Over at the American Express Open Forum I posted an interview with Keith Ferrazzi, the author of Who’s Got Your Back. Keith’s preview book, Never Eat Alone was a huge success. In my interview he explains how executives can improve their success by forming a team of hardcore advisors. Click here to read it.
Over at the American Express OPEN Forum, I posted a guest article by Bill Reichert, my colleague at Garage. He and I went on an overnight trip to the USS Nimitz, and these are the lessons he learned from the visit that one can apply to management and entrepreneurship. Click here to read it.
Searching for a job can suck if you constrain yourself to the typical tools such as online jobs boards, trade publications, CraigsList, and networking with only your close friends. In these kinds of times, you need to use all the weapons that you can, and one that many people don’t—or at least don’t use to the fullest extent, is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has over thirty-five million members in over 140 industries. Most of them are adults, employed, and not looking to post something on your Wall or date you. Executives from all the Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn. Most have disclosed what they do, where they work now, and where they’ve worked in the past. Talk about a target-rich environment, and the service is free.
Here are ten tips to help use LinkedIn to find a job. If you know someone who’s looking for a job, forward them these tips along with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. Before trying these tips, make sure you’ve filled out your profile and added at least twenty connections
Get the word out. Tell your network that you’re looking for a new position because a job search these days requires the “law of big numbers” There is no stigma that you’re looking right now, so the more people who know you’re looking, the more likely you’ll find a job. Recently, LinkedIn added “status updates” which you can use to let your network know about your newly emancipated status.
Find out where people with your backgrounds are working. Find companies that employ people like you by doing an advanced search for people in your area who have your skills. For example, if you’re a web developer in Seattle, search profiles in your zip code using keywords with your skills (for example, JavaScript, XHTML, Ruby on Rails) to see which companies employ people like you.
Find out where people at a company came from. LinkedIn “Company Profiles” show the career path of people before they began work there. This is very useful data to figure out what a company is looking for in new hires. For example, Microsoft employees worked at Hewlett-Packard and Oracle.
Find out where people from a company go next. LinkedIn’s “Company Profiles” also tell you where people go after leaving the company. You can use this to track where people go after leaving your company as well as employees of other companies in your sector. (You could make the case that this feature also enables to figure out which companies to avoid, but I digress.)
Check if a company is still hiring. Company pages on LinkedIn include a section called “New Hires” that lists people who have recently joined the company. If you have real chutzpah, you can ask these new hires how they got their new job. At the very least you can examine their backgrounds to surmise what made them attractive to the new employer.
Get to the hiring manager. LinkedIn’s job search engine allows you to search for any kind of job you want. However, when you view the results, pay close attention to the ones that you’re no more than two degrees away from. This means that you know someone who knows the person that posted the job—it can’t get much better than that. (Power tip: two degrees is about the limit for getting to hiring managers. I never help friends of friends of friends.) Another way to find companies that you have ties to is by looking at the “Companies in Your Network” section on LinkedIn’s Job Search page.
Get to the right HR person. The best case is getting to the hiring manager via someone who knows him, but if that isn’t possible you can still use LinkedIn to find someone inside the company to walk your resume to the hiring manager or HR department. When someone receives a resume from a coworker even if she doesn’t know the coworker, she almost always pays attention to it.
Find out the secret job requirements. Job listings rarely spell out entirely or exactly what a hiring manager is seeking. Find a connection at the company who can get the inside scoop on what really matters for the job. You can do this by searching for the company name; the results will show you who in your network connects you to the company. If you don’t have an inside connection, look at profiles of the people who work at the company to get an idea of their backgrounds and important skills.
Find startups to join. Maybe this recession is God telling you it’s time to try a startup. But great startups are hard to find. Play around with LinkedIn’s advanced search engine using “startup” or “stealth” in the keyword or company field. You can also narrow by industry (for example, startups in the Web 2.0, wireless, or biotech sectors). If large companies can’t offer “job security,” open up your search to include startups.
Build your network before you need it. As a last tip, no matter how the economy or your career is doing, having a strong network is a good form of job security. Don’t wait until times are tough to nurture your network. The key to networking (or “schmozing”), however, is filled with counter-intuitiveness. First, it’s not who you know—it’s who knows of you. Second, Great schmoozers are not thinking “What can this person do for me?” To the contrary, they are thinking, “What can I do for this person?” For more on schmoozing, read “The Art of Schmoozing.”
