At the end of every year, Jacob Share of JobMob reaches out to career industry professionals to send him their most popular job search articles of that year.
This year, over 40 bloggers made his list.
Prompted by his annual tradition, I’ve put together a list of the top 10 articles I wrote this year, based on number of shares and web page traffic.
The first one here is the one Jacob included in his list.
My Top 10 Job Search Articles of 2022
YIKES! My LinkedIn Profile is Missing!
THE Personal Branding Worksheet
Smart Executive Job Search: How To Sail Through Salary Negotiations
How to Use Personal Branding Video for Job Search, Without Being on Camera
Should I Use #OpenToWork on LinkedIn?
15 Savvy Tips To Boost LinkedIn Profile Views
How to Connect on LinkedIn with People You Don’t Know . . . and Get Action
Does My LinkedIn Profile Really Need a Photo?
Prepare to Ace & Brand Your Executive Job Interviews
How to Write An Irresistible Executive Resume in 10 Steps
YIKES! My LinkedIn Profile is Missing!
If you’re like millions of savvy job seekers, you count on LinkedIn to help you promote your personal brand and unique value, and build online visibility for your candidacy.
The last thing you can afford is having your LinkedIn profile disappear or your account shut down. You’re probably quaking right now at the very thought that this could ever happen to you.
But it can happen, for any number of reasons.
You may do something – purposely or not – that leads LinkedIn to boot you out. Or, circumstances beyond your control could be at play.
Here are a few of the reasons your LinkedIn Profile can go missing:
- LinkedIn experienced a technological problem.
- The data in your profile became corrupted.
- LinkedIn suspects you were using certain automation tools to run searches and collect data.
Read the article for the other reasons.
THE Personal Branding Worksheet
One of the first steps for a successful executive job search is defining your personal brand.
Your brand is your reputation – the perception of you held by the external world. It is the combination of personal attributes, values, drivers, strengths, and passions you draw from.
These are the things that differentiate your unique promise of value from your competitors.
Your brand helps those assessing you determine whether they should hire you.
My personal branding worksheet will help you pinpoint the things about you that make you a good fit for the employers you want to work for.
Smart Executive Job Search: How To Sail Through Salary Negotiations
Salary negotiations may be just around the corner.
You’re close to reeling in that great-fit executive job.
You’ve been through a few rounds of interviews with a company you really want to work for, and they’re about to make you an offer.
Or, maybe you’re fortunate enough to be juggling offers from more than one company you want to work for.
Next step is salary and compensation negotiations.
Even the most confident, competent high-level executives quake at the thought of navigating these critical talks.
It’s complex, and can be stressful and unnerving.
And, if you’re entertaining more than one offer, comparisons can be difficult.
No matter what your situation, don’t despair. This article will help you with all the ins and outs.
How to Use Personal Branding Video for Job Search, Without Being on Camera
Job seekers have been slow to embrace video, even though job search and career experts have promoted their use for many years.
Here are some reasons why job seekers should get on board with video:
🎯 Video does a better job of conveying personality, promoting your personal brand and generating chemistry than plain content.
🎯 Video helps you stand out from the crowd and position yourself as someone who is up to date with technology and the new world of work.
🎯 Video gives life to your career story in a way that no resume or flat document can.
🎯 People sourcing job candidates will Google “your name” to find out about you. Video is the fastest way (sometimes in minutes) to get your name into page 1 Google search results.
The article describes how to create and use your videos. Get a series of them into social media circulation soon. You’ll have a leg up over candidates who are NOT using video.
Your target employers will notice and be impressed that you’ve embraced video and know how to use it.
Should I Use #OpenToWork on LinkedIn?
Have you noticed the little green #OpenToWork frame around headshots on some LinkedIn profiles? Are you wondering whether to use it yourself?
A time-honored job search strategy is not to “out” the fact in your LinkedIn profile that you’re unemployed. Hiring professionals typically prefer people who are employed. But the pandemic changed things. They tend to be more understanding about employment now.
LinkedIn rolled out the #OpenToWork profile feature in Summer 2020. LinkedIn Help says:
“If you’re looking for a job, you can let recruiters and your network on LinkedIn know you’re open to new job opportunities. If you specify the types of job opportunities that you’re interested in and your preferred location, we’ll help your profile show up in search results when recruiters look for suitable job candidates.”
