New Year, New Rules! Five Tips on Achieving Your Career Goals in 2018

Does the thought of going back to the daily grind fill you with dread? Or maybe you’re craving greater job satisfaction, career progression, higher salary, more challenging projects or better corporate culture? With the new year just around the corner, now is the time to reflect back on the year that was. It’s a time to set goals and reset the rules, fill in your skill gaps and prepare for the most effective approach to take the next step in your career. Take a read of our five top tips to making 2018 your most successful year yet:

Set goals for the New Year

2018 is days away, which means it’s the perfect time to reassess what you want and need to ensure a successful year ahead. Goal-setting is one of the most effective ways to achieve results and a great time to explore what you want the year ahead to look like. Your goals should act as the catalyst to help direct you where you want to be, both in the short-term and long-term. Sit down to think about what you want in the new year, this means self-reflection, both personally and professionally. It also means asking yourself some important questions, such as; what is your intention? Is it the job role or the company you’ve outgrown? What do you need from your employer? What role do you desire? Based on your goals, start outlining a plan of action.

Use the Christmas season to network

Networking doesn’t come easy to some. However, the festive season allows for a slightly more relaxed vibe where people are winding down and are more socially available for meet and greets, therefore your approach doesn’t need to be a formal introduction. This time of year is great to send out a few emails, check in or catch up with old colleagues, fellow students, school and university alumni and industry contacts. According to a Linkedin report, 43% of quality hires come through professional social networks; employee referral programs account for 32%. Perhaps you’re looking for a new role with your current employer? In our last blog, we talked about why attending the work Christmas party was a great networking opportunity. For bigger companies, it’s a time CEO’s and other C-Suite profiles make their rare appearances. Be confident, know your worth and start up a conversation, have your voice heard and your name remembered.

Use the holiday period to up-skill

The Christmas break is a great time to reflect and think about the skills you have gained over the last year and the skills that might be missing. Consider new accomplishments and notable contributions you’ve made at your current job as well as any projects you’ve been apart of outside of the workplace. Then, strategise ways in which you can seek experience to fill any gaps you might have. Take a read of last month’s blog where we gave tips on how to up-skill fast, effectively and for free!

Decide what you want from an employer

You don’t want to be spending the holiday period using all your time and resources applying for jobs that vaguely tick some of your boxes. If you’ve set goals, (refer to tip one!) you have already identified what motivates you, what your passions are, what your values are, and what you need from a job role and an employer. This sets you up to be more strategic with your approach, and ultimately frees up your time (for your 3^rd serving of Christmas pudding, right?). When it comes to your current employer, stay true to your goals and be sure you are employed by a company that is aligned with what you want in 2018 and beyond.

Be time-savvy

When is the best time to apply for a job? Many believe it’s January – new year, new roles, right? Wrong, according to Executives Online who analysed ten years of hiring data. Results saw candidate registrations surge in January, which could impact the chances of getting hired in January as so many people launch new job searches at the beginning of the year. It may be better, when applying, to wait for a calmer month. Statistically, according to the data, February is one of the best months in which the number of new jobs exceeds the year average.

Follow these tips to help transition smoothly into your new role in the new year. Here’s to a happy, successful, goal-smashing 2018!

The post New Year, New Rules! Five Tips on Achieving Your Career Goals in 2018 appeared first on Launch Recruitment.

from Blog – Launch Recruitment http://ift.tt/2Dr07xm

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2kWOtC9

How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile in 20 Steps – Part 2

Updated for 2017/18

This is the second in a 2 part series on How to Optimise Your LinkedIn profile. It is specifically targeted at job seekers but these tips will help anyone wanting to make their profile really stand out. Click on each point for more details.

11. Use Status Updates to Stand Out!

12. Comment on Updates from Other People and Companies You Follow

13. Join Relevant Groups and Discussions 

14. Get Involved in Volunteer Work and Causes

15. Be Specific About Your Education

16. Network and Connect Actively

17. Extend LinkedIn with Mobile Apps

18. Become a LinkedIn Power User

19. Showcase Your Achievements

20. Write a Summary of Your Career

Marketo.com found that up to 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates but only 36% of job seekers are active on LinkedIn. This presents a huge opportunity if you use LinkedIn well and make sure your profile is up to date and well optimised.

