For the past several weeks a lovely cardinal has been hanging around one of my office windows, alternately perched on a branch of a nearby shrub and smashing into the window.

He does this for hours at a time, every day.

He could be thinking the window is an open space he can get through or that his reflection is another bird coming at him.

Whatever the reason, he’s getting nowhere. But he keeps banging against that window, day after day.

Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity?

“Doing the same thing over and over again,
and expecting different results.”

Are you one of the many, many executive job seekers locked into a repetitive process that’s not working?

If you have a branded, targeted LinkedIn profile (so you’ll be found in online searches) and resume you’ve been using diligently, and you’ve  been in a proactive job search (I mean, you’re actively and purposefully networking for a new job) for more than let’s say a month, and you’re getting nowhere . . . no interviews . . .

It’s time to revisit your resume because it’s not positioning you as the good-fit candidate you know you are.

Maybe it doesn’t clearly align your expertise and value proposition with the needs and challenges your target companies are facing right now. If so, go back and stress these attributes and qualifications using the relevant keywords and phrases recruiters and hiring professionals will be looking for.

Or maybe you’ve made the biggest resume writing mistake . . . you haven’t done the personal branding and company/industry targeting work you MUST do first, before even attempting to write your resume.

Either way, take another look at your resume. If it’s broke, fix it!

Put yourself in the place of the people who will be assessing you through it (and your LinkedIn profile). Make sure your promise of value hits home with them.

Related posts:

Top 10 Executive Resume Branding Tips

Executive Brand Resume: Differentiate Your ROI Value Above the Fold

The Lazy C-level Executive Job Search

photo by hart_curt

You may be wondering what “100% complete” is, and why it even matters.

When your LinkedIn profile meets their criteria for completeness, your profile is more likely to land higher in search results.

Your visibility increases dramatically. Executive recruiters and hiring decision makers at your target companies are more likely to land on your profile when they’re sourcing and assessing good-fit candidates.

In mid-February, LinkedIn changed the completeness criteria and the way they calculate profile completeness:

“The new calculation gives you more control of your score by emphasizing things you have direct control over, like Skills, and putting less weight on areas you may have less control over, like Recommendations. The score also takes profile freshness into consideration, so frequent profile updates can now help with profile completeness.”

Here’s what you now need for a complete profile:

• Your industry and location
• An up-to-date current position (with a description)
• Two past positions
• Your education
• Your skills (minimum of 3)
• A profile photo
• At least 50 connections

LinkedIn says that adding a profile photo makes your profile 7x more likely to be found in searches. Having your 2 most recent positions makes your profile 12x more likely to be found.

Looks like it’s time for you and all of us who rely on LinkedIn to attract business and job opportunities, to spend a little time working on our profiles.

Related posts:

My free ebook, Executive Branding and Your LinkedIn Profile: How to Transform Your Executive Brand, Resume, and Career Biography Into a Winning LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

Does My LinkedIn Profile Really Need a Photo?

Best LinkedIn Tips: Find LinkedIn Groups to Join

photo by nan palmero

Do you have the same fear that many of my c-level executive clients have when I tell them they need a branded, 100% complete LinkedIn profile and to fully leverage all the social network has to offer?

If they’re employed, they worry that their employer, or someone at work, will see their activity and know they’re looking for a new job.

Some have a minimal profile they posted years ago and promptly forgot about. They never completed their profiles or used LinkedIn at all.

What they fail to grasp is that a bare-bones profile, with no keyword-rich Professional Headline, or Summary section, and little or nothing in the Experience section, leaves people viewing their profiles with no meaningful information to help them assess them.

No LinkedIn presence at all is as good as being invisible to the very people they need to be positioned directly in front of.

They need a fully fleshed out profile for passive job search — to be found by executive recruiters and the hiring decision makers at their target companies. As an undercover job seeker, they may not be able to be as proactive as those who are not employed.

LinkedIn has a kind of safeguard for undercover job seekers. You can temporarily turn off automatic updates to your LinkedIn network whenever you make changes or updates to your profile (along with other activities), so at least no one will be formally alerted.

