By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

While your resume is a concise 1-2 page marketing piece intended to showcase your skills as they apply to a specific job, LinkedIn is your professional billboard to the whole working world. 

When actively searching and applying for a job, you’ll include your LinkedIn profile on your resume. Hiring managers and recruiters will often view your profile to see which connections you might have in common and to learn more about you in general. Furthermore, recruiters may source you (invite you to apply or interview for an opportunity) based on the content of your LinkedIn profile.

Whether you are actively applying for a new job or simply building your professional network, it's a good idea to review your LinkedIn profile regularly and make updates to ensure your information is current and complete.

Filling in these fields on your LinkedIn profile will make it an even more valuable tool as you build and grow your professional network:
​

• Profile Photo: This is the primary image, displayed in a circular frame, that represents you on LinkedIn. It should be a headshot—a photo featuring a recent picture of you focused on your face. You don’t need to suit up for this either. Just make sure you’re pictured solo and you look pleasant and hirable.

 

• Background Photo: When someone views your LinkedIn profile, they’ll see your Profile Photo, front and center, and your background photo along the top of your profile. Be sure to include a background photo aligned with your professional brand. You can even use a tool like Canva to add personalized details to your background. 

 

• Headline: Your headline defaults to your last job title. I suggest updating it since this is such a high-value space. Consider including your target job title first, then including additional keywords (like skills, focus areas, and your field). Realize that when you comment on someone’s post, they will see your name and the first part of your headline. 

   

• Experience: Here, you can highlight your recent work experience. For each job, fill in the required fields, including dates of employment. For the description, I suggest putting a sentence or two about what you did and including keywords to highlight your skills further. 

 

• ​Education: Include the schools attended and degrees earned here. I suggest leaving off years since they are an indicator of your age. Including your schools here is a great way to later connect with people who attended that school.

Here are a few ways to make your LinkedIn profile even more impactful: 

• ​​About Section: The About section is at the top of your LinkedIn profile and gives you a chance to tell. If you're job searching, this is a great place to include details about who you are and what you are looking for in your next role. You also have room to add additional bulleted points if you like. Write this in the first person (using “I” language) and further showcase who you are professionally. 

 

• Customize Your Profile URL: By default, your LinkedIn profile's URL (web address) will be long and not very meaningful. You can customize your URL to make it friendly. I suggest using some version of your name. This minor update will look more professional on your resume—and make your profile easier to find. 

 

• Emojis: While you don't want to add too many cutesy emojis, using these tiny graphics is a nice way to break up longer  bodies of text. By using a unique graphic for a bulleted list, an envelope next to your email address, or a splash of color to divide up long bodies of text, you can leverage emojis to liven up your profile and posts. 

​

• Skills: Within LinkedIn, you can select up to 50 skills that will be included on your profile. This is another great opportunity to look at keywords included in your job listings for your target role. You can even indicate which skills you used in each job you listed. 

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

When you're looking for a new role, there is a lot to do to help move your job search along. Getting your resume where you want it to be, tracking application progress, and scheduling meetings with others can take a lot of time and effort. Here are three excellent tools to help manage, streamline, and optimize your job search. 

​The tools mentioned here all have a robust set of features in the free version with the option to pay for additional functionality. I'll focus on currently available features included as a part of the free version. ​Links for each tool are included in the "Learn More" section. 

Teal is helpful in multiple aspects of my job search. Teal enables me to save jobs of interest, evaluate highlighted qualifications, and track my application progress with roles.

Here is how I use Teal in my job search:
​​

• When I search for jobs on LinkedIn or Indeed, I use the Teal Chrome extension to bookmark roles of interest, which creates a record in Teal. 
• Then, I read each job description, review keywords included in the listing, and prioritize jobs by rating them from one to five stars. 
• Next, I use the keywords Teal highlights to customize my resume for the specific position. 
• Then, after applying, I update my status in Teal to Applied and include any details in the notes. 
• As I progress through the interview process, I update my job search status, add notes, and include details (like salary range and key people involved in the hiring process) to keep all information for each position in one place. 

Teal continues to evolve and add new features--and offers much more than I currently use. This is the cornerstone of how I track my current job-searching activities. 

