Are You Unlocking the Full Potential of LinkedIn Groups

Are You Unlocking the Full Potential of LinkedIn Groups Everyone knows about LinkedIn Groups, but not everyone knows just how powerful they can be. Here are my top 5 ways you can make LinkedIn Groups do more for you, your business and your career: 1) Be a member of 50 groups: A lot of people are put off joining a lot of LinkedIn groups as they are worried about drowning in lots of email alerts. This does not have to be the case you can simply turn off emails from all groups in your LinkedIn settings or adjust your settings for each group individually: When you join a group, the people in it become a part of your LinkedIn network. LinkedIn will let you join a maximum of 50 groups. Making the most of this will greatly increase the size of your network and the number of people that you can see in your LinkedIn searches. You don’t have to stay a member of the same 50 groups all the time, you can chop and change when you find bigger, better or more relevant groups. 2) Use LinkedIn Groups to message people for free: Have you ever found someone you really want to get in touch with but don’t want to pay for an InMail? If you have a group in common then you can message them for free! If you don’t share a group, see if that person is a member of any groups and pick one to join. You might have to leave one of your other groups if you are using your full allocation of 50. Once you share a group with the person you want to contact you will have to visit the group and search for them in the “Members” section. When you hover your mouse over their name, you will now see the option to send them a message: This is a proper message, with no character limit and no restriction on sending links, unlike an invite to connect. 3) Use LinkedIn Groups to identify talent: LinkedIn Groups can be a great way to infer things about a person’s experience, specialisms or interests. For example, a solicitor that is a member of a HR group might be more likely to specialise in employment law, even if they don’t explicitly say so on their profile. Once you are a member of a group it is easy to search its members simply by visiting the group’s members section or using LinkedIns Advanced Search feature. It’s not always possible to join a group. For example, some group managers don’t allow recruiters to join. If you are not a member of the group then you can still search its members. If you have a LinkedIn Recruiter licence then you can easily search the members of ANY group using the filters on the left hand side of your search results. If you have a basic LinkedIn account then it takes a little more ingenuity. To search the members of any LinkedIn group with a basic LinkedIn account, you will need to have two windows open in your browser, both looking at LinkedIn. In the first window, run a simple search looking for the keywords you hope to find on profiles. In the second window, find the group whose members you want to search (for those keywords). Once you have found the group you are interested in and opened it up in your browser, you need to look in your browser’s address bar at the URL of the page and find the groups ID number. The URL is usually in the format: http://linkedin.com/groups?gid=TheNumberYouWant?trk= Copy (Ctrl +C) the group ID number from the URL, the number is usually 4 to 6 digits long. Now return to the keyword search you did in the first tab. Using the filters on the left hand side of the screen, select one of the groups you ARE a member of to filter by (it doesn’t matter which one). Now look for that group’s ID number in the URL of the sear results page The number is often right at the far end of the URL so click in the address bar and hit the  End  button on your keyboard to go straight there. Replace it with the number of the group you DO want to search. Hit enter and voila, you have searched members of your chosen group for the keywords you need without needing to join. If you like a more in-depth tutorial on this, then see this explanation  from the Social Talent blog. 4) Engage in LinkedIn Groups and become part of the community: LinkedIn groups seem to fall into three categories; the dead, the spammed and the useful. The first two categories are only really of interest to you as a way of expanding your network or sending messages. The third category is great if you actually want to become a part of the wider community you work or recruit in. If you regularly show up and are helpful, people are more likely to help you when you need it. Being helpful might mean sharing relevant content on a regular basis or it might mean helping to answer the questions other group members are asking. If you set yourself up as a useful member of a community (or LinkedIn group) when you need help to find a candidate or a new job, members of that group will be more likely to help you. Do be sure to post something more personal than a simple link to a job ad, you wouldn’t want to get SWAM’d. Just openly asking for help usually works best, with no links at all. 5) Run your own LinkedIn Group: What better way to set yourself up as a useful community member than being the person who started the group in the first place? You are then free to post whatever you like in the group without any threat of moderation, you also have the ability to send out weekly messages to group members. Running a group isn’t easy though, it’s a big commitment and it takes a long time. You have to dedicate the time to make sure your group never falls into the “dead” category and be careful not to turn it into too much of a promotional vehicle and end up in the “spammed” camp. RELATED: Top 10 Reasons Why Your LinkedIn Group SUCKS!

