Using Facebook for Job Search

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Job seekers often tell me that they prefer to avoid Facebook as a job search tool. I hear about fears of compromised privacy and concerns about how would-be employers might interpret the images, comments and postings on their page.

It’s hard to blame them for being cautious, after hearing all the reports media about job seekers who have lost opportunities because of thoughtless Facebook mistakes. 

How popular is Facebook?

In October 2012, social media history was made when Mark Zuckerberg proudly posted the following status update:

While very impressive, 1 billion users only represent 14 percent of the world population; in North America, however, over 52 percent of ALL Canadians and Americans are Facebook users.

This stunning fact is not missed by employers. An increasing number of them are turning to Facebook to actively recruit or, at least, gather information about candidates. As shown on this Infographic, a study conducted by Reppler (an online service that monitors social media) revealed that 76% of recruiters and hiring managers have screened candidates specifically on Facebook.

Isn’t Facebook risky for job search?

The simple answer is YES. 69% of recruiters surveyed by Reppler admitted that they have rejected a candidate based on something they saw on their social media profile.

These include mistakes such as:

• dishonesty or negative comments about previous employers
• inappropriate photos and comments
• references to drugs or alcohol
• poor communication skills (grammar, spelling)
• making discriminatory comments about others.

So, why use Facebook at all?

Employers are more likely to hire a candidate if they can find positive information about them.

In the struggle faced by job seekers to reveal a more complete picture of themselves to potential employers as likeable, interesting and compatible, job seekers who either choose to make their profile totally private, or opt out of using it at all, are at a disadvantage.

This is backed up by the Reppler study, which also revealed that about most (68%) of potential employers chose to hire a candidate, based on characteristics found on their profile.

These include:

• positive personality traits (optimism, sociability)
• professionalism and respectability
• creativity
• strong communication skills
• being “well rounded” (having a range of various interests).

Facebook offers job seekers a unique opportunity to showcase their personality traits, strengths, professional and personal interests that would make them stand out as unique and impressive to potential employers.

This does not mean that all posts should be publicly visible — Facebook allows for users to choose which posts and photos are public and to keep the others private. Job seekers can selectively share a few key posts which demonstrate the characteristics they chose to share. For example, a job seeker who is looking for work as an Architect may choose to post samples of work, or to discuss newspaper articles about new developments in the city, to show interest in the field.

Employers are increasingly interested in hiring people who know how to use social media well.

Many jobs require people to use social media, or at least understand it well. Facebook, in particular, has become an increasingly popular branding tool for many companies, and these employers might expect staff to be able to use and understand it.

Also, as the Reppler study revealed, companies understand that their employees are using Facebook in their personal lives, and they are interested in making sure that they will not represent the company badly. So a candidate who can demonstrate appropriate behaviour on Facebook would be considered an asset.

Facebook tips for job seekers:

DO:

• Use Facebook. Do it with care, balancing private and public posts.
• Be interesting, thoughtful, sociable.
• Use good grammar and spelling.
• Like and interact with company pages on Facebook.
• Share interesting (and interested) posts that reveal your professional interests.
• Share personal achievements, such as sports, volunteering or causes.

BE CAREFUL:

• Don’t get too comfortable; always be on guard for how you and your friends represent you.
• Remember that employers may be watching — even your most private posts could be made visible.
• Don’t do business on Facebook: if you want to connect with someone regarding your career, rather connect via LinkedIn.
• Use your real name and photo – if you plan to be seen by employers.

Maximize your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search

When I talk to participants at my Social Media Skills for Employment workshops at JVS Toronto, it seems that more and more job searchers have already signed up with LinkedIn and have begun to set up a profile. This observation is borne out in the data offered by LinkedIn, who report that they presently have 175 million worldwide members, with two new members signing up per second. However, when I ask job searchers about whether LinkedIn has made a difference to their job search, some complain that even though they created a profile, ”nothing is happening”. When I evaluate their profiles, it is clear that certain common mistakes are made, many of which are easily corrected. After correcting these and learning to use the tool properly, many have reported a huge difference in the effectiveness of LinkedIn, leading to increased attention to their profile, and — even more importantly — job leads and even invitations to interviews and offers of employment.

The common mistakes made by job searchers on LinkedIn can be divided into those related to profile completeness and mistakes related to the ways the profiles are used:

Complete your profile:

LinkedIn emphasizes the importance of a complete profile as a way to maximize visibility and make users more easily found by others. If you have an up-to-date resume, a simple professional photo and a few people with whom to connect, 100% completeness is relatively easy complete.

I have outlined the criteria for profile completeness on our blog, which can be summarised as:

• A current position, with a description
• Two more positions
• A photo
• Education
• 5 skills, at least
• A profile summary
• 50 connections, at least
• Industry and postal code

The challenge for unemployed job searchers is the expectation of a current position. One good way to address this issue is to include a volunteer position (make sure to clearly indicate in the job title that it is volunteer work, though). Job searchers could also include freelance or an interim survival job, by way of completing this requirement.

