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Get Recruiters to Notice You on LinkedIn, with Donna Serdula

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Last year LinkedIn offered a new option. You can now check a box visible only to recruiters that says you’re open to new opportunities. Recruiters on LinkedIn can now search and find people who use this feature. Our guest expert this week is Donna Serdula, a nationally recognized LinkedIn expert. She says you need to do more if you want recruiters to find and talk to you.

About Our Guest: Donna Serdula

Donna Serdula is an nationally recognized expert in LinkedIn profile optimization. She’s also the founder of Vision Board Media and LinkedIn Makeover.  And she’s the author of “LinkedIn Profile Optimization For Dummies.” With more than 30 writers on her team, Donna has helped thousands of professionals and companies tell their stories and brand themselves successfully on LinkedIn.

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Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 133:

How to Let Recruiters on LinkedIn Know You’re Open, with Donna Serdula

Airdate: April 4, 2018

Mac Prichard:

Hi, this is Mac, of Mac’s List. Find Your Dream Job is presented by Mac’s List, an online community where you can find free resources for your job search, plus online courses and books that help you advance your career. My latest book is called Land Your Dream Job Anywhere. It’s a reference guide for your career that covers all aspects of the job search, including expert advice in every chapter. You can get the first chapter for free by visiting macslist.org/anywhere.

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life. I’m Mac Prichard, your host, and publisher of Mac’s List.

I’m joined by my co-hosts, Becky Thomas and veteran co-host, Ben Forstag, who’s filling in for Jessica Black this week as she is on vacation.

This week, we’re talking about how to let recruiters know on LinkedIn that you’re open to new job opportunities.

Last year, LinkedIn offered a new option. You can now check a box visible only to recruiters that says you’re open to new opportunities. That means recruiters can now search and find people who use this feature.

Our guest expert this week is Donna Serdula. She’s a nationally recognized LinkedIn expert. She says you need to do more if you want recruiters to find and talk to you. Donna and I talk later in the show.

At Mac’s List, we’re huge fans of self-assessment. Identifying the skills you offer, for example, can help you get clear about the best jobs for you. Becky has found a new an online tool you can use to assess your professional skills. It comes from the US Department of Labor. She tells us more in a moment.

Our listener question this week comes from Thomas Weissenberg in Germany. He’s about to start a job search in France where he once worked for more than a decade. Thomas wants to know how he can get his C.V. in front of leaders who want employees who can work in different cultures. Ben shares his advice shortly.

First, as always, let’s check in with the Mac’s List team.

Every week, Becky Thomas is out there searching the nooks and crannies of the Internet. She’s  looking for websites, books, and tools you can use in your job search and your career. Becky, what have you found for our listeners this week?

Becky Thomas:

Well Mac, recently I discovered a site called CareerOneStop, which is “your source for career exploration, training and jobs.” It’s from the US Department of Labor. This stood out to me because often, jobs resources provided by the government are a double edged sword: there’s tons of great data and information that exists but is not clearly organized, so it takes time to sift through and try to find the info you want. If you’ve ever been on the Bureau of Labor statistics website and tried to find some data, you know what I’m talking about.

Mac Prichard:

It can be a maze, can’t it? I say that with kindness because I’m grateful that the data is there.

Becky Thomas:

Absolutely, but if you’re in a crunch for time or you just don’t have the patience to sift through, this new site…Well it’s not a new site, but it’s new to us. It’s a site called CareerOneStop and it seems a little bit better than most of the other government resources in terms of user experience and ease of use.

I found a tool on there called SkillsMatcher and it allows to you rate your mastery level of 40 in-demand workplace skills, and it matches your skills to career fields that need those skills. It’s got a really wide range of skills, from business management to biology to public safety, and all over the place, but you rate your own knowledge from beginner to expert, or a range in between.

