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They know all about you. What do you know about them? And how can you use this information to your advantage?
Today, we’re discussing LinkedIn’s reference check tool, a little known but very useful feature. The reference check tool allows you to search for individual references by inputting company name and time period. The results will also return other LinkedIn members who worked at the company during the same time period.
The LinkedIn reference check tool, available only with an upgraded account, allows you to obtain a more balanced viewpoint than can be gotten from profile page recommendations alone. LinkedIn explains, “Reference searches are exclusively available to Premium Account holders with Business, Business Plus and Pro accounts as well as to job posters. Job posters can run reference searches on the people who apply to jobs posted on LinkedIn.”
This is a great little feature for passive recruiting on LinkedIn. It’s also a useful tool for in-house hiring managers trolling LinkedIn for appropriate candidates.
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But what if you use the tool to check on them? C’mon now. Haven’t you ever wished you could peek at the qualifications of your prospective new manager? Sure you have. LinkedIn’s reference check tool allows you to do just that.
Here is how it’s done:
1. Go to your profile
2. Click on “advanced” (next to search bar, top right corner of the page)
3. Choose ‘Reference Search” from the new menu
4. Complete the blanks and search for your target
Want to know who held the position before the company came looking for you? Search by company and job title, but uncheck “current titles only”. Then it’s simply a matter of going through proper channels to contact previous employees and start a friendly chat about their experiences with their former employer.
BONUS! Knowing more about the hobbies and interests of your interviewer can be the ‘inside edge’ you want. Imagine the difference between responding, “I’m fine, thanks” or “I’m doing well. Thanks for asking. Hey, by the way, were you aware our sons play on the same hockey team…”
The “Most Successful Award” in today’s digital age often goes, not just to the most accomplished, but to the most creative. With so many great tools at our disposal, there is no reason why a recruiter or jobseeker should approach any prospecting situation blindly.
Victoria Ipri is CEO of Modello Media, Inc., an e-marketing strategy firm based in suburban Philadelphia, PA. She welcomes your questions and comments on this forum, or contact her directly at: ModelloMedia@gmail.com
Feel free to send an invite to connect with members of Green Buzz Agency on Linkedin: Tod Plotkin, Sara Evans, Jared Lee, and Jennie Ryon. Or join the Green Buzz Agency Linkedin Group.
It took a recession, but resumes finally are receiving renewed scrutiny. The ability to embellish and obscure shrinks when one out of every six workers is under or unemployed. More than ever, recruiters want to see accomplishments, not responsibilities; numbers, not adverbs.
Certain professions have it easier than others. If you’re a lobbyist, you cite legislation passed or defeated. If you’re a fundraiser, you count dollars raised. If you’re a political operative, you record a win-loss record.
Alas, if you’re a social media consultant, you probably shun such metrics. Sure, you’ve helped clients tweet and blog, but who among us hasn’t? Sure, you have 10 years of experience, but what have you achieved?
With the ever-growing pool of amateurs marketing themselves as authorities, the need to distinguish the talkers from the doers is urgent. And what better way to draw this distinction than through the crucible of numbers.
For instance, does your resume refer to “viral videos”? Sounds impressive, right? Well, how many views have these sensations attracted? Have you supported a Web site redesign? How much did that bolster traffic, and how many unique monthly visitors did that result in?
Did you manage an e-mail list? How many people subscribed to it, and how many joined under your watch? Did you conduct blogger outreach? Name five bloggers you’ve successfully pitched.
Did you execute search engine optimization? By what percentages did that drive up organic traffic and referral traffic, and how many negative and positive stories did you navigate in and out of the top 10 search results?
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To be sure, numbers don’t paint a perfect picture. They omit client satisfaction, can elevate quantity to the detriment of quality, and can be massaged.
Moreover, numbers are only a means to an end. So, you doubled the audience for your podcast? Nice! Now tell us how this affected the bottom line. Did it engender a 30% bump in donations? A 50% jump in e-commerce sales? A 100% spike in membership?
Taking these extra steps requires extra work. Yet those confident in their CVs should embrace this charge. After all, there’s nothing like cold hard data to reveal that the common claim, “increased significantly,” in fact was a trivial 8% uptick.
Indeed, like the SAT, numbers serve a crucial purpose: They constitute a uniform, relatively transparent credential. As such, they help to address perhaps the biggest complaint about social media: How to measure its return on investment.
Jonathan Rick is a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. Follow him on twitter @jrick
