Posts Tagged: job search

Performance / The 6Ps of the BIG 3 Book — 3 Comments
28
Dec 11

LunchMeet for LinkedIn

One recurring theme in my book is the need for job seekers to take online relationships offline.  Now, the free iPhone app LunchMeet facilitates offline meetings with your LinkedIn connections.  LunchMeet syncs with your LinkedIn account and identifies connections who are available to meet for lunch, coffee or drinks.

I love the concept of LunchMeet and decided to try it last night.  I logged in using my LinkedIn username and password.  The app prompted me to set a time slot I was available to meet.   After choosing a date and time, I searched to see who was available to meet.  None of my 1,028 LinkedIn connections appeared in the search results.  The only result was a “Vice President of Information Technology” in the Printing industry (LunchMeet identifies people outside of your LinkedIn network who have indicated they are available to meet, but LunchMeet only reveals the title and industry of the people).

Finally, LunchMeet posted the following update to my LinkedIn profile so my connections who aren’t using LunchMeet will see the note about my availability and (presumably) inquire about LunchMeet.

My initial thoughts about LunchMeet:

  • I continue to think LunchMeet is a great concept designed to facilitate offline meetings.
  • More people need to use LunchMeet for it to become a powerful networking tool.
  • Some professionals might shy away from posting their availability out of fear that “unwanted connections” (e.g., vendors) might take advantage of securing meetings with them.
  • I’m not inclined to meet with non-connections such as the Vice President of Information Technology in the search results above.   My preference is to use LunchMeet to develop the relationships I’ve already created on LinkedIn.

Have you tried LunchMeet?  What are your thoughts?

Performance — 2 Comments
27
Dec 11

Are You Tagging Your LinkedIn Connections?

Nick Ducoff recently tweeted that he spent Sunday morning tagging his LinkedIn connections, and his tweet reminded me that many job seekers are not taking advantage of LinkedIn’s tagging feature.  Here are some facts about LinkedIn tags:

  • LinkedIn allows you to create up to 200 tags or labels to assign to your connections.
  • You can assign more than one tag to each connection.
  • The tagging feature is free—you do not need a premium account to tag your connections.
  • LinkedIn provides you with five default tags which you may use or delete:
  1. Partners
  2. Group members
  3. Colleagues
  4. Friends
  5. Classmates
  • When you accept a LinkedIn invitation to connect, the basis for that connection is automatically applied as a default tag.  For example, if Ashley Smith invited me to connect on LinkedIn and indicated that we were “friends,” her profile would be tagged as “friends.”
  • You can delete the default tags and create your own system or you can use the default tags, plus your own tags.  I recommend that job seekers, at a minimum, create tags to better identify their professional connections.
  • You can search your LinkedIn connections by tags.
  • You can send a message to LinkedIn connections with a specific tag.

To illustrate how a job seeker might use the tags, suppose a 2nd year law student at The University of Texas School of Law is interested in employment law and plans to return to Florida, her home state, after graduation.  She might create the following tags for her LinkedIn connections:

  1. Florida lawyers
  2. Employment lawyers
  3. UT Law alumni
  4. Friends
  5. Classmates
  6. Group Members

Before going home for the holidays, this 2L could message her contacts with the “Florida lawyers” tag to schedule meetings/lunches with lawyers in her home state.  Finally, note that a UT Law alum who practices employment law in Florida could have three tags:  Florida lawyers, Employment lawyers and UT Law alumni.

As you organize your job search for 2012, spend some time this week tagging your own LinkedIn connections and then tapping that network in the new year.

Profile — No Comments
1
Nov 11

Add Language to LinkedIn Profile to Help Job Search

If you are a job seeker who speaks multiple languages, make sure your LinkedIn profile reflects each language.   Some in-house legal jobs as well as document review positions require a specific language competency.  The language field on LinkedIn is also an optional search field for advanced people searches on LinkedIn.  Thus, legal recruiters can search LinkedIn to find candidates for these in-house and document review jobs.

To add a language to your LinkedIn profile, complete the following steps:

  1. From your LinkedIn home page, click on “Profile,” and then “Edit Profile.”
  2. Below your snapshot box and before your summary section, you’ll see a box that allows you to add sections.  Click on “add section,” as shown below.

3.   Then, select the “languages” option and add to your profile.  You can then list the languages you speak.

Profile — No Comments
20
Sep 11

Psychological Proof for a Profile Picture

I previously shared my thoughts on why job seekers need a profile picture on their social networking profiles.  Now, there is psychological proof that having a profile picture may help your job search.  According to this Psychology Today article, we absorb about 93% of our information from sight and sound alone.  Sight accounts for 55%.  Thus, a profile picture could have the greatest influence on employers who view your online profiles.

Here are some guidelines I offer in book for choosing the perfect profile picture:

  1. Recent (taken in the past five years)
  2. Quality (avoid blurry pictures)
  3. Headshot (shoulders up rather than full length picture)
Performance — No Comments
16
Jul 11

Job Change Notifier for LinkedIn Connections

I previously wrote about job search clues available in your LinkedIn network updates, such as the weekly email updates informing you about a connection’s new job.  I noted in that post that job change information notifies you about (1) potential openings at the connection’s old firm/company, (2) your possible elimination as a candidate for the same position,  and (3) potential opening resulting from your connection’s new role. 

A new (free) service, Job Change Notifier, launched earlier this month and sends an email when someone in your LinkedIn network changes jobs or titles.  How is the Job Change Notifier service different from the weekly email you receive from LinkedIn notifying you of your connections’ job changes?  From what I can tell, the email you receive from LinkedIn only lists up to five connections’ job changes.  If you have a larger network (and job seekers should), you are likely to have more than five connections changing jobs/titles in a given week. 

