Sunday, July 24, 2011

Linkedin Tip of the Day



Keep your linkedin profile active and visit your account ever day to become more prominent in search results

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Linkedin tip of the day





Do not send too many invitations or messages in one day. Too much activity on a single day might block your account

Monday, July 18, 2011

Linkedin Tip of the Day



Keeping your Linkedin Profile complete and as a reflection of your CV helps you find the targeted jobs

Friday, July 15, 2011

Linkedin Tip of the Day



Adding job consultants as connections could help you find your dream job faster and at the same time help you build your network.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Linkedin Tip of the Day

You can add you CV to your linkedin profile using Box.net application. After your CV upload, anybody can download your CV which drastically increases your chances of recruiter selection

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Linkedin Tip of the Day




Once you have a large number of connections, your network grows on auto-pilot. Hence, initially work hard on building a large number of connections

Monday, July 11, 2011

Linkedin Tip of the Day



Add and Use Linkedin Applications to your profile to increase your popularity and keep your connections updated on an Auto-pilot mode.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Linkedin Job Search Feature

Hi Friends,

Ever tried searching for jobs via the "Jobs" feature of Linkedin.

Even if you have, I just wanted to quickly introduce it here again.
The job search feature of linkedin may not contain lot of jobs like any other dedicated job search website but it definitely deserves a look.

The few jobs that are listed on Linkedin Jobs, might be relevant to you and your connections might be able to help you to attain that job. Also, in case there are very less jobs in your specified search criteria, you have an option to search via "SimplyHired" which is again a great website and you get targeted results.

I don't want to say much about this feature. But give it a try and explore.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Broadcasting your Linkedin Status Update



I wish to keep today's topic short and sweet.

Linkedin status update can sometime work as a tool which requires minimum work and has tremendous impact. Linkedin status update works as a tweet with all your connections as followers.

You just need a little bit of marketing acumen to think of a catchy one liner that can have an impact on your connections, a one liner which forces your connection to view your profile once again and keep you in their preferred candidate/professional contact list.


You don't always need to write that you are looking for a job. It might sound a bit too desperate. You need to find what works for you. For one person, a status update per day works for another once a month. Whatever it is, it should be catchy and should be able to make an impact. For example if you are in a technology sector and you post an update about a new technology which most people are not aware of , your job is done :)

Friday, July 1, 2011

Increasing Your Popularity on Linkedin - Part 2

Hi Friends,
This post is pretty much extension to the Part -1 about popularity.
In the last post we discussed about using the 'Answers' feature of Linkedin. Today, I would be covering the Groups section to increase your popularity.

Participating in groups may boost your popularity on Linkedin just like a rocket. Of course, increasing your popularity isn't just a click-to-go algorithm. It needs time. It is only recommended for advanced Linkedin users who devote approximately 1-2 hours everyday on Linkedin.

It might be sounding a little difficult, but it isn't that difficult. To make it simple for you guys and even for myself I will explain the process in a few points:


  • You might be a member of as many groups you want. But, choose 4-5 groups as your primary groups which have many members and you feel that would have your target audience. For example, if you're looking for an IT job it might be a good idea to consider "IT Recruiters" group as one of your primary group

  • Once you search and finalize these groups, all you have to do is to participate in them. Sounds simple? Yes it is

  • By participation, I do not mean that you need to write something new everyday. You just need to visit these groups' pages once everyday ( or less if time does not permit) and reply to other members or post your queries or knowledge about the subject relevant to the other group members

  • Do this wholeheartedly for a month and see the MAGIC

NOTE: Please don't post crap just for the sake of it. It might have a negative effect.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Increasing Your Popularity on Linkedin - Part 1



In this world, everyone wants to be famous and popular. Why?


Because we want more people to follow us and know us. In the context of human behavior, the more people follow you the following always increases on the auto-pilot which leads you on the path to success.


The same goes with Linkedin popularity. You'll have more connections, more followers, more targeted jobs offers and lots more. Hence, once should keep on increasing the popularity wherever possible.


