume on your LinkedIn profile, you will risk losing your audience altogether. Keeping in mind the intended audiences, tone and purpose will help you get the most out of both mediums and get your name out in the industry.
Make Your Resume Pop With Some Inspiration from These Stellar Ideas
A professional resume writing service can help you stand out
A lot of resume advice articles you’ve seen have likely told you to keep the fluff to a minimum. In most cases, this is true. Recruiters generally only have a short amount of time to read your resume, meaning you’ll have to make it count by marketing yourself and your experiences in an easily consumable way. However, there’s no reason to dress your resume up, especially if you’re part of an industry where creativity is a highly valued skill. In fact, creating an original design for your resume may be an excellent C-level personal branding tactic, depending upon your execution. We’ve gathered some ideas for your consideration.
Lead Recruiters Your Way With a Map
Whether it’s in the style of classic and long forgotten cartography or in the image of today’s Maps app, you can consider making your resume resemble a map that leads employers straight to you, with all of your experiences and other relevant information to guide them and a handy directional key. You can even tuck your contact info at the bottom to steer them toward how to get in touch with you.
Model Your Resume After Your Social Media Platform of Choice
This takes some clever graphic design skills on your part, but it’s a creative way of introducing yourself to a potential employer. You can do this with any type of platform that gives you a personalized space, whether it’s through a profile page or a blog, or with any site that’s well-recognized and widely used. We recommend not picking LinkedIn for this choice because it’s already formatted for job hunters. You’ll want to create your own unique take on a site not typically used for career networking.
Create Your Resume Out of a Unique Material
This can be an especially clever idea depending on the industry you’re in, such as textiles, fashion or something similar. While it may take some extra work, you can craft your resume from fabric, handmade paper or some other material besides plain, white Xerox paper. Just make sure the end result is readable and, if need be, easy to reproduce. You don’t want to make creating hundreds of copies of a plexiglass resume your new career!
Give Yourself Ratings
You can easily style this sort of resume fairly normally but with some more subtle creative embellishments here and there, up until you get to the final section describing your skills. For this section, utilize a ratings system for an easily readable way of determining your level of skill in any areas you wish. While this won’t necessarily give employers the most detailed idea of your skills, it’s certainly an eye catcher!
While there’s nothing wrong with the tried and true method of bullet points and short sentences in black, 12 point font, it never hurts to think outside of the box! For further tips, you can always consult a professional resume writing service. A top resume writing service will be able to fine tune your resume, regardless of the format.
Consider Some of These Important Elements While Writing Your Resume
Writing a professional resume requires certain elements.
There are many common mistakes job seekers make throughout their searching process, especially where resumes are concerned. One of the most common is using the exact same resume for every position you apply for. Despite popular belief, your tactics for a job hunt cannot be one size fits all. Depending on the industry you’re in and the types of positions you’re seeking, you may have to adapt your resume to fit. This may mean having several copies for different purposes. Furthermore, there are many key elements to include while you’re writing a professional resume. Read on to find out just what they are.
Formatting Your Resume
The majority of the time, your resume is the first interaction a recruiter will have with you. You have to make it count. Poor formatting is one of the quickest ways to make your resume less effective. Unfortunately, it is also one of the easiest elements to forget about when you’re writing a professional resume. We recommend keeping these tips in mind:
Keep your resume brief. We recommend no more than three pages maximum for senior level employees. It isn’t necessary to detail all of your experiences throughout your career. Just the most relevant information will do.
Always save your resume as a PDF file. Everyone can view PDF files. There are few formatting differences between PDF reading programs, meaning your resume will stay uniform, no matter what computer has opened it. The same cannot be said for Microsoft Word files, where a number of factors can affect the appearance of your resume.
Use the right email address. It’s always best to use your professional email address, but one that is maintained by you and you alone. Listing a company email address can create poor implications.
Additionally, certain pieces of information must be covered with respect to your previous positions. Be sure to include the name of the company or organization you’ve worked for, an explanation of what they do, the name of your position, the dates of when you started and ended working with the company, your specific responsibilities, any achievements and personal contributions you made and your professional reputation among your coworkers, supervisors and others.
Showcasing Your Best Attributes
Presenting what you can bring to a company is just as important to your resume as including prior experiences within your field. It’s an excellent way of introducing yourself in a positive manner. However, there’s also an art to personal branding for senior level managers.
Be sure to research the companies you’re applying to prior to composing your resume. Adapt your industry knowledge and your past contributions in a way that shows you can match what your prospective employer is looking for. You should always try to make your resume as pertinent to the position as possible.