The second difference between the LinkedIn email updates and Job Change Notifier is that Job Change Notifier sends email alerts immediately upon a contact changing his or her profile to reflect his or her new job/title.  For example, I received four email updates from Job Change Notifier on Thursday (July 14).  I received my LinkedIn email update on Tuesday (July 12).  The job changes I received from Job Change Notifier on Thursday were not listed in my July 12 LinkedIn email.  I would have to wait until the following Tuesday (July 19) to receive those updates (assuming they were the top five job changes LinkedIn chose to share with me).

It’s easy to set up the Job Change Notifier service if you are interested:

  1. Go to the Job Change Notifier website:  http://www.jobchangenotifier.com/
  2. Click the link to log on with your LinkedIn account.
  3. Enter the email address to receive job change updates.
  4. Select which LinkedIn contacts you wish to track (I selected all).  Click “Save & Finish.” 
Performance — No Comments
2
Jun 11

‘Apply with LinkedIn’ Button Replaces Resumes

A few months ago, I wrote about the idea of law school career offices requiring law students to learn how to use social networking tools in their job search.  If you need another reason why law schools should require mandatory LinkedIn training (at a minimum), consider LinkedIn’s latest development … the “Apply with LinkedIn” button.

Law firms are already posting attorney job openings on LinkedIn.  Now, law firms will also be able to add the “Apply with LinkedIn” button next to job postings on their own websites.  Lawyers and law students will apply for these jobs by submitting their LinkedIn profiles instead of a resume.

While it appears job seekers will still be able to apply the old fashioned way, I think the addition of the button illustrates another reason lawyers and law students can’t afford to ignore LinkedIn.

#LawJobChat — No Comments
27
May 11

Open Discussion on Career Paths (#LawJobChat No. 11)

Our May 2011 #LawJobChat was an open discussion rather than a discussion led by a guest on a specific career topic.  The discussion flowed from debating certain career paths to searching in specific markets to finding a mentor.  You can read the entire transcript of #LawJobChat No. 11, and I’ve summarized some highlights below.

Second Tier of Associates in BigLaw

Our discussion began with reactions to a recent New York Times article that outlined the second (low-paid) tier of associates some large firms recently added.   Concerns included:

  • Potential resentment
  • Potential billing issues
  • Difference in status too huge to sustain

Overall, however, participants thought that viable non-partner track options should exist in large firms—just not the two-tiered system described in the article.

For some humor, one participant shared the following rebuttal to the NYT article:  Temp Hides Fun, Fulfilling Office From Rest of Office.

Small and Midsize Firms

There are many opportunities in small and midsize firms as well as small and middle markets; one participant noted that recent grads should look in markets without law schools.  One law firm attorney recruiting manager tweeted that her firm has “loads of lateral openings.”

Solo Path

Several participants discussed going solo.  Other participants expressed concern.  I think the overall feeling was that solo practice is a viable option if you find a mentor, collaborate with others (including online) to avoid isolation, and enjoy business development.

Save the Date: Our next (and 12th!!) #LawJobChat is Thursday, June 30, at 9pm EDT.

Performance — 1 Comment
17
May 11

How Do You Actually Meet People Through Social Networking?

Melissa Sachs and I recorded a job search program for Lawline in November.  One of the 15 topics we addressed was how job seekers can meet people through social networking sites like the BIG 3.  I’ve included the clip below – note the two-part process:  (1) identify and connect with people online (many of the “lists” noted in the video clip are also referenced in my previous blog post, Lawyers to Follow on Twitter); (2) meet offline.

#LawJobChat / Performance — No Comments
24
Apr 11

Tapping Alumni Networks in Your Job Search (#LawJobChat No. 10)

How can you connect with alumni from your law school without looking like you are just fishing for information?  How can former colleagues from your non-legal career help in your legal job search?  Can your law firm alumni network help in your search for an in-house legal job?

Join #LawJobChat this Tuesday, April 26 at 9 p.m. EDT for answers to these questions and more about tapping alumni networks in your job search.  Our guest co-host is Kelly Hoey, a client relationship and business development advisor who previously served as the Global Manager for Alumni Programmes at White & Case.

Join #LawJobChat on Tuesday to tweet your own questions to Kelly.  Or, email your questions to me in advance (amanda@aellislegal.com), and I’ll tweet them during the chat.

Click here for details about how to participate in a Twitter Chat.  As always, I’ll post the #LawJobChat transcript following the live chat.

Performance / Professionalism — 4 Comments
29
Mar 11

Mandatory Social Media Training in Law Schools?

Should law school career offices require students to learn how to use social networking sites as job search tools?

Consider the following three scenarios:

  1. Yesterday, I showed a job-seeking lawyer how to use LinkedIn to search for a contact in the legal department of the corporation to which he was applying.  He contacted the Assistant General Counsel through LinkedIn rather than submitting his resume through the online job posting and has an interview scheduled for next week.
  2. Last month, I coached a candidate on how to use Twitter to prepare for a firm interview.  The candidate informed me after the interview that of all the information he reviewed before his interview, the information he gained from Twitter helped him the most.  The candidate subsequently received and accepted an offer from the firm.
  3. In my book, I profile a practicing lawyer and law student who obtained jobs through contacts they made on social networking sites.

Many law schools hold mandatory training on how to use LexisNexis and Westlaw career resources (click here for one example).   Shouldn’t law schools require the same mandatory training on how to use social networking sites?  I welcome your comments and thoughts on this subject.  Note – I’m referring to the career services holding the mandatory training sessions, not a mandatory course that is part of a student’s academic semester.

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