It's not just me touting LinkedIn!

Everyone should read this article about maximizing your potential to be found on LinkedIn. It lays out in clear terms the benefits to spelling out exactly what you do, and to using a title that's less like a vanity plate, more like a professional descriptor:

Revealing the #1 Secret to Being Found by Recruiters on LinkedIn

Also crucial, a link I found in the article above, this bit of enlightenment on KEYWORDS!

My article on TalentZoo's Career Oxygen: "Value Add"

Value Add

You have three seconds to impress me.

You get 30 more if I like what I see at a glance.

It does indeed sound like dating, doesn’t it? And you should think of it that way; it’s in the interests of both parties to feel a little giddy and a lot excited about the prospect of “getting hitched.”

Recruiters want to know what you bring to the table. It’s even more the case these days. When you hear numbers like 2000 people have applied for one job at an institution used to receiving 20 applications per position, you know there is some very fast scanning of resumes going on.

So, what makes you special? Give it to us straight, up front, your 30-second elevator pitch in a neat and tidy summary at the top of your resume. An Objective is well, just alright—many of us tend to ignore those because they are usually rather generic sounding. We much prefer a concise yet explicit Summary.

It’s not enough to simply say you’re “multi-channel” or “multi-media” and leave it at that. What are your specialties? Give me the keywords I might be looking for: interactive, Web, online, digital, print, television, broadcast, direct, radio, video, traditional, packaging, branding, outdoor, out-of-home, guerilla, social media, iphone applications, mobile, technology, financial services, healthcare, beauty, automotive, consumer goods, Flash, Ajax, Javascript, CSS, MS Project, Visio, wireframes, and so on.

If you’ve got too many buzzwords for the summary, you can use “multi-media” or “traditional and digital” in your 30-second summary as long as you elaborate within the Experience section. We like details in the experience section because it helps us determine how many years exposure you have to a particular medium or client vertical. (Include dates for your work history—it only makes us suspicious if you don’t!)

You might think there’s nothing terribly outstanding in your experience, maybe just the usual stuff those roles entail? Look for the details, the golden nuggets. Don’t sell yourself short, *BUT please, please, PLEASE, DON’T say you’re “The Best” or brilliant or exceptional or cutting-edge, or anything that raises expectations so much that the only way is down! (Back to that dating analogy, does anyone like sitting across the table from a braggart? Don’t the self-proclamations frequently prove false? So, don’t set us up for disappointment. Be cool, be honest, be clear.)

Here’s a old trick, let friends and family read your resume and ask them to tell you what you do! If they can’t, ask them if it was too dull of a read or if perhaps they simply found it vague. Either way, it’s valuable feedback and warrants addressing. Now do the exact same thing on Linkedin.com—a missed treasure ship if you aren’t on it and using it to its fullest.

Make the first three seconds great and the next 30 even better. You’ll have a love connection going much sooner.

Stay away from these job seeking faux pas!

Saw this link on twitter today, and it's priceless. Very useful tips to make your way to a recruiter's heart, and things to avoid if you don't want to make your way to recruiters' trash.

Also, for more job posting sightings, tips, recruiting news, follow me on twitter.
https://twitter.com/jspino

Now, this guy REALLY gets it!

Meet Jasen Dickan. Learn from Jasen Dickan.
His Linkedin profile makes me weak in the knees.
His online portfolio has me taking cold showers.
Why? Because he REALLY gets it -- he tells me everything I need to know about him. He is saving in-house and external recruiters probably 2 hours of up-front time that might otherwise be wasted going back and forth with questions about his skills.
Right away, we know EXACTLY what he does, how well he does it, where he's done it and how much of it he's done. Moreover, by noting what's not listed, we can determine the things that he likely DOESN'T do that much of, again saving us time.

So, does Jasen just want to save me valuable time? We do have a good rapport, so I can tell myself that's his aim, however, there's definitely a better reason for it and it's the reason I write this post. He's opening up more of the world to himself. He's getting valuable keywords out there and coming up in more searches. By doing so, he appears more professional and buttoned-up. This in turn ups his stock.

I mention him here with his permission -- I told him my goal is to get more people to follow suit. Everyone from Project Managers to Account Services to IAs to Creatives: give us the juicy details upfront and you'll reap the rewards.

Here are his summary and specialties sections from Linkedin:

Summary

Award-winning leader with 12 years of interactive, marketing, and branding experience. Proven ability to supervise teams and develop design talent in others. Passion for innovative strategy, design, and technology.

Specialties

creative leadership, web design, web sites, intranets, interaction design, usability, branding, business strategy, ecommerce, financial services, pharmaceutical, photoshop, typography, color theory, HTML, CSS, photography, successful new business pitches, inspiration

It's wonderful stuff, very informative. Now check out his portfolio: http://www.jasen.net/
Notice the way he specifies his % of involvement in various capacities AND how he gives credit to the other contributors. Providing the level AND kind of involvement you had on specific projects when you have a breadth of skills, goes a long way in establishing credibilty and setting expectations.