Another challenge for the unemployed job searcher is finding 50 connections. The best strategy for maximizing connections is to connect with all of the people you know on LinkedIn, as well as begin actively identifying new possible contacts through groups and networks of previous employers and schools. Try to personalize each invitation and don’t be shy to reach out broadly. You’ll be surprised to find that most people are happy to connect.

Be an active user:

Whether a profile is complete or not, there are many ways job searchers can use LinkedIn to raise their profile, meet new contacts and maximise their existing network. This includes (but is not limited to) joining Groups, searching through the Jobs, following Companies, and providing Answers to questions:

1. LinkedIn reports more than one million Groups of various sizes, from two members to over a quarter of a million. It is worth joining a few, to start. Usefully, LinkedIn actually recommends groups that match your profile (“Groups You May Like“). Read the comments and questions, offer your own feedback and ask intelligent questions. Keep in mind that LinkedIn is designed so that you can more easily connect with a person with whom you share a group.
2. Job search is quite easy on LinkedIn. It follows the same process as many job boards, and allows candidates to save a search, narrow the criteria and even receive emails that alert job searchers about jobs that match their requirements. It also recommends “Jobs you may be interested in“, based on the content of your profile. Jobs are often described in great detail, and job searchers may be able to apply directly on the site, using their profile.
3. The number of company pages on LinkedIn has grown, with over two million recently reported. Follow local employers for whom you would like to work. This is an excellent source of data for job searchers, as well as an opportunity to interact with companies, as well as receive notification whenever they post a job on the site.
4. Answering questions is an excellent opportunity to raise your profile and show off your expertise; this option is not used by enough LinkedIn members (which is exactly why YOU should take on this opportunity!). You can answer questions posed on the site, share your ideas or ask your own (thoughtful) questions. You will find this section on the “More” section of the main menu, under ”Answers”.

If you face any difficulties implementing these suggestions, check with the LinkedIn Help Centre, which be found on the “More” section of the menu, under ”Help Centre”.

I recommend to job searchers to spend at least a third of their job search time (2 hours per day, perhaps) on LinkedIn, to job search, follow companies, network in groups, share their expertise and to expand their contacts.

Of course, take any opportunity you can to meet new contacts in real life and strengthen your existing relationships. This always has been the key to a successful job search, and will continue to be so, as long as hiring is done by people rather than computers.

Lessons from the LinkedIn hack — learn to protect your password

Recently, a startling announcement on Twitter raised the concern of LinkedIn’s millions of users that their personal information was at risk:

Reports suggested that over 6 million passwords of the 161 million registered users had been potentially stolen by a hacker, who posted them online. LinkedIn quickly responded with promises to inform affected users and guide them through the process of setting new passwords. Included in LinkedIn’s response was a recommendation that all users update their passwords and consider other best practices to ensure their security.

Unfortunately, this event is not uncommon among sites such as LinkedIn and has been followed by more account compromises, such as Last.fm and eHarmony, both of whom are believed to have been done by the same hacker.

Password theft is a serious risk to all of us. Think of a password as a key to your home. Just as you take care not to let uninvited people enter your home, invade your privacy, misplace or mess up your possessions, or worse – steal your valuables, you need to take the same care with your online information. Once hackers access your accounts, they could get into your email, take your contact list (for spam), get banking information, find enough personal data to steal your identity, change or delete your files, or even use hijack your computer so to use it to send mass spam.

The question for users is how to best secure their passwords. Here are some tips:

Most importantly, make the effort to create passwords that are:

1. complex,
2. changed often,
3. not used repeatedly in multiple sites, and
4. kept securely

Make an effort to create complex or strong passwords:

Probably the most important aspect of password security is to use words that are not simple or obvious. Mashable (who are always an excellent source of social media news, tips and “how to”) posted an infographic that listed the 30 hacked passwords most often chosen by LinkedIn users. They noted that:

“Link” was the number one hacked password, according to Rapid7. But many other LinkedIn users also picked passwords — “work” and “job” for example — that were associated with the career site’s content.

Religion was also a popular password topic — “god,” “angel” and “jesus” also made the top 15. Number sequences such as “1234″ and “12345″ also made the list.

Bottom line: choose a less obvious password, preferably one that is:

• Over 8 characters
• Not simple enough to be found in the dictionary
• Has a mixture of characters (e.g. $,#,%), numbers and letters (lower case and capitals) — a useful tip is to use numbers to replace letters, for example – use 3 for E, 2 for Z,  0 for o, and l for 1 (that way “hello” would become “h3110”)

If you’d like to be sure your password is strong enough, test it on Microsoft’s secure Password Checker.

Change your passwords regularly and frequently:

The same way you change the batteries in your smoke alarms regularly, passwords are most safe if changed every 3 months or so.