If you opt to let all LinkedIn members know you’re job hunting, the green swath with #OpenToWork will go on your profile photo/headshot. People will likely assume that you’re unemployed.
If you opt to only let recruiters know you’re looking, the green swath isn’t displayed on your profile. But recruiters privately using LinkedIn Recruiter and other powerful people search tools will know your employment status.
The #OpenToWork feature is not a good idea for everyone. The article explains who should and who shouldn’t use it.
15 Savvy Tips To Boost LinkedIn Profile Views
Whether you’re actively job hunting or just want people to take notice of you, bedazzle your LinkedIn profile. Build up your LinkedIn profile views and make it a traffic magnet.
- More LinkedIn profile views means more people are landing on your profile, and hopefully reading all about you and your good-fit qualities for the job(s) you want.
- More profile views means more people potentially sending job leads your way, or otherwise helping you with your job search and career.
To get more views on LinkedIn – and more potential job leads – your profile needs to be highly visible and findable to recruiters and others.
And you need to keep yourself and your personal brand top-of-mind with your expanding network.
Read the article to find out how to do these things.
How to Connect on LinkedIn with People You Don’t Know . . . and Get Action
I often need to convince job seekers to keep building their LinkedIn networks, including reaching out to people they don’t know.
It’s okay, in fact it’s good, to have a high number of LinkedIn connections, and keep increasing them.
It just makes sense that the more people in your network, the more opportunities likely to come your way.
Crafting a LinkedIn invitation to connect with someone you don’t know can be touchy. Approach someone in the wrong way, and it can ruin your chance of having the message read and responded to in the way you’d hoped.
Just as you wouldn’t rush up to a stranger at an in-person networking event and blurt out that you’d like to “pick their brain”, don’t rudely put yourself in front of a stranger on LinkedIn and expect them to do you a favor.
The article will help you compose your invitations to connect.
Does My LinkedIn Profile Really Need a Photo?
If you think that HAVING a photo on your LinkedIn profile (and elsewhere online) may red-flag you for discrimination – age, weight, ethnic background, etc. – think again.
NOT having a profile photo can be a red flag too, and can sabotage your chances to land a great-fit job.
You may have good reason not to include a photo, but I encourage you to include one. For the most part, the benefits outweigh the pitfalls.
Think about the recruiters and hiring decision makers at your target companies who click through to your LinkedIn profile.
The first thing they’ll notice is your photo . . . or lack of one. If you have no photo, their initial thought will likely be “What is this person trying to hide?”
And there’s the personal branding aspect. Branding is about creating emotional connections, which your photo helps you do.
The article offers tips on how to take and use your photo. And you’ll find dozens of comments at the end of the article, some pro-photo and some against using one.
Prepare to Ace & Brand Your Executive Job Interviews
Job interviews are looming.
Your understanding of your brand and promise of value is solid. Your personal marketing and brand communications plan is building and working for you. These things are helping you land interviews.
For many executives, this is where the scary part starts.
You may be cool and calm on the job – leading companies and global operations – but the mere thought of presenting and marketing yourself in an interview puts you in a panic.
Research, strategic planning, preparation and rehearsal for interviewing are more important than ever, if you want to position yourself as the best hiring choice for jobs that are a mutual good fit for you and the right organization.
Remember that many interviewers aren’t particularly good at interviewing.
The better prepared you are to own the conversation and keep it focused on what you want to cover, the easier you make their job and the more you improve your chances.
Read the article for lots more job interviewing strategies.
How to Write An Irresistible Executive Resume in 10 Steps
When was the last time you used your executive resume?
When was the last time you even thought about it or looked at it?
If you’re like many executive job seekers, you’ve either never needed a resume to get noticed and land a job . . . or it’s been many years since you’ve needed one . . . or you’re not happy with your resume.
You may be unaware of how much executive resumes have changed in just the past few years.
Your executive resume may be dangerously old-fashioned.
- Before dusting off your old resume (if you have one).
- Before you quickly update it with your latest contributions and career history and expect that, when you put it out there, they will come.
- Before you do anything . . .
You need to get a handle on today’s modern resume and what part it plays in the new world of executive job search.