27 Ways to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

This is a fantastic blog article from Anna Runyan over at www.classycareergirl.com!

27 ways to improve your LinkedIn profile - a very important tool in your job search!

 

What does your LinkedIn profile say about you?

 

You can spend hours interacting in the LinkedIn discussion groups and connecting with your friends and co-workers but if you don’t have an awesome profile, all your efforts are wasted. It’s kind of like going on an interview (or first date) where you make sure that you are dressed to impress. With LinkedIn, you don’t want to start networking and searching for opportunities without dressing up your profile to impress the people that you meet. Your LinkedIn profile is your home base. Don’t confuse your LinkedIn profile with your resume because it really is so much more! You want your profile to be scannable by someone in a hurry and you want them to quickly get the most important facts without a lot of work.

Here are 27 ways that you can make your LinkedIn profile rock:

1. Upload a professional photo of yourself with a nice smile.
2. Spend some time creating an interesting headline. It should be concise, compelling and value-driven. Make it compelling.
3. Add brief content for each job position in your work experience. Remember to show your ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND RESULTS. Don’t just list the tasks that you did. Ask yourself “So what?” to each task you list. Does it pass the “So what?” test or do you need to add more results?
4. Create a personal branding URL – either your name, company or one or two word tag line summary
5. Write compelling content on what you do and how you can help others. Write for the people who you want to find your profile.
6. Provide all relevant groups or clubs of which you are a member in the real world and add the ones on LinkedIn that are important to you.
7. Make visible the groups you want others to see, and change visibility if you don’t want the public to see your group membership
8. Display awards and achievements to build credibility with industry members
9. Include your contact information such as your email address and phone number if you want people to contact you. Also, include ways that you want to be contacted such as for job inquiries or career opportunities.
10. Join groups in your industry, city, state, former university or in your other interests. If one is not available, create a group of your specialty.
11. Send an invitation and add some value to the message by trying to make it more personal.
12. Import your contacts and invite them to connect with you.
13. Look for “Open Networkers”- you can join a group called LIONs or LinkedIn Open networkers. The more connections, the more likely you are to find what you seek when searching (as well as be found when others are searching).
14. Build the foundation of networking – Become someone that others know, like and trust.
15. A great way to build trust with your connections is to make introductions. Introduce people in your network that you think would make a great fit.
16. When you see a new person join LinkedIn or even a new person join one of your groups, send them a note to get to know them.
17. Once you join a group, take some time to browse through profiles and reach out to those who you find interesting.
18. The best way to get accepted in a real world LinkedIn group is by becoming friends with the leader. Group moderators are the leaders of every group. Connect with these individuals by sending them a message explaining the passion you share for their niche.
19. Make a recommendation for someone. When you recommend others, your name and recommendation show up on their profile. The more profiles you recommend, the more times your name shows up when others browse those profiles. Like giving a referral, a recommendation is one of the biggest compliments someone can receive. Do not wait for someone to ask you for a recommendation. You should take the initiative and write a compelling recommendation for a fellow connection.
20. Ask group founders if there is any way you can help them. This can be an easy way of gaining acceptance from the rest of the members.
21. Go to the “Add Connections” tab on your LinkedIn home page and see who has recently joined from your e-mail address book. Send them all invites to link up.
22. Seek out friends or colleagues who are not currently on LinkedIn who could benefit from it. Send them a personal invite to join, and briefly explain to them the benefits of building their network online.
23. Update your LinkedIn profile with rich key words and phrases to bring your profile to the top of the list when others search for those specific words.
24. Ask compelling questions on LinkedIn-ones where you are bound to get a few responses.
25. Add value to the questions others ask by providing insightful answers
26. Add your blog, videos and social media information to your profile. You can even add the latest books that you are reading to make your profile more unique and personal to the viewer.
27. Add your own skills and endorse others skills. If you want to be endorsed, ask for endorsements from people you trust.