I tried it out and it was actually cool to assess my skills across such a broad spectrum. It made me realize how much I don’t know about but also reminded me what I am good at. Most categories I  was beginner or less than but I was able to select advanced or expert in a few categories that I have experience in like writing and marketing, and things like that.

At the end of the assessment, which takes about 15 minutes, maybe a little bit less, you get a long list of careers that match with your skills. It shows you the job title, average annual wages, amount of education needed, and the outlook for the future of that career, which I think is really helpful as well.

I would recommend checking this tool out if you’re in the job search, but particularly if you’re thinking about a career change or a pivot from what you’re currently doing, this is a great place to start. It can be overwhelming to think about all the career options that are out there, and it’s helpful to know where your existing skills are in demand so you can start learning and researching avenues that are going to align with those. Check it out, CareerOneStop, and the tool is SkillsMatcher.

Mac Prichard:

This is a great tip. I like this one because I know all three of us will talk to job seekers who are sometimes uncertain about what to do next and if you ask about their short list, they haven’t gotten that far. It seems like this tool could help them create that list, couldn’t it, Becky?

Becky Thomas:

Definitely.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah, good. Well thank you, Becky. If you’ve got a suggestion for Becky we would love to hear from you. Please write Becky directly and we may share your idea on the show. Becky’s address is info@macslist.org.

Alright, let’s turn to Ben, who is filling in for Jessica Black this week. Ben, welcome back to the show. You were only gone two episodes before we brought you back.

Ben Forstag:

It feels like a lifetime, Mac.

Mac Prichard:

Okay, so you’re laboring under a life sentence here on the Mac’s List podcast. Let’s move on.

Ben, you’re here to answer one of our listener’s questions; what do you have in the Mac’s List mailbag this week?

Ben Forstag:

Well, Jessica left me a good one. This one comes from a listener Thomas Weissenberg. I apologize if I pronounced your name wrong, Thomas.

Mac Prichard:

I may have mispronounced this in the opening of the show as well, so forgive me Thomas, but we’re grateful to have your question.

Ben Forstag:

Yes, thank you, Thomas. Thomas wrote all the way from from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany.

Thomas writes:

“My question is about how to take best advantage of crossing the borders and engaging a new job opportunity?

I’ve lived 15 years in France and am currently on a 1-year mission back to Germany. After this summer; I’ll go back to Paris where I’ve already worked some years ago. Things evolve fast these days, so both my old professional network and my personal experiences don’t match as good as they did in the past.

What I experienced when I first arrived in France, was that I worked very hard in order to become assimilated quickly into the system despite some language and cultural lacking. Still, with every new job application, I had to provide proof of my knowledge.

This time, I’d really like to stress my capacity to work in different cultures, to lead teams, and to adapt rapidly to changing contexts. What is your advice in order to overcome the selection process based on diploma equivalences and to get my CV (or my resume), in the hands of leaders searching someone with a more atypical experience?”

That’s a great question! I think it’s our first question from Germany definitely.

Let me start off by stating the obvious, I am not an expert on the Franco-German labor markets. The advice I’m going to give you here, Thomas, is a little bit more broad and I think would apply to anyone who was trying to jump from one country to another country, especially when there’s a cultural or language difference there.

The first piece of advice I would offer to you is probably not that revolutionary if you’ve listened to our show before. Which is, just use your network. It sounds like you’ve spent some time in Paris and probably built up a professional network of some type there.  Even if these connections aren’t really relevant to your new search, or if they are a little bit outdated, I would reach out to those folks anyway, let them know what you’re looking for, and ask if they have any connections who would be helpful. Networking events obviously, are a plus too. I imagine there has to be a German expat professional group in Paris someplace? That might be a great way of getting your foot in the door with new opportunities there.

