Calvert Creative

Recently a friend invited me to offer advice to her sister, who was considering moving to the area to look for work. With layoffs and unemployment so high, how can she increase her chances of landing a great job? The good news is, there are lots of ways to get an edge on the competition using online (usually free!) media.

1. Clarify your career goals
Before doing anything, decide what your career goals are. Do you want to work in the field in which you were trained? Are you are trying to break into a new area? Maybe you want to work in a field in which you already have considerable experience. Whatever you decide, focus all your efforts (and your resume) toward that specific goal.

2. Create an outstanding LinkedIn.com profile.
It’s the standard business professional beginning. Join related LinkedIn groups in your field. Be active, asking and answering questions in those groups. Attend local group events and expand your LinkedIn connections.

3. Get networked online.
Choose the right networks and build your following accordingly. This takes time and effort, but isn’t difficult to do. For example, if you join Twitter you can do network searches on keywords and use third-party services such as TwitterLocal and Twellow to find others in the area, including potential colleagues and bosses, as well as service partners (like staffing agencies) who might be able to help you in your search.

4. Join local business groups and attend their meetings.
Start with your local Chamber of Commerce and work outward from there. Exchange business cards, meet people. Check MeetUp.com and Craigslist in your area.

5. Subscribe to feeds related to your area.
If you don’t already know about and love RSS feeds, now is the time to learn. You’ll come off well in front of the people you are talking with if you are current on happenings within your industry or field. This is easier these days than ever before. Put all of your feeds on an iGoogle homepage or reader. Check it regularly.

6. Consider a staffing agency.
You can Google agencies in your area, or ask about them in the online networks that you are using.

7. Clean up your Facebook.
Make sure it looks professional, not college-party.

8. Google your name.
Claim online profiles. There are dozens of data-scrapers like JigSaw who will capture your name, potentially out-of-date information. clean up the flotsam you may have left laying around on the internet. This means dead blogs, old profiles, snarky comments on other high-traffic sites; anything connected with your name that could distract your future employer from your best qualities. Your future employers assuredly Google you; make sure they will like what they see.

9. Dot-com yourself.
Consider purchasing your name URL and set up a website all about you. Make yourself incredibly easy to find online, even if you need to purchase pay-per-click ads on your name or industry in order to get page rank.

10. Upgrade your email address.
Dump your yahoo or aol or mindspring etc. email address, or else don’t use it for your job search. Get an email addy that goes with your site or get a gmail account with your professional name.

11. Simplify your professional name use.
Make sure you use the same professional name EVERYWHERE. If it’s Susan G. Miller, be sure to use that exact version everywhere so that the search engines start to separate you from the plain Susan [no middle initial] Millers. If your name is Susan but you go by Sue, stop. Or else make all your online stuff and business cards say Sue. Pick something, and stick with it.

12. Say cheese.
Make sure your resume has a good photo of you on it (get a professional to do it or ask a clever friend, it’s worth the effort) and is also available in PDF format, so that you can easily send it to people online and have it on your site as a download, as well as having it available in a paper version (use good paper, print in full color).

And of course, there are lots of online job listing sites. Google it, and you’ll find sites from “A” (AllJobSearch.com) to “W” (WorkTree.com). I tried for “Z,” I really did.

You don’t have to do all of the above, but any of them will certainly help! And as always, we’d love to hear your suggestions. Leave a comment and offer your ideas for getting back in the game.