LinkedIn Tip: Increase your chances of getting that job interview
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Liz Ryan from Business Week’s “The Workplace” column has an insightful post for those who’ve wondered why sending in your resume doesn’t necessarily get you that job interview. Liz outlines six different ways you can increase those chances of landing a job interview after you’ve sent in your resume.
Start with LinkedIn to see whether one of your first-degree connections is connected to a relevant person (someone who works in the department where there’s an opening, a peer in another department, or best of all, the hiring manager) in the hiring department. If you do have a two- or three-step relationship to that inside person, ask your first-degree connection to make an introduction for you. (You can do this by clicking on the “Get Introduced Through a Connection” link on your “target” person’s profile page.)
The easiest way to get started would be on LinkedIn’s “Advanced Search” page, where you can search through specific keywords to locate the right contact at the hiring company.
Tips #2 and #3 in the post explains how important it is to do your homework about the company or industry when looking for a job. LinkedIn Company Profiles lets you browse and research companies or even industries that you’d like to work for. Clicking through a company profile shows you current or former employees from that company who you’re currently connected with and can pass your resume to the right folks within the company. For example: check out LinkedIn’s Company Profile.
As Liz summarized, finding a job interview is more a direct result of your attempts to find contacts at that company who can put in a good word for you, and less about how great your resume is.
There is an element of luck in getting an interview, but you can do more than toss a résumé into the hopper and wait for a phone call. You can work assiduously to find contacts who can put in a good word for you, make introductions for you, and fill you in on the issues that are top-of-mind for the employer you’re targeting. When you spot a job you know you’d love and would thrive at, don’t hesitate to call on your network to help make it happen. That’s what your network is there for!
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Tags: linkedin-advanced-search, linkedin-common-introductions, linkedin-company-profiles, linkedin-jobs, linkedin-search, liz-ryan, liz-ryan-businessweek
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Ed Johnson August 24th, 2009
I am currently in the job hunt for the first time in several years. After a couple of learning opportunities, I decided to seek expert council, at a cost. The LinkedIn tips you offered to improve one’s chances for getting an interview with a “decission maker” are spot on. And better yet, free! My LinkedIn connections are fast becoming the backbone of my job search. E. Johnson
Gareth James August 27th, 2009
I do agree Linkedin is great for Job hunting and I have used it for this purpose in the past.
Mario, I have a problem though with my public profile. My profile shows Google ads from my competitors. As I am freelance, anyone coming to my profile can easily click on a link to my competition. It makes no sense??!!
Potential Frequent User August 27th, 2009
Increase the chances of users logging in first time by allowing users regular, long passwords!
Lubna August 28th, 2009
Hi Mario,
Yes, LinkedIn plays a very useful role provided you are directly connected to the person in that particular organisation. Such a person knows you and can:
(i) refer you if there is an internal referral process for hiring
(ii) You can provide his reference in your resume/CV
(iii) he can speak to the HR dept or the concerned team head about you.
Second degree connections can also help, at least help in providing insights of the organisation so that you are better equipped in an interview. However, when it comes to third degree connections, things get a little unglued.
Assuming I want a job in ABC Inc. I am connected to X who is connected to Y who is connected to Z, who works in ABC Inc. Now Z will know me only through Y who doesn’t know me, thus Z or even Y may be hesitant to do anything to help me inch closer to that job.
Thus, what I find most useful is to be active on groups pertaining to your field of specialisation, so that people get to know you and your qualities. Groups are an added and useful dimension of gaining knowledge and also indirectly in finding the right job.
Best,
Lubna
Fred Clough September 4th, 2009
Doing your homework on both the company and industry is critical. If you’re failing to plan, then you’re planning to fail. It’s vital to start with a good research plan. I keep a separate folder for each industry and then again for each company. I like to put together a “Ben Franklin” on each whereby I list Favorables on the left side of the page and Unfavorables on the right. I’ve found that during your initial phone contact, people are more interested (and impressed if you’re really done your homework) with your Unfavorables as it is pretty easy to see what’s going right. Keep in mind that you need to use tact when discussing the Unfavorables. Use them as “opportunities” to match against your particular skill set and sell your ability to solve any perceived issues. I also happen to believe that by doing this work upfront, you may decide that you do not wish to pursue a particular industry or company.