Let me introduce one of the ways you can increase your popularity and increase credibility. On the linkedin menu tab, goto More > Answers. Answers is a linkedin feature where you can engage ask and answer questions. Its both beneficial and effective. It helps you solve your queries and also brings you free traffic to your profile.


All you have to do is ask any career specific question whenever you're in a fix. You'll get some intelligent responses.Also, its a well known fact that the Knowledge increases by sharing. Hence more you answer others questions with your knowledge on a certain subject the more they would help you in your questions. The result would be increased popularity and all the benefits which follow popularity.


I would discuss another method of increasing popularity in my next post. Meanwhile explore "Answers" section. You'll have fun

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Open for suggestions now!

Hi Friends,

In the past month I have tried to cover some of the most important topics about the website Linkedin.com . I think I have covered some of the key tips and tricks about the website. A careful read to these posts can take you a long way towards achieving your dream professional career. Before proceeding further, I want your views about the blog posts I've made. I want to make sure that the information contained in this blog actually helps you out. Its not just for display purposes.

Have my posts helped you out? Does my writing method appeal to you or turn you off? What do you expect in my future blog posts? Do you have any doubts about my previous posts and need further detail/clarification? Just feel free to speak your heart out about anything on this blog and I would try to help you out in every possible way.

Also, if you want me to cover a specific topic in my next post, feel free to write me at anmol.rock@gmail.com or leave a comment

Cheers!
Anmol

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Tracking Linkedin profile visitors




Linkedin has a kind of popularity tracking tool. The image of the tool is shown above. It could be found on the right hand side of your linkedin page once you log in to your account.


Having a close watch on this tool can help you in the following ways:




  • You can track your popularity. You can see how many people have viewed your profile recently or how many times have you appeared in the search results. Of course the popularity would be low initially. But once you have a decent number of connections, you can see how many people have viewed your profile and if you have very less profile visitors, you can work on improving your profile or adding more connections.


  • You can track that people from which industry have visited your profile. In some cases the complete detail of the profile visitor is not shown depending upon the visitors privacy setting. However, in case its shown and the person seems like a potential recruiter to you, you can contact or message them to improve your career prospects.


As far as my linkedin profile is concerned, I make sure to analyse this tool everyday and see if I can make the most benefit of the visitors of my profile.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

A short guide on Linkedin Recommendations

Linkedin recommendations are a powerful tool to fall in the eyes of the target recruiter. With this post I plan to share some basic tips to extract the maximum from this tool.

Linkedin recommendations can be seen on the profile page of every Linkedin member. Till now if nobody has given you a recommendation via Linkedin, visitors to your profile would not see the "Recommendations" section.

Recommendation is one of the important stages of recruitment process. Most companies ask you to provide contact details about 1-2 colleagues/seniors from your previous organization to check your reputation and quality of work you did before hiring. It is assumed that the colleagues' of whom you provide contacts praise you like Kings or Queens because those are the best people you know if that organization.

So why not integrate this crucial aspect of hiring on your linkedin profile. On Linkedin there is no limit to number of recommendations you can obtain from your teachers, colleagues and classmates. The most important question boils down to:

"Is it the number of recommendations that matter or the position of the recommender?"

I would say that the number of recommendations on your profile definitely catch the eye of the recruiter but would not assure results. Every recommendation which you receive should uncover a different trait or characteristic of you. It should be from a diverse set of colleagues and classmates at different levels. It is no point receiving 4-5 recommendations from your friends in your class or colleague as a same level. That would surely make it look fake.

As you know that I love explaining things with an example, I would do the same for recommendations.

Lets consider that I am a graduate from ABC University. I have worked with 2 companies named DEF and GHI in a management consulting role. Assuming my tenure has been 1 year in the first company and 2 years in the second, I would aim as having the following recommendations on my profile. Of course if my colleagues, classmates are teachers are ready to recommend me :)


  • 2 Recommendations from my best teachers in my university.

