✔ Posting a profile. An LI profile contains the same information as your Core resume. (See Chapter 6 to find out more about this overall resume format.) You include your work history, education, competencies, and skills. “Open to opportunities” means you’re unemployed or about to be, trying to move from part-time to full-time work, or just seeking greener pastures.

      ✔ Expanding your network. By “working social,” you can continue to add voices to your chorus of colleagues, creating a strong source of referrals and endorsements. You want to stand out, but you don’t have to stand alone when you need professional helping hands.

      ✔ Joining groups. Much like participating in traditional professional associations and trade groups, LI affinity groups offer camaraderie according to particular occupation, career field, or industry. Getting involved in groups also helps to greatly increase your visibility and stand out with recruiters. If no existing group zeroes in on your requirements, start your own.

      Each group maintains a job-posting area where recruiting and hiring managers post their openings before word gets out; as a group member, you see all the posted job openings while they’re fresh. Each LI member can join up to 50 groups.

      ✔ Periscoping your future. When you’re puzzling over how next to position yourself to reach career goals, LinkedIn Career Explorer can help. Based on its database of real-life personal and company profiles, the LinkedIn service shows what happened to others in your shoes, names companies where you might work, forecasts how much money you can make, and identifies by name the kinds of people you might meet along the way.

      ✔ Allowing employers to find you. It’s easy to personalize your profile with a custom URL. Instead of setting up and maintaining your own website, direct viewers to your LI profile with a vanity address that includes your name, like this: www.linkedin.com/in/FirstLast.

      ✔ Using premium search tools. If you want to rev up your search, choose the enhanced version of LinkedIn by paying between $20 and $50 a month for one of three premium levels and get benefits like these:

      ● Top billing for your profile (comparable to a sponsored link on Google’s first page)

      ● The ability to communicate with hiring managers, even those outside your network

      ● Access to full profiles of hiring decision makers

      LinkedIn upshot

      I used Facebook to get my current job, and I couldn’t be happier. Last year I posted several status updates about my job. A friend of a friend saw the posts and e-mailed me about an opportunity at [the federal agency where she worked]. I went in for an interview and three days later (light speed in the federal government), I had a job offer.

      Sampling the Facebook benefits buffet

      ✔ Networking to useful faces. Many of your colleagues and the professionals in your field are on Facebook. Remember to update your status with your current job situation and what you’re looking for. When you’re in full job-hunt mode, keep your network in the loop with regular progress reports – you don’t want them to forget to help you.

      ✔ Looking at job listings. A number of job-search pages and apps have sprung up on Facebook. Performing a quick FB search of the words “job search” will bring up pages such as BeKnown and BranchOut. Use the Facebook Application Directory to discover apps. With both you can find job opportunities, networking, and even recruiters with pages such as these.

      ✔ Milking groups. Groups on Facebook are virtually the same as groups on LinkedIn – a place to share breaking news and developments of collective interest. Join up or start groups for a topic, industry, or interest. By hanging out with people who care about the same things you do, you can be noticed and in a good spot to hear about unadvertised jobs in the hidden job market, as well as advertised jobs you might otherwise overlook.

      ✔ Cruising relevant pages. Stay abreast of what’s up on Facebook’s job-site pages and company pages. When you spot a company you’d like to work for, click that you “like” its page and get company news that may aid your job search.

      ✔ Personalizing your search. Because Facebook has integrated with prominent job-search engine SimplyHired, you can try to find jobs through your Facebook friends. After you hop on www.simplyhired.com, find jobs you want, click on the “Who Do I Know” button at the top of search results to see your Facebook friends at the company and send private “can you help me?” inquiries to them.

      ✔ Creating a web presence. Even when you don’t operate your own website (most people don’t), you can be on digital deck with a profile on Facebook. Direct viewers to your profile with a vanity address that reflects your name, like this: www.facebook.com/FirstLast.

      Facebook upshot