The other thing I was thinking about is that Thomas wrote that he’s “looking to stress his capacity to work in different cultures, to lead teams and to adapt rapidly to changing contexts.“ I think what you’re really getting at here, Thomas, is you’re looking to do something a little bit different that you might not have done in the past. I think it’s important that you proactively frame your past experience in terms of what you want to be doing in the future. Look at all the accomplishments from past jobs and glean from them examples of how you’ve led teams in the past. These leadership examples don’t need to fit perfectly, they don’t need to be a part of your past formal work responsibilities. But they need to be honest, plausible situations where you previously displayed the ability to do what you want to be doing more of in the future.

Thirdly, I’m just going to offer a few strategic tips.

One would be, obviously make sure your resume is in flawless French, so that the language fluency isn’t a question when the hiring managers review your application.

The other one is, and this might be a little bit more of a stretch, is perhaps you want to target German-owned businesses that operate in France. (Or maybe French firms that have significant business interests in Germany.) These kinds of firms might be more receptive to your message of what you’re looking to do, which is lead multicultural/multilingual teams across the business.

Thanks for your question, Thomas. Becky, Mac, do you guys have any suggestions?

Becky Thomas:

I liked that last tip. I think it’s really smart to think about how you can utilize that specific experience in France and in Germany to help some specific organization. I also think that the network is going to be key in just getting yourself out there in front of people and showing them that experience that you have, is great.

Ben Forstag:

Absolutely.

Becky Thomas:

Because CVs are so dry, it’s sometimes hard to show that on your CV. I think that the networking piece is going to be key for Thomas.

Mac Prichard:

I like Thomas’s instinct here that he needs to get in front of leaders who are open to people with an atypical experience because many hiring managers, whether they’re in Europe or North America, can be very routine and are just checking off boxes. I think Thomas is right to think about finding people who are interested not only in skills and qualifications, but also experiences outside the norm.

To both of your points about the importance of networking, that’s going to be one of the most effective ways, by networking. Particularly with groups in France who are on the ground to find those leaders.

Ben Forstag:

Yeah, and I think this speaks to a general rule, no matter where you are in the world, which is, different countries have different hiring practices; some are more rigid than others but in general people are people and they value that connection they have to another person. That’s always going to give you a leg up in the process, no matter what the process looks like. I don’t want to present networking as the cure-all to your job searching blues, but in some cases it is. The more you network, the easier everything gets, whether you’re jumping from Germany to France, or the United States to Canada, or anywhere else, I would guess.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah, agreed. Speaking of all those countries, listeners might be interested to know that the last time we checked, Ben and Becky, I think about twenty-five percent of our downloads are outside of the United States, aren’t they?

Ben Forstag:

Yeah, our number one audience is the United States, number two is Ireland.

Mac Prichard:

Yes, we’re huge in Dublin.

Ben Forstag:

We’re gonna get that Guinness sponsorship soon.

Becky Thomas:

Hello, world.

Mac Prichard:

Well thank you, Thomas for that question, and thank you for all of our listeners outside the United States. Thank you, Ben, for stepping in for Jessica this week. I know you’ll be here for next week’s show too, won’t you?

Ben Forstag:

You won’t let me leave.

Mac Prichard:

If you’ve got a question for us, we’d love to answer it on the podcast. Send Jessica an email; Ben has it set up so that it autoforwards directly to him. Write to info@macslist.org. She’ll be back in the studio the week after next. We would love to hear from you. You can also call our listener line; that area-code is, 716-JOB-TALK – or post your question on the Mac’s List Facebook group!

If we answer your question on the show, we’ll send you a copy of Land Your Dream Job Anywhere

We’ll be back in a moment. When we return, I’ll talk with this week’s guest expert  about How to let recruiters know on LinkedIn that you’re open to new opportunities.

We live in a digital world. And what we do online can make all the difference in a job search.

Consider this: In a recent survey 98 percent of recruiters said they use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to find candidates. If you’re not on these platforms, you’re invisible to employers.

Yes, I know social media can be overwhelming. Especially for baby boomers like me.

That’s why I built my free online course, How to Wow and Woo Employers Online. In three lessons, we show you how to make the most of social media in your job search.