  • 2 Recommendations from my classmates/friends

  • 1 Recommendation from my Manager at DEF

  • 1 Recommendation from my team mate at DEF

  • 1 Recommendation from my Manager at GHI

  • 2 Recommendations from my Supervisors at GHI (Assuming that I have at least 2 supervisors and 1 Manager at GHI)

  • 2 Recommendation from my juniors at GHI (Assuming that I manage at least 2 people)
Above is just an rough estimate on how one should balance the recommendations on the Linkedin profile. It may vary from job to job and company to company. Hence use the above data for reference purposes only and feel free to run your own brain horses. Of course you should try that most of the recommendations highlight some different area of your work or personality.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Backing up your growing Linkedin network



The more you expand your Linkedin network the truth is, you more become dependent upon it for your business and career needs. Its a good thing :)


As a advanced active linkedin user, your account is at a high risk of being blocked. Linkedin has a weird rule of blocking extremely active account. Its quite possible that linkedin blocks your account if you have a large number of profile views or if you send too many messages. Unlocking your account can take from 2 days to 3 weeeks. In the mean time its a good idea to keep on regularly backing up your linkedin contacts (I would recommend once a month), so there is no trouble.


The backup would save an excel file (csv) on your local hard-drive with your connection's names, email addresses, telephone numbers, employer and designation. Just follow the simple steps.


  • Login to your linkedin account and go to Contacts > My Connections

  • On the bottom right corner you'll see "Export Connections"

  • Just click on it and you're done

Monday, June 13, 2011

Other methods to locate job consultants

This is in continuation to my previous post "Adding connections on Linkedin - Part 3 (Adding Job consultants as a connection).

I think I missed a small point in my previous post. Let me make it a little easier for you to locate job consultants so you can speed up your connection building process.
You can also join some of the populated HR groups on linkedin and then send connection requests to its members. All you have to do is - Join one of the following HR and recruitment consultant groups. Once you join, go to the members section. Below the search box select the advanced search option. Now you can filter on recruitment consultants as per your needs. Don't forget to filter the industries as "Staffing and Recruiting" and "Human Resources"

NOTE: Following is a list of some of the famous and most populated groups of recruitment consultants. However, its not exhaustive and there are many HR groups as per sector and geography. Feel free to search for them:


  1. Job openings, job leads and job connections!

  2. Linked:HR (#1 Human Resources Group)

  3. Job & career network

  4. The recruiter Network - #1 Group for recruiters

  5. Global Jobs Network

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Adding your resume on your Linkedin profile

Hi Friends,
Ever wondered if you could add your resume on your linkedin profile so that the interested recruiters can download it?
Yes, its pretty much possible with Linkedin Applications. Once you configure the application and upload your resume to your profile, interested recruiters can download the same and you would be notified whenever your resume is downloaded. Just perform the following simple steps.



  • Login to your linkedin account and select Profile > Edit Profile

  • In the Edit Profile page, scroll down to the bottom to your profile, where you will see "Applications" section

  • Select "Add an Application" and select "Box.net files" application

  • Rest the application would tell you what next to do

  • Once your application is configured, you can upload your resume and it would be shown to every visitor who visits your profile

  • That's all. You've added your resume and you will be notified when anyone downloads the same via email.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

One of the MOST POWERFUL FEATURE OF Linkedin - Group Messaging

Hi Friends,

As promised in my last post, today I will be discussing about one of the most powerful feature of Linkedin, which even Linkedin discourages. I will tell later, how it discourages.

and the secret is revealed........

Its the Group Messaging feature. With this feature you can reach out to almost any person on linkedin directly to attain your dream job. As you know I love examples and I would again like to explain this feature with an example.

Scenario: You are a MBA in Finance. You are eyeing a managerial position in any top MNC company in the finance domain. This is how you'll use the group messaging feature effectively.


  • Shortlist 4-5 dream companies which you want to join.

  • Use the linkedin advanced search feature and input the company of choice. Enter keywords/title which you feel can help you out. I am not from the finance industry, but suppose you are eyeing a position of a Manager. Try to find a person who is one to two positions higher to whom the Manager reports. So, the person could be in the position to hire you the fastest. You have to find the person (That depends on your research skills). Person can be any one from Senior Manager, Vice President, etc depending upon the company Hierarchy.