• Go to “Settings” in the drop-down menu at the top right of your profile.
• Click on “Profile” and select “Turn on/off your activity broadcasts”.
• Make sure the box there — “Let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companies” — is UNCHECKED.
• Go back in and check the box if you no longer need to hide your activity.

Obviously, anyone who is keeping track of you and other employees by checking their profiles will notice that you suddenly have a full profile or new information. Expect that people may ask you what you’re up to.

My recommendation to clients is to have a ready answer for why you’re busy on Linkedin.

The trick to crafting an answer is to frame your answer around how your LinkedIn activities will benefit your current employer, because that is indeed the case.

For instance, if you’re a CMO, you’d be wise to be working hard on connecting through LinkedIn with your vendors, agency partners, co-workers, other CMOs at other companies, and even competitors. They’re probably hanging out on LI, so you should, too.

You can say that you’re using LinkedIn to source new leads and help market the company. When existing customers or potential customers view your company’s LinkedIn profile, they’ll most likely also view the profiles of the top executives, like you. The new information about the company you just added on your LinkedIn profile will give a good impression of it and encourage people to do business with you and your company.

You can say that you’re busy on LinkedIn because you want to find and be found by top talent for your team.

Any number of viable reasons could suffice. Just keep your answer focused on how your LinkedIn activity will be good for the company.

Two things to consider:

1. You should obviously avoid posting updates about what kind of position you’re seeking, or noting anywhere on your profile that you’re “looking”. Instead, when you uncover a job lead, express your potential value to target companies and your interest through one-on-one InMails or directly through emails.

2. Just like every other executive job seeker, you should be getting involved with LinkedIn Groups and Answers. If you’re in an undercover search, be very careful what you post in discussions there.

Obviously, don’t let on that you’re job hunting or testing the waters. Instead, use Groups and Answers to demonstrate your subject matter expertise and thought leadership, and to stay top of mind with your target employers.

Related posts:

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

Does Your Online Identity Scream “Hire Me”?

The Lazy C-level Executive Job Search

photo by Dave-F

If you think that HAVING a photo on your LinkedIn profile (and elsewhere online) may red-flag you for discrimination – age, weight, ethnic background, etc. – think about this.

NOT having a photo can be a red flag, too.

Discussions persist over whether including your photo can cause people to discriminate against you. My c-level executive clients – typically over 50 years of age – are understandably worried that they’ll suffer from age discrimination. You can minimize the age issue by not including earlier career history in the “Experience” section, but a photo could well show age.

Your reasoning for not including a photo may be that you hesitate “putting yourself out there” so visibly. Although you know that for executive job search and networking, you have to be on LinkedIn, you resisted putting up a profile in the first place.

You didn’t really want to have an online presence at all, but you slapped up a LinkedIn profile because you felt you had no choice. But you feel that adding a photo will make you way too visible online.

You may have good reason not to include a photo, but I encourage you to include one. The benefits far outweigh the pitfalls.

Think about the recruiters and hiring decision makers at your target companies who click through to your LinkedIn profile. The first thing they’ll notice is your photo . . . or lack of one. If you have no photo, their initial thought will likely be “What is this person trying to hide?”

One of the strategies you should be using with your LinkedIn profile is branding yourself to differentiate the qualifications and qualities you possess from your competitors. Branding is also about creating emotional connections.

People connect easier and believe content more when it’s accompanied by the author’s photo. They’re more likely to reach out to someone when they can “see” the person. Your photo helps to personalize and humanize your brand-driven content.

Why NOT having a LinkedIn photo is NOT a good idea:

• You can be perceived as not understanding how to use LinkedIn. It can make you seem out-of-touch with current technology and trends. You can appear to be technically incapable of loading on a photo.
• “Fake” LinkedIn profiles do exist. Those without photos may be perceived as not belonging to real people.
• Lack of a photo keeps your profile from being 100% complete, according to LinkedIn’s criteria. Profiles that ARE 100% complete are more likely to show up higher in search results, giving them an advantage over “incomplete” profiles.
• LinkedIn research indicates that profiles with pictures are seven times as likely to be viewed as those without.

