Monday Special: A Resource for Your Most Valuable Resource – You
What have you done for your career lately? Are you comfortable in your current job? Are you happy? Happy with your income? Happy with your level of challenge? What would you do if you lost your job tomorrow?
Do yourself a favor and invest a little time in your future.
At WordCamp recently, Lorelle VonFossen said “You need to think about having a digital presence.”
I suggest that signing up with LinkedIn (free) and building your online presence is a good start. LinkedIn could be called the business version of FaceBook although many people use FaceBook as their business networking tool. The general consensus is that for business LinkedIn is probably the most-used (25 million people) and best-known of the social networking websites. Social networking uses the theory that we’re all connected to each other through those we know and that every other person on the Earth is connected by six other people, thus the term you’ve heard “six degrees of separation.” You use these connections to network and meet people, ask and answer questions, and possibly, find jobs.
There’s a lot to completing your LinkedIn online profile, but you don’t have to do at all at one time. I think my LinkedIn profile is about 75% complete and I’ve been working on it for a couple of months. Take your time, do it right, then start to look into joining some LinkedIn groups to see what people are talking about. The trick is not to get hundreds of people in your network (unless you’re a recruiter), but to build authentic relationships with people you think well of.
If you’re not sure what social networking can do for you, check out these articles:
Jobseekers are Beginning to Favor Social Networking Over Online Career Sites to Find Jobs