  • After checking the profile of the person which you feel is the target person, see the groups of which he/she is a member. Groups could be seen on the person's profile page. If there is a common group, well and good. If not, join a group which he/she is a member of, so that you have at least one group in common.

  • Visit the group home page of the common group and select the "members" tab

  • Search for the person's name in the search box which appears on the left side of the page.

  • Once you locate the person, get your mouse over the person's photo. You would now be able to see the golden feature of send message.

  • Use the feature wisely and you can make the message as long as you want. You can write your cover letter or your brief career history or elevator pitch. VOILA, its done. Remember, you are sending the message to the concerned recruiter directly, so take time to draft a message. I recommend making a sort of template which you can use for different employers with slight modifications.

  • Also note that you can expect a delay in reply. Its quite possible that all people you've messaged don't reply. But a certain percentage would surely reply.

  • You are able to connect to any person on linkedin even without adding as a connection provided that he/she has joined at least one group.

Warning: Don't send to many messages like this everyday, as linkedin may block your account. Once linkedin blocks your account, it does without warning and it may take about 2 weeks to unblock it once you send the request. However, about 25 messages per week should be fine.


Now the next question to ask is - How linkedin discourages this feature?


Linkedin does not show the "send message" feature to the people even with whom you share a group.


THIS FEATURE WOULD SURELY PAY OFF. STUDY IT CAREFULLY AND START IMPLEMENTING


Happy Linkedining

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The power of adding Linkedin connections - Part 4 (Adding LIONs as a Connection)





Hi Linkediners,



I hope your quest for finding the perfect job or finding a perfect client is going well. Today I wish to introduce the FASTEST way to expand your linkedin network.


Are you aware of Linkedin LIONs? There is a category of Linkedin members which would have a "LION" put in their first or last names. These people are not the Lion of the animal kingdom :). LION refers to "Linkedin Open Networker" which means that 90-95% of these individuals are interested in expanding their network and will certainly accept your invitation (its a mutually beneficial way to expand your network). You can also add "LION" tag to your first/last name to portray yourself as a LION. You can also join some LION groups so you get frequent connection request from other LIONs

You can do a simple people search and type "LION" and the search box. You'll notice that there are thousands of LIONs on linkedin. I just did a search right now and I could see 47,779 results.

However, this does not mean that there are only 47,779 LIONs on linkedin. Many open networkers use different phrases to portray themselves as LIONs. Some examples are - "open networker", "accept all connection", "[Some figure in thousands]+ connections". Adding LIONs is the fastest, but not the most effective way to expand your linkedin network. Proportionate to the entire linkedin member population there is only a fractional number of LIONs and in all probability Your employer may not be LION. Secondly, once a LION tag is put on your profile, it can lose credibility to employers.

The best way to make the most use of of LION tag is to initially kick start and speedup your connection building process. Once you have a number of connections suppose 700-1000 connections you can drop the LION tag from your first/last name and then use other methods to expand your network.

Watch out this space for THE MOST EFFECTIVE FEATURE OF LINKEDIN, which even Linkedin discourages. My next blog post will discuss all about it.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

The power of adding Linkedin connections - Part 3 (Adding Job Consultants as a Connection)

One of the easiest and effective ways to expand your linkedin network is to add Job consultants. That's because


  • Job consultants will almost certainly accept your invitation because they are on a constant lookup for any candidates to expand their database and to make their candidate search easier

  • Once you add job consultants, you would be posted about any new vacancy that arises since you would be automatically following their status updates and most consultants regularly post updates about vacancies

  • Once you have a certain number of job consultants in your network, lot of HR folks and consultants would keep on adding you to their network and you might start getting direct offers from employers or consultants

You may choose any method to find and add the Job consultants of the geographic locations where you are seeking a job in your network.


However, I use the following method. Lets assume that I am looking for an IT career in India



  1. I login to my linkedin account and select Companies > Search Companies from the menu bar

  2. In search companies tab I filter Location as India (select specific city if you need to be more specific). I filter Industry as Human Resources and Staffing and Recruiting

  3. I then sort the search results by Followers

  4. One by one , I open the company page and visit employee profiles. The consultants I feel are handling my type of profile, I would add them to my network. Consider adding 5-8 consultants from every company.