Meeting with people during your job search can be very valuable. Whether you're meeting to learn more about a company, find out what tasks one does in a given line of work, or catch up with a former corworker, streamlining your scheduling process is a big timesaver. 

Enter Calendly. You can create a Calendly account, add your personal branding, and add language to describe yourself and what you want. You can also link Calendly with your Google Calendar and your webinar account (like Zoom or Google Meetup). Without paying an additional cost, you can select one free meeting type. I use the half-hour meeting, and I call mine "Virtual Coffee." It’s also helpful because our meeting can last as long as it needs to last (beyond that specified half hour) with no issues.

Within Calendly, you can set up your available days and times, choose how far out in the future people can schedule a meeting with you, and even decide how many meetings you are open to having on a given day. In addition, you can select the mode of the meeting (phone or online) and include a few questions to help clarify the goals of the meeting.

Here is how I use Calendly in my job search:
​

• When one of my LinkedIn connections expresses interest in meeting, I send them a link to my Calendly calendar. This eliminates the 2-10 messages we would otherwise send back and forth to determine when to meet.
• They select a time that works for them from the times I provide that I know work for me. They also let me know if they would prefer to meet via Zoom or Phone, provide their contact information, and answer a couple of questions on the purpose of our meeting. 
• Calendly sends each of us a meeting invitation, including the details they specified. If we're having a webinar, Calendly includes webinar information in the meeting request. 
• Calendly has features to enable either of us to cancel or reschedule the meeting as needed. 
• I include my Calendly link on the top of my resume alongside my other contact information to make it easier for a possible hiring manager or recruiter to find a time for us to talk. 

​Calendly automates key components of scheduling. With a minor setup on the front end, I can spend less time finding a meeting time and more time on other valuable job searching and networking tasks.

Your job search is all about communicating your value to hiring managers and recruiters. Ensuring your writing is clear and correct is essential to demonstrate your professional value and credibility. Enter my new best friend, Grammarly. This spelling and grammar checker goes above and beyond what you may already have in word processing or email platforms. I run any communication I will put in front of job-searching influencers through Grammarly.

Here is how I use Calendly in my job search:
​

• Each time I write or customize an email, I run it through Grammarly. It catches the times when I update a sentence to make it more applicable to a specific employer but forget to include enough of the right words to make an actual sentence. 
• Each time I update my resume, I do one last Grammarly check to ensure I'm using the correct word and that it hangs together. I also remind Grammarly in that case that my statements are written correctly.
• Each time I make a social media post, especially if I'm thinking and commenting as I write, to ensure that my final product is in actual human-readable sentences. 

Even this English major appreciates having Grammarly as a second set of eyes (or, in this case, AI) to polish my writing. 

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Connecting with someone on LinkedIn is a great way to start a formalized relationship with someone in your professional network. While that is a great start, deepening those relationships is a helpful next step to get more value out of LinkedIn. Let's look at a few ways to do just that. 

Interacting with  posts on LinkedIn is a great way to continue to build relationships with your connections and demonstrate your professional value. Not only is this a great way to build your credibility with many connections at the same time, it also gives you an opportunity to showcase your knowledge without having to choose the initial content for the post. You can also use your comments to interact with others and even use this as a starting point to invite other commenters to connect. 

If someone posts something of value to your connections, you may want to comment on the post itself and then consider reposting it with your comments. When you repost content, first, you'll see anything you typed, then LinkedIn will include the entire original post. This helps the original post get additional views and also enables you to share useful content with your network.

​When I repost content, I usually include "Thanks [original poster] for sharing this information!" To include the original poster's name, include the @, then type the first part of their name, and choose their name from the options provided. (This is often called an "at mention." This will tag them in the post so they can interact with your new post, which will help boost the number of people who see the post. 

Sharing content on LinkedIn is a great way to engage with your connections, add value to your professional relationships, and promote who you are and what you know. Unfortunately, very few people ever post anything at all--which is a huge missed opportunity to differentiate yourself from others in your field. 

Another question that comes up is the frequency of posting. I recommend posting on LinkedIn no more than twice per day and posting one to four times per week. Use your favorite search engine for recommendations on the best times and days of the week to post to get the most views on your posts.

