Posted on

LinkedIn Profile Optimization (SEO) Interview – Jonathan Duarte

If you didn’t get a chance to see the Live LinkedIn Profile Optimization Career Coaching call, you’re in luck.

Below is the LinkedIn SEO interview, between Dane Golden, of Hey.com, and Jonathan Duarte (ME), of Profilelaunchpad.com.

Watch the tips on LinkedIn job search tips.

Dane Golden, from Hey.com, uploaded the highlight video to Youtube.

There are some great tips on why you should be on LinkedIn and how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, so you are found by more hiring managers and recruiters.

For more information about optimizing your LinkedIn profile, or learning more about using LinkedIn to market you during your job search, visit ProfileLaunchPad.com/blog/

Thank You, Dane!

P.S. – Please add your questions and comments below, and I will answer them.

Posted on

LinkedIn Spam Attack can steal your bank passwords

LinkedIn users were hit with fake invitation requests, that if activated could steal bank account passwords, as reported by PCWorld.

The fake emails looked like similar LinkedIn invitations, as in the picture below. The big difference is the links redirect to non-LinkedIn pages, containing malware, which steals data from your computer without you knowing it.

I found loads of fake LinkedIn inviations in my gmail spam folder. Google figured out what was going on and separated them out from my regular mail. Thanks Google!

Before you click on one of the links, be careful to hover over the hyperlinks and make sure they redirect to LinkedIn, and not some bogus web site.

Posted on

The tipping point for social recruiting… Adecco slashes spending on paid job boards.

If you are currently looking for a job or considering a career change, please consider the news below…

On September 24th, 2010, Addecco, the U.S. arm of staffing giant Adecco SA, announced that it slashed it’s spending on online job boards by from $6 Milllion to $2 Million between 2007-2009.

Addecco is the first major company, in my knowledge, who has publicly stated they have been slashing their spends on large job boards. While most major employers have been doing this, Addecco seems to be the first company to publicize this fact.

To anyone in the recruiting industry, this probably isn’t much news, to anyone else, this is probably the “Tipping Point” in regards to managing an effective job search.

“In my 15 years of Internet recruiting experience, we have never seen a technology disruption like this in the past,” says Jonathan Duarte, founder of http://ProfileLaunchPad.com, a Career and Reputation Management firm.

For almost 2 decades, now, the process of finding a job has come down to surfing major job boards, and then “clicking n’ applying” to jobs. Over the last 2 years, both employers and job seekers have learned that this haphazard approach simply isn’t very effective.

Recruiters are now finding more qualified candidates from professional networking sites like LinkedIn and search engines!

Addecco announced that they slashed spending on paid job boards like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com and instead drives applicants to its site from free job search engines and social media sites like LinkedIn, an executive said on Friday.

Follow the money!

“LinkedIn is becoming a primary recruiting channel for employers who want access to employed professionals. By contrast, candidates that come via paid job boards are often unqualified, raising costs for recruiters who have to wade through irrelevant resumes,” Adecco said.

This is important to job seekers because it shows how employer a employers are now hiring. While they are continuing to use the big job boards, they are finding more qualified candidates on LinkedIn.

The bottom line: Employers are using professional networking sites like LinkedIn.

If you’re looking for a job, or are considering a job or career change, you might want to consider learning how to use LinkedIn effectively for your job search, professional profile, or personal branding.

Here is a video that describes how to optimize your LinkedIn Profile:

Click here: LinkedIn Profile Optimization Video!

For more updates and news regarding Job Search Personal Branding, subscribe to our Free Social Job Search Newsletter, with free tips and tricks on how to use online networking sites during your job search.

Posted on

How to fill in Employment Gaps on your resume!

I get a lot of questions from job seekers asking “How do I fill in employment gaps on my resume?”

Here is a strategy that I encourage you to adopt, no matter if you are trying to describe what you have been doing while you were out of work, or if you are trying to network into a new industry.
Being considered a Subject Matter Expert or Market Leader will give you a big upper hand in the job search.
There are a couple of ways to do this that will also “fill in the gaps” on your employment history.

  1. Volunteering for local trade organizations, non-profits, chamber of commerce groups, etc.
  2. Join and take a leadership role in an offline industry trade group. This not only brings with it connections, but builds credibility.
  3. Do both, but online… Join Online industry Trade groups and Local Business Networking groups online. Volunteer to manage their group discussions. Not only do you get the recognition, and a link to your profile on all posts and discussions, but also you learn about about the industry, the companies, and the people.

If you can’t find a local group or industry group, make your own. Add these positions to your LinkedIn Profile.

Obviously LinkedIn Groups is a great place to start. You can also check out groups on Ning.com as well.

No only will these steps fill the employment gaps, but you’ll add-value to the community while building credibility, authority, and visibility.

If you want to get started, simply search linkedin groups for local or trade groups.

Then, contact the owner and volunteer.

I have a couple of LinkedIn Groups that I could use some help with as well. They are job search and career related. I need help maintaining the groups, starting discussions, inviting members to join, etc. If you have experience with Facebook and LinkedIn Group Administration, I would greatly appreciate the help. I’ll even help you find a job!

For more FREE Job Search Tips, subscribe below:

Posted on

How to change industries during a job search?

In a recent Tim’s Strategy Group, on LinkedIn, a job seeker asked one of the most common questions during a job search: “How do you deal with changing industries during a job search?”

There are loads of related themes, but the biggest one is something along the lines of “you have many years of experience in one industry, got laid off, or the business went under, or in today’s market the industry collapsed (residential construction), and you need to find a new industry”.

Here are some tips to get you moving:

  1. Don’t do the “Click N’ Apply… and wait!” job search. You need to get involved in the new industries you are targeting.
  2. Choose 1 or 2 industries to focus on.
  3. Find the companies in those industries that you are interested in working for. Start following those companies on LinkedIn and with Google Alerts.
  4. Join and get active in the LinkedIn Groups in those industries.
  5. Build relationships with employees in the companies.
  6. Start engaging in “informational meetings” with employees and thought leaders in the industry. Use these meetings to figure out what of your skills are transferable, and how you market them. NEVER ask for a job or talk about openings when asking for “informational meetings”. That’s not what they are for. They are for learning about the industry and companies, so you can bridge the gap in your experience, through trusted connections and relevant authority.
  7. Ask for employee referrals.

** You never want to seem like an “industry outsider” or “job seeker”.
** The most effective way to get hired is through an employee referral.

Become a knowledgeable industry insider by spending 2 hours per day learning the companies, the products, the issues, the customers, the divisions, the players, the industry thought leaders, and of course all the employees in your chose industries and companies.

You can use micro blogs, like Twitter and update services like “share” and “updates” on LinkedIn, to share links to company and industry news etc. If you continue doing this for 2 hours per day, you are not only going to learn a lot, but you will be publishing a lot.

When you get interviewed, and the recruiting teams starts a “social background” check on you, they are going to find out that you are indeed a Subject Matter Expert.

If you are spending 2 hours per day, or 10 hours per week learning about the industries and companies, I guarantee that within 5 weeks you have put more time into researching and learning about the industry, and keeping up with the latest trends, than most everyone else else that is applying for a position.






For more FREE Job Search Tips, subscribe below:


Jonathan Duarte