If you need further advice, reach out to one of the many executive resume writing services available. They can make sure you’re including all the information you need and none of what you don’t!
Use These Five Important Tips for your Job Search on LinkedIn
Optimize your LinkedIn profile to ensure you get the best results.
There are a plethora of jobs to be found on LinkedIn. Once you have an optimized LinkedIn profile, you can start using the platform to find employment opportunities; however, how to optimize your LinkedIn profile is a whole different article. Most job seekers just check the Job Board on LinkedIn. After browsing the board, they spam some resumes and call it a day.
This method rarely works. LinkedIn is a social media site created with business networking in mind. There’s no networking in spamming resumes to job postings. Luckily, there are a number of different ways to find work using the platform with the help of your Linkedin profile writing service. Here are a few ideas for finding more great job opportunities on LinkedIn.
1. The Job Board
Of course, you’ll find the vast majority of openings on the LinkedIn main Job Board. You can create a profile based on exactly what kind of job you’re looking for through a number of factors. You can also use advanced search features to narrow down to a certain set of strict parameters, for example: within 10 miles of your home address. Pro-Tip: Don’t search for titles. Similar roles will have varying names throughout different companies.
2. Group Jobs Tab
Joining Groups on LinkedIn is an excellent networking tool. You can connect with others in the industry and post useful information to show your expertise. The Jobs menu within each group allows discussion of jobs in the industry and posting of open positions relating to the group.
Use this to your advantage. These job postings get significantly less traffic than posts on the main board. The openings in each group will also be targeted to a focused pool of candidates. Join up to 50 groups on the platform and start your search in the shadows.
3. Company Pages
Before searching through company pages on LinkedIn – it’s important to note the pages are used for branding purposes. Every company uses this space to put their best foot forward and make their organization seem like the best place in the world to work. That doesn’t mean you won’t find great jobs posted on a company’s page. It means you should take what a company writes about their corporate environment with a grain of salt. You’ll find job postings on these pages or a link to the business’s job portal.
4. Update Feed
The LinkedIn homepage features an update area. Here you’ll find postings of anything the Pulse feature thinks you’d find interesting. While you’ll see updates from your connections and other miscellaneous items in this feed, you’ll also see job postings from recruiters and hiring managers. These jobs will be fresh off the wire and often, urgent.
5. Don’t Apply Just Yet!
Have you thought about how to optimize your LinkedIn profile? You only get one shot to make a first impression. Also, make sure you’ve searched to see what kind of connections you have with a company you’re considering. Remember, LinkedIn is for networking.
A LinkedIn profile service can help you stand out.
LinkedIn profile development is an often overlooked aspect of the job search or career change. The most popular business social network is vastly underused and unappreciated. Most individuals in business don’t understand how to make it work for their benefit.
You may not need a LinkedIn profile writer to find value throughout the social network. Here’s how to stand out on LinkedIn.
Get Grouped
With more than two million LinkedIn Groups in existence, there’s bound to be one (or hundreds) within your industry. You can use Groups to meet others in your industry and develop your reputation as an expert in the field. The more value you add to a group, the more likely new opportunities come your way.
Reach Out
LinkedIn is not a place for the faint of heart. Business networking is no time to be shy. Put your profile out there and get in the game. While adding an acquaintance on Facebook can be construed as odd in certain circumstances, you shouldn’t carry over personal social media protocol to LinkedIn. The more people you connect to on LinkedIn, the better off you’ll be. Pro Tip: Changes in anything work related make the perfect time to reach out (for you or them).
Don’t Go Connection Crazy
While you should reach out to just about every person you know on LinkedIn, you shouldn’t be cold-calling strangers. There is no prize for having the most connections on this social media platform. The number of people in your LinkedIn network isn’t relevant. The importance of your network lies in the quality of people you’re connected to and how you’ve proven your value to them.
Focus on finding a common ground with individuals you want to connect with. If you’ve known someone in the past, there’s your commonality. If you’ve never met someone you wish to connect with, work to build a connection through a common interest or background, especially when cold connecting.
Open Viewing Season
If someone views your profile on LinkedIn, this is a warm lead to opportunities. Whether these opportunities come to fruition or fade away is up to you. A profile view can lead to hires, career advancement and more. It’s also a way to begin connecting with someone in your industry. Pro Tip: Make sure you keep your visibility settings open too so people can see when you view them and potentially reach out.
Develop Your Voice and Expertise
One of the easiest way to establish your credibility and expertise in an industry is by publishing a post on LinkedIn. The platform gives users an opportunity to comment on upcoming changes in the industry, changes in the market and more. Developing your voice can lead to enormous opportunities on the business social media site. A professional LinkedIn profile service can help you create a profile that speaks to your background and expertise.
