Use LinkedIn Wisely in Your Executive Job Search

I would guess that the majority of executives in job search, or planning one, know that they need a LinkedIn profile.

Too many stop there.

They may fill in a little information in their profile, but they rarely do much else. And, it may have been 10 years ago since they last revisited their profile.

Some are afraid to be active on LinkedIn, because they don’t want to alert their current employer that they’re looking. They must keep their executive job search confidential.

Some think they don’t have enough time for LinkedIn.

Some get stuck. They want to take advantage of LinkedIn, but they don’t know where to start.

And some have no idea how much they can do on LinkedIn to build their personal brand and accelerate their executive job search.

I’ve put together for you some of the more potent articles I wrote this year about using LinkedIn.

How To Use LinkedIn Wisely in Your Executive Job Search

Start with my how-to guide, Smart Personal Branding with LinkedIn.

Whether you’re already on LinkedIn, an occasional user, or about to dive in for the first time, this ebook will help you improve your personal brand and your visibility to your target audience.

It’s a step-by-step guide to building your profile from scratch, and includes strategies to leverage LinkedIn to your best advantage.

7 LinkedIn Things You Should Do . . . But Probably Don’t

I review lots of LinkedIn profiles every day, and see some things that still baffle me.

People put things on their profiles that don’t belong there, but they also neglect to put things on them that really need to be there.

Generally speaking, they fail to put themselves in the shoes of people assessing them, and make it easy for these people to find out exactly what they need to know.

LinkedIn Experts Speak Up About the Biggest LinkedIn Executive Job Search Mistakes

This article came about because of a LinkedIn update I posted which included tagging people and hashtags.

I put out the query “What is the biggest mistake you see people making with LinkedIn?” to select esteemed colleagues of mine in the careers industry.

Their contributions will be very helpful to you.

Look, I Found My Personal Brand Doppelganger on LinkedIn!

Have you ever seen the profile of another executive who is surprisingly similar to you:

She/he has the same skill sets.
She/he seems to be looking for the same kinds of jobs.
She/he’s the same kind of “go-to” person as you.
And she/he’s captured YOUR personality and style so well!

Have you ever been tempted to swipe some juicy bits of content from their profile, because it’s so “you”?

Read this post before doing anything unwise like that.

How to Deal With Employment Gaps in Your Resume and LinkedIn Profile

I offer a strategy to downplay past employment gaps, plus some preemptive tactics to avoid gaps in the future, should you unexpectedly and suddenly become unemployed.