Is EQ More Important than IQ in Leadership

Is EQ More Important than IQ in Leadership Though theres no doubt that climbing the career ladder takes a significant level of intelligence, theres more to succeeding in a leadership role than having a high IQ. In fact, one of the most valuable  qualities of a good leader is a high emotional quotient (EQ) and the ability to read peoples emotions and empathise with  others. As a manager  it is essential that you work well with people and are capable of establishing positive professional relationships, so could EQ be more important than IQ? Norwich University have put together this infographic, looking at how Emotional Quotient and Intelligence Quotient affect leadership abilities. What are the benefits of high EQ? A study that compared outstanding managers with average managers found that 90% of the difference was accounted for by EQ. The biggest indication of whether or not an individual will take the  lead in their team is their emotional intelligence, even when their IQ and personality are taken into account. Managers with well developed emotional intelligence skills are more likely to outperform revenue targets, than those with underdeveloped emotional intelligence skills. 67% of attributes that employers look for are emotional intelligence competencies. Employees with a manager with high emotional intelligence are four times less likely to leave than those with a manager with low emotional intelligence. What are the habits of high EQ leaders? A study looking at past US Presidents found that emotional intelligence was a key quality that distinguished the successful from the unsuccessful. The successful chose their battles wisely, behaved assertively when necessary and showed courage to confront difficult situations with confidence. Another of their strengths is the ability to recognise their own moods, emotions and drives and how they may affect other people. They are able to understand and react to other peoples emotions and behaviour appropriately. How can you increase EQ? Being assertive and expressing difficult emotions when necessary. Maintaining a positive attitude. Try to keep your cool and manage stress. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Would You Pass the Work Life Balance Test

Would You Pass the Work Life Balance Test Work life balance three little words which are often used to describe a comfortable relationship between your work and home life. Every employee wants this, and apparently every great company offers it. But do they really? I am not so sure. Have you ever stopped to wonder if you personally actually have a balance between your work and personal life? If not, ask yourself these questions: Are you taking your work home with you, perhaps you even work while on the train or bus to work? Do you work more than 40 hours per week? Do your colleagues contact you out of hours or when you are on leave? Do you find yourself reading/replying to work emails over the weekend on your smart phone? Is it difficult for you to take time off to attend events such as your child’s birthday or school sports day? Are you exhausted when you get home, keeping you from fulfilling your family commitments? Do you spend enough time with your family? Are the kids always in bed when you get home? Do you find you have no time to spend on self-development, or your favourite hobby? Do you lie in bed at night thinking about work issues? Are you stressed about your work? Well, if you have answered ‘Yes’ to some or most of the questions above, then your work life balance quotient is extremely poor and it needs fixing! Now let me ask you this: Have you ever considered applying for another job because your current role does not give you the balanced life you desire? I am certain that most people have. Why? Because I hear this every day from candidates who seek my help to secure a new role.  What if your team felt this way? Could you be risking losing your high performing team members by pushing the boundaries so they too do not have a healthy balance between work and life? I meet with up to 10 candidates per week who are considering a new career opportunity, most of these suggest an improvement in their work life balance is a primary reason for looking for a new role. I ask them what does this need to look like for them to catch their eye and every time I hear a different response. I believe that if you were to poll 50 people on their perception of work life balance you could have as many as 50 different answers. People want different things and it is impossible to fulfil everyone’s needs. Commonly people want a shorter commute to work, reasonable working hours to spend time with the family, and increasingly people want flexibility in their work arrangements.  Whatever the individual responses maybe, they generally come under one category and that is simply ‘Time’. We expect so much of our people and take up so much of their time, and yet time is the one crucial commodity that everyone craves. Technology: The advancement of technology affords many of us the opportunity to have a flexible working arrangement. Smart phones, tablet computers, cloud based IT systems and super fast Internet connectivity should make this simple, but in fact it does the opposite. We continue with our fixed working arrangement but still use the tools available to us in an attempt to get ahead, work harder and be more effective, but we end up using these to do yet more work and become a slave to our emails and never switch off. The danger we face with this is loosing our most valuable team members. We happily accept they are committed and loyal employees, but blindly ignore the fact they are working too hard and will inevitably burnout. And then they leave you to join another business. We all agree that employees want and deserve a better work life balance. But is this just a fashionable statement we use to attract people, when really we want to get more from our teams for less? The bad news for the Australian demographic is that we desperately need to offer more to our workers. These days most Australian families have the husband and wife working in full-time or part-time jobs while the children are looked after by expensive childcare services. Better work life balance for employees: So how can we promote a better work life balance for our employees? Allow your employees to work the hours they are employed to do, over 5 days and no more. Don’t expect your team to work when they get home, unless you are offering a flexible working arrangement. Embrace flexible working arrangements, set clear expectations around these and give your team the chance to prove themselves working away from the office. Take a look at your parental leave policies, do they allow enough family time. Embrace cultural change and your employees differing commitments or beliefs. Allow your employees time during the workday to take a break (not just eat their lunch), encourage them to do something they enjoy like exercise or shopping or study. Reward your staff for high performance with extra time off work, add it to their annual leave balance to take when they wish. Do something special once in a while that they will remember, like take them out for the day to an event, or a team building exercise, or maybe just send everyone home at lunchtime on a Friday! It is too easy to forget that a happy employee is a productive employee. An employee will only stay happy if they genuinely feel they have a balance between their work and lifestyle commitments. Just imagine how productive your team would be if they were all happy employees? Author: Paul Simms is an executive recruiter with 15 years of experience across the Australian and UK markets. He is the founder of  Wright Executive  a specialist business within the Accounting and Professional Services sector.