Do not use the same passwords across various sites:

As tempting as it may be, make sure that you don’t use the same password for all the sites you visit, as this makes you even more vulnerable to losing a lot of data, after one site is hacked. In particular, this increases your risk of identity theft.

Keep your passwords in a secure way:

Make sure your passwords cannot be easily found by not sharing them with anyone, as well as not writing them down where they can be found (such as stickies on your keyboard!).

Some final tips:

• Obviously, many people do not follow these rules because of the challenge of remembering complicated, ever-changing words. One excellent tip is to create little memory tricks such as mnemonics, where you chose a sentence such as an expression, favourite song, book or poem title/line, and use the first letter of each word. For example “If You’re Happy And You Know It” could be IYHAYKI and if you mix capitals and lower case letters and add numbers and symbols, that could become 1yH&yK1@$.
• Also, there are some secure services to help our aging, ever challenged brains. LastPass comes highly recommended as a safe, easy to use, free service which will help you generate secure passwords, as well as keep them in a single password protected place.

Ask the Employment Specialist: New graduate looking for work

Dear Joanna,

I just graduated with a Masters in Environment Studies from a local leading university and am looking for work.

I am in serious debt because my tuition was steep, and I have outstanding debts from my Bachelors’ program at the same university in history and political science. I am so well educated, but cannot seem to find work or a place for myself in the labour market.My work experience boils down to a part-time job at one of the local malls at a retail store which I have held since high school.  I live with my parents and desperately want to start building a meaningful career in Environmental Studies and being self-sufficient, i.e. to become an adult.  The university’s career centre as well as the program offers the occasional job posting, but it’s so competitive out there.

I just started to apply for opportunities with my resume and cover letter, but have not received any phone calls for interviews.  Please could you help me figure out how I can obtain work in my field?

Signed: New Grad in Debt (NGID).

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Dear NGID,

You are not alone; I worked on behalf of JVS Toronto at this year’s National Job Fair and met countless new grads from Masters and Bachelors programs from local universities and colleges, who were struggling to figure out how to fit into this competitive labour market with their education.  The reality of the working world is quite daunting.  As Kathryn Blaze Carlson illustrates about a recent chemical engineering graduate in her poignant article in The National Post on this topic, “The chemical engineering graduate, who has a second degree in bio-chemistry, was supposed to graduate from the University of Ottawa and begin a fulfilling career straight out of the academic gate — or so she hoped, expected, even. But her first professional job search has instead marked the first major false start of her adult life, ushering a painful reality check and a severe blow to her self-esteem.”

Further, the journalist points out a cultural shift, advising new graduates and their parents that “they should no longer expect a seamless school-to-work transition because a university degree is no longer the promised one-way ticket to a career. The on-ramp to adulthood is longer and twistier. Thirty is the new 25.”

Please do not despair. Here are several tips and strategies to consider applying in order to start the process to building your career in your field (notice that I use the term process because this search requires the same amount, if not more time, effort, dedication, and commitment which you engaged in your education, with its papers, exams, studying and hard work):