7 Tips for Acing the Phone Interview

Congratulations on your interview!  Did we mention that it’s going to be conducted over the phone?  The phone interview is a double edged sword.  You don’t have to fidget in a waiting room, worry too much about your hair and makeup, or worry about sweaty palms.  However, now you do have to fidget in your living room waiting for their call, try to convey professionalism and enthusiasm and gauge their reaction to you without the aid of seeing each other’s faces.  That’s not easy.  But being prepared can give you a way to avoid painfully awkward interview snafus, and let you use the situation to your advantage.

• Create a quiet, interruption-free environment for yourself.  No pets, no kids, no radio or TV on mute. Sit at a desk, upright, not pacing or curled up cozy.  You can hear the difference in tone when someone is lounging and when they are communicating professionally.
• Take organized notes on the company, the position, the industry and how your skills and experience relate to all of these.  Organize these notes in such a way that will be easy to refer to when answering questions but avoid reading your notes verbatim.  And don’t forget to note where you got this information.  While discussing the company’s mission, you may want to mention the article about them from that national publication, or what their culture looks like from their online presence.  You want them to know you did your homework on them, and you have both questions about what you learned and professional knowledge in this field.  Getting to have your notes in front of you is an advantage you shouldn’t waste.
• Because you don’t have the benefit of non-verbal cues, don’t allow awkward, dead air happen (except of course for when they may be taking notes on your responses). Acknowledge each person when you are introduced to the panel, verbally indicate that you are listening, if you have difficulty hearing, it’s ok to let them know the line cut out and ask to repeat, or you can repeat their question or statement back to them.  In this same vein, because sometimes there can be a lag in the line, wait two or three seconds after they have asked a question before answering.  You don’t want to think they are finished prematurely and interrupt your panel members.
• Have plenty of questions ready, and ask new ones based on the information they give you.  This indicates to them that you are really invested in the prospect of this job and will not be a passive team member, but an inquisitive, involved one.
• Be present and do not zone out.  It helps to take notes on what they say to keep you in the moment.  Not being in the room with your interview panel is all the more reason to try and stay present and actively listening.
• Let your personality show.  They can’t see your smile but they can hear it.  And showing a little personality goes a long way when they can’t shake your hand and feel your enthusiasm in person.
• All the same etiquette applies, you still should send a handwritten thank you note to your interview panel members and follow up when appropriate. 

With preparation and professionalism, the phone interview can work to your advantage and help you get where you want to go.

Joyce Abbott Holds a BA in Anthropology and an MA in Library Science.  She has worked in for-profits, non-profits, and local government everywhere from customer service, to librarianship, to corporate records management.  She believes the point of life is to never stop growing and pushing yourself into something new.  You can connect with Joyce on Linkedin.com!

Why Being Selfish Can Be Good For Your Career

This month we are exploring ways to get unstuck in your career.  Today's repost is an interesting article from BrazenCareeist.com all about the importance of looking out for YOU within your career, whether it comes to your pay or the work you do on a daily basis.

Article by Robbie Abed, reposted from Brazencareerist.com

Who cares the most about your career: you or your boss?

Who cares whether you’re getting paid fairly: you or Human Resources?

Who cares whether you’re learning new skills that will guarantee job security in three years: you or a career counselor?

Welcome to You Enterprises. Sure, your boss, HR and career advisors play critical roles in your work life, but they aren’t the driving force of your career. They expect you to take control of your own professional life, and you should see things that way, too.

Being a team player is great and an important skill in the workplace. But for a few key issues, forget everyone else—you’ve got to be selfish if you want to see changes. That because at the end of the day, no one's going to look out for you the way you will look out for yourself.

Here are the three things you need to be the most selfish about:

1. The work you do on a daily basis

How often have you done a job that wasn’t part of your job description? Were you performing that job for more than a few months? Did that help or hurt your long-term career? In most cases, this “different” job hurt your chances of getting a promotion in your core job, because you were spending your time doing something else that another manager requested.

Pitching in is necessary, but sometimes you just have to stand up for yourself and say NO. Be nice, but give a good reason why you can’t do it.

Managers are always trying to create the best team possible, even if it’s not in the long-term interests of their team members. In other words, their job is to do what’s best for them or best for their team—and that’s not necessarily what’s best for you.

A lot of this has to do with personal branding. If you are known for doing X and you are doing Y, then you’ve got a serious issue to address.