Harness the Power of Employee Engagement

Harness the Power of Employee Engagement Is your business prioritizing employee engagement and workplace happiness? You might not realize it, but the answer is probably no â€" and you’re definitely not the only one. Around the world, an abysmally low 13% of employees feel actively engaged, while in the US this number sits at 34%. As a principle, employee engagement attempts to understand the relationship between an organisation and its employees. An engaged employee has a positive relationship with their employer â€" they feel actively involved with and committed to the business and its goals, and work productively to the best standard possible. On the other hand, an actively disengaged employee is more of a burden than an asset; they feel very negatively about their employer and their job, which is ultimately reflected in their work and attitude. They’re the types who are constantly drifting in late, missing deadlines and making their colleagues miserable while they’re at it. Most people fall somewhere in the middle of this engagement spectrum â€" they don’t despise their job, but they’re not particularly bothered either. They’ve essentially checked out and are just going through the motions, often lacking in innovation and creativity. And while a single “checked out” employee might not seem like a huge deal, disengaged employees as a whole are costing businesses a fortune. In the US, it’s estimated that every year $550 billion is lost as a direct result of poor employee engagement levels. Beyond financial losses, unhappy employees will also negatively impact your company’s culture and make working there unpleasant even for the staff that are engaged. Luckily, a disengaged employee is not doomed to stay that way forever. Any employer can make employee engagement a focus and revive their floundering workforce. Take a look at this infographic from Mad Max Adventures which reveals the facts and figures behind the disengagement crisis, as well as some sure-fire tactics to re-engage your workforce. About the Author:  Becca Armstrong-Benson is a content writer at Mad Max Adventures  , a carefully designed and purpose built activity center near Edinburgh in Scotland, offering outdoor experiences and team-building days, including archery, quad-biking and clay pigeon hunting.