You’ll learn: what matters most to employers who check you out online, how to create and manage social profiles that attract the attention of hiring managers, and how to use your social accounts to grow and serve your professional network.

To sign up for this FREE course, visit macslist.org/wow.

Now, let’s get back to the show!

Now let’s turn to this week’s guest expert, Donna Serdula.

Donna Serdula is a nationally recognized expert in LinkedIn profile optimization. She’s also the founder of Vision Board Media and linkedin-makover.com, and she’s the author of LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Dummies. With more than thirty writers on her team, Donna has helped thousands of professionals in companies tell their stories and brand themselves successfully on LinkedIn.

She joins us today from Delran, New Jersey.

Donna, thanks for being on the show.

Donna Serdula:

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Mac Prichard:

Well it’s a pleasure and we’re returning to one of our subjects here on the Mac’s List podcast. That is how people can use LinkedIn most effectively and what prompted this particular interview is a new feature out there on LinkedIn, a box that people can check to let recruiters know that they’re open to offers.

Now, I know that you do encourage people to use that but you’ve also got some other suggestions about how people can let recruiters know they’re available. That’s the purpose of our conversation today.

Donna Serdula:

Yeah.

Mac Prichard:

Let’s first talk about a few LinkedIn basics I know you feel strongly about. These are sort of your ultimate do’s-and-don’ts, Donna. Before we get into those specific suggestions, what are some things that people should always remember about LinkedIn?

Donna Serdula:

Yeah, the one thing I think that most people tend to not think about, but if a recruiter is looking for someone like you, more than often than not, you exist but they don’t know your name. So they’re trying to find someone like you and the way they are doing those searches is by keyword, not by name. It’s really, really, important that if you’re a job seeker, or even if you’re just open to opportunities, that you really think in terms of what that next opportunity looks like. How would a recruiter, how would an employer, how would someone in HR describe that role? What are the strengths? What are the core competencies that you should have? Make sure those keywords are infused throughout your LinkedIn profile. Only then can you be open to  opportunities.

Mac Prichard:

It’s important to know where you want to go and understand how the people who are hiring for those positions, how they describe those jobs. Is that what I’m hearing you say, Donna?

Donna Serdula:

Yeah, absolutely. I always say, one of the big tips that I give my clients is really look out and see what are the job descriptions that are out there for that next great opportunity? It doesn’t even have to be a position that’s open and hiring but just find that. What’s the next opportunity and what would it look like, and find that job description that really closely echoes it. See how other people, other companies, describe that job, that title, that position. Find those keywords and then make sure that the story that you tell in your LinkedIn profile is using those strengths, those keywords, those descriptors.

Mac Prichard:

Keywords are important. What are some other tips you have, Donna? I know for example one of your basic rules is, never cut and paste a resume into LinkedIn.

Donna Serdula:

Yeah, that’s true and that really surprises people but what I always say is this, if someone finds you on LinkedIn and they really like what they see, so much so that they reach out and they request your resume, and that resume is a one-for-one copy of what they just read on your LinkedIn profile, they’re going to be disappointed. They’re going to think that that’s all you have to offer and that there is no more. There should be an echo and there should be similarities, but I always say, these documents should build, one on top of the other. It should always guide that person to want to reach out, to learn more, and to always keep getting more and more information so that they want to bring you in because they know you have more to add, more things to talk about.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah, that was first on your list of seven tips for attracting recruiters. Another idea that you share with people is you encourage them to optimize the headline at the top of their summary. Tell us more about that, Donna, why is that important?

Donna Serdula:

You know what? Everyone always uses the default headline, that LinkedIn just automatically pops in, which is your current job title and your current company. Here’s the thing: think of a headline in a newspaper, it should compel you to want to read more, it should give you a brief idea of what it’s all about, that article. It’s the same thing with your LinkedIn headline, it should compel a person to want to learn more and it should give them an idea of who you are, what you do, and how you help. Just simply using the job title and the company, that doesn’t compel anyone.