2. How much you get paid

When was the last time someone from Human Resources came up to you and said, “You know, Jenny, I think you are being underpaid. Come to my office tomorrow morning and let’s talk about how we can adjust your pay accordingly.”

If that has happened to you, great for you. But if you’re like the most of us, it probably has not happened.

Unless you take an active role in how much you get paid, you will always be paid less than everyone else.

There are plenty of ways to take an active role in negotiating salary. Come prepared with evidence of how much everyone else is making through services such as glassdoor.com.

Often, HR or your boss will state that compensation is only discussed during your annual review. It’s a common tactic that is used over and over by employers. Yes, it’s true that there is a standard time to discuss compensation, but this does not mean it’s the only time to discuss compensation.
The stronger your case, and the more the company needs you, the easier it becomes to get a pay bump before the annual review. It’s up to you to push your case and timeline.

3. Who you work for

Depending on the size of the company you work for, sometimes you have a choice of manager. The problem is that nobody ever tells you that you have a choice—and being part of a bad group or having a bad manager could seriously hurt your career long-term.

Your manager will probably never tell you that a lateral move to another manager is a possibility for you. That could be because he needs you in his group, or because—as is so often the case—he has no idea he’s a terrible manager.

Thinking about requesting a transfer? Could be a great move, especially if you like the company you’re working for. The best time to ask to switch groups is when a big project of yours has ended or is near completion. The easiest way for a switch is to find the group you want to work for and approach its manager.

Why You Need a Personal Website

In one of our recent blog posts we mentioned that having your own website as your Resume is a top tip to stand out against the crowd when job seeking!  Well here is a great article from www.thedailymuse.com  which goes into this topic in a bit more detail.  Have you considered setting up your own website to boost your job search?  Here's why you should...

Reposted from thedailymuse.com

These days, creating a personal website is pretty easy. You don’t need to know about web hosting or code—the newest kids on the block are hosted profile pages with templates you can fill in with photos, links, and text about yourself. You don’t even have to have tons of content for subpages—just one landing page is all you need to stake out your spot on the web.

So, it’s easy, but is it necessary?

If you’re a media, digital, or creative professional—absolutely. Same goes if you want to otherwise establish yourself as an expert in anything and don’t already have your own professional blog. If you’re in a traditionally non-creative field with structured recruitment and hiring methods, such as accounting or law, a personal website might not help you as much professionally. But if you have a side hustle or hobby and you’re active in the online community, then a personal site can be helpful to grow that online influence, too. Here are three reasons why.

1. You Control Your Branding

Most personal website services allow you to customize everything from background photos to fonts and text placement—so, unlike LinkedIn’s uniform profile, your personality and brand can shine through. When someone finds you, they’ll have an instant, visual representation of who you are. (A couple of my faves: product designer Liang Shi and marketing strategist Lindsay Kaplan.)

2. It’s an Instant Portfolio

People are visual, so the more you can show (rather than tell), the better. Your resume may say that you “built a company blog following of 15,000 engaged readers,” but with your personal site, you can take someone straight to the blog and show why it’s so engaging and what sets your work apart. By featuring work samples, sites you’ve worked on, articles you’ve written, whatever, your personal homepage can act as a digital portfolio of your online work and identity.

3. You Point Recruiters in the Right Direction

Though only 40% of companies use social media as part of their screening process, many more use it informally (and in my experience, hiring managers and interviewers who may not be on the HR side usually do their own research, too). So consider this: If a recruiter sees your resume and tries to find you on LinkedIn or Facebook, you could get lost among the other professionals who share your name. But if you have a personal website aggregating your various networks (and put that URL on your resume), you take all the guesswork out of finding you.

