Have you Googled Yourself Lately? Why LinkedIn and Google are Important for Your Job Search

Have you Googled Yourself Lately? Why LinkedIn and Google are Important for Your Job Search

If you are looking for a job, you probably have looked at getting on LinkedIn and some other social networking sites.  If you have created a LinkedIn profile, it should show up on Google’s search engine. 

In some recent talks I gave to job-seekers, I asked my audience if they had Googled themselves.  Surprisingly, not as many people as you may think have done this.   In my book, How to Reinvent Your Career, I discuss the importance of Googling your name to see what it displays.   You can be sure that employers will do this.

It is nice that search engines like Google can help people find you.  One way to help improve being found is to be on LinkedIn.  There are other benefits to being on LinkedIn. According to a recent article in WSJ.com, “One of the least recognized aspects of LinkedIn, says founder Reid Hoffman, is the fact that it allows people to help other people.” I personally like the Q&A feature of LinkedIn for this reason.  Not only can you ask a question, but you can offer your expertise and help others. 

According to Hoffman, Linkedin is an important part of the career search.  I agree.  He also asked an important question: “There are millions of other people out there. What do you do to put yourself in the right place for people to find you?”

I often give advice for things you can do to be found.  LinkedIn is high on my list.  However, if you are interested in finding out more ways to be found, check out some of my career videos. 

How to Get a Job by Understanding  Emotional Intelligence

How to Get a Job by Utilizing a SWOT Analysis

How to Get a Job by Utilizing Camtasia and Powerpoint

How to Market Yourself by Using Social Media

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How to Get a Job Using a Personal SWOT Analysis

In a recent talk I gave to CareerConnectors, we discussed how you can use a personal SWOT analysis to help you realize your strengths and weaknesses.  This information can be very helpful  in determining things to put on your resume and can also help you discover areas where you may need to improve.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTf4Xypl9go&fs=1&hl=en_US]

How to Get a Job Showcasing Your Abilities Using Camtasia, Powerpoint and Youtube

In my presentation yesterday at the CareerConnectors.Net workshop, I presented several different examples of how to market “you” as the product in order to get a job. If you are interested in learning how to use Camtasia with Powerpoint to promote your abilities and showcase them on Youtube, check out the following video based on information in my book, How to Reinvent Your Career:  Make Money Doing What You Love.  I am definitely going to be looking for a new video recorder though as this one crunched the screen, making it and me more compressed and wide.  If anyone has a good recommendation for a video recorder, I’d like to hear about it. . .

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W8N71TeTd8&fs=1&hl=en_US]
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Top 15 Jobs in America

In researching information for my book, How to Reinvent Your Career, I found it interesting to see the types of jobs that are no longer on the market due to changes in technology.  Just as jobs are disappearing, others are being created as well.  If you are interested in seeing what the top most popular jobs in the US are, check out the recent article by jobs.AOL.  According to their report the top 15 jobs include:

1.  Retail Sales

2.  Cashiers

3.  Office Clerks

4.  Food Preparation and Service Workers

5.  Registered Nurses

6.  Waiters and Waitresses

7.  Customer Service Reps.

8.  Material Movers

9.  Janitors

10.  Stock Clerks and Order Fillers

11.  Secretaries

12. Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing Clerks

13. General Managers

14.  Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers

15.  Elementary School Teachers

To find out more specifics about what these jobs pay and education requirements, check out the article by clicking here.

Find Out How Much Jobs Pay

imagevia sixapart.com
In a presentation I gave the other night, someone in the audience asked if there was any questions you should not ask in the job interview.  One thing that many career experts will tell you is not to bring up money.  How then, are you supposed to know if the job is something you even should be considering?  There is a way to get an idea of what you can expect in terms of pay from a specific company.  The site is SimplyHired.  I used to use Salary.com quite a bit when I worked in loans and underwriting.  What is nice about SimplyHired, though,  is that it gives some more specific information about individual companies. 
 
I thought I would put it to the test by looking  AstraZeneca.  I chose that company since I worked there for so many years and was curious about the accuracy of SimplyHired.  This is what they showed:

Average Astrazeneca Salaries in AZ

In USD as of Nov 11, 2010  
25k 50k 75k

astrazeneca

 $65,000    

That wasn’t too far off for a general idea of what someone could expect working there.  I ran a few other companies just to see what they came up with.  Here is what I found using Arizona as the state.
 
For Google:

Average Google Salaries in AZ

In USD as of Nov 11, 2010  
20k 40k 60k

google

 $52,000    

For GoDaddy:

Average Go Daddy Salaries in AZ

In USD as of Nov 11, 2010  
10k 20k 30k

go daddy

 $20,000    
 
For Insight:

Average Insight Salaries in AZ

In USD as of Nov 11, 2010  
25k 50k 75k

insight

 $64,000