8 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn to Get the Job You Want

8 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn to Get the Job You WantLinkedIn is a useful and necessary career tool for almost everyone. But it can also be a fabulous job search tool. Trouble is, the ways in which this is true arent usually clear to a casual user. For example If youre just updating your profile and waiting to be discovered by recruiters or headhunters, then you can probably expect to wait a long time. This is true even if your profile is all a profile should be with a professional photo, relevant job and education info, and nifty use of all the available bells and whistles for resume optimization. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) However, if you abflug to think of LinkedIn as a massive database and resource available to you, then you might actually stand a mglichkeit of getting a job through the site. You can spare yourself an enormous amount of legwork by checking up on companies, see who you know at any given firm, and even see what that company might be looking for.Here are a few strategies to help you get hired.1. Follow the companies youd like to join one day.Choose 5-10 companies you might like to work for someday and follow them on LinkedIn. Its a great way to learn extra intel about ansicht companies that could be useful in an interview situation. You can even limit the companies you follow to ones that are close enough to your geographical location to be within range.2. Get more connections.You can increase your connections using the Advanced Search tool. Search for alumni of every school youve attended, former colleagues, even employees at companies youd like to work for. Reach out ambitiously for connections. Join groups and follow their news feeds for more leads.3. Ask for recs.Recommendations are easy to ask for on LinkedIn. Getting managers, employees, and coworkers to post reviews on your profile can really help sell your candidacy to other jobs. When asking, however, try to personalize the standa rd message to ask for what you need, but also what that person might be most inclined or informed to comment about.4. Stay active.Dont just let your profile sit there, even if its great. Join groups and post in them. Engage with others content. Comment on news feeds from companies you like. Post articles that are relevant to your industrythis can make you look informed and engaged (and hirable). Even just liking someones post can lead to a new connection.Quick tip turn off your activity broadcasts (in your privacy settings) so that every one of your connections dont receive an alert every time you add a website to your profile. Keep your broadcasts content-related and weighty.5. Use job alerts.You set up job alerts on all other job search sites, why not LinkedIn? The benefit here is that LinkedIn will give you access to the hirer/recruiter posting the job, so youll have somewhere to address your materials immediately. You can even start lining these alerts up before youre ready to a pply for jobs, just to be prepared and know whats out there in your chosen field.6. Make your headline.Your headline actually matters. Think of it as your online brand. Its the first and only thing a user will see when first searching for you. Your headline might be the thing that makes them click on your profile and read it, or even add you as a contact7. Ask for introductions.You find you have a friend of a friend in a position to help you or hire you? Ask your friend to make an introduction. You can even ask passively, by using the Get an Introduction function (the arrow to the right of the Send a Message link).8. Get started.This is all great advice. Dont file it away for whenever youre ready to start looking. Most of these strategies will be most effective if youve built them up over a few months and then can wield them to their full benefit when the time comes for you to hunt.

Balancing Caregiving With Your Career is Possible Heres How

Balancing Caregiving With Your Career is Possible Heres How Our definition of what it means to be a working caregiver is expanding and the best companies are growing alongside it. Theresa Burke has seen evidence of that personally.As Senior Manager of IT at Qualcomm, a global telecommunications company, Burke says that her companys caregiver benefits are some of the best in the game. From fully paid maternity leave and up to 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave, 12 weeks of time off to care for seriously ill family members (also at 100% of salary) to returnship and back-up child and elder care programs, employees at Qualcomm are stab und sttzeed in navigating personal life milestones alongside professional ones. For Burke, this has been crucial in enabling her to care for her 93-year-old mom.Getting this degree of caregiver support from an employer is, unfortunately, rare. While too many folks today struggle with fitting caregiving responsibilities into unforgiving work cultures, Burke has been able to make family time a priority that she doesnt have to hide.Determine what your priorities are and try to stick with those ideally, family first, she advised.Burke recently spoke to Fairygodboss about what it looks like to work for a company where caring for an aging parent and making it to a childs sporting event are actually encouraged, and she also gave her top three pieces of advice for anyone whos struggling to balance caregiving and their career.How long have you been in your current role, and what were you doing previously? Ive been with Qualcomm for two and a half years and in current role for about one year. Previously, I welches with a cyber security company as Director of Engineering. Ive been in the industry for more than 20 years.How did you prepare for maternity leave and what advice can you offer to other moms who are expecting their first child? My best advice for maternity leave is to be flexible with your expectations. I imagined I could do it all and found that a difficult standard to meet. Try to take things a day at a time and determine what is fruchtwein important to you. If you plan to use a daycare, research places with good references and ones that will be most flexible with your time. Visit often and at different hours of the day to get a sense for how things run. Finding good childcare was key for me.How long were you on maternity leave and what was it like to return to work? I had a rather large break in work, but this did notlage come after my maternity leave. When my daughter was born, I had a 12-week maternity leave, after which I returned back to work. I continued to work full-time as a Director VP of Engineering for the next five years. My daughter was in a loving and supportive daycare that was closed only on major holidays. When she turned 5, we decided to relocate from the East Coast to the West Coast. We knew nobody in San Diego, and it was at that time that I decided to take a break from work to help us tischsettle and to support my daughters elementary school years.My break from work lasted about 6 years. During that time I did a lot of volunteering, particularly with non-profits. When I did return to work after all those years, I found remarkable that it was not a difficult transition. Truthfully, it felt like I never left work.What was the most challenging part about returning to work? For me, I had two major challenges. First, my primary work network was based on the East Coast, so finding contacts in San Diego was a challenge. Secondly, I was trying to return to a technical leadership role and needed to demonstrate how I was able to keep my skills current during my career break.I searched for quite some time before finding a position, and that one was a referral that my husband (also in the industry) made to a former coworker. It was a direct result of that referral that I was given the opportunity to interview. I was able to return to work under a director title, leading a QA team.What type of programs did/does your company offer to new and expectant mothers?My current company Qualcomm not only has outstanding maternity benefits, but it is now offering a returnship program, which helps build an environment where people re-entering the workforce feel welcome and excited to return to work. I wish I had a resource like this available to me when I was looking to return to the technical workforceWhy do you think your company is a particularly great place to be a working mom?Qualcomm offers everything from paid parental leave and flexibility in hours to remote work options and relevant employee resource groups. Today, my daughter is 22, but now I have my mom living with us at the age of 93. I have many of the same challenges now as I did when I returned to work with a small child in daycare. Im finding many of the above benefits from Qualcomm are particularly helpful to me as I am navigating elder-care.What kinds of boundaries do you follow (if any) to sep arate work and family time? I prioritize any medical illnesses or appointments as non-negotiable from a work interruption perspective. Also, I try to keep weekends focused on family time.Whats your No. 1 tip for new moms who are navigating the delicate balance of working and mothering? Similar to my tip for maternity leave manage your own expectations. Determine what your priorities are and try to stick with those. Ideally, family first. Dont miss any school event, performance, or sporting event no matter how big or small. Those times are precious and cannot be replicated, and your child will always notice if you arent there. Work can be adjusted to accommodate.Clearly communicate to your manager what your needs are and how you will satisfy work demands. If you require flexibility, that shouldnt be a problem, but be clear in what that flexibility needs to look like. Communication goes a long way in ensuring theres no resentment or misunderstanding if youre missing a work day.Lastly , if your child is young and home sick dont expect to get work from home done that day, and dont set expectations that you will.--Fairygodboss is proud to partner with Qualcomm.