Simply Hired Blog

4 Essentials for Reaching out to Strangers on LinkedIn

By Joshua Waldman

Last week, I received an info interview request from a total stranger as a direct message on LinkedIn. And, despite my very busy schedule, I decided to take his call. Over the weekend, I asked myself, "Why did I agree?"

Let’s take his email apart and put it into four essential elements so that you can use them in your own LinkedIn communications.

First, here's the email I received via LinkedIn from J. :

Hi Joshua,

I noticed that we are both connected to M. – how do you know M.? I first met her at Jacob’s Ladder, and she actually photographed my wedding. Small world.

I wanted to touch base with you because I saw an open position at J.R. that I thought would be a great fit for me. I'm located in Portland now (after being in Massachusetts and DC for many years), and do social media strategy for a digital marketing agency here in town.

It's a fun role, but you know how agencies are – fingers in a lot of different businesses, but no ability to truly own a marketing program. It looks like I would be able to do that with the Marketing Communications Manager role that is posted.

Would you mind if I called you some time this week to hear about your experience at J.R. and your perspective on the marketing organization there? I'd really appreciate it.

1. Lead with something in common.

My interviewee, J., began his email by pointing out our mutual friend M. And although I know M. from my sister's college days, what really got my attention was that M. was the photographer at her wedding.

Now, with LinkedIn, there is a danger that the first-degree connection isn't really a close friend. I went through an Open Networking phase and about 100 people in my LinkedIn network are complete strangers to me.

So don’t assume that just because they're connected, they know each other.

J. took a calculated risk. However, he mitigates that risk by further sharing a personal tidbit…he's married. And as another recently married guy, I can very much relate to his situation. (i.e., he has my sympathy ).

2. Get to the point--fast.

J. wastes no time with B.S. or apologies. He's writing to me because he saw an open position at a company I have a relationship with and thinks he’d be a fit.

Notice he says, "I saw an open position." He doesn't assume I know anything about this position. In fact, it was news to me. And so I can infer that he's not assuming I’m any kind of decision maker. I know this is going to be a purely informational interview.

Furthermore, he concludes the email by re-affirming that he's just looking to hear about my experience with J.R., the company, and my perspective on their marketing organization.

My guard goes down because I know he's not going to put me on the spot or ask me for more than just my opinion.

3. What makes him qualified?

Without bragging, J. makes it clear that he's a serious candidate, not one of those job fisherman.
He tells me he already works at an agency. And that even though he enjoys the agency, he's looking for more. He wants to "truly own a marketing program."

It might occur to me, after all, that if he already has a job, why is he looking to make a change?

That concern is assuaged.

4. What do you want from me?

He concludes his email with, "Would you mind if I called you sometime this week…" meaning, I won't have to do anything except wait for a phone call and talk to him. Sounds easy.

I would have even mentioned the exact amount of time such a conversation would have taken, "Would you mind if I called you this week for just 10 or 15 minutes?"

Other observations...

You may have also noticed that:

• The email was VERY short. It took me less than 30 seconds to read it.
• He named the position he was after by name, he did his research, and I know he won't waste my time.
• He is sensitive to and grateful for my time, stating, "I would really appreciate it…"

The next time you are reaching out to someone new over LinkedIn, consider bringing in one or more of these elements to your message. I'm sure it will make a big difference in your response rate.

Had success making new connections on LinkedIn? Share your story with us in the comments section below, so we can learn from your brilliance!

Joshua Waldman helps frustrated job seekers leverage social media to find work FAST! He is the founder of CareerEnlightenment.com and the author of the new book, Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies. Sign-up for his newsletter today and get access to his exclusive training videos for free.

Career Advice: How To Get More Interviews While Sending Fewer Resumes

By Phil Rosenberg

Which do you think is more effective?

1) Sending 100 resumes responding to many jobs in the hope that a couple might be interested in you

or

2) Sending a few resumes to a few jobs where you are a perfect fit and a superior candidate?