I always say, use this headline as that chance to really tell that person that you’ve got something of value to offer, make them want to click to read more. Totally ditch the default LinkedIn headline and go in and infuse your keywords and give them a benefit statement.

Mac Prichard:

Some other tactical suggestions you have, and I love this one, this is number three on your list. Using a phone number and an email address in the summary section. Why do you feel strongly about this?

Donna Serdula:

Well, here’s the thing, and I think a lot of people don’t realize that when you only update your contact information on your profile, it’s only first-degree connections who can see that. Most recruiters are already not first-degree connections to you, and so if they do want to reach out and they don’t want to waste an in-mail, make it as easy for them as possible. Give that information up front in your summary and I actually say, repeat it throughout. Put it at the bottom of each job description. Absolutely state, “If you’d like to learn more, please request my resume.” Give your email address, give your phone number, make it as easy for these people to pick up the phone and call you or shoot you an email.

Do it in a manner where they’re not wasting an in-mail message. That’s the paid messaging within LinkedIn for people who are out of network. Make it easy for them to reach out and help you.

Mac Prichard:

I would add that generally I find when I’m trying to track someone’s email down, with a little bit of effort, ten, fifteen minutes I can usually do it. To your point, if you make it hard for people to find you, odds are they’re not going to invest that ten or fifteen minutes.

Donna Serdula:

Absolutely.

Mac Prichard:

You’re going to miss out on an opportunity aren’t you?

Donna Serdula:

Here’s the other part of it, even just outside of LinkedIn, when you’re trading emails with recruiters, put your contact information in the signature of your email. So many times people tell me to call them or they ask me to reach out to them, and I’m searching high and low to try and find their contact information. Simply putting it in the signature of an email each and every time you’re sending out an email to someone, it’s just going to make it so much easier for people to reach out.

Mac Prichard:

Agreed. Next on your list is what might sound to listeners like a very basic thing, but you say it’s really important to use a professional photo as your profile picture. Why does this matter so much, Donna?

Donna Serdula:

Well, you know what? It is who you are online and you would never go on Amazon and buy a product if there wasn’t a picture of that product right alongside the listing. You’d think there was something weird, something kooky, and the same thing goes with LinkedIn. If you don’t upload a picture, people are going to assume you’re not serious. They’re going to assume that something is not quite right. You want to upload that picture but you really do want to make sure that it’s professional, and that you look good, and that you look friendly. A lot of times people try to look serious, professional and serious, but that really translates to angry most of the time.

I always say, dress well, look directly into that camera lens, smile, put some crinkly wrinkles around your eyes so it really looks genuine. If it’s a clear picture, people are going to resonate, they’re really going to believe that you’re for real, that you’re genuine, that you’re authentic. If you look friendly, they’re going to feel much more comfortable reaching out to you.

Mac Prichard:

Another tip you have to attract recruiters on LinkedIn is to outline our career trajectories in the experiences section. Tell us more about this, why is this important?

Donna Serdula:

With recruiters, and this is true with hiring managers, and this is true with people in HR, a lot of times if you’re on that short list and they’re looking at you a little harder to really determine, “Is this a fit? Is this someone we want to bring into the organization?” A lot of times they’re going to look at that resume and they’re going to look at that profile and they want to make sure that everything lines up. It’s really important, they don’t want to see any red flags. Absolutely include that career trajectory. One, it makes it very clear that you’re a real professional and everything that you’re stating is true, it lines up correctly.

But also, the other part of this is, the experiences that you have. These are all chances for you to infuse keywords, and the more keywords you have the more likely you are to be found. Put out that trajectory.

Here’s the thing, if you’ve been in your career for thirty years, you don’t have to go back all thirty years, but really think in terms of what’s applicable to where you’re going and what you’ve done. Maybe that’s in the last fifteen to twenty years. Definitely make sure that it doesn’t look like you just came out of nowhere, that you really do have the background in the industry that you’re looking into to work.

