What being in LinkedIn’s “Top 1%” club means to me & what it can mean to you

To promote its recent monumental accomplishment of obtaining over 200 million members, over the past two weeks LinkedIn sent out congratulatory notices to those who placed among the Top 10%, Top 5% and Top 1% of Profile page views for 2012. I was acknowledged to be among the Top 1%. This can be interpreted as my being 1 member of a club where198 million people are working hard to join, or as my being 1 person in a club that has 2 million members.

What I’d like to explore is how I believe I was chosen for this honour, what it has done for me, and why you should strive to join me and many of my clients and colleagues who also are members of this club in 2013.

In my business I wear three hats – résumé writer, job search advisor and social media strategist.

LinkedIn page writing & social media coaching has become an increasingly sought after component of my services over the past 3 years. During that time I have invested my own time, money and effort to learn how to be among the best at what I do and in so doing learned the value of having a great LinkedIn page and how to create one, the importance of being an active member in the right LinkedIn groups to maximize my professional exposure, and how to establish my credentials as a subject matter expert. I also learned how to optimize my profile so people and opportunities find me without my extending a continuous effort to be found. This is something you should invest in and strive for as well.

I can proudly say that today nearly 33% of my business is generated by Linked In page views and I am being approached by many people who want to discuss consulting opportunities and speaking engagement with me in the US and abroad as well as by professionals who want to discuss strategic alliances and new business opportunities with me.

In my mind, being in the Top 1% confirms that my social media knowledge and advice are not hollow words. The proof is, in addition to helping me reach my goals it worked for most of my clients who took my advice and did what was necessary to join me at this level. More of my Top 1% clients were found by employers and talent hunters and offered interviews and jobs after using my advice; and in my opinion it is more preferable and profitable to be found for a job than to find one.

This is what LinkedIn did for me and my clients and what it can do for you when you learn to harness its power or work with a professional who can show you the ropes and do the necessary wordsmiths work for you.

Remember this, LinkedIn is here to stay and when used properly it helps thousands of job seekers and business professionals reach and surpass their goals each month at a more accelerated pace than they originally thought possible. So what are you waiting for? Master LinkedIn today and set your goal to be a 1% member in 2013.

As always I am happy to critique US resumes (and professional overseas CVs) and LinkedIn pages at no cost if you email it to perry@perrynewman.com   

What is working in a job search today

Over the past several years I have found people who employ conservative, conventional approaches to find a job too often end up with longer intervals of unemployment between jobs. In the past few weeks I followed up with people I've worked with and those I offered free advice to in 2012 to see what worked and what did not for them in their job search.

Here, again, in no particular order, are some tactics that generated more interviews and shortened the time people anticipated being out of work.

1: The people who used the Bio-Resume and Profile-Resume format I recommended got the highest send-out to employer response ratio. The Bio-Rez worked best for recent grads and early career job seekers while the Profile Resume worked best for high level professionals and executives.
 

2: Skilled professionals 40-60 years old had excellent results in their job search marketing themselves as a consultant or looking to offer a temporary solution. Their ability to broaden their network and get in front of a decision maker was greatly increased thus helping them uncover more employment opportunities in the “hidden job market” than when they conducted a conventional job search.

3: People who, following my advice and upgraded and optimized their LinkedIn page and accumulated a minimum of 8 focused recommendations achieved greater  results after doing so, especially in regards to getting on recruiters’ radar screens.

4: I was surprised (but really not that much) by the number of job hunters who found a new job by going old school and pounding the pavement. By widening their network they got to speak with more decision makers and people who directed them to the ‘hidden job market” at a higher rate than those who used strictly conventional methods,    

5: People who wrote or had a strong resume written for them from the get-go and afterwards only made minor custom modifications to appeal to the job at hand had a better send- out to employer response rate than those who obsessively rewrote their resume based on their perception of its limited value and the  opinion of others not in the know.

6:People who learned how to tell compelling stories in their resume and during a job interview fared better than those who relied on espousing facts and figures to impress decision makers in their written and verbal communication.

 As always I will review your resume at no cost if you email it to perry@perrynewman.com

Sometimes professionals need more than just a résumé to get an interview and job offer…

Whether you’re currently employed and seeking to move vertically or horizontally across the career lattice, or you’re an unemployed professional who wants to get back in the game, a quality résumé is the cornerstone of a successful proactive job search. However some professionals seeking a position over $75k a year may benefit greatly by including other documents in their job search portfolio. 

So what are they?

 1: A Bio

A profession biography is a quintessential networking tool to email or hand out to people who know you very well and to individuals you are casually acquainted with through LinkedIn and networking events.

They in turn will be more motivated to send this unique document in lieu of a formal résumé to decision makers in their companies and to people they know who have access to available positions, and people you want to meet, be introduced to and/or want to network with now and in the future.

The bio is also an excellent tool for employed individuals who want to maintain an air of confidentiality because it is prepared in a way that does not make them appear as an active job seeker but rather as a professional who has his or her ears open for the right opportunity.

A bio is also valuable for unemployed professionals as a means of gaining attention in an overcrowded field of equally qualified candidates. This document will stand out in the crowd and can be used instead of or in conjunction to a résumé.

The bio format I find generates the best results is a full color, 1page - 3 column document that offers up essential information based on the desired profile for the position/s you’re applying for, and most often it will contain a headshot.

2: A Dossier 

When leading search firms submit a candidate for consideration, rather than just present a résumé they will often prepare an comprehensive dossier on the candidate that is a more in-depth study of who the candidate is, their core qualities and key accomplishments, the reason they are available, and they may also include salary and compensation package parameters. Most important they contain a well written value proposition developed specifically for the available position. 

In my opinion many sic figure job seekers can benefit by preparing and presenting a similar document to get noticed by the right people get on industry and job specific headhunter’s radar screens. 

3: Deal Lists  

Deal Lists are documents that describe and accentuate in detail the various deals you have been a part of so prospective employers can get a better feel for your ability to contribute to the bottom line. 

These documents highlight the quality, complexity and financial volume of deals you have been involved in and the extent of your direct participation. 

This type of document is ideal for people in financial services, real estate, sales and related fields.    

4: Project Portfolios

Project Portfolios are documents that describe and accentuate in detail the various projects you have been a part of including your degree of participation, project leadership skills and your ability to impact the bottom line. 

This type of document is ideal for people in project management marketing, architecture, engineering, design and other fields that are project oriented. 

As usual I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.comperry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.