Job Search Training

Expand your World by Expanding your LinkedIn Connections

January 13, 2020 By Katherine Burik

My world feels pretty big these days! I recently celebrated a huge milestone (for me) when I accepted my 5000th LinkedIn connection to really expand my world.

Think of LinkedIn like a big pyramid. You are at the top. Those you are connected to are your 2nd level connections. People who are connected to your 2nd level connections are your 3rd level connections. People you don’t know yet are at the bottom of the pyramid, just waiting to join the party.

If you have only a few connections, then your world of 2nd and 3rd level connections is very small. It’s like living in a small town. You know a few people well but you might be recycling the same conversations and ideas simply because your options are fewer.

Fewer Contacts = Smaller World = Fewer Opportunities

If you live in a large town, you have greater opportunity to interact with more people and ideas simply because your world is bigger. You might have to work harder to meet those people because they are spread out over a larger geography, but you can generate more opportunity if you reach out.

More contacts = Larger World = More Opportunities

I’m not advocating small town or large city life. I see plenty of wonderful reasons to live in a small town. My point is sometimes bigger can offer more opportunities.

LinkedIn is like that. LinkedIn can be a tool to reach out and find opportunity in a bigger world, if you extend your reach by adding connections.

Recently I reworked Brian’s LinkedIn profile to optimize his keywords and personal brand. His profile looks great. He is presenting the best possible version of himself to support his job search. But even after all that work to improve his profile, Brian is still not getting much traction.

Could it be related to the fact that Brian only has 50 connections? You bet.

Compare Brian’s 50 connections to my 5000 connections. Do you think more people look at or can find my LinkedIn profile? What can that increased exposure bring in the way of new opportunities? We can do the math on that.

The average LinkedIn user has 400 connections. If we assume that our 1st level connections each have the average 400 connections, 2nd level to us, how do Brian’s profile and my profile interact with the world?

Brian’s 50 connections X 400 = 20,000 2nd level connections
Katherine’s 5000 connections X 400 = 2,000,000 2nd level connections

Who has the greater access to people, information, ideas and job leads? This access represents the value in having more connections.

I am not just accumulating connections. I work hard to start conversations with each new connection to learn about them and see how I can be helpful. Those added connection have expanded my world and I’ve learned more than I ever thought possible!

I am proud of my 5000th LinkedIn connection! His name is Rob. For being my 5000th connection, Rob received an Interview Doctor eBook and access to our new online training program, Inside Scoop on LinkedIn for Job Seekers! Let the celebration begin!!

What are you doing to expand your world? Are you meeting more people to increase your opportunities? If not, what is holding you back?

For more information about using LinkedIn to expand your world, check out The Interview Doctor’s free training, 5 Tips to Kick of a Successful Job Search or Career Transition using LinkedIn.

How to Be a LinkedIn All-Star to Supercharge your Job Search

November 19, 2019 By Katherine Burik

How to Be a LinkedIn All-Star to Supercharge your Job Search and find a job using LinkedIn using Job Search Tips with the Interview Doctor.

Katherine Burik is a Job Search / Career Coach and, in this video, she shares her top tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile to help you have a profile that will help you be found on LinkedIn so you can find a job, faster.

Get more Job Search Tips from the Interview Doctor and Network with confidence on LinkedIn! Get your free copy of the “7 Tips for Career Success for the Shy Person” and begin to step out and onto a new career path today.

Want to learn how to Find a Better Job? Register for this FREE Job Search Training from the Interview Doctor – Get instant access here.

What the Heck are Keywords and Where do We Find Them?

September 26, 2019 By Katherine Burik

Imagine you want to buy the perfect pair of shoes. You sit down at your computer. What do you type into your Internet search engine?

I would type: “shoes”, “travel”, “walking”, comfortable”, “low heel”, and “comfortable”.

Darn, you got me distracted. Ok, I am back after spending ten minutes reviewing some wonderful shoe options that met my criteria for my vacation in October.

The words we entered into that search for shoes are keywords. Keywords are important characteristics used frequently to describe something. If the shoe seller did not describe the shoes with the right keywords, I could not find those shoes even if they were the perfect pair for me.

Somewhere, a hiring manager is sitting in front of her computer looking for a Supply Chain Director. What words does she type into her browser? Maybe “supply chain”, “leader”, “logistics”, “strategy”, “results”, or “problem solving”. This search, whether in Google, LinkedIn, or on a stack of resumes, will reveal folks whose profiles match the criteria.

In a job search, keywords are the words hiring managers use frequently to describe a job. If your LinkedIn profile or resume is not built around those words, you will not be found. I don’t care how talented you are, the accomplishments you’ve racked up, or how perfect you are for that job…

YOU WILL NOT BE FOUND.

You might be thinking, “But Katherine, that is not fair!” Perhaps. But we live in the real world and deal with job search in the real world as we find it today.

The trick is finding the right keywords that allow your profile or resume to turn up when a hiring manager conducts a search.