Here are two more ways I can help you in your job search. First, for an aggregation of hundreds of newly posted jobs, check out Jobs.alltop. Second, to really stay on top of what’s the latest news about LinkedIn, go to Linkedin.alltop; this will turn you in a true LinkedIn power user. Just remember me when you’re rich and famous!
Addendum: "Using LinkedIn to Find a Job" by Kaye Monty
Over at the American Express OPEN blog, I posted an article called“Tough Talk for Tough Times: What the CEO Should Be Saying Now.” In it, I discuss what CEOs should be telling employees now in order to (a) not appear clueless and (b) lead a company. Check it out! Please click on “Yes, found this useful” if you did so.
Over at the American Express OPEN Forum, I posted an article explaining “Ten Tiny Things Every Small Business Owner Should Do in 2009.” I hope you it helps you make your business stronger in 2009.
Over at the American Express Open Forum blog I posted an article called “Literature and Narrative Management.” According to the New York Times, hospitals are incorporating the study of literature into residency programs because it leads to greater innovation, empathy, and communication. My theory is the same would hold true for business.
Pontificating, theorizing, and terrorizing abounds these days in tech startups. Here is a simple test to help you figure out if the startup you work for is in trouble. All you have to do is listen to your CEO talk to people for a week and determine if she uses these lines.
"Let me tell you why the Sequoia memo really doesn't apply to us."
"Our team is totally engaged and believe in the company."
"Our market is so large that a 20 percent reduction won't matter to us."
"We aren't changing our long-term strategy because this is a short-term problem."
"It's still too early to tell if we'll be affected."
"The sales pipeline that we've already booked is still strong."
"The start of sales results is just around the corner."
"We can accelerate revenue with a few tweaks to our product."
"We can reduce expenses without affecting headcount."
"Our investors are totally engaged and believe in the company."
"We think we can raise another round right after the holidays."
"We heard that our competitors are in trouble, but we've been more conservative with expenses."
"We have twelve months of cash even with our most conservative sales forecast."
"In these times, (Some Big Company) needs what we offer to increase sales."
"In these times, (Some Big Company) needs what we offer to reduce costs."
"We've built an extremely viral product so we can reduce our sales and marketing expenses."
Score Sheet:
0-3. You're good for at least a year, and there is a healthy level of optimism and delusion (both of which are required in startup CEOs).
4-8. Unless things turn around, your company will hit the wall in nine months.
9-12. Six months is about how long it will take to find a job so start looking now.
12 or more. Fire up Word and get your resume ready.
These are interesting times, and you should understand that many people can tell you how to cut costs. That's fine and dandy, but the true test is whether you can increase sales and increase cash flow not layoff people to success.
To help your CEO, suggest that he or she go here for leadership help and here for financial news.
Additions from the front line:
"We fired out sales team, but our upcoming Facebook app will drive sales." (Peter Urban)
The experts are promulgating many esoteric ways to determine the financial condition of the economy. It's irrational to base one's mood on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). After all, (a) what does that have to do with the real world? And (b) it reflects the buying (and selling) decisions of the same investment bankers who got us into this mess.
Instead, here are my ten+ ways--GIA (Guy's Index of Absurdity)--to tell if the economy is really bad:
Venture capitalists attend board meetings via WebEx rather than Gulfstream.
Twitter charges for its service.
Jones Soda switches to text-only labels.
Steve Jobs switches from New Balance to Crocs.
The toilet seats at Google are no longer heated.
Reservations are no longer necessary for the Apple Genius Bar.
Buck's of Woodside changes its name to Quarter's.
Pierre Omidyar starts selling stuff on eBay.
Larry Ellison flys on Southwest Airlines before 11:00 pm.
Men can speak at Blogher as long as they pay for the time slot.
When you see these things happening, it's time to panic. Until then, don't sweat the DJIA--just keep on making, selling, and supporting good stuff.
Addendumbs (sic)
Richard Branson starts flying on United. (@americanheretic)
Over at the American Express Open Forum blog I just posted an interview with Chunka Mui, the author of Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years.. The subject of the interview is how and why companies make billion dollar mistakes. His thoughts are quite instructive (and scary). Click here to check out this interview.
Over at the American Express blog I explain how to tell if your boss is crazy based on the work of Mindsite to DSM-IV-TR bring to the rest of us. If you suspect that you work for a narcissistic, paranoid, obssessive-compulsive, anti-social nut case, click here to learn more. Related resources: "Is Your Boss an Asshole?" and Psychology.alltop.
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