• Research the labour market in your field. Identify current job descriptions which look interesting to you – ones which are appealing to you and to which you would love to apply, but are not yet qualified because you lack the experience required.  Simultaneously identify the companies and departments where you would like to work one day. (we discussed labour market research in previous blog posts, such as this one)
• Analyze the data collected. What are the skills, experience, qualifications and education required in these job orders? What kinds of departments in companies are involved in your sector? Notice the language used in the job postings. Notice the language in the content of the company’s websites. Notice the hard skills and experience required. Highlight all these information.
• Now that you understand the jobs out there and the companies to target, I recommend that you start doing the following:
  1. Information Interviews – identify managers/executives in the companies which would likely hire you if you had the experience required. Try to select those professionals who graduated from your university if possible. Cold call them and ask for an information session. To learn how to engage in an information session, please connect with an employment counsellor.  This technique helps build your network, gather sector-specific information required for your resume and cover letter and you never know where this contact can lead you – maybe a job opportunity? Maybe a mentor?
  2. Volunteering – Unfortunately, it sounds like your course didn’t have an unpaid coop placement internship. So, now you must go and get this hard experience on your own. All those job postings, companies and departments which you identified in your research stages are potential volunteer placements for you, especially in the non-profit sector. (CharityVillage is a great web-based job board of all the jobs in the non-profit sector). Cold call the company’s President. Ask to see if you can volunteer. In a non-profit organization, call the volunteer department. Ask to volunteer in the department related to your field.  Tell the volunteer coordinator that you will do the jobs which no one likes to do – Cold Calling (this will win every time – because nobody likes cold calling!), filing, photocopying, making coffee, or whatever they need help with. This is no time to be proud. Do whatever it takes to get your foot in the door and start building a reputation that you are a go-to person. Get noticed by your volunteering! You would be surprised how word spreads quickly. Once you prove yourself to your supervisor and team where you volunteer, you can start asking for more related work in your field. .Be flexible with the volunteer tasks This is a great strategy to network, secure some concrete and relevant experience on your resume, learn about your field, gain some references and be engaged in your field of choice and start building your career. (For tips on finding volunteering check out our past blog posts on the topic).
  3. Networking — Associations, clubs, sector-specific groups are great places to network in your field. Membership to many of the associations cost a lot of money. Research the ones which are appropriate for your sector and industry. Call the Executive Director or the Volunteer Coordinator at a suitable professional association and ask to volunteer. Again, as with volunteering, once you prove yourself, learn more about your field of choice, you can gain references, solid and relevant experience for your resume, expand your network in  your sector and perhaps volunteer at the industry conferences and trade shows with professionals and experts in your field! 
  4. Internships — There are programs and services that can help new grads secure Internships: One example of such a non-profit organisation is Career Edge, through which new grads apply for a paid internships. It’s highly competitive and only if the job developers at this non-profit organization have secured a placement available in your field will you have an opportunity. It’s still worthwhile to apply because you never know. Also, the provincial government has The Ontario Internship Program (OIP) student placement program – same story applies with Career Edge: way more applicants than opportunities, but you should still apply.
  5. Social Media — this a great forum to network and have access to the hidden job market. Get registered and complete your profile in LinkedIn and join its sector-specific groups. If you don’t see a suitable LinkedIn group, then start your own. Keep active in the groups.  Prepare and maintain a professional profile in Facebook and if you are so inspired, create and monitor a Twitter account, too.
  6. Industry and sector-specific job boards – for example, for the environmental sector, I am familiar with Good Work Canada; you can Google other relevant job boards online, as well as check out our list. Register, subscribe, request job alerts to keep these jobs coming into your email bin.
  7. Keeping busy — keep a structure in your daily life while you look for work; participate in job search workshops, do something active or a hobby that you enjoy. This will keep you motivated and able to give your ‘all’ to the next opportunity that you come across.

I hope this is helpful. I really feel for you and your situation. You are bright, accomplished and lucky to have had the opportunity to have a fantastic education. However, education alone no longer gets people work; it’s icing on the cake. This misunderstanding of the labour market gets many job seekers in trouble. Notice that ‘Education’ is on the last page of the resume. ‘Relevant Professional Experience’ comes first – this is the priority in today’s labour market.

All the best,

Joanna

The challenge of networking: it’s not who you know – it’s WHO KNOWS YOU (and WHAT they know)

So, you have written your resume, prepared a cover letter, identified job search sites, and even set up a complete profile on LinkedIn. Now, all that’s needed is for you to begin sending your resume out to the hundreds of suitable jobs out there, right? Wrong; as job searchers quickly discover, job search is much more complicated than simply sitting behind a computer screen and sending out resumes. Job search is complicated by the fact that our present economy is what employment professionals describe a ‘buyers’ market’, where employers (who we could call the purchasers of skills) have many well qualified candidates from whom to ‘buy’, whereas the job searchers (i.e. those with skills to sell) have fewer jobs from which to choose.

This means that job searchers have to do more to be noticed: you have to know more people, or more accurately – be known by the right people. Becoming known by others results from active initiatives to meet the appropriate people who are in a position to hire, or may be connected to such people, and — even more importantly — to build relationships with them.

keawtavee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Social media is an excellent tool to enable job searchers to take the first step of connecting with people they know. Sites such as LinkedIn will enable you to make connections and invite others to get to know your professional profile better. But, this is only a first step; job searchers who simply link up with people are often disappointed to find that simply having connections and an online profile is NOT enough to lead to jobs. The next step is to create strong ties, which result in a contact knowing who you are and what makes you unique, as well as being invested in helping you achieve your career goals.

Some of the best networking advice out there comes directly from the source: the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, who offered his advice, when discussing a recent book on this topic he co-authored, titled The Start-Up of You.

Hoffman recommends that networkers set out to actively cultivate existing relationships with specific connections into “active alliances” through:

1. Consulting them for advice,
2. collaborating and sharing with them on issues of interest to them,
3. promoting and supporting their causes/brands, and
4. defending their cause or reputation — if necessary.

This is a very deliberate and active process which takes an investment of time and effort. It means that you have to carefully choose the contacts you want to develop, and setting aside time and effort to cultivate the relationship.  It demands patience, time and careful planning.

