By Linda Van Valkenburgh
In my prior post, I discussed how to start getting yourself “out there” in a professional sense.  While many of you are executives, people sometimes place so much pressure on you to “know everything”.  If you have not been out there crafting a career campaign before, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to structure and manage the elements of your search plan. While I have recommended that you take a webinar to delve into the intricacies of LinkedIn, as an executive career coach, my goal is to inform you about a specific tool that LinkedIn can add to your toolbox.

I want to bring to your attention to one salient point. You can search for jobs on LinkedIn in addition to putting your profile on the site.   The unique feature about this is that as you search, you can see how you are connected to the company.  This is a very valuable asset in trying to get into the office of the hiring decision-maker.  Go to the “Jobs” tab at the top toolbar and you will see that the first choice is “Find a Job”.  This area allows you to put in your search criteria and come up with listings that are posted by recruiters and companies alike.  You can choose to narrow your search with additional criteria as it applies to your specific search situation.  Make sure to look at the right-hand corner to see your connections to the companies and recruiters that are displayed.  You may be pleasantly surprised by what you find out.

Giving this process just a couple of minutes a day as part of your digital career search can be an effective tool to add to your strategic plan.  Try it and see.  Please leave me a comment and let me know if this helps.