Guerrilla Marking for Job Hunters 2.0 - Jay Conrad Levinson [69]
2. Update your online directory info at ZoomInfo, Naymz, and JigSaw.
3. If you have a blog, post on it frequently with your name and title. Add descriptors like your current projects, technical expertise, and examples of anything you have done that shows up in the public record. Add conferences, meetings, user groups, and leadership positions in the community. Be specific with your expertise—try to imagine what a recruiter might type into a search engine. Put in niche software you have used, complex projects you have run, and descriptions of your certifications. The goal is to be obvious, but not too obvious.
4. If you don’t have a blog, offer to guest post at blogs that discuss your industry and your metro area. Take advantage of their search engine ranking to put your name within easy reach of a Google Search for your industry.
5. Write articles for trade publications, newspapers, and the local company newsletter. Recruiters seek out expertise, and someone who is published is going to have a better chance of getting noticed than someone who keeps his or her expertise confined to the company e-mail.
6. Sponsor or start a networking event for your specialty in your local area. The truth about networking groups is the most benefit goes to the people who start the group. Why not make that you?
7. Go to Ning.com and search for industry sites in your area. Even if the group isn’t active, a complete profile with contact information will be a big fat target for a researcher.
8. Get involved in online discussions about your industry. This is the single best way to showcase what you know without actively asking recruiters to call you. If you aren’t currently looking, take an hour a month to look for discussions where you can answer questions and demonstrate your expertise. If you are looking, make it an hour a day. LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo Answers, industry forums, and Google Groups are all good places to start.
These suggestions are all good, but the most important piece of advice I can give you is to set aside your fear and your pride and start immediately. You spend most of your time doing your job, and the danger is that you’ll find yourself siloed within your organization at the worst possible time. The truth about networking is you need to do it before you want to see results. Trying to jump-start a job search is a lot harder when no one knows your name. Following these steps will make you easy to find online, and they’ll also sharpen your abilities and reputation in your current position. If your corporate recruiter keeps finding you when looking for that next executive position, the call you get might be from the inside.
James Durbin, The Social Media Headhunter www.socialmediaheadhunter.com, LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimdurbin/.
➤ Your Web Site
Building your web site is simple. You already have most of the content. Nontechies (us normal people) shrink at the thought of creating a web site because it’s complicated. That doesn’t have to be the case. For years, I have been referring people to 3 great sites where you can buy a ready-made template that you can customize to fit your own needs.
The first is Templatemonster.com at www.templatemonster.com. Historically, the advantage of using a template has been that you save time by not needing to master the technology first, but you do it at the cost of good looks. Frankly, looks matter. If a web site doesn’t look good, people will not bother with it. CEO David Braun has assembled a top-notch team of graphic artists who build and release up to a dozen new templates every day. These sites are pure eye-candy and cost as little as $25. Guerrilla, you can’t beat that.
Two other options include 1and1.com and Godaddy.com These are superb resources. In both case you can choose a template and publish it to the Internet