Here are some tips to using keywords in your resume or LinkedIn profile:

Look for words that appear frequently in job advertisements for the jobs you love. Do some research on www.Indeed.com. Leave the “where” box blank because this is just research. Enter job titles into the “what” box, then start reading until you find three or four jobs that you think you love, without regard to location. What words appear frequently across all those descriptions? Those are the keywords.

Sprinkle those keywords liberally in your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Frequency counts. Ensure five or six of what you think are the most important keywords appear in your LinkedIn profile at least 20 times. This keyword density makes your profile pop to the top of searches.

Hiring managers will believe that you are a perfect fit for the job because you describe yourself using the keywords THEY think are important. Pretty tricky, huh? But it works!

Check out The Interview Doctor’s How to Avoid the Top 5 Mistakes with Resumes to be sure you haven’t missed something important in your resume or LinkedIn profile!

Five Reasons to Connect with People on LinkedIn You Don’t Know

July 26, 2016 By Katherine Burik

As a big LinkedIn fan, I always encourage job seekers to expand their presence on LinkedIn.

You can’t imagine the number of times I have heard people say, “I get invitations to connect all the time but I only accept those from people I know very well.”

I find this view frustrating because this limits your networking drastically. Let’s imagine this in a different context. Let’s say you go to a cocktail party and only talk to the people you know already. There will be little clumps of people all over the room but no mingling. You wouldn’t want to meet someone you don’t already know, right?

Or imagine you go to a business meeting of people in your company from different parts of the business. You stand like a lump next to the only other person you know while everyone else mingles. You wouldn’t want to meet someone you don’t already know, right?

When I was young I was very shy. My first husband was quite outgoing and had a job that required that he and his wife (me) be very social. It was torture to go into a room full of people I did not know. I became more comfortable over time by forcing myself to talk to at least three people I didn’t know before I slunk back to my corner with my friends. You know what? After a while I enjoyed meeting people. I got to ask lots of questions to get the other person to talk. Curiosity overcame my shyness.

LinkedIn is a wonderful way for shy people to step out. No one can see you. You are safe. There are lots of reasons to meet people you don’t already know in the real world or in the social network that is LinkedIn.

People you don’t know might be able to answer a question you have. You could learn something.
They know people you need to know. Imagine the difference between submitting your resume to an online advertisement or sending your resume to a person you know. Which resume is the hiring manager going to look at?
They know something about a company you are researching. Wouldn’t it be nice to call someone you know and ask questions?
You can have an interesting conversation with them on a discussion page, raising your visibility and encouraging recruiters to look at your profile.
Networking is about connecting to people you don’t know yet. Why wouldn’t you accept an invitation or reach out? The job networking possibilities are endless!

Try to overcome your shyness. Reach out and link with someone!

If you would like more tips on a successful job search, check out a replay video of our recent job search training – it is free and has tons of job search tips in it.

Job Search Action Speaks Louder than Words

July 2, 2016 By Marta Goertzen

Reflecting on a week that was a study in contrasts regarding the concept of “action”.

Earlier this year, I spoke to a room full of motivated, talented high-level business people in all professions eager to absorb better ways to connect with people to find a new opportunity. My average presentation just will not do for this group. We have to dig deeper with more sophisticated ideas than the average job seeker group.

This group always challenges me to be a better speaker. I can see the wheels moving as they figure out ways to incorporate my ideas into their process.

The next day I checked in with a private client. Jack is a mid-twenties engineer currently out of work. He is very quiet. He would be willing to do anything to avoid talking to people. He just wants to sit quietly in a corner in some business and engineer away.

He is very uncomfortable. His savings are running out. His family is running out of patience with him. His resume is ok but he has almost no LinkedIn profile. Unfortunately, his job search is almost non-existent. He is very smart but has no idea how to be smart with job search. Or with people for that matter.

I feel for Jack. He is stuck, frozen in one place. Jack supports my idea that some people are just not equipped to be job seekers. Every day he is stuck in this spot undermines his confidence and puts him further from employment with no prospects.

I shared with Jack the same concepts I shared with the Group, albeit a bit simpler since Jack is just starting out and not a sophisticated job seeker. Jack has done nothing in the last two weeks since our last meeting. He still has the same 8 connections he had two weeks ago.

These two groups represent the job seeker spectrum. The difference between Jack and the motivated folks at the Group is action. The group included quiet engineers so it is not the profession that makes the difference.

The difference is action. The folks in the group are motivated to action. They are resilient in the face of difficulties. They get up off the floor, brush themselves off and start again. They put disappointments behind them and seek out then implement any piece of information that can help.

This openness is what makes the group people such wonderful candidates! It is also what separates them from job seekers like Jack.

Job Seekers who are successful work hard at their job search. They network and get out there trying to make the connections needed to find a job.

At the Interview Doctor, we want to help people like Jack, to get your Job Search moving, or to help you make that Career Transition happen. On July 12th, we are planning a live webinar training to do just that – share our “5 Tips to Kick off a Successful Job Search or Career Transition”, please join us!

If you want to Master your Job Search to gain more Interviews …Interviews that will lead to a new JOB or a new Career, join us for this free training.

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