If you’re in the market for an IT job, this article will help you stand out to recruiters.

11. Use Status Updates to Stand Out!

“To be considered a Valuable Resource, you have to Add Value.”

This is true of your LinkedIn status updates. If you add value to your LinkedIn profile by not only publishing posts but by providing commentary on relevant topics, your profile is far more likely to get noticed and then shared with other networks. To increase the number of people viewing your profile, you need to be seen to be someone who can add value to the viewer.

It’s not just about sharing your own writing and blog posts, consider sharing other people’s blog posts, articles, videos and anything else that you think might be useful. Adding your own commentary and insights will ensure that your content is unique and you are not simply plagiarising other people’s work. Curating interesting and useful content is currently considered one of the best ways to get noticed online. i-Scoop describe content curation as being “about aggregating/discovering/gathering relevant content and then sharing or presenting it to audiences in a targeted and optimized way.”

Jeff Bullas recommends you update your LinkedIn status daily with new and interesting information that is both original and curated.

Don’t forget to inform those people whose content you have used so they can also share your post among their networks. Most people love to know that their blog post or content was useful and has been shared. Make sure you give full credit and a link back to the original content.

 

12. Comment on Updates from Other People and Companies You Follow

Make sure that you regularly comment, share and follow people and companies who offer relevant, valuable and useful information and content. By sharing their status updates you will add value to your own networks and gain friends and followers. People are far more likely to share your content if you reciprocate and share theirs.

This is called “building social equity” and is described by Juice Marketing as “sharing useful stuff in an unbiased way, whether it’s your own content or not – builds credibility and something I call “social equity.”

It’s very important to maintain the 80/20 ratio for sharing other people’s content to your own. It is important not to over promote yourself or you may find yourself losing followers.

Social Media Examiner has written a great article that demonstrates how and why this strategy is important. According to Social Media Examiner: “It’s all about becoming a valuable resource.  When you can dig up great articles your audience is interested in–regardless of the source–you’ll become more respected and your content will be widely shared”.

 

13. Join Relevant Groups and Discussions

Jeff Haden describes LinkedIn groups as informal communities that are generally built around a profession, niche or industry. Joining groups and discussions on LinkedIn is a great way to develop new connections.

It is important to only join groups that are relevant to you and your career. Make sure the groups are going to increase your chances of better networking, connections or understanding of an industry. It is not worth wasting your time (or the group’s) on joining with people who aren’t interested in what you have to offer and vice versa.

A very simple guide that shows you how to search for and join relevant groups can be found here. According to Sirona Consulting, social media recruitment experts, it is worth joining as many relevant groups as possible. You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn at the moment.

Apart from the obvious networking advantages of joining groups, it can give you the opportunity to not only look for a job but to build and foster relationships with hiring managers and other HR executives. Because you can message anyone in your group for free, you can use a group as a great way to network and connect with people who could be very useful for your career.

14. Get Involved in Volunteer Work and Causes

LinkedIn gives space in your profile for any past or current volunteer work you may have done or are currently engaged in. According to a recent survey by LinkedIn, reported by Emily Co, about 41% of professionals consider a candidate’s volunteer work experience when interviewing for a job.

Forbes reports that LinkedIn released the findings of a survey conducted in the US with 2000 professionals and found that, while 89% had experience with volunteer work, only 45% put it on their resume. Considering the number of managers who do look at volunteer work, it is definitely worth including it in your LinkedIn resume.

LinkedIn also provides opportunities to volunteer your “time and talent” to serve on a non profit board of some other type of skills based work. You can also help in online industry based forums where people ask questions and seek the advice of an “expert”. By setting yourself up as an expert in a particular field, you will increase your chances of being found by potential employers and headhunters.

15. Be Specific About Your Education

There are a number of reasons to be very specific about your education in your LinkedIn profile.

