JobSearchTipsOnline.com

"What about LinkedIn?"

Q. Jon asks, "Should I use LinkedIn to find contacts during my job search?"

A. LinkedIn is a great tool - and not just during your job search. Unlike social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn is a professional networking site you can use to:

1. Find valuable contacts. Say you want to find a mid-level professional contact at a large company but have no names and your networking and research have turning up nothing. Do a search of your LinkedIn network for anyone currently in that function at the company. The search results will include anyone who matches your search parameters who is directly connected with you, their connections, or your third level connections. Also included will be anyone who matches who are members of any of the LinkedIn groups you have joined.
2. Showcase your professional background and skills to others - including corporate and third-party recruiters.
3. Stay in touch with others who you may otherwise lose touch with as you and they change companies, careers, last names, and cities.

"Your resume is wrong"

Q.    Dan asks, "Many of my networking contacts tell me my resume is wrong - and each one has a different suggestion. What should I do?"

A.    Dan, be glad - not dismayed. It could be worse - you could be asking for feedback and all they say is, "It looks fine to me." That is not an answer you want. Those people are not being honest or helpful (or your resume is truly one of the best out there).

Resume writing is an art form not a science. Yes, there are some resume writing rules (we have a set of rules on this web site) but it is essentially an ad and, therefore, an art form. Everyone has an opinion about resume format and content. So it is no surprise that you will get many different opinions.

Listen to their ideas. Thank them and tell them you will consider doing what they suggest. You may agree with some of them - those are the comments you were looking for, ways to improve your resume.

When all is said and done, this is your resume and you decide what should be included, what should be changed, and how it should look.