Nora September 5th, 2009
It would be great if LinkedIn also had a section for Volunteer Experiences on profiles. It would increase the number of connections for a lot of people.
Dirk Frey September 8th, 2009
@Gareth – I’ve forwarded your comment on to our Advertising Product Managers for consideration in future enhancements.
Dirk Frey September 8th, 2009
@Nora- I think your volunteer experience can be just as important as a job you are getting paid to do. You can post you volunteer experiences just as you would any job. -Dirk
Adam Nadolski September 10th, 2009
Hello,
This is a great blog post about getting your name out there and yes, there is the element of luck in getting job interviews through different means. Now forgive me for deviating from this subject, as I feel that I have no other way to make my concerns about this website known other than your blog post, Mr. Sundar.
While this website is a great site and very useful for a number of things, it is not without its faults. Some technical glitches seem to hold it back. For example, I’m searching events to attend to and possibly try to gain new clients with for the company that I’m currently working at, I put in conventions as a search term. Quite a few results pop up, so as I try to narrow the search down to the location and organize it by date, it does so efficiently. However, this is only for the first page of search results. When I try to click on page 2, it automatically reverts to the bigger list of just convention searches. After several tries of getting it to work, it’s apparent that it’s a bug in the system.
While I tried to find a way to contact the company, the only way is through feedback on the bottom of the page. LinkedIn does say that I will not be getting a response back, but how am I supposed to know that the company is following through with my response? Plus there is no apparent phone number listed for me to call, only an address of the business.
This site is a wonderful tool for networking, yes, and I hope that other things will improve. How are we supposed to rely on a website for communication with other professionals if we cannot efficiently provide to LinkedIn feedback and know that we’re making an impact?
Thank you,
Adam
Dirk Frey September 15th, 2009
@Adam- The feedback links on the site allow you the opportunity to provide your input of site enhancements. With something such as this and for any service issue you want a response back to, I would suggest contacting Customer Service in the future. The ‘Customer Service’ link is found in the bottom navigation of each page and also through the ‘Help’ link found across the top navigation area. Because we now have over 47 million members Customer Service will first present you with the opportunity to search for an answer that may already be posted. (If an issue causes a great number of customer service contacts we will post an Answer that lets you know that we are already aware of the issue and a workaround if one is available.) If you don not find an answer that addresses your specific need you then have the option to click on the ‘Contact Customer Service’ tab that appears after searching. We haven’t had any reports on this issue that I am aware of but in this case I have forwarded your issue on to the PM for review. If it is in fact a bug they will log it and then review when they can get it on our roadmap.
Oes September 29th, 2009
This is great information, thank you for sharing. Using social connections to make a connection with someone at the company is also a tried and true method. Just don’t stalk or try to hard. Just get your foot in the door.
LinkedIn Tip: Increase your chances of getting that job interview « HAPPEN Blog October 1st, 2009
[...] Increase your probability of securing that job interview/ [...]
Michael Fairchild October 4th, 2009
It would be nice to be able to sort your contacts by # of contacts, company, industry, etc. (as opposed to having to use the filter function). Thanks.
Dirk Frey October 7th, 2009
@Michael – I’m forwarding your comment on to the Product Manager over Address Book features. They will review it for consideration in future releases. Thanks for the feedback!
Vince November 5th, 2009
This was a great piece written on how Linkedin could propel ones job hunt. I would also suggest that in the event that the hiring manager is not a Linkedin member and an introduction couldn’t be made that the having the name of the individual itself is of great benefit. It creates an opportunity for the job seeker to personalize the cover letter to the correct individual and position vs. “Dear Hiring Manager”.