Choose your LinkedIn photo wisely. This is the first thing people are likely to see when they open your LinkedIn profile. Select an appealing photo that strikes the right image and professional tone for your industry and niche.

Remember that your LinkedIn photo isn’t only visible when people click through to your profile. It also shows up with all of your status updates, group discussion comments, contributions to LinkedIn Answers — any of your activity on the site — so make it be a positive reflection of you.

Related posts:

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

My free e-book: Executive Branding and Your LinkedIn Profile: How to Transform Your Executive Brand, Resume, and Career Biography Into a Winning LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn: Best Tactic for Undercover Executive Job Search

29 Biggest LinkedIn Mistakes

photo by nan palmero

In my continuing series of posts focusing on job search bloggers you should know about, I turned to my friend and colleague Jason Alba.

He has been on the scene since 2006 offering help through JibberJobber, a job search and career management tool, and several blogsites.

Catch up with my 3 other posts spotlighting blogging job search experts and their advice:

→ The Career Sherpa: Job Search Navigation Expert – Hannah Morgan (@careersherpa on Twitter)

→ Happy Fourth Birthday to the Job Mob blog! – Jacob Share (@jacobshare on Twitter)

→ Personal Marketing for Job Search – Tim Tyrell Smith (@TimsStrategy on Twitter)

A little background on Jason . . .

He designed JibberJobber during his first real job search early in 2006, a so-called “job seekers market”, when he discovered there was no practical tool to help job seekers manage and organize their job search. No longer a tool just to be used during one job search, Jason transformed JibberJobber into a tool to be used to manage job transitions during your entire career.

Jason is the author of I’m On LinkedIn – Now What??? and the LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD.

As with the other experts, I asked Jason for his best job search advice:

“Stop wasting time. I wasted time in my job search, as do many people. Time wasting is masked by ‘I’m busy doing a job search,’ but really all we did was put a lot of time and effort into the easy stuff, which was not as effective as the hard stuff (like networking). You can’t hide behind job boards and LinkedIn and call it a job search, when you really don’t reach out to people. Do the hard stuff.

Also, consider other options. When I speak to executives in transition, I look out at the white hair and wrinkles and know they are scared to death about age discrimination. They should be. It’s real, and it’s rampant. It’s a shame, but it’s there.

Some of my audience will never, ever find a traditional job again. That really sucks, because it’s based on bias and stereotype, but what that means is you need to figure out a Plan B, or Plan C, or Plan Z. It might not seem as exciting or lucrative as your Plan A (corporate job), but it might end up being much more exciting and lucrative. And, you might end up with more ‘security’ than what a corporate job could ever offer you.”

Visit Jason’s I’m On LinkedIn – Now What??? blogsite for the latest LinkedIn information and advice.

Related posts:

How To Land an Executive Job in 2011

The Two Biggest Executive Job Search Mistakes

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

16 Ways to Stay Motivated in Executive Job Search

So much has been written and said about whether social media brings enough return on time invested.

The key to getting value is choosing a few platforms and leveraging them well. We can easily get consumed and overwhelmed by dabbling in too much social media , and making an impact with none.

Running my business is similar to running an executive job search campaign. I tell my c-suite clients that, just as I do, they need to think of themselves as a company of one – Brand You – and determine what differentiates them from their competition, then promote that unique value they offer.

Using social networks and social media helps you (and me) uncover opportunities, build community and brand evangelism, make connections with potential employers’ hiring decision makers, and demonstrate your thought leadership and subject matter expertise.

In my opinion (and that of just about any career professional), executive job seekers MUST get involved with LinkedIn, at a bare minimum, just to keep pace with their competitors in today’s job market. But is that one channel enough? How many are too many? And how much time should you spend on each?

It’s all about creating a realistic strategic plan, and understanding that social media has a cumulative impact. It takes time for your efforts to gain traction. Don’t expect too much to happen until after several months or more, depending upon how active you are and how quickly you build connections, followers, visitors, etc.

