Let's Talk Turkey » Job Boards/Technology

Cool Tools to Help You Manage Your LinkedIn Contacts

Jane — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:02:59 +0000

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve recently gotten back into the recruiting game. Last week I interviewed Derek Reese, a former sales guy with LinkedIn. He started talking to me about the many different tools available out there to help LinkedIn users keep up-to-date with what their contacts are doing – like who got what job and where. In particular, Derek believes that if someone gets a new job, sending a simple contratulatory note can go a long way in terms of networking and getting a job.

Without further adieu, Derek has been kind enough to guest blog for me today and tell you about key social media management tools he uses to get the most out of LinkedIn…

Derek recommends and explains below:

Nutshell Mail

One of the things I find most frustrating about social networks is you need to go through a number of irrelevant posts to get to the juicy details. Do you really care that someone is enjoying a cup of coffee or connecting with a facilities manager in Boise? If you value your time, but still want to follow the action, I find Nutshell Mail by Constant Contact very useful. Here’s why:

1) I can set the delivery time based on my needs.

2) I can receive a summary of what’s happening in my network, including a breakdown of important information like when connections change jobs as well as other relevant news (new connections/status updates).

However, what I do find frustrating is I can’t select the feeds I’m most interested in. I hope this will change sometime soon.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck has evolved into the industry standard for managing the various social networks in our lives (LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook). The advantage of Tweetdeck is their strong relationship with LinkedIn. In fact, Tweetdeck was one of the first companies to use the LinkedIn API on their platform.

What I like about Tweetdeck is I’m able to see what my network is up to in realtime, while having the ability to select the updates most important to me.

What’s also great about Tweetdeck is the application is designed for both iPhone/iPad and Android systems which is terrific for the on the go executive.

Hootsuite & Seesmic

The main difference between Hootsuite/Seesmic and Tweetdeck is the former are web-based applications (meaning they can be accessed via multiple computers). What I find challenging is both applications lack customization. You’re receiving feeds you may not be interested in (connections, status updates, etc). However, they’re very useful if your company prevents downloading external applications. Also, one can scroll through their updates faster than on the LinkedIn site (automatic loading of streams).

Thanks, Derek, for highlighting some fantastic tools! Carpe diem…

What Key Words are Key In Your Online Resume?

Jane — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:32:21 +0000

I’m always astounded at how bad people’s social media profiles look on LinkedIn. The reason that the site has a gazillion users is that everyone in business recognizes the value of it as a professional networking tool. So, how come so many people do so little to make themselves look good on the site?

Yesterday, I wrote a post on using Twitter to promote your job search. Although some recruiters may use Twitter to do research, I can tell you right now that LinkedIn is still the #1 tool we rely on for research purposes. If I have a job in NY in which I’m looking for a salesperson with CPG experience, I’m gonna go to LinkedIn (among other things) and do a search for just that. I’ll type in “ad sales, NY, CPG.” I might then refine my search and type in “P&G or Unilever,” etc. Similarly, if I’m looking for an Editor with health and beauty expertise I’m going to type in “beauty, health, fitness, etc.” to find potential candidates.

TheLadders reported the other day the top 100 key word searches used by recruiters on the site between April and October ’09. Some recurring phrases include: sales, business development, marketing, healthcare, insurance, retail, pharmaceutical, sales manager, food, product manager, operations, director, inside sales, technology, CPG, financial services, IT, sales engineer, telecommunications and CRM.

Too many job seekers throw up their LinkedIn profiles without giving them much thought. Instead of simply listing the jobs you have held, along with the years, make sure to describe your overall responsibilities, keeping in mind some potential key words that hiring managers and recruiters might use to find a candidate like yourself. If you don’t, your profile is just gonna sit their and gather cyber-dust.

Carpe diem…

Do You Really Need To Use Twitter for Your Job Search?

