We all know the golden rule: 80% of the jobs out there are not advertised. We’ve also heard that in order to tap into those jobs that are not advertised, you need to network. Here’s how to supercharge your network:
1) If you haven’t already, LinkedIn.
2) Visit TopLinked.com - You will see a Top 50 list of people on linkedin that have the most 1st degree contacts. These people are open networkers. What that means is, they will accept invitations from anyone to be in their network. These people have a minimum of 24,000 people as 1st degree contacts. They will be 2nd degree contacts for you. If you send an invitation to all 50, will be 1,000,000 2nd degree contacts
3) After joining linkedin, join these 3 groups: TopLinked.com, OpenNetworker.com, and The True LIONs. (LION is an abbreviation for Linked In Open Networker). An added benefit is that inside of these periodic emails you will receive from this group, is an “Invite me” list. These are people who desire to be a part of your network. For the most part, these open networkers will have more than 500 people as 1st degree contacts. That’s at least 1 first degree contact plus 500+ 2nd degree contacts for you.
4) On your main page, are constant updates from the folks in your network. Keep an eye out for those that say “John Doe is now connected to Jane Doe” Sometimes, the person they are connecting to are open networkers who a lot of friends.
5) Follow the company you want to get a job at. You’ll find out what the company is up to, who got hired, and see who got let go, got promoted, etc. Perhaps that person left the position you want. Catch it early enough, that’s an unadvertised job opening. Unadvertised job openings = far less competition for you!
5) Download the LinkedIn Jobs Insider tool. This is a very, very cool to use. When this application senses that you are looking at a job advertisement somewhere on the Internet (Such as indeed.com – that’s what I use the most) that application will pop up on the left side of your browser, telling you who in your network is connected to someone who works at that company. Now that is pretty cool. If you have a large contact list (Now you see how 1,000,000 people in your 2nd degree contacts comes in handy?), there will be someone connected to somebody who works where you want to be.
6) Go to recareered.blogspot.com (That’s not my blog, by the way.) There are excellent articles on taking advantge of the power of linkedin. With these articles in hand, the names of the people at your dream company, you will have the ability to be in touch with hiring managers instead of dealing with human resources first. First impressions are everything.
The quality of information you'll get from doing the research above will put you head and shoulders above your competition. Employers are ultimately looking to bring on board someone who will not only contribute to the bottom line, but will help solve their problems. The information above will enable you do just that, and quite effectively!
For more job search ideas go to http://www.guerrilla-resumes.com
