Kindergarten lesson no 1: Opportunities come knocking silently, grab them before they disappear! And indeed as I have seen over many years on Linkedin, the professionals who actually took the pains to connect with me & keep updated about the market updates & hiring updates I was giving them were far more likelier to land up with their dream jobs than people who didn't even bother making/updating their Linkedin profiles! Guys! Time to wake up. You thought brushing your teeth in the morning was important, going to college was important, studying, staying healthy, etc was important. That transitioned to making sure you have your cvs uploaded on popular and not so popular jobsites (read Naukri, Timesjobs, Monster or even newcomers Shine.com), sending your cvs to consultants randomly (that does no good I assure you, the cvs usually stay in their inboxes or get deleted) was important. No no no no. NO.
How Influential Are You: Trends change (usually for a decade at a time), & this decade has seen growing popularity among businesses for networking via the very intelligent & intuitive Linkedin.com. People are increasingly understanding what Self worth (http://klout.com/)is all about & creating & regularly updating their professional profiles on various networks for maximising their chances at reaching out to the best opportunities out there.[If you spend more time on just Facebook than Linkedin or Twitter, this note isn't for you :)] So if you don't already have a Linkedin profile, go on & make one, won't cost you nothing & will help you tons. Get some genuine recommendations from people you have actually worked with & who truly recommend you & your work, put in a decent picture that depicts your personality, keep in touch with people for work & other professional needs & you shall win the day!
What exactly is my KLOUT?
In plain ENGLISH, be Approachable & out there!
How Should I be Approachable?: For ensuring you are approachable for the best opportunities orbiting the internet right now, ensure someone doesn't have problems in accessing you. Lets consider Linkedin as a prime example.
It helps to be directly approachable on Linkedin, rather than having the need for your email address to be entered in the add box, which results in most of the people who are trying to approach you with good opportunities to look for other people who are easily accessible. This happens when you choose a privacy setting which allows only those people to add you, who know you personally or otherwise.
You can always reject add requests you dont want, keeping it to a once in a week custom, but be as accessible as you can on Linkedin, You never know the next opportunity could give a major boost to your career. There are many living testimonials of how success can be achieved using Linkedin the right way. :)
If needed, keep a separate email account for Linked in networking so your personal email account is not spammed with mails, but adding an email next to your display name, for eg. John Smith (jsmith219@hotmail.com) as your identity there will also help people approach you who cannot send direct invites anymore or who have their invite limits reached but still have a good opportunity to speak to you about.
Lets not plunder Linkedin!
Also, encourage among your peers & Linkedin contacts to use Linkedin more responsibly & not post jokes, random quotes etc, which basically brings down the main purpose the site is built for, Clean & Simple Networking! Also, try not to hit on people on Linkedin as that is seen as very unprofessional by some people and they may just remove you off their lists! ;)
More soon on effective networking!
Happy Networking! :)
Neha Asthana
CEO
HR Interface Executive Search
Mumbai
Email: neha.asthana@gmail.com
Really Good article. Pl keep them coming!
ReplyDeleteVery helpful esp.for a Job seeker like me...:)
ReplyDeleteHey Neha,
ReplyDeleteThats a well thought out and a superbly written article I have come across in a long time.
Gr8 work Neha.