How to Get Started

Convinced? There are plenty of easy (and free) services you can use to put up a quick profile, such as About.me, Flavors.me, DooID, and Zerply. Some of these sites allow you to create subpages or pull in your social media feeds, while About.me is a great choice if you just need a basic landing page.
By and large, your URL will be the website name + your username (for example, about.me/angelineevans), though most services will let you point a custom domain (i.e., yourname.com) to your profile.
Once you have it set up, here’s what you should include:

• A photo, such as a professional and creative headshot—something that captures who you are.
• A mission statement or personal summary. Try to stay away from official resume-speak and get people excited about what excites you. (Mine includes “I help nonprofits and companies show the impact of their work, inspire action from their audience, and communicate more effectively.”)
• Links to your professional social media profiles, such as LinkedIn, your blog, Twitter, or a Facebook page. Remember though, if you don’t want a recruiter finding something (for example, if your Facebook profile is just for friends and family), don’t put it on your profile.
• Your contact information—tell people where they can reach you, whether it’s via email, Twitter, or another preferred method.

That’s all you really need to get started—but of course, feel free to add links to your work, your resume, a bio, you name it! It can be helpful to search for people in your field who are also on the platform of your choice and browse their sites to get inspiration for your own page.
Now, all that’s left to decide is—which photo gets the big spot?

Read more: http://www.thedailymuse.com/tech/why-you-need-a-personal-website/#ixzz2NuaLgGUS
Follow us: @dailymuse on Twitter | thedailymuse on Facebook

What Does It Take to be a Successful Woman?

This month we are focused on empowering, inspiring and informing women on how to be happy and successful in their professional life. So it seems only fitting to explore the top five characteristics or qualities of successful woman. These traits transcend profession or path in life, and instead offer a guidepost for all women who want to live as their most brilliant self.

 

 

1. Successful women are first and foremost authentic.

They aren’t trying to be someone else. They just are themselves no more, no less. When you talk with most successful women, you will find that their journey has been either fit with truth seeking and transformation to find their authentic self or you’ll find women who have been raised and nurtured to be an original.

Either way, the end result is the same, being you and being true is what creates not only happiness, but success along the way.

2. Successful women are passionate.

Did you ever meet a successful woman who wasn’t passionate? I haven’t! With successful women, you can see the fire burning in their eyes as they talk about their mission, project or business. Regardless of the industry or profession, woman who find success do so because they love what they do and do what they love.

3. Successful women challenge themselves.

It’s not enough to be average or keep up with their peers. No, successful women look for the challenge. They look for the things in their profession and business that pushes their own limits and boundaries. They challenge themselves regularly and use those challenges as an opportunity to grow and develop their skills, talents and personal effectiveness.

4. Successful women surround themselves with support.

Truly sustained success requires a team and successful women know how to surround themselves with talent and support. Yes, we all have an inner superwoman inside of us just wanting to do everything herself, but longevity requires loosening the reigns and relying on your employees, coworkers, family and friends in times of struggle. Despite what ads may tell us, we cannot do it all! So attracting and developing key relationships is essential to long term success.

 

5. Successful women are resilient.

In last month’s issue, I talked about the top five things resilient woman do and resiliency definitely defines success. We all have challenges, and struggles and things that don’t go the way we hope and/or planned. It’s what we do in those moments that determines whether we are successful or whether we get sidelined. Success is made less in the moments when everything is flowing nicely and more in the moments when we are having to readjust our trajectory.

 

Named after the great archangel, Gabrielle Marie Loomis is a Messenger for our modern day world.  Through her work, she has helped hundreds of women connect with their own power to heal, love and shine brightly in the world.  With over fifteen years of training in energy psychology, manifestation techniques, metaphysics and holistic healing modalities, she has been described as a master coach, healer, medical intuitive, shaman, psychic, counselor and spiritual adviser.  But more than her training, it is her own personal experience of radical transformation that informs her work and allows her to awaken women to their feminine power and unique brilliance.  In addition to her private practice, which includes a variety of transformational programs, products and services, Gabrielle works on staff at an integrative wellness clinic and is a faculty member at the award winning college, The Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.  Her credentials include Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Certified Lifeline Practitioner and Certified Life Coach.  She has been a featured guest on various radio shows including Hay House and Seaview radio.  She lives in Phoenix, AZ where she enjoys the mountains, sunshine and all that the Southwest has to offer.  To learn more visit www.gabriellemarieloomis.com.

Building Your Self Esteem - Part 1

Part 1 of a 5 part series from psychologist Ellen M. Diana phd

Building Your Self-Esteem to Take the First Steps to Changing Your Life

What’s holding you back from being all that you can be?  Maybe it’s low self-esteem.