  5. Please don't forget to add a short personal note before sending the invitation and add 2nd degree or shared group connections first

At beginning, this may sound like a time consuming process. But with time it becomes a lot easier and believe me its very effective.


Keep exploring. I will write soon



Friday, June 3, 2011

The power of adding Linkedin connections - Part 2 (Adding Connections' Connection)

Hi everyone. Hope Linkedin is helping you find your dream career. If not yet, keep visiting this space fore more. This is in continuation to my previous post "The power of adding connections - Part 1". Without wasting much time, I'll move straight to the topic.
Adding connections' connection (2nd degree connection) can sometimes be the most effective way to expand your linkedin network because the chances of your acceptance are very high because you will have a connection in common and the person wouldn't spy on you much. It is not a good idea to explore each and every connection of your direct connection and find people who may help you in your career search because this may eat infinite amount of time. The trick here is to search the targeted person through "People" search option located on the top-right corner of your linkedin home page.
To expand your connection using this method, there are just two key steps:


  • Search the relevant 2nd degree connection through Linkedin search people

  • Write an appropriate message so the person almost certainly accepts you

Too complicated? Let's illustrate the process through an example. Suppose My name is XYZ and I currently have 40 direct connections (1st degree connections). I am currently working in a financial reporting profile in ABC company for the past 2 years. I feel I now have some good knowledge of Finance and I should switch to a better role say Finance audit in some other company. To expand the network in the best possible way I will do the following:


Try to type different target keywords in the people search option depending on the company and profile you're looking. like "Finance", "audit", "assistant manager - finance", "DEF Company". You might also use the Advanced search option there. Now you have to figure out how to become a better searcher. I don't want to start a search tutorial here. Once you find a 2nd degreee connection which you feel is in a position to help you out or can help you out in future you send a "Add to connection" request to the person. Select "Friend" radio button and you can write a message. Following is an example.


"Hi Name, I am currently working with XYZ as Position since the last 2 years. I have a strong knowledge in Profile. I am looking for a change and I thought you could be helpful. Request you to add me to your network - Thanks"


You can also state that your direct connection gave a reference to be more personal if your first degree connection knows the 2nd degree connection well and is close to you.


Warning: Don't add mass connections using this manner. This might lead to many 'I don't knows'. So do some research and add connections wisely using this method.

Monday, May 30, 2011

The power of adding Linkedin connections - Part 1



Hi guys,

Hope I didn't make you wait so long for this post. I'm starting with the first part of a major topic "The power of adding connections". This would be mostly beneficial to a job seeker. Nonetheless, people in business looking for clients can also learn from the same as it works pretty much the same way for them.

Essentially, today I would be focusing on benefits. Ways of expanding your network to reach the targeted job would be discussed in my later posts. I'm sure every one's aware what is adding a connection on Linkedin. In a layman's language its adding your friends, colleagues and other influential people on your network you can access their details, profile and personal information at the time of need to improve your career prospects. Many people confuse linkedin with just another social networking site and add have a craze of adding friends and colleagues at the beginning stage and within a few weeks or months the craze dies and the activity becomes real slow and the number of connections either become static or change very very slowly.

However, there are a number of benefits of adding connections and expanding your linkedin network and I would like to list a few important ones.


  • The most important benefit is that once your network has reached a certain number of connections your linkedin network goes on a autopilot mode and grows automatically. This benefit is connected with all the other benefits

  • The people you add on your network, you can access their personal details like personal email address, mobile number, etc which give you a chance to become personal with the targeted individual and increase your job prospects

  • If you have a large network (large number of connections) you come in the active member list of linkedin search and you're almost certain to be among the top few searches when somebody types your name in the search box even if there are a thousand people with your name.

