Time to Update Your Resume, and Searching Connections on LinkedIn – September 2017

Brand Career Management Monthly Tip Sheet

Keeping tabs on your résumé is a best practice for your career management! You’ll be glad you did it when someone presents a new opportunity and asks for yours. Of course, you should still edit it once more with that new specific target in mind, but it will take less time if you’ve kept the more general content of your résumé up-to-date.

If pulling out your résumé makes you realize that you’re not where you want to be right now, you might need to take a fresh look at things to strategize your next career move. In that case, you might want to figure out your next move before updating your résumé. As it turns out, I am holding a workshop later this month to help with this issue. If you are a mid-career woman seeking career clarity, please consider joining me on the morning of September 23^rd in Annapolis. You can see more details at the end of this message or click here for more information.

Warmest regards,
Paula

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You Can (Once Again) Search the Connections of Others

Thankfully, LinkedIn (LI) has brought back a very valuable feature, the ability to search other people’s connections. This can be useful for job seekers, entrepreneurs, sales professionals or anyone trying to strategically expand his / her network. For example, if I was selling a medical device and trying to find potential buyers, I could search through the 1^st degree connections of my 1^st degree contacts to see if they know others in healthcare or hospitals holding the title of Chief Operating Officer or Director of Procurement.

There are two important things to note about this feature:

• First, you must already be a 1^st degree connection to another person to see his / her connections (i.e. you will never see connections for 2^nd and 3^rd degree connections).
• Second, LI users can block others from seeing their connections. You can do this too. Click here (after logging in to LI) to see where you change this setting. Blocking others from seeing your connections is not the norm, and I don’t recommend it if you want to be seen as someone who brings people together. However, some people do it for reasons of privacy. Often recruiters and sales professionals do this to prevent others from approaching their LI contacts.

To access this capability, go to the profile of one of your connections. Click on the word Connections in the top right hand corner (if nothing happens, it’s likely they have blocked others from viewing their connections). On the following page, you’ll see a variety of criteria to filter your search, including title, keyword, company, etc.

If you’re a visual person, here’s a video (less than two minutes) from LinkedIn expert Mark Williams, showing you how to navigate this feature. Have fun playing around with it!

The posts below share helpful insights on résumé development. Review this advice and put it to use in your documents sooner rather than later.

Résumé expert Louise Kursmark shared some timeless advice on customizing your résumé without driving yourself crazy.

Robin Madell of USNews explains what managers want to see on your résumé.

Marie Zimenoff of Career Thought Leaders shared an insightful LinkedIn post on overused phrases to avoid on your résumé.

Jacquelyn Smith and Rachel Gillett of Business Insider share a list of 34 things you should remove from your résumé right now. I agree with their advice; however, I want to add some clarifying comments on some of the tips.

Finally, this SHRM article from résumé gurus Louise Kursmark and Wendy Enelow is tailored specifically for HR professionals, and there are many of those folks on this mailing list so I decided to share it.

CREATING YOUR CAREER CLARITY

This September, invest in your career management and find career clarity!

Are you a mid-career professional woman struggling to decide on your next career move? If so, please join us on the morning of Saturday, September 23^rd (9 am – 12 noon), in Annapolis for a small group seminar on Creating Your Career Clarity.

In this interactive workshop, we will delve into your work values, interests and skills so you can gain insights on the next best steps for your career journey. Come to learn about the A.S.T.E.R. Career Cycle Model and how it can help your career management efforts. You will also discover resources to help you explore options and move forward with your career progression.

Seating is limited. Reserve your space today >

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