Healthy self-esteem is the foundation of your life. Whether or not you succeed in reaching your goals depends on the level of your self-esteem. Feelings of low self-worth and low self-confidence can hold you back from having all the success that you desire because unconsciously you feel that you don’t deserve it.

This is because the hallmark of healthy self-esteem is feeling deserving of having the good things in life. Feeling deserving means you are proud of who you are and have an expectation that what you need and ask for will be provided. If you think you don’t deserve that good job, promotion, or pay raise that you desire, then perhaps you’re not considering everything that you have going for you.

Let’s look at this situation in terms of the traits that you possess and feel pride in:

·         First, look over the box of positive traits listed below and select five which you feel describe you best. Think of these five as your anchors; you rely on these traits to get you through your life. Most likely you’ve also been praised for these traits and that makes you feel good.

Active, adaptable, adventurous, affectionate, analytical, artistic, assertive, attentive, brave, calm, caring, charitable, cheerful, compassionate, collaborative, competent, concerned, confident, congenial, considerate, creative, curious, daring, decisive, dedicated, determined, devoted, diplomatic, discreet , dynamic, eager, easygoing, effective, empathic, energetic, enthusiastic, extroverted, fearless, firm, flexible, forgiving, friendly, fun-loving, generous, giving, happy, healthy, hopeful, honest, humble, humorous, idealistic, important, impulsive, inquisitive, intellectual, involved, jolly, just, kind, knowledgeable, logical, lonely, lovable, loving, lucky, magnanimous, motivated, neglected, nervous, open-minded, organized, outgoing, pampered, passionate, patient, perceptive, persistent, persuasive, playful, positive, practical, rational, realistic, reluctant, respectful, responsible, sensible, serious, sociable, spontaneous, spunky, strong, talented, talkative, tenacious, tender, thoughtful, tolerant, trustworthy, truthful, understanding, witty.

 

·         Next, consider how each of the five traits could be useful for you in the workplace.  For example, if you selected diplomatic as one of your anchors, are you diplomatic in your interactions with your boss and co-workers? What gets in the way of your using this positive trait?

 

·         Also, think about whether you are using your anchors as much as you could. For example, if you selected extroverted, consider whether you express yourself as much as you could or if you have a tendency to be more introverted in the workplace. Think about why that could be so.

Finally, look for opportunities to use the traits that you are most comfortable with in the workplace. For example, if analytical is one of your anchors, look for ways to use this positive trait appropriately in your career.

Show your pride!

This blog post is the first of a short series on the topic of building self-esteem by examining what makes you proud and what makes you feel shame. Look for more blogs on this topic in the months to come.  

Also, consider coming to my two-part workshop, Building Healthy Self-Esteem, at Fresh Start on Wednesday April 17^th and Wednesday April 24^th from 1-3 PM. Attendance at Part I is helpful, but is not required, to attend Part II.  The fee for each session is $5.00. Hope to see you there!

Ellen Diana is a psychologist, author of the Lucky Dreamer Tip Series, and co-author of the Charge up Your Life series of self-help books. She has 30 years’ experience working with children, adults, couples, and families in schools and in private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. Helping women to evolve into their best selves through personal growth and self-awareness is a passion of hers. Ellen raised three successful children as a single parent and so has special interests in mentoring other women in transition and helping parents to raise resilient children. Contact Ellen at drdiana@ellendiana.com or through her website www.ellendiana.com

 

 

Interview with Anna Runyan: Classy Career Girl

We are very excited to bring you today's interview with Career Coach, and Founder of ClassyCareerGirl.com, Anna Runyan.

We asked Anna for her ideas and tips on how to get 'Unstuck' if you are feeling unfulfilled and trapped within the wrong career, so read on to learn from and be inspired by Anna!

The Interview

Hello Anna we are so excited to have links to your excellent webinars on how to get your career unstuck on our website this month! 

From your experience what would be your words of encouragement to a woman who finds herself stuck in her current job, feeling unfulfilled and frustrated?