Here are some tips to begin the process of relationship building, or strengthening ties:

1. To begin, make sure each contact you make is individualized: don’t send out general spam-like invitations on sites such as LinkedIn.  Each person with whom you connect, should get a personalised note which reminds them how you know them and why you want to connect
2. Make an effort to get to know your connections – read their LinkedIn profile, blog or company webpage and take note of their interests and passions; consider carefully whether they would be in a position to support your career AND whether you can do the same for them
3. Take advantage of opportunities to meet the people whom you have decided to focus on – in person at conferences, meetings, volunteer work or virtually in LinkedIn groups
4. Offer your chosen contacts information which may be of use to them, such as a current article about a relevant topic or a useful website or service; offer a LinkedIn Recommendation, if appropriate
5. Offer your time to volunteer at their company or at an event they are organising
6. Introduce them to people who you know who may benefit their cause, product or company
7. Make sure to be appropriate – don’t offer too much, or more than you can afford to give (both time and money-wise) and make sure to be of genuine use and help
8. Be gracious — thank people they accept your request to connect, or when they connect with you; thank them any time they go out of their way to be helpful – possibly in a public way, such as posting a review on a website, Facebook page or a letter to a newspaper

The more you work on a relationship, the more it will work FOR you. It requires planning and ongoing effort. As Reid Hoffman suggests in the article: “Relationships are living, breathing things. Feed, nurture, and care about them; they grow. Neglect them; they die.”

The bottom line is that in today’s job market where employers have the advantage, you need to connect with people who are in a position to support and promote your career. The way you can achieve this goal is to establish connections, and invest care, time and planning into building strong tie relationships with a select few people in your network.

Do you have mentors or friends who have supported your career and helped you move forward? Maybe you have played that role for others. We would love to hear how this has worked for you!

Making Facebook work for job search

When I train job searchers to use social media to find work, my focus is usually on LinkedIn, which is the most obvious tool for this purpose. I have also described how Twitter can be an excellent tool for job search, if used properly.

Facebook, however, is a more complicated tool for job search, because it crosses over the boundaries between the personal and professional.  Despite this (or maybe because of it), Facebook has become a popular recruiting tool, with more than half of employers reported using it to gather more information about candidates.

Employer Recruiting plans, 2011

Given the fact that almost half of all Canadians are active Facebook users, and that employers might either deliberately seek out candidates on Facebook (as indicated on the graph from Jobvite.com), or maybe simply come across them as they browse the results of an online search, it is important that job seekers give some thought to what their Facebook profile says about them.

The question for you, as a job searcher who uses social media, is how to go about setting up a profile on Facebook, which would support (or at least not interfere with) your job search.

You could choose any of these options, each with its own pros and cons:

Option #1: Make your Facebook profile private, including limiting who sees your timeline, photos, profile info, “likes” and friends. Reppler, a site that helps users monitor their own social media use, recommends a number of steps for Facebook users to protect their professional image, including narrowing who can see the profile and previous posts to “friends” only.

• Pros of total privacy: no concerns about what employers may think or see on your profile.
• Cons: With changing Facebook privacy settings and the fact that you cannot control your friend’s privacy settings, you can never always be sure that you are totally private.  Also, employers who will check your profile won’t have a chance to be impressed by you in a positive way.

Option #2: Create an open and public professional Facebook presence. This means carefully controlling ALL aspects of your profile, including choice of friends, activities, and “likes”, to maximize how you are seen by employers. 

• Pros of total openness: you will be able to be consistently controlled and will impress employers with your professionalism. 
• Cons: you will have to keep a very close and strict control over who are your friends and how they behave, which will make the Facebook a lot less relaxed and enjoyable.

Option #3: A mixed approach, allowing some select information to be public, with posts that are deliberately chosen to portray yourself in specific ways. On a regular basis, you will carefully share a post which you would like employers to find. Such posts may be related to your field of work, or might simply reflect on you in such a way that impresses employers positively.

A recent article in LA Times suggested that employers could effectively use Facebook to assess candidates for certain characteristics, called “The Big 5 Aspects of Personality”. These include: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscienceness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience.

Facebookers could use their profiles to reveal the best of these five aspects:

• Extroversion, which is defined as a “pronounced engagement with the external world“, is valued by employers because it implies high levels of enthusiasm and sociability. Of course, not all jobs require employees to be highly extroverted, though all would value some level of outgoingness, because it means that candidates would be easy to get along with. On Facebook, extrovert behaviour on Facebook could include having a large number of engaged friends, and actively interacting with them in a warm and outgoing way.
• Agreeableness refers to “cooperation and social harmony“, which is the person’s ability to get along with others. Agreeableness is HIGHLY valued by employers. On Facebook, Agreeableness can be seen when you are helpful, perhaps offering advice and showing appreciation for others. It can also include showing concern for others. Agreeableness is even more obvious by what it isn’t: NOT expressing negativity, or complaining nor swearing.
• Conscienceness has to do with impulse control — that is, how much care you take in what you say to whom; being cautious and thoughtful. It is likely that most employers place a high value on this in most fields. On Facebook, you can show Conscienceness in the nature of the posts you share, choosing clever and thought-provoking posts, participating intelligently in conversations, as well as not getting caught up in arguments.
• Neuroticism refers to the levels of anxiety, depression and anger expressed by a person. Obviously, these are characteristics that employers would rather not deal with. Employers want to know that potential hires have moods and behaviours which will not impact on their social relationships, decision-making or ability to cope with the pressures of the job.  On Facebook, you can show your low levels of Neuroticism by how you interact with your friends, as well as the topics of your posts, sticking to positive and enthusiastic topics and language.
• Openness to Experience refers to people who are open-minded, flexible and creative. Not all employers will value this equally (for example, those in the arts require such a mind-set, whereas more traditional fields such as banking may need it less, or even prefer a more conservative type of personality), though all employers prefer employees who are adaptable to change and are able to solve problems. On Facebook, this can be shown through the content of your posts, your comments and your interests, focusing on topics which are appropropriately creative and open.