1. 1. Let prospective employers know your educational qualifications and attainments. It’s important to be completely honest and don’t embellish your achievements.

LinkedIn can find other connections from your past educational institutions. These people can often be excellent networking connections and may be happy to introduce or recommend you to other colleagues. It is not always easy to gain new connections on LinkedIn, if you have something from your past in common, you might find they can connect you to someone with the perfect job for you.

Forbes discusses why it is so important to stay completely honest when giving your educational background. As they say, you never know when your next interviewer might have gone to the school you’re not being completely honest about.

If you’re wondering how to add, edit or improve your educational profile settings, LinkedIn gives a clear outline of how to do this in just a few steps.

16. Network and Connect Actively

It’s not easy to make new connections on LinkedIn. However, it is recommended to aim to get the maximum published (500). There have been a lot of myths over the years about different features getting unlocked when a person hits 500 connections. This is not the case, the only thing that happens is that your publicly displayed number stops increasing. Hubspot debunks this and other myths about the network.

The best way to request a connection is to make a personalised request. Make sure you tell them who you are, how you know them (did you meet at a conference, meeting or are they a connection with someone you know?), why you are connecting with them (give them a reason to connect with you). Julie Yates discusses the Do’s and Don’ts of asking for new connections on LinkedIn in this article.

It is important to be careful to only try to connect with people you know or you can show some sort of connection with. While you are entitled to try to connect with people whose email address you don’t know, once you have had a number of people hit the “report spam” or “I don’t know this person” you can get put in the “LinkedIn jail house” as Social Media Examiner describes it. Once this happens you will be required to include your email address in every future contact and this can greatly reduce your ability to connect effectively in future.

If you craft a personalised message, do your homework and know a bit about the person and mention who and what you have in common, you should be fine.

Once you are connected, stay connected. Don’t neglect those connections you worked so hard to get. Tech Hive discusses why this is so important. Find out how to become a “super connector” in this Undercover Recruiter article.

17. Extend LinkedIn with Mobile Apps

Using LinkedIn’s mobile app allows you a lot more freedom to check posts, make connections and update status posts. As Matt Kapko points out, LinkedIn’s figures show that a candidate is 10% more likely to get a job if they apply on the first day it is advertised. Having the LinkedIn mobile app on your smartphone makes it much easier to stay in touch and respond quickly.

Advisor Tech Tips considers the most powerful feature of the LinkedIn mobile app is its calendar. If you are attending an industry meeting or conference, you can sync your “device calendar to incorporate rich LinkedIn profile data about each attendee”. As you can imagine, this can provide a wealth of information and useful content to help you make the most of your time and networking.

LinkedIn has now moved into a mobile based multi app approach and has put an enormous effort into making its platform mobile friendly. NextWeb reports that the mobile app is under continual development to make it even more user friendly and efficient.

Business Insider published an excellent article that discusses all the many ways you should be using the LinkedIn mobile app (but probably aren’t).

With more than 40% of users now accessing the network by mobile devices, if you haven’t downloaded their app, it might be time to think about it and learn how to use it to maximum advantage.

 

18. Become a LinkedIn Power User

Jordan Sundberg of the Undercover Recruiter says that only 50.5% of LinkedIn users have complete profiles (as defined by the social media network). This means that by ensuring you have a complete and well filled out profile and you keep an updated status and news feed, you will be considered a “power user”. This will increase your chances of being noticed, contacted and endorsed.

By using all the “tips and tricks” available to you, your status as a “power user” will be increased.

Jason Martin gives a list of some of the best ways to become a “power user” in just one hour per week. He suggests taking advantage of some of the extra features on LinkedIn such as advanced search, groups, answers (to showcase your knowledge and give back to the community), events (find out about events in your area that you might be able to join), news and updates.

19. Showcase Your Achievements

LinkedIn also allows users to showcase their achievements. This is another great way to show future employers the awards, certifications and other accolades that you may have won over the years.

For a step by step outline of how to add or change your certifications, this article will guide you through.