  • The more connections you have, the more you come in the eyes of the recruiter. In linkedin, whenever you search for people linkedin search first shows all the 1st degree (your direct connections) and 2nd degree connections (your direct connection's connection). Your visibility increases and your chances of getting connection requests and job notifications increases. Even recruiters use linkedin as a very important potential employee search tool. You never know what flows from which direction, hence just keep expanding.

  • Another important aspect of having more connections is getting updates from all your connections on a regular basis. When you login to your linkedin account, you can see "Shares" tab where you get to know updates from all your connections. Most recruiters prefer posting about vacancies by using the update status feature of linkedin. Hence the more connections you have, you're more likely to get updates about job openings. Its just like following somebody on twitter.

  • You have a easy access to 2nd degree connections.

  • In this fast paced world you never know when a person leaves a company and advances his career/profile to your dream company/profile. For example today you have a connection who is a Software Engineer at a start up company. After 3 years he is an MBA from an ivy league institute and joins an HR role at your dream company. What could be your future prospects. Just think about it :)

I think I have talked about some of the important benefits about adding a connection. Please free to reach out to me if you have any suggestions so I can update my post.


In my next parts I would discuss the following most effective ways of adding connections. Don't bother if you don't understand what I'm talking about because I'll take each one in detail.



  • Adding connection's connection

  • Adding Job consultants

  • Adding LIONs

  • Using the common groups feature

  • Using introductions wisely

Remember, you can't simply add anyone on linkedin. The website is very strict and if linkedin gets to know about even small number of "I don't know" responses, it may block or restrict your account. Not to say, but linkedin customer service is really poor.


That's it for now folks. Watch out this space for more.

Linkedin Basics







Through this post, I would like to introduce basics about linkedin.

Although, most of you must be aware what Linkedin is. Let me briefly introduce linkedin for the newbies. Linkedin is world's largest professional networking website which connects professionals. Just like Facebook is used to keep in touch with friends, Linkedin is mostly used to advance careers and find business opportunities. As of today, linkedin boasts of 100 million+ members which are growing day by day. Linkedin works pretty much the same way like other social networking websites with features of sending a message, adding a connection, making your profile, posting a status update, etc but more in a professional manner.


OK, so that's an extremely brief description about linkedin. Most of you who are linkedin newbies or aware of linkedin must be thinking - "yeah, we know what linkedin is. Its just about adding your colleagues and friends and sometimes we can also get job offers. But that's it. Why the hell has this guy started a blog. Must be a maniac sitting idle, without any work". NOT EXACTLY. I just thought, it would be great to share my knowledge on linkedin with you guys, so most of you can take advantage of the same and reach your dream career just sitting at home and relaxing, free of cost.


In my opinion, Linkedin is such a powerful website that it can help you find your dream job, your dream client, your dream customer just by learning some basics. Of course, assuming you have those basic qualifications. Even after using all my techniques, it would be rare for a high school graduate to bag a management consulting career in a top MNC. I promise not to make my blog like a book. Anyways, even I don't like reading those long articles ;)


Lets get started with Linkedin. Visit http://www.linkedin.com/ and register. By now all eye-brows must have been raised, and all of you must be thinking, this is a bloody referral marketing. However, that's not true. Neither am I a linkedin affiliate, nor its promoter. I am a power linkedin user. I just love linkedin. Just a tip, when you register and fill details in your profile, please try to spend time and fill all details as accurately as possible. It should be a true reflection of your Resume. Advantage being, it doesn't have to be just 1 page long. You can fit as much information you want. But don't try to write your birth story. Feel free to take reference from my linkedin profile at http://in.linkedin.com/in/anmoljain1 . Build your profile, add your friends and colleagues, play around a bit, and I will write my next article soon.


So What next. I will try to write about 3 articles every week on this blog and uncover some of the deepest secrets of linkedin. If I get requests about a specific feature or topic, I would love to address the same in my next blog post. Else, I would prefer randomly writing about the features of linkedin, which I feel are the most important.


You can email me at anmol.rock@gmail.com with Subject: Linkedin Blog Post request if you want to request any specific topic about linkedin in my next post.


I will see you soon. Meanwhile, play around with linkedin