Jane — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:44:56 +0000

I admit that I’m not much into the tweeting thing. I get that it’s important, mostly because everyone says it is, and when it comes to social media and technology, I’m a lamb, here me “bahhhh.” But, to my chagrin, I don’t use the tool to its full effectiveness. How about you? As a job seeker are you using Twitter to spread your resume around? And what about recruiters? Are they really using it to find candidates?

According to Joe Turner of The Ladders, the answer to all these questions is a resounding “yes!” He writes, ”You can’t deny it. Job seekers and recruiters have a love affair with Twitter.”

While recruiting, I have used the Twitter machine — in a limited fashion. If I had a new job, I’d tweet about it, hoping folks would spread the word and maybe I’d get a few candidate names out of it. Nothing really evolved from these efforts though. And why should they? It’s a completely passive approach to recruiting.

To me, tweeting about jobs is similar to putting an ad on a job board. You throw it up there as an ancillary effort to find candidates, hoping to get some reward but having few expectations. The reality is, I’ve never placed a candidate that I’ve found in any such manner. I’ve always developed an action plan, based on a job description, and proactively called candidates who fit the bill — candidates who are employed and unemployed. Would I still tweet a job? Sure, why not? It doesn’t cost me anything and if I build up enough followers, it’s an easy way to at least spread the word about something I’m working on. Frankly, I use Twitter in a similar fashion to get people to read this very blog.

Joe also goes on to say that recruiters use Twitter — not only to post jobs — but to search through resumes. Therefore, you, as the job seeker, should be promoting your resume on Twitter. He goes on to say, “Recruiters constantly use hashtags to locate potential candidates by searching words like ‘resume,’ certain skill sets, locations and so forth. …you’ll want to incorporate hastags on your Twitter resume so you’ll be found when recruiters perform their searches.”

Hashtags? A resume on Twitter with 140 characters? How the heck do you do that?

Thankfully, Joe does a bang-up job explaining all of this. I’ll paraphrase and you can read his article for additional info. Basically, he says your Twitter job search post should have a link to your resume (using TinyURL or another short-link application) and should include key words, or hashtags (preceded by the # sign) that will attract recruiters. He then goes on to say that your tweet should mention your desired job title and geographic location. “RT,” which means re-tweet, should start off the entire posting as it will encourage your “followers” to forward your information on.

Do I think tweeting your resume is an absolute, imperative thing for you to do? Nope. And, although I didn’t take a scientific poll, I did just have lunch with another digital recruiting friend who, like me, said he and his partners don’t use Twitter to look for candidates either.

So, to tweet or not to tweet? My feeling is, if you are billing yourself as a digital media expert, then you should probably go for it. If anything, it shows that you are “up” on how to use social media tools to their fullest and this is an important factor for anyone who wants to make a name for himself in this highly innovative digital world. If you are a lawyer, teacher, stock broker, or are in any other field, for now, you can probably get away without tweeting your resume. Talk to me in 6 months. Things change so darn fast that I might think differently by then…

Carpe diem…

VisualCV is Pitching BlueStep and I’m Not Buyin’ It.

Jane — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:40:20 +0000

A few months ago, I created a bogus career profile and signed up for VisualCV in order to review their services for you. Since then, every now and again, I get a variety of emails from them in which they basically encourage me to keep their services top-of-mind. Yesterday, however, I received a full-on sales pitch from them telling me that, based on my executive -level profile, I’m eligible to join BlueStep — an “exclusive” opportunity. Here’s how the pitch read:

BlueSteps is a service provided by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), the worldwide professional association for retained executive search firms and a recommended partner of VisualCV. Membership provides you with a unique connection to the most exclusive executive search firms worldwide – over 300 firms in 70 countries. These search firms handle over 50,000 senior level recruitment assignments each year for leading organizations, and these firms use BlueSteps as a key source for candidates. No other career management service can give you a more effective and efficient presence in the databases searched by these firms and BlueSteps is uniquely focused on the needs of senior talent like yourself.