Most candidates still send too many resumes today, and many still use method #1 above … but it doesn't work well today, leaving candidates frustrated and job search even more difficult.

While this strategy is counter-intuitive, sending fewer resumes is a much more effective method. It’s more effective and gets most candidates more interviews than the "spray and pray" method.

Why? Because candidates can’t target 100 resumes per day – not even close.

Sending many resumes per day is random. Candidates who use this method randomly apply for jobs, using the same resume. The strategy here is to hope that the words on their form letter resume magically match the 7 -10 keywords an HR rep, recruiter, employer, or admin (at a small company) is searching for.

The odds are awful, which is a big reason I see candidates with an average 1.5% resume response rate (see ''2 Ways To Determine Your Resume Response Rate" at http://www.recareered.com/blog/2011/03/02/career-advice-2-ways-to-determine-your-resume-response-rate/).

You can target one or two resumes reasonably well per day, maximum. Sending fewer resumes allows the candidate to research the company and customize each resume to specifically meet that employer's unique needs.

An effective and customized resume can get a 15-25% resume response rate (face to face interviews with hiring managers divided by total resumes sent) using a "send fewer" strategy.

Notice this ratio doesn't include recruiters (nor informational interviews) – while both are nice, they aren't job interviews…they may be a preliminary step to an interview, or they may not be.

Why does this work?

When you send fewer resumes, you spend more time customizing and targeting each position. Candidates tend to do more research (See "4 Killer Ways To Use Research In Job Search: Best of reCareered" at http://www.recareered.com/blog/2010/07/16/4-killer-ways-to-use-research-in-job-search-best-of-recareered/) when they send fewer resumes.

Candidates tend to select jobs they are "perfect for" if they send fewer.

I advise my clients, even unemployed clients, to send no more than five resumes per day. That's only if there are five perfect fit jobs, otherwise sending fewer than five works more effectively.

When you send fewer resumes … you focus.

When you send fewer resumes you also take more care on each, and really spend time on wording, bullet locations, look of the resume, reformatting.

So try sending fewer resumes and let me know – how did it work for you?

Please include your experiences in the comments below.

 

Phil Rosenberg is President of reCareered, the web’s central hub for job search advice. An active blogger about social media and career change, Phil’s articles have been republished by several of the leading job, career and recruiting sites. Connect with Phil on Twitter @philreCareered.

Site Downtime Tonight

Greetings SimplyHired.com users!

Just a quick heads up to let you know that we will be performing some scheduled site maintenance tonight, which will cause some site downtime. It's spa night for our Simply Hired servers, to get them relaxed, reorganized, and ready to take on the job searches you all have been performing lately.

Downtime duration: 30 minutes
Date: Thursday, June 23, 2011
Time window: 9pm to 12am PST

Sorry for any inconvenience. Think of it as a much deserved stretch and yoga break!

In the meantime, check out this video:

We'll be back up quickly and better than before!

Five Pragmatic Things You Can Do to Make Sure Your Resume Gets Seen by Hiring Managers

By Martin Yate

1. A Target Job Title. A resume cannot be all things to all people. It needs to focus on a specific job and carry a target job title, coming right after contact information (80% of resumes lack this and start instead with a Job Objective); your email address should be hyperlinked. Recruiters use the target job title in database searches and using one helps your resume be pulled for review by a hiring manager, and the title then gives the hiring manager an immediate focus.

2. Sell to the customer's needs: Don't sell what you think are your strong points in a resume, find out what the customers (hiring managers) want to buy. Do Target Job Deconstructions (TJD) on 6 job postings to determine how employers prioritize their needs, and the words they use to describe them. Recruiters search resume databases using the approved job title and the words used in the job description. By doing TJD you know what skills employers value in this job, how they prioritize them and the words they are likely to use in database searches: in short you'll have a template for the story your resume must tell.

