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Retained Executive
Search The Boland Group: Proactive Career Management: Leveraging Linkedin (Part One)

Leveraging Linkedin Retained Executive
Search

Probably the single most effective and ubiquitous career management tool right now is Linkedin.com. Having a rich profile on Linkedin has emerged as a "politically correct" way to get your resume visibility with the greatest number of relevant potential employers and recruiters in the shortest period of time.

Step One. Build a detailed profile on LinkedIn.com, including all of the detail that is included on your resume. It's a bit tedious but it increases the chances that someone looking for a candidate – who graduated from YOUR university OR who has worked for one of YOUR previous employers or consulted to one of YOUR former clients -- will find you.
Best Practice: Resist Linkedin's repeated suggestions that you invite others to connect until after your profile is complete. A skeletal or shallow profile does NOT make a good first impression. In some cases, it will be the only impression as the viewer may never click on your profile again.
If you are in an active job search, you should make your email address viewable in your public profile. (You can use "FirstInitialLastNameATharvardDOTedu" or "FirstInitialLastName @ harvard .edu" to sidestep spammers.)

Step Two. Once you've built your profile on Linkedin, you should search the Groups and join some of those that are the largest. There are groups for every imaginable industry, function and work history on linkedin, e.g. project managers, not for profits, alum of virtually every large company and most of the smaller ones, telecom industry professionals. You name it, there's probably an affinity group on Linkedin.

Step Three Take advantage of Linkedin.com's "job" function to search jobs. When you find one of interest you can use Linkedin.com to help you identify someone you know who may currently be working at that company, and who may be helpful in getting you an interview. Equally important, you can search jobs that have NOT been posted using Linkedin. Like Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com (see below), Linkedin.com now aggregates postings it finds on the Internet, presumably providing a one-stop-shopping experience.

For more in-depth advice, see information on the "Leveraging Linkedin" webinar series.

Again, if a search professional is helpful to you, please be sure to keep them in mind. When you are in a position to be hiring again, consider engaging them -- or at least offering them first right of refusal on your next search. Wherever you land, consider referring them for your next employer’s recruiting needs. That is the only way you can ever compensate a search consultant for providing you pro bono assistance.

Disclaimer and Feedback: Please keep in mind that the advice above, is just that -- advice. It is our attempt to codify some of the best practices developed over a decade of retained executive search and another dozen or so years as a "hiring exec" and/or "candidate". Most of these ideas are obviously opinions, and that there will be exceptions to every situation descried above. With that caveat, your feedback -- data from your own experience -- will help us keep these guidelines fresh and relevant.

Your Feedback on Leveraging Linkedin

is valued.
We are very interested in learning about the results you do (or do not) achieve, after employing any of the resources or approaches discussed above. In addition, you may find other valuable resources and techniques not mentioned here that have contributed to your successful career transitions.

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