Mac Prichard:

What’s striking to me is how often I see profiles where people might just list their most recent position or their current job, or perhaps they list all of their positions but just the organization and the job title. You wonder, when you look at a page like that, why people are leaving so much out.

Donna Serdula:

Well, I truly believe it all comes down to, it’s hard to write about yourself. It really doesn’t matter where that person sits or who that person is, we sit so close to our own strengths, we don’t even recognize that they’re strengths. I always say that if you’re struggling, if you really want to get found on LinkedIn, if you really want to make a strong impact and showcase who you are, but you’re struggling to do it on your own, go talk to other people. Outsource the task. I know it sounds odious but there are some of us out there who actually enjoy telling other people’s stories.

Mac Prichard:

Speaking of stories, I know you’re a big fan and this is next on your list  of tips for attracting recruiters to your LinkedIn profiles and it’s telling your story in an engaging way in your summary section, isn’t it?

Donna Serdula:

Yeah, you know what, I absolutely hate those summaries where they talk about thirty years of upwardly mobile experience and they’re an ethical, dynamical professional. To me it’s just dull and boring. This is your digital introduction, this is your first impression, many times, for recruiters and I believe in really showing the warmth of your personality. Making that summary conversational, making it engaging, and telling that story. Really setting yourself apart from all of those millions of profiles that are just a very dull copy and paste of what I might find on a poorly written resume.

Mac Prichard:

Finally, Donna, on your list is the importance of showcasing a network and these are the connections that we have on our profiles. Is there a magic number here? Should people have more than five hundred connections? Should it be less? How important is the quality of those connections and ultimately, why does this number matter to recruiters?

Donna Serdula:

Well here’s the thing, you need to really look at how long you’ve been in your career and the people that you know. I certainly in no way am suggesting that you connect high and low and just connect with everybody but it is important that everyday, you are connecting. The people that you’re meeting along the way, the people that you’ve known, the people who are in your industry, that you are connecting to them and you’re doing it consistently. The reason for that is, we are our network and a lot of times, opportunities are going to come from that network. It might not be from just a pure application but people know someone who knows someone who meets someone and you get in through that back door.

But if we really want to talk about how LinkedIn works, when a person is searching LinkedIn, they are not searching the entire database of users unless they’re doing a name search. When a person is doing a keyword search, they are only searching through their LinkedIn network. That’s their first degree, their second degree, their third degree, and any group members that belong to groups they’re in on LinkedIn.  That is what they are searching.

If you want to get found and you want to find people, it is going to be important that you have a large network; that way you turn up in more searches. Now of course, what I just said is for people who are using the free version, or some of the more premium versions which don’t allow access to the total database. But thinking in those terms, if you want to get found, connect to those recruiters. Connect to people who are dealing with employment. That way you get closer to those people who are doing those searches who might be looking for someone like you.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah I love that advice because I find, and I expect you do too, that many people have a list of companies or organizations where they want to work and there’s an opportunity once they have that list to identify the hiring managers or recruiters that work with those firms and begin building relationships with them now, isn’t there?

Donna Serdula:

Yeah, and you know, the truth of the matter is, even if a person isn’t looking right this very second, they should still be building that network of connections because you want to dig your well before you’re thirsty. That’s so important, you never know when you’re going to need to rely on the help of your friends and network.

Mac Prichard:

Absolutely. Well Donna, tell us, what’s next for you?

Donna Serdula:

Yeah, well I’m continuing to write LinkedIn profiles for professionals, and executives, and entrepreneurs all around the world. People struggle, they struggle to tell their story, they struggle to find themselves, they struggle to brand themselves. So we work very much focused on that LinkedIn profile and telling the world who you are and how you help. When you do go through the process, you’re better able to articulate your story, you feel more confident about who you are and what you bring to the table. When you really shine the light on who you are and the good things you do, amazing things happen.