•  Pros of a mixed approach: you will be able to express yourself on Facebook and enjoy interacting with friends, as well as benefit from exposure to employers that may impress them enough to improve your chances to get a job. 
• Cons: you will have to be very careful about the settings that you chose for each post and make sure to carefully check how the profile is seen to others (tip: on Facebook Timeline there is a “view as..” option on the top left corner, which will allow you to see your Timeline as non friends would).

To sum up, with the increased odds that potential employers may be checking out your Facebook page, it is worth carefully thinking through how you are going to use this social media tool.  If done with care, Facebook can become a very important tool in your job search kit, giving employers more opportunities to be impressed by your personality, beyond that which they may learn on Twitter, LinkedIn, and — even more so — your resume.

NEW updates to LinkedIn profile completeness criteria

In a February 2012 blog,  LinkedIn announced changes to the criteria for Profile completeness, with the specific goal of making it easier for users to complete their profiles. 

The main function of profile completeness is to increase “search optimisation” – that is, to increase the likelihood of being found in searches, both on Google and within LinkedIn, thus resulting in “Users with complete profiles (…)  40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn”.

 

 

A LinkedIn profile is most likely to appear in the top of a search, if:

-          it is 100% complete

-          it shares more connections with the searcher

-          it shares more groups with the searcher

 

 

According to the recent changes, LinkedIn users should complete the following, in order to achieve the completeness goal:

1)       Add a profile photo (which makes the profile seven times more likely to be found)

2)       List two jobs  (making the profile twelve times more likely to be found)

3)       Include a description of the jobs

4)       Have 5 or more skills on the profile

5)       Write a summary about themselves

6)       Fill out their industry and postal code

7)       Add the school/university they attended

8)       Have 50 or more connections

9)       Frequently update their status (“profile freshness”)

Most notably, it appears that Recommendations are no longer required for completeness.  The main reason this was dropped seems to be that users do not always have control over this aspect of their profile, and so LinkedIn wanted to make it easier for them to complete their profile without having to rely on others. Despite this change, I would caution users to not neglect Recommendations, as many employers do look for this on the profiles of potential hires.

With these new changes to profile completeness, many LinkedIn users will log on to find that their profiles are no longer complete. But, it also means that many more users will be able to complete their profiles and thus, with a bit of effort, ensure that they are easily found by potential employers.

 

Ask the Employment Specialist: Tips for Collecting and Presenting References

Dear Joanna

I am an internationally trained architect who is new to Canada and am so upset, because I do not have any local references, and I don’t know the best way to present my references.

I have finished an interview today for a position as an AutoCAD technician and the employer has asked me to submit 3 references. I learned from my Job Developer that this is a good sign; but I don’t know what to do as my references are all from my professional places of work overseas!

What do you advise me to do? The employer is waiting and I don’t want to lose this opportunity!

Signed: Upset Without References (UWR)

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Dear UWR,

Congratulations on passing the job interview! You know you have successfully passed the interview stage when the employer asks for references.

Thank you for asking this question. References are a difficult challenge for job searchers, regardless of whether they are Canadian.  After checking out with my fellow frontline practitioners, and based on what I’ve learned from various employers who come to JVS Toronto to speak to our clients, I have the following suggestions for you:

1. With today’s access to the Internet, it is much easier and acceptable for you to use references from your former places of employment from your home country. Many employers have told me that they are willing to check references all over the world, using emails as the main form of communication.

2. Always double-check with the references that they are still available, and willing to provide you with a reference.

3. The Reference List should be neatly typed on a regular white sheet of paper. It should have the full name, job title, company name, address, email address, telephone and fax of each of your references. 

4. Keep in mind that the information on your Reference List is private, so DO NOT provide the list to potential employers until they have met with you in person and you are sure that you want them to contact the references.

5. Always bring the Reference List to the interview, to present to the employer. But, make sure you provide the list only if the interviewer asks for it!

6. After giving the Reference List to the potential employer, always make sure that you inform your references that you have given their name. Give them a “heads up” that they might be contacted – tell them about the nature of the job opportunity and the name of the employee who will be checking you out. If you can prepare them in advance, even better, as opposed to waiting until the last minute.

