Tip of the Week
Linked In for Schizophrenics
Many Job Seekers have asked me lately what to do with their Linked In Profile when they are seeking a variety of different positions or possibly a variety of different industries. My comment is “be honest”. Use the top section of Linked In to explain why you have so many different interests and how each of them might benefit the company that you seek to work for.
Now, the catch to this is that you must still show that you are focused on whatever it is specifically that a company needs. You can’t just say “I’ve picked three areas to focus my search. I’d like to be a baseball player because I played baseball as a kid. I’d like to be a plumber because I feel handy around my house. I’d like to be a journalist because I enjoy writing.” Um.. Okay…. How would a Hiring Manager review that one? Tell people why you are passionate about the area you have chosen to focus on and why (perhaps with little experience) someone should give you a shot.
Now, I’m not going to get into the “What do you want to be when you grow up” conversation in this tip. That’s a long conversation that we cover over 12 weeks at Austin Career Coaching. However, I do challenge you to really focus in on what you’d like to do and why you are special at doing just that.
Then when you’re talking about specific job experience you can spell out something about the past experience that makes you perfect for one of the new directions that you are heading in.
For example:
Application Support Team Lead at Authoria
September 2006 – September 2007 (1 year 1 month)
• Developed and trained team members on support ticket software
• Motivated fellow employees
• Defined and captured functional and operational requirements and processes
• Ensured issues were resolved in a timely fashion
EVENT PLANNING – While in my role as Application Support Team Lead at Authoria – I was part of the Event Planning Committee. I helped to plan over 15 events. Each week we coordinated catered lunch for 75 employees.
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