Mac Prichard:

Agreed, well I know people can learn more about you and your company by visiting LinkedIn-makeover.com.

Donna, thanks for being on the show today.

Donna Serdula:

Aw, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah, it’s been a pleasure. Take care.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio with Becky and Ben. What are some of your reactions to my conversation with Donna?

Becky Thomas:

I thought that she was great. I thought that she had some really good points just in terms of tactics. I feel like that default LinkedIn headline is key. Adding keywords and contact information throughout is really going to help people get noticed. One thing that I feel like I need to research more is how do you find the keywords that she mentioned. How do you determine what the keywords are that you want to rank for and then how to pepper those in throughout without making it look like keyword stuffing. From my marketing brain I’m like, “How can you do that on your LinkedIn profile?” It’s something interesting that I think we need to talk about more.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah, I’m guessing it’s more art than science. She talked about finding job postings for positions that you would like to have and then studying them.

Becky Thomas:

Yeah, finding the keywords within them.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah.

Becky Thomas:

Yeah, so a lot of the same stuff you do for customizing your resume for an ATS system or something like that. Interesting.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah but you almost wish, don’t you, that there was some tool, like Google AdWords that allowed you to plug in the words and rank their value to hiring managers and employers. Maybe there is such a thing.

Becky Thomas:

That’s a million dollar idea, Mac. LinkedIn keyword planner. Why does that not exist?

Mac Prichard:

I don’t know.

Ben Forstag:

I think we did share a resource a couple months ago when some other guy was doing the resources stuff.

Mac Prichard:

What was his name?

Ben Forstag:

I don’t know…He was a weirdo.

No, but I think it gathered all the job postings that had gone through Indeed maybe, or one of those sites and it compiled, these are the words that show up over and over and over again the most. Or like the density of keywords in specific job listings. But yeah, I like this stand alone idea, Becky.

Mac Prichard:

Well maybe after the show if you have a moment we could dig that up and add it to the show notes.

Ben Forstag:

Yeah, sure.

I will say that my favorite thing, this has been a long standing suggestion/beef of mine is, putting your contact information in your LinkedIn profile where everyone can see it. As someone who has to dig through a lot of email stuff to find someone’s email sometimes, it is so nice when people just give it to you right there. I don’t think you need to be afraid of spam or anything like that; just make it easy for people to contact you and when you do that people will contact you.

Mac Prichard:

Agreed, and it’s a habit I need to adopt in my own LinkedIn profile. I haven’t done it but I am so grateful when I see that. Jessica Black and I are often out there looking for guests for the show and we can communicate with people via in-mail, but we almost always get a faster response from email addresses because most of us check our emails regularly throughout the day.

Ben Forstag:

Yeah and I actually write, in the very first sentence of my summary is, “The best way to contact me is by email; here’s my email address.” Because frankly I don’t go on LinkedIn everyday or multiple times a day.

Mac Prichard:

Most people don’t.

Ben Forstag:

Yeah, if you want to get a hold of me the easiest way and the way that I will see fastest is email. So let people know that.

Mac Prichard:

Yeah, I loved Donna’s suggestions but if I had to pick just one, if people are only going to do one, I would put that at the top of the list. Because I do hear from people all the time who hope to be contacted by recruiters and yes, you should check that box that says you’re open to offers but you should do a lot more. I loved Donna’s advice on this topic.

Thank you, Donna, and thank you, our listeners, for downloading today’s episode of Find Your Dream Job.

You want to make sure that recruiters and employers know what you have to offer. You want to be putting your best foot forward online today.

One way you can do that is by downloading my free online course, How to Wow and Woo Employers Online today. Go to macslist.org/wow. Get our best tips on how to do this.

Join us next Wednesday when our special guest will be Shelly Elslinger. We’ll be talking more about LinkedIn and she’s going to share with us how to tell your story on LinkedIn.

Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job!