The Muse gives some great tips for how to show off your accomplishments to make your LinkedIn profile stand out for potential employers.

Any certification is worth mentioning. Digital WPC considers that by providing all forms of accreditation and certification, you will not only show off your achievements but prospective employers can see how these might benefit their business. Consistently updating your profile as you achieve new accreditations keeps your profile fresh and relevant.

Another excellent way to showcase your achievements is to provide work samples. You can provide these in a range of formats, including PDF, image (jpeg, png), video etc. This is one of the best ways to show off your professional achievements. If you’re unsure how to add work samples to your profile, check out this PC World article that walks you through the process.

20. Write a Summary of Your Career

One of the most important parts of your profile is your summary. William Arruda, in his Forbes article, considers your LinkedIn summary to be the equivalent of a bio. He believes a bio to be the most important powerful personal branding tool you have. According to Arruda,“an effective LinkedIn summary makes people want to know more about you and ultimately connect with you one-on-one, so congruence is critical.” Make sure your online profile matches your real world self.

Your summary gives you the opportunity to show prospective employers what is important to you. If you don’t fill in your summary, the first part of your profile they will see is your experiences section. This does not provide a focus for recruiters or hiring managers. A summary will help point them in the right direction.

Careercast’s article, “5 Essential Tips for a Killer LInkedIn Summary” offers tips for making your summary stand out. By following these pointers, your summary will give employers the impression you want them to have.

Still not sure how to write an awesome summary? Check out these examples of great summaries to make your LinkedIn profile pop.

The post How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile in 20 Steps – Part 2 appeared first on Launch Recruitment.

from Blog – Launch Recruitment http://ift.tt/2Bdayas

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2Bd9Jyw

How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile in 20 Steps – Part 1

This is the first in a 2 part series of 20 points on optimising your LinkedIn profile. Updated for 2017/2018.

Click on each point for more details.

1. Check your visibility settings.

2. Customise your url.

3. Upload a professional photo.

4. Use the new header image for profiles.

5. Write a keyword rich, professional headline.

6. Include keywords in your summary.

7. Publish posts regularly.

8. Use rich media and stand out.

9. Reorder your skills.

10. Cultivate recommendations and endorsements. 

1. Check your visibility settings.

Set your LinkedIn privacy settings for maximum visibility:

Privacy isn’t one of the things that you need to be protecting when using LinkedIn to find employment. Make sure your privacy settings allow everyone to be able to read and search your profile. Since LinkedIn is a social network, it is about sharing information about you. Keeping things private won’t help your chances of being found for that next big career break.

How to set your LinkedIn privacy settings for maximum visibility gives you a clear rundown of the best ways to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile by making sure your privacy settings are configured so you can be easily discovered.

Some privacy settings are more important to get right than others. Here are 5 LinkedIn Privacy Settings You Need to Know.

Optimising your profile, member feed visibility, Twitter feed settings, profile views and understanding about authorising and removing applications are important factors in getting privacy settings right.

Still wondering why you should be visible to everyone? Understand the LinkedIn privacy settings in a step by step tutorial.

2. Customise your url.

LinkedIn allows you to set a “vanity” or “custom” url for your public profile url. This is another great way to make sure you are found as this ensures your name and page are a lot more search engine friendly. Follow these steps to set your custom url. Try to keep it as close to your name as possible.

If your name is not available, consider alternatives such as adding an initial or middle name. Another alternative is to add an industry related word that will get picked up by search engines more easily. For example: http://ift.tt/2fvkzo6

Joe Hertvik describes how to create a custom url for your LinkedIn profile using a step by step walkthrough with screenshots.

3. Upload a professional photo.

Ensure that you use a recent photo and that it reflects professionalism. Don’t include any photos from the pub, taken with a friend or with your pets. You want to look like a respectable future employee that will take the work and the job seriously.

Paying a photographer for professional photos for your LInkedIn profile can be worth the investment. While this can be expensive, a good photo will probably last you a few years. Follow these profile photo tips to ensure you get the most out of your photo shoot if you choose to take this route.

