JUST RELEASED: #1 LinkedIn Job Seeker Tip. | iCapitalMarketing.com

JUST RELEASED: #1 LinkedIn Job Seeker Tip.

You may have at some point been like me. After all of the excitement and enthusiasm of the unknown potential of signing up to become a member of the LinkedIn community, or any other networking site for that matter, you may have said, okay, not what. Well for many, the now what is a whole lot of nothing. These sites might tell you that like anything, you only get out of it what you put into it. Ya, thanks. Okay, I'll buy that, but what about the average Joe, who no matter what you tell them, would rather seek out something a little more enjoyable to do with their time, or who wants something, for once, to do the work for them? That is a pipe dream in many regards, but I have one LinkedIn tip that can get you a little closer to that goal.

Who uses LinkedIn and why? I'm sure the reasons are many. Keep in mind, I said using, meaning active users. If there is any doubt that LinkedIn is really kind of a job site, just look at their four menu options. People, Jobs, Answers, Companies. I don't know what "answers" is either, so let's eliminate it for now. What you are left with is a gourmet recipe for a job board. So in my assessment, this is who is mostly using LinkedIn.

1. Job Seekers. (Whether passive or active)

2. Recruiters and Headhunters.

3. Sales and Marketing people.

4. Serial Socializers, Narcissist.

5. Companies (Advertising a profile)

Let's be honest, there needs to be a positive and beneficial end result of using a service for anyone to invest the time, otherwise, nobody would do it. If there is no benefit, I'll go watch a Cops rerun or something, not really, but out of curiosity, how do we have 20 years of Cops and I see the same ones every time I flip to it? The major benefit I see for using LinkedIn is being able to market your ad / resume, and if you are employed, not having your employer necessarily think you are posting your resume to a job board. But a job board it is, and it's a nice one, especially for recruiters. If my disinterested, third party, non-scientific assessment of the primary users of LinkedIn is correct, then my #1 tip is going to really pay off.

By the way, before we go any further, would you please, if you are one of them, get that ridiculous profile you created that is nothing more than Sr. XYZer at XYZ Company off of LinkedIn. That is all there is. No name, no information, just a title and a company, and there are tens of thousands of them. This is a networking site, not a paranoid networker web user group. You have already seen that this has produced nothing for you, so please, on behalf of us all, take it down. Al Gore did not invent the Internet for you to clutter up. Scour your computer, try every email / password combo possible, try to remember your first wife's favorite maiden dogs teacher's name and get it off. I know in Las Vegas the abundantly rich government pays people something like a $1.50 a square foot to remove grass. I'm contemplating paying people to remediate useless LinkedIn profiles. You're welcome, recruiters.

As I think about it, why are some people so afraid and paranoid when it comes to a LinkedIn profile? It may not have sunk in, or you may not have considered this, but who do you work for, really? You. You work for you and you are a self-employed business entity. If you have any other mindset in life, you're in trouble. As such, if you want to advertise your product, or build your brand, by completing a full useful profile, that includes your name and current company that is currently utilizing your services, then do it. Nobody can tell you not to. Stop living in fear and worrying so much.

If you are going to put your profile out there, do it right. Don't half-ass it. Take the time to complete a thorough profile. It's an advertisement, just like your resume. Don't be like the thousands of people whose resume we receive that have somehow convinced themselves that it is okay, or good enough. It's not, trust me on that one. What you put in your profile and how well you set it up and package yourself speaks volumes. It says a lot about a person in terms of professionalism, organization skills, attention to detail, etc. Remember, everything counts. With that in mind, don't go obnoxiously overboard with information. Perception-wise, that is just as bad as putting too little.

So here it is. The number one thing you need to do in order to get more job seeking / advertising benefit from LinkedIn is to include somewhere in your profile your email address. LinkedIn is not like other social and networking sites whereby people can ping another person they don't necessarily know. If you attempt to connect with someone you don't know on LinkedIn, and they hit "don't know" on the invitation, that person gets banned from sending out invitations without an actual email address. You have to include an email address so people with jobs can reach you. The only thing I can guess is that people believe that anyone can contact anyone at anytime with LinkedIn. That is not the case. PUT YOUR EMAIL IN YOUR PROFILE.

It doesn't have to be your favorite email or your work email. You can set up a web based email in 45 seconds, if Captcha works. Don't worry about someone harvesting your email for spam. That's ridiculous. I've had mine out there for years and doubt that I've gotten one piece of spam as a result. If you are concerned about your email, do something like "get me a job -at- yamail dot com". I don't think the horse is dead yet, so let me say it one last time. If you are actively or passively curious about open jobs, which why wouldn't you be, you must provide a way for corporate recruiters, hiring managers, and headhunters to contact you. Without this information readily available, very few are ever going to reach you.

While I'm sure there are people who do pay monthly for the ability to use the LinkedIn InMail service (3 per month and some other goodies for around $25), I'll assure you that the overwhelming majority of corporate recruiters and headhunters do not. I'm sure LinkedIn wishes they would, but paying $300/year to send out 36 emails doesn't probably make sense to many. As a result, they just stare at your profile wondering what if... what if I could contact this person about this management position one block from where they live paying double the average salary. Oh well, I guess I'll move on since I have not way to contact them.

Lastly, the world has changed, for the better. The days of plopping down for 30 to 40 years at a job are over, unless you don't mind waking up some day with no prospects for a new job after your company goes under or you get laid off. This is a positive. You need to be on a mission to grow, learn new things, develop new skills, and try more things. The time to start thinking about a new job is while you are currently employed.

My guess is that we would be 50 years ahead of where we are if people would not have the employer - employee mentality with the goal of job security. C'mon, life's too short. That's not a real goal. Get out of that mentality. Make yourself so valuable in the marketplace that you write your own ticket. Many have done it. Think bigger. Fear and anxiety isn't part of the mentality of people who are always improving and getting better. Do something more useful in your spare time. Watching TV, reading anti-America political blogs, etc. doesn't lead to anything useful. Make your hobby something useful, which is often times the most rewarding.

Article written and provided by iCapitalMarketing .com, a blog targeting the three interrelated components required for career, business, and financial success; Preparation, Hard Work, and Emotional Intelligence. The opportunity to thrive is limitless. Keep improving and increasing your value in the marketplace.

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