Leveraging your Human Network
By WirelessXFactor.com
With the explosion of Social Networking, finding a position in the Wireless Industry or that next step in your wireless career – can be that much closer if you focus on growing your Network.
That requires you to maintain and grow your network both online and off with sites like Linkedin, Jigsaw, Spoke, Facebook and Twitter. In this article and over the next few weeks – I’d like to share my perspectives on how to better utilize LinkedIn, one of the leading social networking sites for the Wireless Industry. We’ll follow up with articles on other social networking sites…like Facebook and The Twitter….and probably the most important – live events and trade shows.
With a big assist to Mobile Wireless Jobs – which has become an important representation of our brand, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to write about how candidates can better market and position themselves for wireless roles. What it means to leverage your network and how to use recruiters instead of them using you. I’ll write from the perspective of a Recruitment Consultant who works with 100’s of profiles daily.
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR NETWORK
One point I want to make is that the LInkedin Network is “a fishbowl in the ocean”..as one software sales man put it … meaning as much business we derive from it – it still just a small segment of who is out there. That being said – it’s the starting point for many recruitment drives, and good recruiting firms use Linkedin to generate call lists. Your goal is to be on those call lists when the “search” takes place.
FOCUS ON LINKEDIN
One key for prospective candidates is to leverage all the features within LinkedIn. Although its just one social networking option, for our industry, I’d rank it at the top as the site to be on. You can include Jigsaw, Spoke, Zoominfo and Linksv as good quality sites we utilize to find candidates….but with exponential growth and a database of 50 million profiles – it has become the defacto starting point for recruiters in this industry.
Over the next few blog postings, I’d like to share insight on how to maximize your potential to being “picked” out of the ocean and placed in the fishbowl….by improving your linkedin profile.
LET IT BREATH
Your LinkedIn profile and your network for that matter is a “living breathing thing.” You can’t put up a profile – never update it, never work for connections and expect your profile to be in demand. When you put up additional recommendations, update your status, add an application (Twitter feed, book recommendations, blogs etc.) it automatically broadcasts these changes to your network. It keeps you out in front of other candidates and will increase your prospects.
Those that understand the power of social networking – really work the network. Your profile has to be dynamic, not static. Make a point to visit your profile once a week – and update what needs to be updated. Otherwise – you can broadcast your latest status, update a blog or add a tweet. All in all, the value is that changing your profile puts you back out on the network – and draws attention. We always try to encourage our recruitment team and candidates to fully leverage their profiles…and we find candidates that work on perfecting their profile for a particular role are much more successful.
I’ll give you a good example – If you see a role or company your interested in – don’t be afraid to “tweak” your profile to further highlight qualifications and experience to hiring authorities. (i.e. if they are an HSPA Test Measurement vendor – make sure HSPA is in your intro and job history….obviously only if you have that experience.)
Generally speaking, companies/recruiter’s are looking primarily at a “perfect match” before moving on to other qualifications….and transferable skills. Our clients don’t pay us a fee to find “close” fits…so help us by making sure your profile is complete and up to date.
Finally, work your network. Connect with as many people as you can. Follow up on their messages. Reach out to peers in the industry. If you have your eye on a role at a Vendor – then selectively reaching out and connecting to those hiring authorities is a solid way to grow into a role. Reach out to their competition and try and hit as many employees as you can. Make an effort to get connected.
Finally, keep it current and make it full of information. Have 100% profile completeness, meaning picture, job titles, descriptions and contact info. Nothing is harder that to guess what you’ve done when all you have is a title and sentence outlining responsibilities.
Update your linkedin from the perspective of the hiring authority. They want Revenue numbers, they want growth, they want quantifiable results. Generalizations and light references are not as effective as pure numbers and strong facts. Its your brand – sell it.
Let’s face it – If you are looking then you have to give recruiters a method of contact – provide a solid contact reference either a email or phone. If you are concerned with Spam or giving out a cell – a good alternative email like gmail and/or a skype/magic jack VOIP line…might set you back a few dollars but the contact reference is an important feature to have if you want to be contacted.
To Summarize:
1. Let it Breath – make your profile fresh and update frequently
2. Work the System – Connect, Connect, Connect
3. Keep it Fresh and Full – Get the facts out, update all aspects of your background and strive for 100% profile completeness
4. If you are looking – Give us something to call or email – don’t make it hard on us.
Thanks to Mobile Wireless Jobs for giving us the opportunity to help you grow your network. Next week we’ll discuss how the Groups feature can bring you closer to your next role….and add connections to your Profile.
