One way to leverage your connections on LinkedIn is to let them know about your Job search preferences (assuming you want to go public with it ). Now there is a difference between appealing to the emotions of people to gain only public sympathy versus presenting your case. I like to think of this as presenting a case in a courtroom.
There are generally 3 major groups of people you will encounter:
- The prosecution and the defence counsel.
- The judge and the court clerk.
- The audience (sit in and online + the press).
Questions to think about;
- Who needs convincing?
- Who is the most dramatic set and of what use is that drama to the case?
- Who would benefit more from facts versus fiction? and which of these is more critical to the case at hand.
They all have different parts to play to make you win the case and understanding that would help you play your cards well.
The public likes drama, people want to be entertained particularly now that things are more online than offline. However, a witness who focuses more on entertaining the audience versus actually presenting facts that could swing the case in favour of whomever they want is only wasting valuable time.
As a job seeker, public support might be good for you because it might bring you closer to your employer (just the way the public outcry on obvious cases of injustice might lead to the initiation of a judicial inquiry) but don’t overplay it if not you might unintentionally mask the major point you are trying to pass across.
Here are my thoughts on how you can engage with your connections on LinkedIn.
- Be Clear: What are you looking for? Be as specific as possible! Don’t be open to everything because some potential employers might translate that to exceeding at nothing. What is your value add? For career path changers: what transferable skills can you bring to the table?
- Research the best days to post: Your goal is to get a great deal of engagement so you might want to find out the best days + time frames that work for a Linkedln post.
- Be Interview Ready: Know how to hit the nail on the head when answering clarification questions (from potential employers) and be ready to have interviews. Also, ensure that your application documents are ready (e.g updated Linkedin profile, a handy and adaptable cover letter and cv). The debate about cover letters is still on, but I strongly believe that your cover letter gives you a unique opportunity to articulate your motivation for applying to the role and it also gives you a voice that you can use to tell your own story (by that I mean the specific things that make you a great fit for the position).
- Don’t be ashamed: There is absolutely nothing shameful about looking for a Job. There is value in you. God did not create empty barrels. For now, you actually have a job and that job is to discover and present yourself to your potential employer in a language and a format that they can understand (take a moment to unpack this sentence because it would mean different things to different people).
God’s Speed!.
