Many of my clients are concerned that being active on LinkedIn is an indicator that they are involved in a job search. Of course, broadcasting your job search to your manager, your customers and your co-workers is not something that you want to do! Yet as I mentioned in previous posts, fleshing out your LinkedIn profile and expanding on your connections lays the groundwork for networking and this is a critical part of getting yourself organized for the search.

I think the real problem lies with the fact that LinkedIn typically sends out an update about your activity to your connections. So it would be natural for someone to take notice, if they receive a flurry of updates about your editing your profile, adding new connections, and joining various networking groups.

If you are worried about this you can turn off the feature on LinkedIn that updates your connections on your activity. Here is how you do this: Continue reading →

Positioning is a thread that runs through the entire job search. This is when you describe yourself in such a way that your audience can easily imagine your success at your job search target. The resume and cover letter are both great opportunities for this. As you build networking skills, you also learn how to position yourself informally and even better, how to adapt your message more specifically to your audience.

I think that the summary section of LinkedIn can also be a great opportunity for positioning and I strongly suggest that you take advantage of this option when you build your LinkedIn profile. Take some time to craft your summary so that you speak in your own voice as you tell your story. Continue reading →

No offense but I’ve been browsing around Linkedin looking at profiles and have come to the conclusion that most folks haven’t put much effort into this. From a career counseling perspective, I think it is important because this is just one more way of making a good impression. Even more important, it can also serve as a way to be discovered by a recruiter, so you’ll certainly want to come across in as effective a way as possible. Here are some tips: Continue reading →

For those of you who are looking for a job in the Richmond area, www.Richmondjobnet.com may be a very useful resource for you. Published by the Greater Richmond Partnership, this site is designed to provide resources for local job seekers.

I subscribe to their newsletter (and you can too—it is just a click away on their home page) and their January, 2012 newsletter listed 24 companies who have either announced new locations or expansions in the Richmond region over the past year. By their calculations, these announcements have totaled nearly 5,000 local jobs! As the newsletter says “some are hiring now, and some will be hiring in the future, but all are growing and should be on your radar.” Here are the companies they listed: Continue reading →

A client called me a few weeks ago to give me an update on her job search. I was sorry to hear things had not been going well for her—she had been looking unsuccessfully for several months and was beginning to feel quite discouraged. Continue reading →