7. Always keep in touch with your references, even when you don’t have a job interview. Once again, networking is the key and you should keep doing it, even if you are working. You never know when you need the references. Sometimes, they may leave the company where you worked, so you should constantly keep in touch. Using LinkedIn is a great solution; other social media tools such as Facebook are effective, too.

8. Treat your references like gold; stay in touch, get them gifts, send them holiday cards and show appreciation and gratitude.

9. Speak to your references to discuss how they might answer the more challenging questions interviewers might ask, such as discussing your weaknesses or giving the reasons for your departure from that job.  Although this is difficult, try to ensure that they will say only positive things about you. 

10. Ask your references to contact you after they have been called by the potential employer, to provide you with feedback. Whether or not the employer called the reference and what was discussed will give you a good clue about whether they are seriously considering you for employment.

Once again, congratulations on being so close to the job offer…but remember, it’s not over yet; you still need to be checked out through your references and only when you have a hot job offer in writing (preferably) in your hands, is there a time for celebration!!!

Lots of luck in this stage of the game.

Regards,

Joanna

New Year’s Resolutions for Your Job Search

It’s that time of year again where people make resolutions that they intend to adhere to for the rest of the year. “Lose weight, exercise, be a better person, take up a hobby or reconnect with family/friends” are a few of the more common ones.

Why not take this re-focus opportunity and make some resolutions towards your job search? There are always ways to fine tune your search, even if you don’t think it’s broke (you wouldn’t be reading these blogs if things were peachy and the job opportunities were pouring in – would you?).

Here are a couple of ways to get back on track and start 2012 on a solid footing.

1) Review your resume - If you have been sending out your resume to anything that remotely resembled what you are looking for, but didn’t receive any calls, it’s time for a resume revamp. Firstly, your resume should be an ever-changing document, as one size does not fit all ESPECIALLY when you are applying for different jobs. The resume you used to apply at Burger King should not be the same one you send for the IT help desk position.

It is more efficient if you focus your job search within one field. You can use the same resume as a template, but even then, you MUST  fine tune it to match the job you are applying for. Show the employer where your skills and experience match what they are looking for. If you are applying in different sectors for different roles then you should have a separate resume for each sector or role. Don’t cut corners here, as the easiest way to get your resume into the circular “G” file is to send it for a job that it doesn’t match.

2) Review your interview skills - If you seem to be able to get interviews but always come second, there is something turning off the employers from what they see on paper (your resume) to when the meet you and speak with you in person. A good remedy for this is to take advantage of Interview Workshops offered by many of the community organizations like JVS. They can help you identify potential areas of concern like body language, tone of voice, quality of answers and follow-up. Most of these services are free so why not see if these programs can make you an employer’s first choice? Also, check out our past blogs on this topic, and rethink how and what you say in interviews.

3) Training for new skills –  This is probably the toughest area to decide on what to do. Most people are limited by financial resources, time constraints, family obligations and so on. If you are eligible for training through a government assistance program (provincial, federal, Student Scholarships and even municipal) then that will ease some of the burden, but not everyone is eligible for the specific skills training they need.

Here’s how I look at this situation. The only person that will decide of the training you take is valuable, necessary or makes a difference is the EMPLOYER. The opinions of a salesperson at a private college, a job developer like myself, a friend, or even your parents do not matter. The employer is the one who is going to hire you and they will be the ones to decide if your new skills are what they are looking for.

Points to remember:

• Not all training is created equal. Taking a program through a Community College will have more of an impact than cheaping out and taking the same program off a matchbook from Chris’s Private College, Tattoo Parlour and Burger Emporium. Visit at least 3 people in the field or role you want to be in and ask what education or skills are needed, where they got their education and what institutions they recognize as legitimate. Don’t waste your time, money and energy on training that won’t get you ahead and is not recognized in the real world.
• Take training that will add to your skills and not start you from scratch. With the Second Careers program, many people took advantage of the funding to get trained in a different career. I have heard of successes and challenges from different people who enrolled in the program. If I was to enroll in such a program I would look for skills that would enhance what I already had. Why start totally from scratch as that would make me “new” to the industry?

Here’s an example of what a successful client of mine did –  he had 10 years experience as a Tool & Die Operator. His company went bankrupt and he was out of work. After trying to find a job for several months he decided to apply for Second Careers. The training he applied for was Industrial Design. Coupling that with his experience as a Tool & Die Operator made him a much stronger candidate then he was before the training. He did get a job with his new skills.

My point is to be applying for jobs from a position of strength. Why get into a totally different field only to be at the bottom of the ladder again? Enhance the great skills you do have with the proper training (with input from the employers) and you will become a stronger candidate. Starting off at the bottom of the food chain again means less money too.