As for content, you don't have to write a lengthy, original manifesto to post on LinkedIn and make an impact. ​Personally, most of the content I share on LinkedIn includes some version of the following:
​

• Context: A sentence or two framing the information I share and presenting its value.
• A Resource: A link to an article, post, or eye-catching graphic.
• Keywords: 2-4 hashtags to make my post more findable.

Once you make a post, be sure to like any comments other people make on your post and even reply to each comment. The more likes and comments you receive on your post, the more people will see it. This will continue to build your professional brand and add value to the networking relationships you are fostering through LinkedIn. 

Job searching is hard. One of the things that makes it particularly challenging is that you can't actually control when you will get a new job. The whole process takes as long as it takes. To make all of that waiting bearable, it's helpful to focus on the aspects of your job search you can control. 

My "day job" is working in the field of learning and development. One of my goals is to make sure that the performance support initiatives I'm designing (a class, a handout, a video) actually help solve a problem in a way that can be quantified. There are two kinds of indicators to help measure success: leading indicators and lagging indicators. 

Lagging indicators are what we all typically want to focus on. If I'm delivering a training session for salespeople on how they can sell a given product, the lagging indicator after training would be that they sold more of the product than they did before training and that more people spent more money on that given product--ideally being able to state who did what using dollar amount or percentage of improvement. One trick is that I can’t control how salespeople use the information presented in training or that individuals want or need to purchase the product. They are also lagging indicators because those results take a bit to show up. However, this is what success is supposed to look like. 

Leading indicators are where it's more helpful to focus. These are the easily measurable, countable, check-off-able items that are predominantly within your control. For this example, my leading indicators of success would be that we held a training session, having a list of who attended the training session, how they performed on an assessment based on the content covered, and that they received a job aid that contained talking points on the content covered. I can control all of these things. Of course, these leading indicators don't necessarily guarantee I'll achieve my lagging indicators. Still, they show that I'm going in the right direction and help position those salespeople to achieve the sales numbers we hope to see.

Within the context of my job search, here are the tangible markers of success that I want to see:

• Getting a current employee to refer me for a specific job at their company.
• Getting someone to put in a good word for me with a potential employer.
• Getting an initial interview.
• Getting follow-up or final interviews.
• Getting a job offer.

All of these are lagging indicators. They are awesome because when they happen, they are definitive, and you know you have made legitimate progress toward getting a job. The trick is that many of these things happening at all--and what the timing might look like--is out of your control. 

While I can't directly make those lagging indicators happen, I can focus on strategies to position myself for more success in those areas, including the following:
​

• Build or strengthen networking connections with people who work in my industry or for a possible employer.
• Position myself well through my LinkedIn profile and resume.
• Apply for jobs that are a good fit for me.
• Improve my skill set so I am a more logical candidate for a job.
• Present myself well in writing, over the phone, and face-to-face.

Now, to turn those squishier ideas into leading indicators (which are specific, countable, check-off-able things I can put on a to-do list), here are items I can actually do in a given week:

• On LinkedIn, spend 30 minutes each weekday engaging with posts.
• On LinkedIn, post two to five times to showcase my expertise. 
• On LinkedIn, send five requests to connect with new people. 
• Identify at least five jobs that meet my job search criteria.
• Apply for at least three jobs. 
• On LinkedIn, follow pages for each company where I apply.
• Take part in at least one professional development activity per week. 

Having this list of tangible actions to take keeps me on track to achieve my goal of starting a new job.

Some weeks, you do a lot of waiting, which makes you feel like you are terrible at everything and will never work again. Other weeks, people seem to be falling all over themselves to talk with you about yet another amazing job opportunity. During those weeks, you feel like this is all easy and you can do no wrong. 

During those slow weeks, it's helpful to remember to keep on doing those right things. Fine-tune as needed and know that your best strategy is to keep on keeping on. Put in the work, then trust the process. 

Here in the land of having been laid off from various and sundry positions many, many times over the course of my career, I know from being worried about job loss. Granted, the first time I was laid off, an involuntary job loss was outside of my realm of possibility since it had never personally happened to me. After that, though, once I knew it was a thing, there were many times when I worried about being laid off. Maybe it was concerns about market performance, new management, rumors about reorganization, or other things that caused my anxiety to kick in.