Membership to BlueSteps allows you to:

Securely upload your resume and confidentially expose your career details to over 6,000 global executive search professionals

Learn how executive search consultants work and how you can best work with them to enhance your career

Build working relationships with executive search consultants by researching and targeting retained search firms by industry, job function, or region

Stay informed of executive job market trends, news and research via the BlueSteps Career Channel

Receive the acclaimed ‘BlueSteps Executive’ newsletter for career guidance and insight into the executive search community.

After some additional digging, I found that to join, you pay either $269 or $399, depending on the level of service you choose. One of the supposed “bonuses” of the $399 package is you receive a guide to understanding executive recruiting. I can’t really understand why anyone would really want or need this. But, more important the premise of this service is seriously flawed. First of all — how can they say that, if you sign up your resume will be confidentially sent to over 6,000 executive recruiters in 300 firms? Doesn’t the fact that it’s going out to 6000 people make it inherently not confidential? I also don’t see the value in sending my resume to recruiters in 70 countries. When it comes to working with recruiters, less is definitely more. Choose a few recruiters that are in your field, meet with them and decide whether they are the kind of people you want to work with and can trust. This service is not about helping you, it’s about making a buck. Buyer beware.

Carpe diem…

CareerJet: A One-Stop Job Board?

Jane — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:24:10 +0000

CareerJet’s marketing guru sent me a note last month, inviting me to review their site and services. My initial reaction was, “what if I think their services suck and write a bad review? Wouldn’t it be less risky for them to just advertise?” My second thought was, “they must be pretty darn confident about what they have to offer if they are requesting editorial reviews from strangers like myself, vs. paying for advertising.” So, I checked them out and, overall, I give them a solid “B.”

If you use travel sites to book flights, then you might be familiar with Kayak, which aggregates travel data from expedia, cheaptickets, orbitz and the other gazillion Web sites that post airfare/travel data. CareerJet is the “kayak” search engine of the jobs industry.

The site was launched in 2002 and is privately owned. They boast a whopping 16MM+ global jobs. But, unless you are planning on moving overseas, only 3MM are U.S.-based. The rest are spread out across 50+ countries.

The site allows you to search across a broad spectrum of 45 industries that range from accounting to wood/paper/furniture. Once you click on a job listing, you are taken out of CareerJet to the job board or company site that the ad is housed. So, the user has to make sure to go back to Careerjet.com after reviewing each particular post.

Overall, the site is very simple to navigate. The first thing you see on the home page is a “what” box – as in “what key words do you want to plug in?” – and a “where” box, for location.

I did a search for “advertising sales jobs” in NY and got a list of 1,340 jobs. After looking through five pages or so, I scanned relevant job postings from the following sites:

There were an awful lot of listings from Craigslist, which did not make me happy as those tend to promote jobs in low-profile companies. But, I also learned the names of other job boards that need to be on my radar screen, like jobs2web and jobcircle, which I’ve never used before. Unfortunately, nowhere did I see any postings from MediaPost, imedia or Cynthia Turner, which are staples in my media diet.

When I did a search for Editor or Writer in NY, a total of 14 jobs popped up. I then went to MediaBistro and plugged in the same criteria. More than 300 positions appeared on my screen. The site crawls through 68,368 Web sites hunting for listings but the media sites are not on their radar. It just goes to show that there are no one-stop online shopping destinations for finding a job. You’ve got to check the mainstays in your industry if you want to be thorough in your search.

CareerJet allows you to create job alerts, where you can choose your own criteria and opt to be notified via email daily or weekly. And, you can post your own resume for employers to see. (Although, this is fine for you to do, don’t sit and wait for your phone to ring. You have to be proactive with job boards.)

All in all, I like CareerJet and think it could be a part of anyone’s job search strategy. But, it shouldn’t be the only tool used. Although I might only use Kayak for my travel searches, I’m still going to check out what my favorite media sites are posting because CareerJet doesn’t quite cover it all.

Carpe diem…