Using LinkedIn Groups For Job Leads

In its earlier incarnations, LinkedIn, far and away the leader in business networking sites, took the slow road in developing its internal content. Most user-to-user interaction was relegated to either connection invitations or their Answers section. Job postings were still a work in progress, either as a paid direct posting or through job search engine SimplyHired. At the time, LinkedIn Groups was a non-searchable entity, with very little interaction between group members.

Over the past couple, of years, however, the dynamic of LinkedIn Groups has changed dramatically, to the extent that it, if it hasn’t already, will overtake the traditional job board as a primary source for employment.

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When It’s Time to Seriously Reconsider Your Career

One of our core services is to help individuals with their resumes in an effort to give them the advantage in a competitive job market. But, with the economy being the way it is, we have found that even the best-looking resume may not be enough, and that we may need to help job seekers even more than that.

Case in point – The New York Times recently reported about a job opening for an administrative assistant at the Burns Harbor, Indiana branch of trucking company C.R. England. The job posting itself wasn’t what made news.

What are surprising were the number of applicants for this $13 an hour job. According to the report, nearly 500 people had contacted C.R. England to be considered for the position.

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Get A Business Card (Even If You Don’t Have a Business!)

A couple of years ago, I was introduced to Aaron Boyce, a Sacramento-based motivational speaker and career workshop presenter. At the time, he was invited to speak about networking to benefit the job search at the technical school I worked at.

While I have since moved on, and, among other things, added career workshops to our own list of available services, there was one networking tool that Mr. Boyce passed along to attendees that left a lasting impression. And it’s this tool that may, in the face of upcoming job fairs, give you a leg up: Create business cards.

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Job Fairs – Tighter Competition This Time Around

Around this time last year, I wrote about a Wall Street Journal article regarding the uptick of attendees to job fairs as a result of layoffs caused by the economy. Since that time, job fairs have become even more crowded.

In Cleveland alone, local media have made a note to report about the long lines of job seekers, no matter the weather, looking for that one opportunity that will get them back into the workforce.

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Freelancing – Fill Space and Time, Maybe More

A long time ago, when you thought of the term freelancing, most people generally thought about writing, be it in newspapers or magazines. These days, of course, you can find freelancing to surround all types of jobs in any industry you can think of.

For someone who is between jobs, freelancing can not only provide some extra money that can come in handy if times are tight, but it can also allow to fill the empty space that currently occupies your resume.

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