By Jewel Bracy DeMaio
Job Search Strategist
http://APerfectResume.com/
You know what I’ve found after 15 years of coaching executives in job search? It still comes down to the basics. Here’s a cautionary tale regarding one of my clients. Don’t let it happen to you.
Let’s call him Mr. Brady (real names have been changed to protect the unemployed). His most recent role was Chief Operating Officer of six manufacturing plants across three states. His salary package was in the mid-$300s. He needed professional guidance on how to land his next big job. One of the key components of that was building his brand on LinkedIn, and making sure his profile was optimized to rise to the top of the rankings.
He started off quite proud of himself. He’s already in the top 1% on LinkedIn. His profile views were in the double digits every day. Great. But in my best Dr. Phil voice, I asked, “How’s that working for you?” The response was deafening silence.
I’ll tell you why I asked that question: I don’t care what you’re in the top 1% of, or how many times you came up in searches in the last three days, or the number of times your profile was viewed in one day. Here’s the litmus test: are you getting calls from employers and recruiters about your next big job? In this case, the answer was a resounding no.
So we took a look at his LinkedIn profile together: looking...looking…looking…and you know what, after 32 everlasting seconds, I couldn’t find? The phone number or email address. Missing. Gone. And forgotten.
Here’s a bit of a news flash: you have to move through a few steps – get your profile optimized so employers and recruiters can find you. Then: compose a superstar headline so those who find you actually click on your profile and read it. Then: make it easy for those people to contact you OUTSIDE of LinkedIn. No one wants to send you an email through LinkedIn. You might not read it for four days.
Moral of the story: Get back to the basics - don’t keep your contact information a secret. Make sure your phone number and real email address, the one you check 19 times a day every day including Sundays, is readily available. This is a point I see overlooked time and time again. It reminds me of when executives, wondering why they weren’t getting anywhere, only for me to determine in exactly .2 seconds that there were only nine digits in the phone number, or the email address ended with .co when it should have said .com.
You can have the most beautiful, optimized, keyworded LinkedIn profile in the world. But if no one can contact you, all you’ve done is advertise yourself on a billboard in the desert.
Jewel Bracy DeMaio specializes in getting employers & recruiters to call you (instead of you chasing them).Find out all the sure-fire LinkedIn strategies in this free special report: How LinkedIn Can Actually Land You In Jail:6 Ways To Protect Yourself:http://goo.gl/60x6K
https://ox118.infusionsoft.com/app/form/linkedin-jail