Blogging, LinkedIn and Twitter are my social media of choice – the biggest pieces in my online brand communications plan. Here’s a taste of the ROI value of each for me:

BLOGGING

No question, most of my business comes through my blogsites. They are the single best tool for marketing my brand and the services I offer.

I write a total of 2-3 new posts each week on my two active blogsites, Executive Career Brand and Executive Resume Branding.

By concentrating on SEO (search engine optimization) – using enough relevant keywords in the right ways and places, frequency, and building back links from sites with good Google juice – I’ve been able to maintain strong search results for the keyword phrases that prospective clients use to find careers industry professionals like me.

LINKEDIN

Because my LinkedIn profile lands at the #2 or #3 spot in Google search results for my name, many click through to my LinkedIn profile and assess whether to do business with me based on what they read in my profile.

And, many of my clients are LinkedIn members who find me through a LinkedIn search of relevant keywords.

I keep LinkedIn working for me by:

• Making my professional headline SEO-friendly – it contains the keywords my target potential clients use to find people like me.
• Integrating my blog posts with LinkedIn, so that new ones are automatically posted to my profile.
• Staying active with the LinkedIn Groups my potential clients are active in.
• Growing my number of good quality connections, so that I have that many more second and third degree connections.
• Keeping my connections updated on my latest activities.

TWITTER

Twitter does require diligence and an active presence, but I happen to really enjoy keeping up with it.

Good networking on Twitter, just as in real-life or on any social media channel, is all about “giving to get”. I’ve built professional friendships with all kinds of people (other career professionals, executive job seekers, social media experts, entrepreneurs, etc.) with whom I’ve formed alliances. We help each other promote our brands and businesses.

I’ve supported my Twitter friends by retweeting them, tweeting their blog posts, spreading the word about them and referring them to good-fit clients. They’ve reciprocated by referring potential clients to me and referring me to their contacts in the media who are looking for career experts to interview and/or to contribute to their publications.

About 10-15% of visitors to my blogsite come from Twitter. Those are people who probably otherwise wouldn’t visit my site. Every visitor is a potential client or may know someone who is.

Here’s some of my Twitter strategy:

• Tweeting several times a day (except Sundays, and sometimes Saturdays).
• Making sure that the 4 most recent tweets in the Twitter stream shown on my blogsites are no more than a day old.
• Integrating my blogging with Twitter, driving more visitors to my blogsites.

You can see that my choice of social media channels and strategy have great value in building my business. Similarly, as an executive job seeker, your own well-planned strategy can help you get the word out about your unique promise of value to the companies you’re targeting and those who have first and second degree connections to hiring decision makers at those companies.

You may not choose the same mix of channels I did. Find what works for you, create a realistic strategy and stay with it until things start to stick. Another benefit to your efforts is that you will be positioned as up to date and social media savvy — qualifications more and more companies are seeking.

You’re probably wondering why Facebook isn’t in my mix. I tried. I just couldn’t realistically manage it, with the others. And I was never a big fan. But many job seekers are having success with Facebook, connecting and networking, so it might be right for you.

And now Google+ is in front of all of us. Like many, I’m still waiting to determine whether it’s worth it to carve out some of my limited time for that.

Related posts:

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

You’re a C-level Executive Job Seeker and You’re NOT Blogging?

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

Twitter Executive Branding Strategy: The Beauty of a Retweet

photo by John-Morgan

For about a year I’ve been managing the Personal Branding subgroup of the Job-Hunt Help Group.

Along with job seekers at all professional levels, membership includes many Reach Certified Personal Branding Strategists besides myself, and other esteemed careers industry professionals.

Come join us. It’s your opportunity to start, contribute to, and learn from the experts in discussions about branding to accelerate job search and healthy career management.

Membership is growing steadily, but we’re always up for new voices jumping in with questions and advice on best practices on all things personal branding.

I only ask that you keep your contributions free of self-promotional materials. We just want to stick to the topic – and not be bothered by pitches.

Related posts:

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

Power Your Executive Brand with LinkedIn Groups

29 Biggest LinkedIn Mistakes

How Recruiters and Employers Find Candidates on LinkedIn