If you’re struggling to find the money or just don’t want to spend it on a professional photographer, this article on LinkedIn shows you 8 fixable photo flaws that you can avoid when creating your profile pic.

RealMenRealStyle points out that your LinkedIn profile is often found at the top of the search engine results (due to the authority of the LinkedIn website itself) and so having a bad or unprofessional profile means you are able to be seen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online.

4. Use the new header image for profiles.

LinkedIn has recently updated its profile and cover image sizes. This excellent cheat sheet gives you the correct dimensions for 2017.

LinkedIn now gives you the opportunity to upload a new header image for profiles. Make sure that your header is consistent with your personal brand.

Social Media Examiner looks at ways to draw inspiration from other profile headers to ensure you have a stand out image. This article gives an excellent range of methods for choosing and optimising your header so that it gives you and your personal brand the best picture possible. It is worth considering how and why you want to present a particular image and the best way of achieving this.

Hubspot share their excellent Slideshare post on 10 Ideas for a Better LinkedIn Banner Image. Check out the Hubspot article for some ideas for how to make this banner image space stand out and create the buzz you want it to. While most of these tips are for company pages, you can also get some great ideas for creating the best personal profile banner image for yourself.

Hugh Briss presents tips for maximising the new responsive layout for the LinkedIn personal profile cover image and also offers a template to make it even easier for you to put one together quickly. According to Hugh, the the size LinkedIn suggests is 1400 x 425 pixels and a maximum file size of 4mb.

5. Write a keyword rich, professional headline.

The headline on your profile is top real estate, so optimise it! Load the headline with keywords for search engine optimisation For example, instead of “ job seeker”  be specific and write: “Aspiring Public Relations and Social Media Professional”.

It’s important to know what words are most effective to use in your headline. Laura Smith-Proulx lists the 5 Most Worthless Phrases in your LinkedIn Profile and why you need to pay attention to make sure you’re not wasting this most important part of your profile. You need to get it right to ensure you give the right impression to future employers and can be found easily by recruiters and headhunters..

The Firebrand Talent blog’s post How to Find Your Next Job Using Social Media discusses the importance of using social media properly when trying to find employment. It is important to understand the best way to communicate with prospective employers and strategies to “cut through the clutter” and stand out above the crowd. Writing a keyword rich, professional headline is the first step in standing out for recruiters and employers.

6. Include keywords in your summary.

Have you been wondering how you can get more people to view and find your LinkedIn profile? The Job-Hunt blog discusses the fact that a well optimised profile with highly searched keywords can massively increase the number of people viewing your profile.

There are a number of places in your LInkedIn profile where you can add keywords. Your professional headline, job title, summary, projects and endorsements can all have relevant keywords and can help you to stand out to future employers and headhunters.

Ok, so what keywords are the best to use in your job search efforts? Susan Joyce shows you how you can find the best keywords for you and your industry and the jobs you are wanting in the future. She suggests using indeed.com/jobtrends to determine the best keywords for you.

PayScale’s Leah Arnold-Smeets writes about her 6 favourite ways to keyword optimise your LinkedIn profile. One useful suggestion is to incorporate keywords into your “Interests” section. If you’re looking for a business related position, mention that one of your “interests” is to “read the Australian Financial Review” or “Harvard Business Review”. This way you get to sneak a few more keywords into your profile and show prospective employers that your career is something you take a wide interest in and are prepared to learn about, both on and off the job.

7. Publish posts regularly.

If you want to be easily found and keep your LinkedIn profile fresh, make sure you publish blog posts regularly. This is one way to show future employers that you “know your stuff” and stay up to date in the industry.

If you’re wanting to show your expertise and knowledge in a particular field, LinkedIn posts are one of the best ways to do this. Posts are searchable by keyword in both Google and LinkedIn and, like with Facebook, the more your post is shared, commented on and viewed, the more it will be shown to your networks and connections. As this post by Social Media Examiner shows, by having enough views, your post can get picked up by LinkedIn’s newsreader, Pulse. This can give your post an enormous boost and let you gain a lot more followers and traction.

