After you are done with creating an awesome profile the next question that comes in mind is How to use LinkedIn effectively for job search so that you get an interview call from a recruiter and who knows sometimes by CEO himself? There is definitely an evolution happening with Linkedin as it has achieved the highest level of success when it comes to running a platform. Consider this if you are a Digital marketer, you would spend thrice the amount for one lead on Linkedin than any other social media platform, In other case, if you are a job seeker you are going to get 3 times more results than any other job portal. This platform needs to be understood properly and here I help you with that.
Few recent successes:
Recently I attended a seminar on product leadership where Prof Pinkesh Shah shared that some of the students wrote articles on a problem targeting the companies they wish to join got the job in the same company later. They were surprised getting a call directly from the project manager asking if they wish to work with them to solve the problems they mentioned in their articles. Then came a panel of three major IT companies. In the same event, they shared how they have hired people directly from heckathon and social media without involving the recruiting agency. What do you say about this? No resume, No job Search, no referral, no Jack no Interview and direct call from the recruiter?
Recent Trend:
This trend if catching up but if you ask me how much then in this industrialized world negligible but this is creating a niche practice which will gain momentum, with this practice one can really dream big for job or for work or for fame like If you recall WhatsApp dancing sensation Sanjeev Shrivastava from MP India who became famous overnight through his dancing talent and got to meet his Favorite film stars recently and who know may be he gets some work in film industry. Talent/skill cant be kept hidden in today’s world.
Companies or recruiters want to know you really have the knowledge and skills to do the job and to check this the traditional models are not scalable or exhaustive to prove the skills mentioned by a candidate, rightfully so traditional models does not provide jobs to every need which is why these new platforms/means are getting popular. Days, when we used to logon to Job portal, search for job, apply and got a call are over It, is now more detailed, more focus and more intertwined with other skill set which many a times hard to find in one person. The other reason I see is that of the unstructured way of recruitment or lack of standards available in job market. Let’s understand with some examples:
- Now a days people don’t ask for plain marketing profile instead they look for marketing profile with SEO, SEM, Demand generation, Marketing Analytics & Digital skills
- Non technology Skill set like Accounting; people ask for Accountancy software knowledge, Domain experience, Analytical Skills, Ratios, Charts and reporting skills along with standard skill sets
- A web developer is not asked for php, java, CSS, HTML and SQL experience alone infact they are now asked to talk about full stack web development which includes Angular JS, Node jS, Maven, MongoDB, Git etc
Looking at these examples one can say that one person has to deal with many skills now a days to accomplish a job unlike old days when a C++ developer used to live with one skill throughout his life. Now why this change? Well you can blame Digital, Data science and Open Source causing this disruption for good.
On the unstructured way of job market:
well, it’s a real challenge to put across all the data with accuracy, We have US who publish no of unemployed people month on month basis but how many other countries do you have who maintain this data? And when industry hires the people there is no standard available in the job market on the quality of resource and their fitment to organization’s philosophy – All together is a very patchy surface
When a CEO called me for a job directly:
I felt fortunate when I met with CEO of a mid cap IT company in India some 3 months ago in Bangalore, we discussed various things around his company and the job he wanted to offer me it looked all great and had my plan matched-up with his I would have joined the company for sure by now. This did not happened just like that the CEO first gone though my linkedin profile some 7 months ago, followed me for coupe of months, had arranged for telephonic discussion with two of his colleagues then finally decided to meet me. All i can guess from this meeting or engagement is that the regular touch with me made him confident about me being right fit to the role and ended up offering me a job which I call something very rare dream i.e. How many times you get a call from a CEO?
More on How to use linkedin effectively-
What’s your Digital Footprint? Or How many followers you have? Yes your profile should be a talking for itself the same or similar way on all the channels available because everything is connected now. Let me simplify this a bit: You still need to have profile let’s consider a Monster profile/resume now this profile need to be same as in Linkedin and then anything you do around work or skill need to be updated on both the platforms whether it’s in the form of skills, your recent experience with a technology lab, any video your created to teach, any skill you learnt from coursera and most importantly you got to keep it most current and updated. Have some endorsements, Recommendations and good connects with people/experts/leaders which will be next point for recognition. If you are wondering about creating an awesome profile and what is the right construct of Linkedin then you must read my article “How to create an awesome Linkedin profile?” Or if you are looking for how to search job on LinkedIn then use this article here
Where this will head to?
I perceive this to lead to more openness in the People who can prove their skills will be hired faster, Gig Economy will become stronger, people will have to learn new skills and show it to recruiters, job portals will come up with new designs, companies will totally shift towards reliable social media channels, Project Managers would be imparted with power to higher directly from the social media/conference/workshop, independent job consultants would either become smarter or perish, The job applicant who do not understand this new digital disruption would have to restart somewhere in the job market.