• Keep in mind that employers do offer professional development/tuition assistance programs to their employees. Let’s say you have identified the company that you want to work at but the job you want needs further training. Being unemployed,you don’t have money or the ability to take time off for school – bills have to be paid. Why not apply for a job you are suitable for and then take the training through the company – on their dime?? Many companies have tuition assistance programs that are fairly generous for their staff. They are interested in growing talent from within so these programs are a great way to get your training and to get paid at the same time.

4) Increase your Social Media presence – Utilize LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and so on to gather information, connect with employers and get the inside scoop on potential job opportunities. The availability of information, ease of connecting with people is staggering. Just remember to mind your manners. Being unprofessional online can harm your reputation very quickly. People don’t owe you anything and if they choose not to respond then move on. You will meet some fantastic people out there that are willing to give advice, lend a hand or even just listen. Sometimes that is all you need to get you over the hurdle that is in front of you.

So, for 2012, I challenge you to do the following:

• Invite one person a day from the field you are looking to work in, to connect on LinkedIn.
• Join one new LinkedIn Group a week, and PARTICIPATE. Start a discussion so they can see you.
• Pass on a job opportunity that you have seen to someone in your network.
• Be open, to try different tactics and new approaches to your job search.

Best of luck in 2012,

Chris

HOW TO: Impress employers online

In my work with job searchers, I am often surprised to find that many have not considered the possibility that it is very likely that employers will search for them on Google.  Many job seekers admit to have never Googled themselves, to find out what they look like, and seem almost offended by the notion that employers might be seeking information about candidates beyond that which has been supplied in resumes and references.

In our daily lives, when faced with a decision about a new product/service, most of us turn to Google or other search engines to gain information. We are curious to see how it is portrayed and what others might say about it; we don’t necessarily trust the advertising and want to make an independent and informed decision about what is best for us.

Job searchers are encouraged to look up employers before applying for a job or attending an interview. A search on Google can produce interesting information about a company – perhaps a newspaper report about problems with the company, or, on the positive side – inclusion in a “best employers” list. If the company cannot be found online, or if their website looks weak, job searchers might conclude that the company is outdated, out of touch with customers, or struggling financially.

It would be reasonable, then, to assume that employers would do the same. In a survey of employers, Reppler, a social media monitoring service, found that more than 90% of employers turn to the Internet to find more information about candidates, at all stages of the hiring process, and that their decisions are significantly influenced by what they find online, good and bad.

© David Castillo Dominici | Dreamstime.com

Do you know what employers might find, when they search for you online? Google yourself, and look through the results carefully – check through the images, websites, blogs that appear, and identify which of these scenarios best describes what you find:

a.  You are not easy to find. There are some images and links of people who share your name, and not all are respectable, and it is hard to tell whether the person who is found is actually you.

b.  You are nowhere to be found. At most, there’s a Facebook page which is completely private, but otherwise, you seem invisible online.

c.  You ARE easy to find, but it doesn’t look so good.  There are uncomplimentary or even embarrassing photos, Facebook/YouTube/blog comments, tweets, mentions, karaoke videos or mentions in less than professional contexts.

d. It is easy to find you, and you look impressive. Your LinkedIn profile appears at the top of the search, as well as your membership in a professional association, there’s possibly a video of you participating in an athletic event, an image of you in a graduating class photo from 5 years ago, or a mention of you in a fundraising event.

If you found a, b or c, your challenge is to work on carefully crafting your own online image, through thoughtful and informed use the many free social media tools available on the Internet. In previous blog posts, we have outlined how LinkedIn and Twitter may be used to create a professional image, which will convey the best and most suitable message for employers to find. Even Facebook, which has developed a reputation as a job killer, can be used as a very effective self marketing tool, if the content and privacy settings are carefully controlled.

When using social media, remember that employers might be unforgiving. Be careful about what you say and do online; keep in mind that potential employers will judge your:

• language (swearing, being negative or mean, bullying)
• spelling and grammar
• photos, including the profile image
• friends and associations
• activities (too much drinking or partying?)

Most effectively, make sure that you have something positive and impressive to show to those who are searching for you online. If you are not working right now, engage in activities which you can show off, such as volunteering, taking a course and hobbies, such as athletics or the creative arts. Don’t be shy to share your achievements, past and present — seek out recommendations on LinkedIn from those who can speak well about you and your work. Use social media to share interesting thoughts, ideas and insights, and link up with friends and organisations that reflect well on you and your professional interests.

Bottom line:

1. Search for yourself online regularly and become familiar with what employers might find.
2. Influence what people will find online about you, through careful use of social media.
3. Watch your language and behaviour online, as well as that of people with whom you are associated.
4. Involve yourself in positive activities, and make sure to share them online.

With so much of the discussion online focusing on the drawbacks and risks of social media, it isn’t surprising that you may be nervous to get online. The fact is, though, that with the risks, there are also some exciting opportunities for job seekers to create and project a positive online image, which could go a long way to persuade potential employers that you might just be that perfect next employee which they seek.