Neal Schaffer gives some great tips for writing your first blog post on the LinkedIn publishing network and in the included video he discusses best practice for placing images and video in posts.

One of the original LinkedIn “Influencers”, Jeff Haden, was invited to publish posts on the network’s publishing platform, Pulse. Now that everyone has the opportunity to publish their own posts on LinkedIn, Jeff presents his ideas for best practice for writing and publishing a post for this network. One of the more important points from Jeff is to not make the mistake of using this platform purely for self promotion. It is vital to provide value and use the 80/20 rule where you provide 80% value and content compared to 20% of your own promotions.

Wondering why you would want to publish articles on LinkedIn? Jay Palter’s article presents reasons why publishing on the network is a great way to promote yourself, your knowledge and skills. As Jay says: “LinkedIn is not revealing exactly how this user-generated content is distributed on its system, but it’s clear that good articles can make their way into notifications displayed on the site, emails sent to your connections and even to the Pulse home page.”

Jay goes on to give a list of tips for optimising your LinkedIn content for the publishing platform and search results.

Marko Saric of HowtoMakeMyBlog.com gives a complete rundown of how he managed to get his post featured on LinkedIn’s publishing platform. According to Marko, the LinkedIn publishing platform allows you to “position yourself as an authority, build a following, boost your brand and expose your work to potential clients, future employers and key decision makers in your industry”.  This is incredibly valuable and if done right, can massively improve your presence and standing on LinkedIn.

8. Use rich media and stand out.

One of the best ways to stand out from the crowd on LinkedIn is to use rich media. This can include videos, slideshares, power point presentations and podcasts. Lewis Howes shows how to use video to get noticed on LinkedIn.

Once you have that video created and you’re ready to add it to your profile, you’ll want to know how to embed the video into your LinkedIn profile.

If you would like to do more than add a video and would like to consider all of the possibilities for adding rich media to your linkedIn profile, Kristin Burnham from Cio.com gives a great rundown of the many ways you can improve your profile so it really stands out.

Creating and adding a Slideshare presentation to embed on your Linkedin Profile is another way to add rich media that is highly searchable.

The “LinkedIn Professional Portfolio” brings your LinkedIn profile to life and it allows you to showcase who you are and what you can do in stunning, rich multimedia. Make the most of this great feature and method to really demonstrate why you are the perfect candidate for that dream job. Udo Milo provides a slideshow demonstrating how you can visually enhance your profile and message.

9. Reorder your skills.

Understanding how to manage skills endorsements is important. While it is possible to reorder your skills on LinkedIn, you can’t reorder endorsements. Additionally, you can only reorder skills that don’t have any endorsements. To understand LinkedIn’s endorsements system a bit more, check out this article by Andy Foote on LinkedInsights.com

If you prefer to watch a video to find out how to reorder your skills on LinkedIn, this video by Shelley Roth shows you how to do this.

If you want to know how to reorder more than just your skills in your LinkedIn profile, this LinkedIn Makeover article gives tips for how to rearrange your profile sections, experiences and recommendations.

 

10. Cultivate recommendations and endorsements.

Skill endorsements are one of the best ways to stand out on LinkedIn and give prospective employers an idea of your talents. By giving colleagues, or employers, a recommendation, they will be alerted to your endorsement and may consider providing one for you.

 

Wondering how to get more endorsements? Michael Delgado offers 5 Ways to Get More LinkedIn Endorsements.

 

If you find that people are endorsing you for the wrong skills, Social Media Examiner discusses ways to manage your LinkedIn endorsements and suggests methods to guide people into giving you the endorsements that you need.

 

Give yourself the best chance of gaining top recommendations that are relevant and from highly recognised people by reading this article by Mir Haynes. Mir gives tips on how to decide who to ask and how to ask them to give you a recommendation.

Read part 2 of: How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile in 20 Steps – Part 2

The post How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile in 20 Steps – Part 1 appeared first on Launch Recruitment.

from Blog – Launch Recruitment http://ift.tt/2BvwqLe

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2BcVvgY