Using LinkedIn in your Job Search a (semi-)private pipeline

1. 
   Some listings are only posted on LinkedIn (and are so indicated with a blue star). You'll have a lot less competition if you apply than if the listing appeared on Craigslist or the major job boards.
   
2. 
   Contacts in your network (and who see that you're "receptive to new opportunities") can email you job listings, either through LinkedIn or by exporting their LinkedIn contacts and sending out a broadcast message.
   
3. 
   If you send your resume as part of a requested introduction to the job poster, or using an InMail, you can stop worrying whether your resume reached them. It did.
   
4. 
   You don't need to put your resume in a public forum, so you won't open yourself up to myriad offshore recruiters' calls or unsolicited "business opportunities."
   

1. 
   LinkedIn job-seekers are perceived as more proactive, accountable, and easier to screen.
   
2. 
   LinkedIn applicants don't carry third-party recruiters' fees, so are cheaper to hire even if the candidate earns a higher salary or rate than a recruiter-represented one.
   
3. 
   The number of peer and hiring-manager recommendations in your profile directly affects your credibility with hiring managers.
   
4. 
   Unless you're a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) and thus indiscriminate about those with whom you network, the number of connections associated with your profile also affects your credibility with hiring managers. (If your network is full of generalist recruiters and people in entirely different industries, or if you have lots of connections but no relevant recommendations, your credibility suffers.)
   

1. 
   It's easy to check a prospective colleague's background (past employers, recommendations, and so on), plus you'll probably learn more than by just Googling them (which is also wise).
   
2. 
   Using InMails and LinkedIn's free in-network messaging, you can keep your email address private when querying your network about specific people, the context for a given job opening, what's going on at the company, and so on
   
3. 
   Although it's not confidential info, the 'Company' search tool shows you at which employers you have connections (1^st – 3^rd level). Then, when you click on a company name, it'll tell you:
   
   1. 
      what that company does (according to Capital IQ), along with a link to its entry in BusinessWeek's directory, which in turn lists key officers and their compensation, key corporate news, similar private companies, and recent mergers-and-acquisitions activity
      
   2. 
      the company HQ's address, phone numbers, URL, and number of employees
      
   3. 
      the names, titles, and locations of your top five connections at the company
      
   4. 
      who's been hired there recently (regardless of whether that person's in your network)
      
   5. 
      recent promotions and job changes
      
   6. 
      where employees worked before and after their tenure at the company
      
   7. 
      the companies to which current employees are most connected on LinkedIn
      
   8. 
      the geographic locations of the company's main sites
      
   9. 
      common job titles at the company
      
   10. 
       the schools its employees attended
       
   11. 
       the employees' median age and their gender distribution
       
   12. 
       a sampling of current jobs openings posted by the company on LinkedIn
       
   13. 
       a configurable stock chart ticker symbol, current price, and current market capitalization.
       
4. 
   The 'LinkedIn Companion' plug-in for Internet Explorer and add-on for Firefox identifies companies at which you have LinkedIn connections in Monster, Yahoo HotJobs, CareerBuilder, Vault, Dice.com, and Craigslist job listings. These people can help you get hired, and sometimes even have an economic incentive to refer you to the right person at their companies.
   

1. 
   Not only can you import your email contacts from Outlook, GMail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail, but you can "edit details" of each person in your LinkedIn network from the Connections window, adding phone numbers, IM addresses, physical address, websites, birthday, and free-form notes
   
2. 
   With the 'LinkedIn Companion' installed, whenever you use Yahoo Mail, MSN Hotmail, AOL, or GMail and encounter email from a LinkedIn member (whose email address is registered with LinkedIn), you'll see a LinkedIn 'Info box' with a summary profile of the sender. You can use this to see more information about that person, invite him or her to join your LinkedIn network, and so on.
   

Presented 9/25/08 by Andrew Davis, Synergistech Communications, 866-591-2968, andrew@synergistech.com, www.synergistech.com and www.linkedin.com/in/synergistech. Please ask to join my LinkedIn network!