Why Are You Not Being Found Try Thinking Like a Recruiter - Career Pivot

Why Are You Not Being Found Try Thinking Like a Recruiter - Career Pivot To Be Found, You Need to Think Like a Recruiter Copyright: mazirama / 123RF Stock Photo Most of the time, the reason you are not being found is that you are not thinking like a recruiter. Recruiters are using LinkedIn to search for talent using specific strategies. Think of this like dating. If you want to find a mate, you need to hang out where the opposite sex can find you. When I was a young man, that meant belonging to social organizations or clubs and hanging out withfriends. When I got older, it also meant going to bars and doing other activitiesâ€"I met my wife playing volleyball through an informal Sunday evening volleyball group. If you want to be found by recruiters, then you need to understand the strategies recruiters use to search LinkedIn. This way, you can be found by recruiters …just like you wanted to be found by the opposite sex. Let’s start with the basics. Current Job Title Recruiters use LinkedIn Advanced Search to find people. They start by using the current job title field. Having a current job title is critical to being found. In the image to the right, the recruiter is searching for individuals who have product manager as their current title. The image below lists one of my contact’s current title as Sr. Product Manager, and it is the current title because the end date of the position is current. What if you are unemployed? Create a position! I have a shell consulting company called Global Basis Consulting. When I was unemployed, this was my current position. If you look at my LinkedIn profile you will find the following: Listen to the most recent episode If I were to sell Career Pivot, I would change the Global Basis Consulting end date to present and I would have a current position. You have to have a current position to be found! Current Job Title Contents Your current job title should be as descriptive as possible AND give multiple variations if needed. For example, let’s say you are aproduct manager.What kind of product manager? Software Product Manager Can you add any keywords? Like Software as a Service (SaaS) or Agile? SaaS Agile Product Manager Let’s say you also handle product marketing for the product. SaaS Agile Product Manager | Product Marketing Manager Now you will be found if a recruiter is searching for a Product Manager OR a Product Marketing Manager. Let me be clear, you cannot lie. Only use job titles that fit your current job! Keywords Besides searching job titles, recruiters will use keywords to find prospectsâ€"as shown in the image to the right. In this case, the recruiter is looking for a product manager with Software as a Service (SaaS) experience. The results of the search will list profiles with the current title of Product Manager that also includes SaaS in their profile. The more times SaaS appears in the profile, the higher it will appear in the ranking. You need to place keywords in your summary and in your current and past positions. DO NOT KEYWORD STUFF. The easiest way to do this is to place a keyword entry at the end of each section. A good example is to look at the Summary section of my LinkedIn Profile. Using this method, it is very obvious what I am doing. Place a keyword section at the bottom of each section. Do not use keywords that are not valid for the section. Connecting with Recruiters You should connect with recruiters at your target companies. If you are following my Targeted Job Search Strategy, you will know how to strategically connect with recruiters. If you are a 1st-degree connection of the recruiter who is searching, you appear higher in his rankings. Recruiters move around a lot. They move between companies that need their services. They carry their connections with them. Over a period of time, having a lot of recruiters in your network will be very beneficial. Do you now understand why you are not being found? What is your next step? Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ... Why Are You Not Being Found Try Thinking Like a Recruiter - Career Pivot To Be Found, You Need to Think Like a Recruiter Copyright: mazirama / 123RF Stock Photo Most of the time, the reason you are not being found is that you are not thinking like a recruiter. Recruiters are using LinkedIn to search for talent using specific strategies. Think of this like dating. If you want to find a mate, you need to hang out where the opposite sex can find you. When I was a young man, that meant belonging to social organizations or clubs and hanging out withfriends. When I got older, it also meant going to bars and doing other activitiesâ€"I met my wife playing volleyball through an informal Sunday evening volleyball group. If you want to be found by recruiters, then you need to understand the strategies recruiters use to search LinkedIn. This way, you can be found by recruiters …just like you wanted to be found by the opposite sex. Let’s start with the basics. Current Job Title Recruiters use LinkedIn Advanced Search to find people. They start by using the current job title field. Having a current job title is critical to being found. In the image to the right, the recruiter is searching for individuals who have product manager as their current title. The image below lists one of my contact’s current title as Sr. Product Manager, and it is the current title because the end date of the position is current. What if you are unemployed? Create a position! I have a shell consulting company called Global Basis Consulting. When I was unemployed, this was my current position. If you look at my LinkedIn profile you will find the following: Listen to the most recent episode If I were to sell Career Pivot, I would change the Global Basis Consulting end date to present and I would have a current position. You have to have a current position to be found! Current Job Title Contents Your current job title should be as descriptive as possible AND give multiple variations if needed. For example, let’s say you are aproduct manager.What kind of product manager? Software Product Manager Can you add any keywords? Like Software as a Service (SaaS) or Agile? SaaS Agile Product Manager Let’s say you also handle product marketing for the product. SaaS Agile Product Manager | Product Marketing Manager Now you will be found if a recruiter is searching for a Product Manager OR a Product Marketing Manager. Let me be clear, you cannot lie. Only use job titles that fit your current job! Keywords Besides searching job titles, recruiters will use keywords to find prospectsâ€"as shown in the image to the right. In this case, the recruiter is looking for a product manager with Software as a Service (SaaS) experience. The results of the search will list profiles with the current title of Product Manager that also includes SaaS in their profile. The more times SaaS appears in the profile, the higher it will appear in the ranking. You need to place keywords in your summary and in your current and past positions. DO NOT KEYWORD STUFF. The easiest way to do this is to place a keyword entry at the end of each section. A good example is to look at the Summary section of my LinkedIn Profile. Using this method, it is very obvious what I am doing. Place a keyword section at the bottom of each section. Do not use keywords that are not valid for the section. Connecting with Recruiters You should connect with recruiters at your target companies. If you are following my Targeted Job Search Strategy, you will know how to strategically connect with recruiters. If you are a 1st-degree connection of the recruiter who is searching, you appear higher in his rankings. Recruiters move around a lot. They move between companies that need their services. They carry their connections with them. Over a period of time, having a lot of recruiters in your network will be very beneficial. Do you now understand why you are not being found? What is your next step? Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Careers - Going Back for Your Doctorate Degree - CareerAlley