What Not to Do With Your Executive LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn profile development is essential to your success.
Setting up a LinkedIn profile can be just as tough as putting together the right resume, especially if you aren’t particularly savvy with the Internet. You have to figure out just the right way to frame yourself, all in a format that’s slightly different from the average resume. Whether you already have a LinkedIn account or are just now setting up an account, we have some advice regarding common mistakes that keep individuals from maintaining an optimized LinkedIn profile.
Don’t Ignore the Privacy Settings
Having other employees (or your supervisor) find out you’re in the middle of a job search isn’t the best situation. In fact, it’s often more trouble than it’s worth.
Don’t Confuse LinkedIn with Facebook
LinkedIn is a wholly separate entity from Facebook and should be treated as such. Keep the information you include on your profile both accurate and current. Any photos you upload should represent you in a completely professional light. Furthermore, don’t clutter your profile with negativity and personal gripes. This will only give off a bad impression to recruiters and hurt your ability to get hired.
Don’t Be Self-Effacing
Never let yourself feel too intimidated to reach out to others, especially if they’re a hiring manager or someone else in the position to help you land a job. Doing this is actually the first step to impressing them. It also puts a more personal spin on the introductory process resumes and cover letters give.
Don’t Ask Just Anyone to Vouch for You Professionally
Only ask people to write endorsements that cater to the skills you truly possess. It does you no favors for people to write puff pieces about you. In fact, it will harm you later on when employers expect you to fulfill a need you have no real experience with. Recommendations are just as important. Ask only the people you work for or with and have a good rapport with to talk about why you should be hired.
Don’t Shut Yourself Off from Other LinkedIn Users
Consider joining groups that are relevant to your interests. By becoming part of a group that caters to your chosen industry, you can stay in touch with news and job openings much more easily, as well as make some great connections with others.
Don’t Neglect Your Profile
An idle profile is less likely to get hired than one that consistently updates and develops relationships to other LinkedIn members. Maintaining an active presence on LinkedIn is more likely to get you noticed by recruiters.
Don’t Skimp on Your Description
A well-written description is part of the ticket to ideal LinkedIn profile development. The best descriptions zero in on your skills as an employee and what you have to offer to a company if you’re hired. Try to write something brief, but attention-grabbing.
An optimized LinkedIn profile now ranks on the same level of importance as a good resume and can be vital in making sure employers know you’re available and ready to come aboard. If need be, don’t hesitate to look into hiring a LinkedIn profile service to help you get set up!
How to Makeover Your Resume for Social Media Marketing
An executive resume bio requires you to narrow down your experiences.
In the past decade, the job market has been adapting to the growing technological age we live in today. Naturally, this means the old ways of job hunting are on their way out, and those who are searching for a new career have to adapt their application methods in a way that helps them market themselves to today’s hiring managers. This is vitally important for those interested in getting into social media professionally because the entire industry thrives on snappy marketing and wit by nature. Here is some advice to help aspiring social media marketers spice up their resumes and LinkedIn profiles and land better job opportunities.
Focus on Your Skills
Practically every job in this day and age requires some sort of skill, meaning your skills are the most vital part of catching an employer’s eye and landing a job. You must market yourself in a way that presents what you can offer to a company in terms of job experience and professional skills in a way that is concise, direct and appealing.
Cut Out Any Fluff
You should only include skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. In other words, make sure your executive resume bio stays simple. Resumes are supposed to be brief and eye-catching. While you’ve probably gained many remarkable accomplishments, it’s not worth informing employers about every single one of them. Pick only the ones that matter to the field you’re hoping to enter. Some relevant skills relating to social media marketing are video production, especially for YouTube and other streaming sites, blog writing, researching for marketing purposes, the ability to advertise well on social media and a good grasp of Twitter, as well as other social media networks.
Include Any Relevant Career Experiences
Just like your skills, you should really only talk about career experiences that pertain to your aspiring field. This will give recruiters an idea of what you’ve done before and can thus bring to their company. Get to the meat of your social media skills. Cut out everything that has nothing to do with social media work and your skills in relation to the field. If you do these things, you’re guaranteed to be much closer to the type of resume employers are looking for.
When you first craft a resume or begin delving into LinkedIn profile development, it may seem all too tempting to put as much of your professional background onto your resume as possible to appeal to employers. However, this isn’t the best way to land jobs. Recruiters often have to sort through several hundred resumes at once, leaving only a few seconds for them to glance at yours. Make those seconds count. Your resume should be to-the-point and catered to your desired industry. A LinkedIn profile service can often help you achieve these goals.
