The Job Search Application for Linkedin You Must Use

The Job Search Application for Linkedin You Must Use LinkedIn has been adding a great deal of applications lately and my best guess is that they are trying to emulate what Facebook and the iPhone have already achieved on that front. A few of these applications are very useful for all of us but one in particular is handy for job seekers. We already know that LinkedIn is a temple for job seekers and if the LinkedIn Corporation had its way they would probably put out every job board out of business tomorrow. So instead of being beaten, the job boards are joining up as well. LinkedIn Jobs Insider The brilliant little app I am talking about is the Jobs Insider tool on LinkedIn. It comes as a plugin to the LinkedIn browser toolbar, which you may have installed already. You download it to either your Explorer or Mozilla browser and it combines a number of technologies to bring you the best job search experience. The tool works with 7 major job boards at the moment: Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Craigslist, SimplyHired, Dice, and Vault. Once you have installed Jobs Insider, your new tool will appear as a pane on your left hand side. Now do some digging around the 7 job boards and search for a few job openings relevant to your experience. LinkedIn will very cleverly indicate which contacts you are connected to at the particular company that is hiring. If you are anything like me, you will have a few connections that you couldn’t say where they are working at the moment. This tool will pick up where your memory gave up and help you. When you get a few matches, you can go about your sleuthing activites. Contact your connections quietly and try to gather as much background information as possible.  I would advise to find out exactly who the hiring manager is and why the job has come about, so that you understand what situation the manager is in. If the best person on the team got up and walked out, the manager will be very motivated to get a good replacement pronto. If it’s a planned expansion with no deadline, you know the manager will take their time and potentially drag their feet. If you happen to be a recruiter looking for new jobs to work on, it just so happens that this tool will be very useful for you as well. Search away on jobs that you want to work on, find out what connections of yours works for that company, smile and dial. You will find the link to the Jobs Insider listed under tools at the bottom of your LinkedIn homepage, or click here. A couple more useful tools for job seekers MyResume is an application that allows you to post your resume or LinkedIn profile on Facebook. Finally you can convert all those friends on Facebook in to something useful; spreading the word about your skills, experience and what a great hire you would make. The application is available here and also very simple to set up. If you have a WordPress blog, you can now syndicate your LinkedIn profile on it and show the world your online resume. This application is called LinkedIn hResume for WordPress and it grabs the hResume microformat block from your LinkedIn public profile page allowing you to add it to any WordPress page and apply your own styles to it. The plugin is available here. What other tools are out there that you can recommend?

You Have Competition So Turn Up the Juice - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

You Have Competition So Turn Up the Juice - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career You have to continue to differentiate yourself at each stage in your career. Regardless of your age, at every point in your life, there is a younger person eager to step into your job. If you are 30 years old, there is an impatient 20-something coming up on you; at 40 there is that pesky 30-year-old. One 60-year-old CEO told me about a 44-year-old knocking on his door to take over the companyâ€"his own son! When you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done. Whatever your age, job situation, work history, or family way, turn up the juice going forward. Do it now, do it for your team, your company, and yourselfâ€"that is, unless you are ready to give up. But if you are like me, you aren’t about to give up. You must realize that personal reinvention never ends whether you have a little gray hair or no hair.

5 Steps to Transition from Corporate to Freelance

5 Steps to Transition from Corporate to Freelance Transitioning from life at a corporate firm to going freelance can be a big life change. We’ve pooled five top tips to help you make that transition as smooth as possible. Do you have any others? Let us know in the comments below! 1) Write a plan of action: Write a business plan for yourself mapping out what your exact steps are going to be once you leave your corporate job and what your goals (long and short term) will be. Doing as much of this organization work as possible before you make the break from your regular job will make it an awful lot easier when you do leave as from day one you will know what your plan of action is. Speak to friends or acquaintances who have also made the leap to freelancing for any advice they can give about those first few weeks starting out on your own. Network as much as possible, both in person and on social media. Spend time on your personal brand and start to get your name out there as a professional in your field. If you have the time to take on odd freelance jobs in the evenings or at the weekend while still working at the corporate, do it. Getting work once you go freelance can take longer than many people imagine so building up a client base (however small) beforehand will stand you in good stea d for the day you do make your break for freedom. The extra cash will also provide a bit of a cushion for ‘downtimes’ when work is harder to come by. 2) Don’t burn any bridges: Although it’s tempting to skip gleefully out of the door on your last day in the office telling everybody how great your new life is going to be without them, don’t. You never know when you might need these contacts again, not to mention references from your employer. Some freelancers even continue to work on an ad-hoc basis for their previous employer on leaving as this can be a great way to start getting experience and building a reputation as a freelancer. Even if you don’t continue to work for your old boss, the world is a very small place so it’s better to play it safe and do a good job right up until your last day, get your reference and leave with dignity. Doing a brilliant hand-over for your replacement will also confirm to your employer what a fantastic employee you were and you may even get a recommendation out of it. 3) Network: Make sure everyone you know knows that you are going freelance: ex-colleagues, friends, old classmates. Work is much more likely to come through a contact than by applying through a recruiter or agency and people prefer to use someone they know. Utilize social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and think about keeping a blog charting your experiences as this can be a great way to build up an audience and then a client base. The more ways people have to contact you or hear about you the more work opportunities will come your way. Don’t be shy about putting your business out there, asking for work or advertising. It can be hard, but being a salesperson is part and parcel of being a freelancer, even if sales is not where your skills lie, or where you feel comfortable. As a freelancer you have to learn every part of running a business, from accounting and administration to, yes, sales. If people don’t know what you are offering they won’t know to call you when they need your ser vices. 4) Know your worth: Do intensive research into the going rate for a professional in your field before you set your rates. Holding this knowledge will give you confidence when having to discuss your payment with clients. It’s really important not to undersell yourself and to be confident that you are good at what you do. You do not need to justify what you charge and do not be convinced otherwise by cheap potential clients. Be strong and if you are good at your job there’s no reason why you won’t receive the payment you ask for. 5) Budget your income, save your taxes: It can be easy to get carried away when the first few cheques start arriving to just spend the money as though that were your salary. However unlike the monthly salary you were receiving before, your taxes have not been taken out, this is your gross income. It sounds obvious, but be careful to put away a good chunk of this money for the taxman (up to 40%) and don’t be fooled into thinking this money is yours. This will save you a lot of pain later on when you owe him 40% of the money you have already spent. Making a monthly budget of all of your expenses, bills, rent, food and so on should give you an idea of how much money you’ll need to earn every month before tax. IF you are unsure about how much tax you need to pay do you research before you make the break from your regular job and get organised well before your leaving date. Ask friends, get a financial advisor and read up on tax online. Let me know what you think and looking forward to hearing from you! Author: Raffaela Rain is Co-Founder CEO of  http://careerfoundry.com