3. Replace Job/Career Objective (no one cares what you want), with Performance Profile. Managers do performance reviews on all employees every year so the phrase has immediacy and relevance. Beneath the heading, address the heart of what you do in your professional work. Take the first four to five priorities from your TJD and turn them into short sentences running no more than five lines.

4. Core Competencies. Follow the Performance Profile with a Core Competency section. This contains all the words and phrases that were used in the job posting to describe your work (example: A/P, A/R, Quarterly P&L). List all the words and phrases that apply to you in columns; then repeat the words in the context of each of the jobs where they were applied, this way you get to use keywords that will be used by recruiters as search terms at least once and possibly two or three times; this will improve your database ranking. A hiring manager will read Core Competency section as headlines for all the skills you can talk about.

5. Together, a Target Job title, Target Job Deconstructions, Performance Profile, and Core Competency section pack all the information into the first half page of your resume, to improve its database performance and to tell any recruiter or hiring manager of your ability and suitability for the job. This opening to a resume tells any reader you can do the job and you "get" what is truly important.

© 2011 Martin Yate, CPC, author of Knock 'em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World

 

Martin Yate, CPC, author of Knock 'em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World, is a New York Times and international bestseller of 11 job search and career management books. For more information please visit http://www.knockemdead.com and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.

 

BOOK GIVEAWAY!
Want to read more job search and career management advice? Martin is giving away free copies of his book, Knock 'em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World, to the first five people who comment on this blog post! Make sure to enter your email address in the Email field when posting your comment.

Writing Powerful Executive Resume Summaries

By Steve Brady

Finding executive-level employment in a difficult economy can be incredibly challenging, yet at the same time, with the endless executive and management level possibilities out there, it can also be viewed as a great adventure. It all depends on how well-equipped a job hunter is. The first tool the prospective job hunter needs in his toolbox is of course an executive resume.

All resumes need certain sections that are considered standard. The following four are found in just about every executive resume: Objective, Summary, History and Education. Exactly how each of these four sections is crafted varies, but their content is vital in crafting a quality resume.

Definition of a Resume Summary
The resume summary is the place where the job hunter lists his strongest skills and selling points, as such, it is also an excellent place to include targeted keywords. Many larger companies use automatic resume screening technology, and if a given resume does not contain the right keywords, it never sees human eyes. As one of the first items visible on a resume, the summary gives potential employers a snapshot of the candidate's skills and abilities. Luckily, with some "scaffolding," anyone can write an executive resume summary.

Creating a Compelling Executive Resume Summary
The first thing a prospective job hunter needs to do is create an extensive list of job-specific skills. Writing a top 10 list of skills that apply to executive-level managers allows for a starting point from which to personalize the resume summary. List things such as:

1. Leadership skills
2. Communication skills
3. Accounting skills, etc.

Once a top 10 list has been written, it is time to personalize it with related experiences and training. Words help paint a picture, and while an executive resume summary should be brief and to the point, it should be written actively with expressive language. Modifiers are a writer's best friend in this instance, and as long as they are not overdone they will help paint a strong picture for hiring managers. Instead of "strong speaking skills," the phrase, "powerful motivational ability" gives a more vivid picture.

Targeted Keywords
Targeted keywords are vital in the technological age where auto-scanners can eliminate a resume in 10 seconds. Luckily, the job postings themselves will often have the desired words embedded in them. Read postings and advertisements carefully and try to tease out important words and phrases that give an idea of the type of candidate the company is looking for. Once identified be sure to include these key competency terms in the resume summary.

The final step as with all writing tasks is to proofread--and then proofread again. Nothing will get a resume tossed in the junk pile faster than unnecessary typos.

Once a quality resume summary has been created using powerful wording and targeted keywords, the applicant will be one step closer to possessing an executive resume. This resume will win interviews and, eventually, employment--which is what every job hunter wants.

 

Steve Brady is the owner and head writer for www.Quality-Resumes.com, a full-service resume writing company. His career-based writing can be seen on Suite 101, EHow, and the Yahoo! Contributor Network.