If you're looking for work - or just like to keep yourself current like Jasen - please take some time to enhance your profiles and portfolios. And make sure they all link to one another. Do it not for the sake of us recruiters, but for you.

Jasen, congrats on being this "teacher's pet", and thank you for letting me use you as an example! Keep on truckin'.

Tip for the day #4 when applying for a job

So, what else can you do?

Besides highlighting your location (for work), your contact information, link to your online portfolio, dates & places of employment, your resume must touch upon 2 more things:
Value add + Skills.

These days employers and recruiters are sourcing online by doing keyword searches, so that's one reason to specify your skill set. Another one is simply, to get extra consideration for a job.

• If you have experience working with Web, online, interactive, digital projects, tell us! And be specific; use as many of those words as apply to particular projects so you get picked up by various keywords.
• If you are an Art Director who can do CSS, Flash, Javascript... any sort of extra "value-add" Web Dev, whatever, tell us.
• If you have managed people, led teams, won accounts for your agency, tell us.
• If you have worked in B2B, B2C, Automotive, Financial, Healthcare... tell us!
• Anyone else I didn't cover, think about what people ask you in interviews or phonescreens - tell us the answers upfront so you get bumped to the top of the pile right off the bat.
  

Everyone, this is a resume we're talking about; it's exactly the place where you can and should toot that horn.

Tip for the day #3 when applying for a job

Hopefully you've read "Tip for the Day (a.k.a. TFTD) #2" before reading this one. If not, please do!

...Now that you've read it and have that online portfolio, some things to keep in mind (recruiters and hiring managers, feel free to add some comments):

• No downloading required, please! Your work needs to be viewable without having to download individual images of each sample. If you are guilty of having this kind of site, you have just given the very busy Creative Director an excuse to check out the next person's book instead.
• How do we know you can write if we can't read the text? Copywriters, please! We never expect that you have a gorgeous, flashy, hi-tech site. (Though if you use one of the sites I mentioned in TFTD #2, you'll have a nice looking one!) We simply expect the text within samples to be a legible size. Often when we are able to zoom in on the image, the text blurs. Since getting a hold of good sample files isn't always easy, this may be one of those times when sending a follow-up pdf "mini-book" is required. In that case, please have everything in one document, compressed or low-res, and if the text is too small to read, have the copy you wrote in a call-out boxes so we can read it. (Oh, that mini-book document you're sending should have your resume as the last page, a cover sheet with name, title and contact info as the front page.)
  

Tip for the day #2 when applying for a job

*Please note that when I use the phrase "we", "our", "us", it is by no means meant to create a rift between job seekers and employers -- this is not meant to come off as a "holier than thou" diatribe. On the contrary, the attempt here is to let job seekers inside the minds of those reviewing portfolios, to give them a better shot at making the best possible impression.*

There is no reason not to have an online portfolio these days.

The site you are on this very moment is one possible place to create an online portfolio; you can upload JPG files and have the freedom to do a little show and tell. Likewise carbonmade and behance exist so people can create free online portfolios. Those are just a few of the many sites that are free and easy to use. The days of sending discs that get lost or 17-meg files that get jammed up in cyberspace are over. (See LINKS section)

We understand many of you are busy being good at what you do. If you're a "passive" candidate, more allowances will be made. ("Passive" means we came to you, you didn't come knocking on our door.) However, it you are NOT a passive candidate, if you raised your hand asking for consideration, you really should hold off on doing that until you are a complete package ready for presentation, and that includes having an online portfolio.

For added assurances, don't forget to have that resume uploaded within that online portfolio, too! This way, in all future correspondence, you can simply sign off with your embedded email signature which should include name, title, phone, email, and portfolio url. Remember, the less anyone has to dig, the more likely you'll be contacted.

Tip for the day #1 when applying for a job

Who, What, When, Where, Why?

Yup, it's not just for journalism anymore! In ANY correspondence you make requesting that someone take the time to consider you for a job, don't play cat and mouse. Don't expect people to come to you for the most basic information. Don't just send an email saying simply you're an [insert title] and to "call with questions". (Yes, we've gotten these kinds of emails.) Instead, include a resume and *BRIEFLY* tell us who you are, what you do, where you live or are willing to move to, and why you think you would be a good fit for the company. (The "when" should be reflected in an attached resume as dates of employment, despite the fact that it might "look cleaner" without showing those pesky dates.)

Try to avoid making desperate pleas; this IS advertising after all and you are a brand, so show us how well you can create demand. Employers want the best in breed, what's hot, what the other guys want. They don't want merchandise from the clearance rack. So when you reach out to a Recruiter or Creative Director or Human Resources, avoid saying you "need help". When introducing yourself to perspective employers or recruiters, follow the guidelines in the first paragraph and let them know you're simply ready for a change.

Also very important, the resume AND the actual email should both have the link to your online portfolio. No one should need to ask how they can see your work and if you provide the information upfront, then they won't need to hunt for the link at a later date. Consider successful hotel chains -- you can't go 2 feet without some element of branding. And if it's allowed to leave the room, you know it has a website or a phone number on it. That way, they make it really easy to reach them, and to remember why you'd want to. So establish your brand and build on it.