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Creating a LinkedIn profile is pretty straightforward when you have a job with a well-defined title. But I’ve been getting questions lately about how to create a profile on LinkedIn when what you're doing isn’t so tidy. Two scenarios that come up a lot are how to create one of these profiles if you have a slash career (e.g. yoga instructor/caterer), or if you’re unemployed (or, as they say, consulting).
There’s some overlap between the two scenarios because in both cases you are taking what feels like a standard tool and tailoring it to fit your needs. And the good news is that when you spend a little time with it, LinkedIn allows for a lot of customizing.
Here are a few ideas:
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Fretting about what to major in now that college is quickly approaching? Check out Seventeen's Q&A on the subject!
Q: "I'm having trouble choosing a major! I have a lot of different interests and I'm scared of committing to just one. What's the best way to choose?" --Katie, 18, Panama, FL
A: Choosing a major can be overwhelming when there are so many interesting fields of study — it’s hard to narrow it down to just one! One of the things I find really helpful when I’m having a tough time making decisions is to make lists of pros and cons. So write down each of the majors that interest you, and under each one list what you like and don’t like about it, as well as the possible careers you might like to pursue. You may want to consider which majors will best prepare you for the job you want to get out of college. Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (1) | Blog
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How’s this for a new economy hiring twist? A group of Fortune 500 companies including Starbucks, 7-Eleven and Hyatt Hotels, have invited job seekers to join a free resume-sharing service that allows companies to save on recruiter fees and job-seekers to reach a wider audience of employers.
In order to join, go to UnitedWeWork.org, click on “job seeker,” and you’ll be taken to a page powered by QuietAgent, a job search site that allows you to input your resume and be alerted to job postings that fit your goals. Actually, you can bypass United We Work entirely and go directly to QuietAgent and it seems like you’ll get the same opportunties.
I’ve been playing around on QuietAgent for a while and like the concept. Once you successfully create your resume, the site matches you with opportunities that fit your profile, much like the dating site eHarmony. The difficulty I had was that I couldn’t easily build my resume because there wasn’t a job function for many of the things I do -- no listings for reporter, journalist, or blogger, for example. Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (7) | Blog
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A few years ago, video resumes got a bad name when aspiring investment banker Aleksey Vayner made the now infamous video showing off his many talents (including images of himself bench-pressing 495 pounds, karate-chopping a pile of bricks, and serving a tennis ball at 140mph). Vayner's video went viral, but not in the way he wanted. Rather than causing a stir around his creative efforts to find a job, Vayner's name became shorthand for "video resume disaster."
But when video resumes are good, they can be very good. As is the case with "Hire Me," a new video created by recent Bentley College graduate Alec Biedrzycki, which was released last Tuesday.
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With the national unemployment rate at a whopping 9.5%, it has now reached the point where even if you’re working, you know plenty of folks who are out of work. And while it’s safe to say that the majority of the unemployed need and want to be working, a new attitude has arisen around a subset of the unemployed. It’s called “funemployment” and it’s taken hold among those who are working to squeeze some enjoyment out of their time off. The term is showing up on blogs and Facebook groups and has been chronicled in a few buzz-generating newspaper articles, like this one.
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Now that so much of the job search process happens online, the most common complaint I hear about is the “black hole” -- that mysterious place to which resumes seem to travel from the moment an applicant hits the “send” key. If you’re involved in a job search where you feel like you repeatedly send out resumes in response to ads and rarely hear back, then it might be time for some new online search techniques. Try these 5 tricks to shake things up:
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Answer questions on Linkedin
Your strongest chance of being hired is to find ways to show off your expertise and build relationships in your field. One easy way to do this is to troll the “Answers” section on LinkedIn and start responding to questions where you think you can be helpful. People whose answers get high ratings show up on a list of experts. Nabbing one of those spots is a terrific way to ensure that people using the site to fill a position will find your profile.
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Graduation speeches are long on lofty advice, cliches that ring true, and humor: follow your dreams, be authentic, wear sunscreen. But they are often short on career advice. So now that we’ve all watched videos of the best of the lot on YouTube and shared them by email or on Facebook, it’s time to get down to what new grads need to know about how to get a job and build a career. And since 50-somethings and 20-somethings are likely to be competing in today’s market, most of these principles make sense for the rest of us as well. Read More »
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While headlines continue to report on the grim state of the job market, people are finding jobs every day. This ongoing series will bring you snapshots of who’s getting hired now with the backstories of how they snagged their jobs.
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This week’s stories come from Coupons.com, an online coupon distributor in California, which is rapidly expanding, and Bottomless Closet, a nonprofit in New York that trains low-income woman in job interviewing skills, and which just added one new position. I liked these two stories because they show that job opportunities have a relationship to the news. The growth of Coupons.com feeds off of two big news trends -- everyone is looking to save money and newspapers are cutting pages. Another big news story is that volunteerism is up (both because of President Obama’s call to action and the large number of unemployed people who are giving their time), so again, it makes sense to see new hiring at an organization staffed by volunteers, especially one whose mission is to help women find jobs.
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You're stuck. You want to change careers and can't figure out how or what you’re even good at. Maybe you’ve been on scores of interviews, but no one’s biting. Or worse, you've sent out hundreds of cover letters and resumes and the phone is not ringing. These are all indicators that it might be time to hire a career coach.
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Career changes and job searches can take a long time. Working with a professional can speed up the process and spare you months of chasing your tail. Done right, it also doesn't have to break the bank. Here’s some things to think about if you’re wondering whether it’s time to bring in a pro to help moves things along: Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (10) | Blog
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