Way back when, I had two operating modes when it came to work: “I’m happy with my job” mode and “I need to find a new job right this minute” mode. “I’m happy with my job” mode included excelling at my day-job with a side order of inactivity. “I need to find a new job right this minute” mode is when I started to network, look for career opportunities, dust off my resume, highlight my skills, and look to make a change in the very near future.

Now I realize that I needed to change from those two to an all new “working professional” mode—which is a both/and way of being. As a working professional, I still excel in my current role, but I also remember to keep my skill set up to date, continue to make ongoing professional connections, and have a career plan B (and up through about J, honestly) just in case I need it. Regardless of my employment status, this mindset serves me well and helps me live my life without focusing on fear.

Once upon a time, I planned to be a high school English teacher. While I didn’t end up teaching in a school setting, I use that skill set to help adults who work for businesses learn the knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable them to excel professionally and personally.

I’m a lifelong learner, and I literally learn for a living—and help others do the same. I’m always learning new technology, reading up on adult education theory, and gaining insights from those around me.

​In addition to having a formal background in education, I also attend regular professional development meetings, and I constantly read in and outside of my field. I make sure I can speak intelligently about trends in business, education, and beyond. Staying current and continuing to learn and grow keeps me doing well in my current position and future ready. In an ever-changing world, continued professional growth is the best way to manage whatever happens next.

People talk a lot about “networking.” Too often, I think networking is depicted as a superficial act that involves shaking a lot of hands at a nametag-laden event where people dread the next day’s “would you like to buy something from me” calls. As an introvert, I approach networking differently. My goal is to build mutually beneficial relationships with people. These relationships are an opportunity to share information, help one another out, and feel more connected.

I keep track of my network using LinkedIn. In the beforetimes (aka pre-pandemic), I would typically meet people in person first, then connect with them via LinkedIn. Now, after I interact with someone via webinar (at a professional development meeting or after we work together for the first time), I invite them to connect on LinkedIn.

​I've also taken a more proactive stance on online networking out of sheer necessity. Regardless of how that connection comes into my life, from there, I’m happy to help a friend of theirs look for a new job, or talk with one of my connections about how they might want to design their technical certification program, or answer a question about a job applicant who is a former coworker of mine. I expect to help people in my professional network out, and know that they will be willing to do the same

Regardless of the role I’m in, and even if it seems to be going well, I always have a backup plan, and a backup-backup plan, and then a couple more backup plans after those. After many layoffs and the unique challenges of each, I have a broad sense of the types of situations (like figuring out the healthcare exchange and determining when it made sense to do short-term contract work) I may need to mitigate. This means being ready to manage possible adversity or taking advantage of opportunities as they become available.

In addition to being proactive with my network, some things I’ve thought through have made me better equipped for issues as they arise. Here are a few of the things I’ve contemplated:

• The recruiters/connectors who I call if I find myself unexpectedly in transition
• My options for short or long-term contract work in my field
• My interim budget if I am laid off, and how/when to tap which kinds of resources
• Different health care scenarios, including COBRA, a ridiculously high deductible health plan, or the “be careful” option
• My 6+ months of unemployment plan, including work outside of my field, to pay core bills

Like many people, I have attended (and delivered) approximately a bijillion online meetings, trainings, and interactive instructor-led sessions. I've been approaching these sessions with a mind towards not just attending, but also making new connections. Although the process differs from in-person interaction with people, I have managed to connect with more people (and often form more meaningful connections) than attending in-person meetings and “working the room.” As someone who runs introverted and communicates effectively in writing, this was an opportunity to turn webinars into a bonus network building exercise.

When attending a webinar, I make sure that people are able to see who I am, my full name, and a picture if at all possible. I use the same photo I use on LinkedIn so that people associate me with that picture. I also make sure that my first and last name are present so people have a chance of being able to find me after the session--or will recognize my name. 