Careers - Going Back for Your Doctorate Degree - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde A doctorate degree can open career doors that were previously shut to you. Many people who pursue a doctorate degree do so because they want to teach at the university level and they need a degree to do so. However, you may also need to doctorates degree to lead a clinical research lab, become a school administrator or to further advance in your field. Going back to get the degree may take time and sacrifice on your part, but the hard work will be worth the effort. Deciding If a Doctorates Degree Is Right for You First you need to determine what your ultimate career goal is. In some cases, it may not make much sense to pursue the degree, because it is not going to help you achieve your career dreams. However there are many fields of study and research that having the degree will open up the doors that you need. You may want to take time to talk to people who are working in your field and to learn how they feel about earning their degree and the path that they took to get it. Choosing a Program that Works for You When going back for your doctorate degree, you may already be working full-time and you may not want to quit completely to pursue your degree. Some schools do offer the option for you to purse the degree part-time, but it really depends on your program, and school. You may need to quit working and pursue the degree full-time, especially if there is a research portion that must be completed in a lab along with it. Doctorate programs can take between three to six years depending on the field of study. Many teachers can continue to work while getting a doctorate in education, but if you are pursuing a doctorate degree in chemistry you may need to take classes on site and full time. Research the best programs in your field of study and then begin applying to your top choices. Paying for Your Doctorate Degree Graduate school can be expensive, but you may qualify for financial aid. You will qualify to take out student loans from the government, but you will not qualify for Pell Grants. However, your school may offer you an assistantship to help cover the costs of tuition and living expenses. Additionally you may be able to work out a deal with your current employer where they will cover your costs if you agree to work with them after graduation for a set number of years. While you are in school you will need to reduce your living expenses so that you do not have a lot of debt when you graduate. Getting Your Family on Board If you are thinking about going back to school, you need to make sure that your family is supportive of your decision. Your spouse and children will be making just as many sacrifices as you will. You will not have as much extra time to spend with them. You may also be making financial sacrifices, and it is very important that your spouse or partner be on board with your decision when you make it. Audrey Porterman is the main researcher and writer for doctoralprograms.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Ohio State, with a degree in business management. Her current focus for the site involves psychology doctorate programs and accounting doctorate programs This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook

Writing a Resume for Jobs in the US

Writing a Resume for Jobs in the US Resume formats may be similar from country to country, but the acceptable content can vary depending on where you live. If you are a foreign citizen looking to work in the United States, check out the resume differences before you send a resume to a US company. What you put on your resume may inadvertently cost you a job because employers may make negative inferences about some of the information that does not need to be on there. For example, putting a picture of yourself on the first page of your resume may be done in several European countries, but it is not the norm here. Even if you are an actor or a singer, a professional headshot usually accompanies the resume instead of being placed on the resume. Decisions about you as a candidate should be made based on your skills, not your degree of attractiveness. Leave off your marital status and the number of children you have. It is illegal in the US to ask if you are married or if you have children. This information  could imply that you may  have competing needs between work and family. For example, you may need to call in sick because one of your kids is sick and you must stay home with him. Or you may need to leave work early on a regular basis to pick up your daughter from daycare. Religious and political affiliations do not belong on a resume unless they directly relate to the job for which you are applying. For example, stating your religious affiliation on your resume if you are looking for church organist jobs may help you. Or, showing that youre a Democrat on your resume would be appropriate if you are looking for a position on a Democratic campaign. Hobbies and interests used to be sections on a resume used especially when a resume was pretty short and needed filling out or when the hobby or interest directly related to the position. They are not used as much now on American resumes. Be careful if you do use these sections. The information you share can damage your chances of getting a position. For example, if you belong to Insulin Pumpers Group 75 of Detroit because your child uses an insulin pump, a potential employer may think you have diabetes. This could be used to discriminate against you, even though discriminating against someone with a chronic illness is illegal in the US.