Anna Runyan:

The first step is learning how to understand you better so that you have a meaningful and truly fulfilling professional life.   That is the first thing you need to do.  You start with this and this is why most people jump into jobs they hate because they miss this very important step!  You need to assess your own unique personality, it will help you learn how you relate to other people, what kind of environments you are most comfortable in and how you manage, persuade and work with others. 

It took years for me to finally figure out that applying to jobs online didn’t work because I needed to understand myself better first.  And as soon as I did that, that dream job just starting popping up left and right.  Eventually, I didn’t even have to apply for jobs because those jobs would just come to me. It took me a long time to figure out but I realized the simple tool of learning more about myself through networking and self-assessment.  Knowing myself better has helped me nail interviews so much more than before when I was shy, introverted and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

 

Did you ever find yourself stuck in a job and if so what did you do about it?

Anna Runyan:

In the past I use to live a double life – working a day job I hated and then coming home and being a “job applicant” after work and on weekends. I know first hand how tough the job market is and how long it can take to find that next career opportunity.  I was totally stuck and didn’t know how to get out.  I didn’t even know or care what jobs I applied to, all I knew is that I needed to get out! I applied to 20 or so jobs and didn’t hear back from 1 until I started doing my job search differently and focusing on MYSELF first, rather than just applying to any old job on the internet and waiting for them to call me back.  I also know how scary networking is especially because I am an introvert.  I literally would get so scared with nervousness to go to networking events and then I would totally back out at the last minute and go home instead.  I didn’t know what to say to people and I wasn’t confident in myself and what I had to offer.

I then learned strategies on how to get more confident and how to give a great introduction and elevator pitch that now has people coming to me at networking events and I don’t even miss a beat!  I am still an introvert but going to events and talking to people in interviews is not scary anymore, I actually enjoy it now.  So I know what it is like to be stuck and know that you need a change but not know what to do about it. I knew I was meant to do greater things AND love my life more.  I mean this wasn’t where I imagined!  I even went back to school and got my MBA thinking that would change my job position after a few years.  Well, no new job magically appeared with the MBA title after my name.  Why? Because I put no effort into networking and job searching during business school because I was so dang busy!  It wasn’t until after I graduated that I finally put time into understanding myself and adding networking with people to my job search who helped me figure out what direction I wanted to go into and how to get there.  One thing I did learn is this, if you learn more about yourself and believe in yourself, there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle ahead. 

So after a few years of a lot of hard work understanding myself better and talking to people during my networking challenges where each month I would meet 4 people I didn’t know and 4 people I did know, I learned a lot, got focused, and got clear on the direction that I wanted to head.  I now love what I do everyday and get to do what I am passionate about AND work that fits my personality, my interests and my motivations.  So understanding yourself better and networking are the key.  That dream career is really out there for you if that’s what you are ready for.

Sometimes it is taking the first step that can be the hardest – what might be some of the practical first steps that our readers could take to make a positive change in their career, starting today?

Anna Runyan:

Informational Interviews: Informational interviews are basically when you ask a professional in the industry you want to go into 10-15 questions about your career before you get into it.

I can't tell you enough how important informational interviews are.  I did a lot of informational interviews when I was in college and I am so glad I did because it made me realize what careers I didn’t want. I did an informational interview with a lawyer and discovered that it was not the right career fit for me. So much better than spending time and dollars going to law school and then discovering I hated law!  It is so much better to learn if you like a profession before going into it.  Informational interviews can help you get your foot in the door of a future job.  The company may not have openings right now but if you make a good impression, they will think of you first when an opening becomes available. 

At Fresh Start Women’s Foundation we focus on job readiness, supporting women to develop key skills that will enable them to gain employment and make positive steps forward in their career – what would be your advice be to a Fresh Start women who is stuck in a job where she is underpaid, underappreciated, and unhappy?

Anna Runyan:

Just take action. Do something small everyday. Make sure you do something besides staying miserable in a role that you hate.  Life is too short to be miserable.

Don’t think that there is anything that you can’t do.  If you have a dream or big scary goal, just put a plan in place and start talking to the people that are already in that position you want to be in. It’s amazing how doors will start opening once you set your mind to do something and start telling people about it.

Thank you so much for your time today Anna – these tips and your insight will be invaluable to our readers!