In addition, during the webinar, I interact during the session. This usually involves commenting in the chat when prompted--which is also an opportunity for other attendees to see my full name. During any small group interactions, I'm sure to turn my camera on so people can see my face, hear my voice, and see my name. If the presenter asks people to share out loud, I usually turn on my camera, and share my thoughts. Again, this is another opportunity for people to hear my voice, see my face, and see my name. Each of these "impressions" helps people start to get to know me at least a little bit. 

Here are a few examples of messages that you can use to invite people to connect. Currently, LinkedIn allows you to include up to 300 characters when personalizing connection requests. 

After connecting with people initially, be sure to continue to nurture those connections. Posting useful content, and occasionally messaging people is one way to do that. Ideally, you can add value to the relationship before you are in a position where you need to ask those individuals for help. 

As someone who has been laid off a lot, I have applied for about three bijillion jobs throughout my career. I've become a resume nerd through this whole ordeal. I’m always learning about the best format, writing a punchy introduction, tailoring my resume to each position, and having the right level of detail on my LinkedIn profile. Which leads me to...

On the other side, I’ve also been a hiring manager searching for new computer trainers, instructional designers, technical support specialists, and technical writers. 

​As a hiring manager, believe it or not, I very much want you to be the perfect candidate for the position I have open. However, while searching for a new career opportunity is no picnic, being on the other side of hiring is also challenging.

​Unfortunately, many candidates who apply for a job are either not qualified or represent themselves poorly on a resume. Which brings me to my...

As a job candidate, it may often feel like you are at odds with hiring managers, and the companies trying to fill open positions. Want to know the truth? 

​As a hiring manager, I’m really hoping that you are the right candidate for the opening I have.

I’m trying like crazy to find just the right person who can do what I need done and who will enjoy working at my company. Each time I come across a resume that includes a great list of skills, but who makes one or more of the mistakes listed above, you're making it harder for me to sell your skills to my boss and get you the salary you want.

Sharing content on LinkedIn is a great way to engage with your connections, add value to your professional relationships, and promote who you are and what you know. However, only about 1% of LinkedIn users ever post anything at all--which I think is a huge missed opportunity to stand out.

When I've asked people what is stopping them from posting on LinkedIn, the overwhelming answer is, "I don't know what to post." ​Like with most everything in life, it comes down to your overall goals.

Whether I'm promoting myself in general or actively searching for a new "day job" in L&D, my goals remain consistent: to share knowledge and strengthen relationships. There are many ways posting on LinkedIn can help. I suggest using LinkedIn to share posts that support who you are as a professional. 

You don't have to write a long, original manifesto to post on LinkedIn and make an impact. Here are examples of what you can post on LinkedIn that will help you "build your brand" and share what you're all about, both professionally and as a person:
​

• Showcasing your expertise
• You as a person
• Inspirational content
• Promoting others
• You doing things
• Your work samples
• Sharing insights
• Sharing opportunities and resources

​Let's look at a few examples of my posts.

Who are you? What is it like to work with you? What are your interests? What do you care about? ​For me, I love helping people to succeed. I love removing obstacles so people can be successful. I enjoy board games, inline skating, my cats, my family, and a good cup of coffee. I am also kind of a nerd. I also own a velvet Elvis--because of course I do.​

What picks you up when you are down? What insights struck you? What motivates you? For me, I love quotes about the value of lifelong learning, self care, and shifting your mindset. 

Who inspires you? Who do you learn from? Who shared a useful resource that benefitted you? For me, I enjoy finding awesome people to learn from and sharing useful articles with others who might also find them helpful.

What do you do? What did you write? How do you volunteer? For me, I lead classes, go to professional development meetings, deliver webinars, inline skate, and, on rare occasion, beat my daughter in a rousing game of Ticket to Ride. 

What projects do you work on? What do you write? What content to you create? What experiences have you learned from? For me, I teach custom webinars, write blog articles, assist other instructors, and design learning.

What have you learned about your chosen profession? What's a tip you like to share? What's your go-to strategy for solving a problem? What's something unique you have noticed?  For me, I make observations, see unique solutions to common problems, or see how training and learning are out there in the world. And also coffee.

What problems can you help people solve? Who do you know who is a go to person for a given topic? What is a solution you learned about from a common problem? For me, I share information for people who want to get into corporate training, share job search resources, point people towards others who share topic-specific content.