Why Linkedin? Because Relationships Matter
There has been a fundamental shift in how job searches are being conducted. No longer is it just about your education level (although that still matters), but it is about how you grow and foster relationships within your job search. The saying I use is is it’s not who you know that will help you get a job, it’s who they know. No one tool is as powerful in proving that point true than Linkedin.
Since it’s humble beginnings in May of 2003, when Linkedin launched with 4,500 members till as of this posting it reached 150,000,000 members; Linkedin has become one of the most powerful tools in connecting and maintaining professional relationships. The value this brings to you as a job searcher is that you can connect with anyone on this planet to grow a relationship that can allow you to find the opportunity you are looking to secure. Don’t believe me? Let me provide a couple of stories to show how individuals used Linkedin to secure opportunities.
Stay in front to stay in thought.
In the early part of 2008 during the beginnings of the economic pullback, I had an invite from a fellow company employee (she was part of a training group) who was being released from her role with the bank we worked. Her message to me to connect was that she wanted to stay in touch with recruiters to keep abreast of the market as it continued it transition. I accepted the invite and we were connected although we had never met. Flash forward a year to 2009 when I became a victim of the economic recession and ultimately landed a contract role (that’s the second story) with a different organization.
The trainer who was let go a year earlier saw the update to my profile that I was with a new organization and sent me a message via Linkedin. The message was very short and congratulated me on the new role I secured and if I became aware of any opportunities that fit her background to keep her in mind for the positions. Sure enough about a week later a position came to my desk that she seemed to be a fit for and after going through the process, she was selected. All because she sent one email congratulating me on the role.
Coming Full Circle
As I mentioned in the story before, I took a new role in 2009. This story will explain how I got that opportunity by using Linkedin. In May of 2009, I was notified that I was being released from my role as a recruiter for a financial services company. I was told I would have to work a sixty day noticed and would be given three months severance after that. So in essence, I had five months to secure another role.
I went through the process of developing a target list of companies (I teach how to do this in a program I will be launching by next quarter) and used linkedin to reach out to individuals at those companies. Now to make sure I make this point clear, the individuals that I reached out to, I had no contact with prior to the first communication with them via Linkedin. One of those individuals was a Human Resource leader for a telecommunications company located here in Charlotte. I invited him for a cup of coffee to learn more about his organization and structure. He accepted.
During the conversation, he asked if I was aware of GMAC Financial (now Ally Bank) and their plans of locating to the Charlotte market. I told him I was aware but I had not made any contacts in the organization at that point in time. He sent my resume over to a recruiter within the company and introduced me to him. That recruiter and I made plans to meet for coffee later that week. This was not a hiring manager but a peer so he had no hiring authority. However, it was a connection into a company that I had no contacts in.
During our meeting he mentioned that a project leader I worked with at my original company was going to be coming to his organization within the next couple of weeks. He said he wasn’t sure if it was general knowledge yet so I shouldn’t spread the information. Shortly after we left each other I sent an email to the project leader whom I had worked with to catch up for coffee to see how things had been going. During our meeting she told me she was making the move and if any openings came up, she would keep me in mind. Two weeks later, I was starting with the company as a contract recruiter.
Oh yeah, all this happen within three months!
That’s the power of Linked.
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