3 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Break Out of Your Career Rut

If you dismiss LinkedIn as just a social media network for job-seekers, you’re missing out. LinkedIn is also a great tool if you find yourself in a career rut. Here are three major ways LinkedIn can help you get un-stuck:

1. Research

field of study explorer

If you’re stuck in a job you hate and aren’t sure how to move forward in your career, researching the career paths of others can be incredibly illuminating. Understanding how someone got from point A to point B in his career might open your eyes to different ways you can move up the ladder — or closer to a career that excites you — in your own way.

Before LinkedIn, we didn’t really have a way to do this, but now it’s even easier with LinkedIn’s new Field of Study Explorer. Simply select a field of study (if you’re logged in to LinkedIn, it will automatically select the field you studied in college, but you can change this under “Explore More”), and LinkedIn will tell you what others who studied that field are now doing — even where they’re living and working. It also shows you profiles of people who studied that field, starting first with your own connections and then moving on to people you don’t yet know but with whom you have connections in common. Don’t be afraid to click around and read what people have chosen to make publicly available. Reverse-engineering the career paths of others can be helpful if you’re not even sure what the possibilities are, much less how to accomplish them.

2. Rebrand yourself
Your LinkedIn profile tells a story about you: your history and path, your skills and interests and where you might go next. If the experience section seems like just a list of jobs, your summary is where you tie everything together. It’s your opportunity to connect the dots for your reader while articulating the best of your achievements. Your summary will go through many revisions as you gain new experiences and evolve personally and professionally. Writing about yourself forces you to consider things from someone else’s perspective and think objectively about your past. This can open your eyes to new possibilities.

Don’t discount the power of a good headline, either. Most people just default to using their current position and company, but there are better ways to make a fuller, more encompassing statement about yourself professionally. And if you’re job-seeking, don’t put that as your headline! As the first thing people read about you, it positions you as a beggar — not a chooser — and makes people worry you’ll just ask them about jobs. A better option is to describe yourself as the professional you are, whether or not you have a job. If you were recently laid off from a job as a marketing manager, you might choose to use something like “Proven marketing manager with eight years of experience.”

How you choose to portray past experiences is also important. Let’s say you’re that laid-off marketing manager and you’d like to work on more digitally focused campaigns at your next job. In that case, you might highlight the digital aspects of your prior projects by pointing them out first in the experience description.

3. Reach out
What’s the point of a network if you don’t connect with others? This is where you take your research a step further and actually connect — in real life — with people in your industry or who started from the same place. There’s definitely a right and a wrong way to do this, but most people are happy to help others; they’re flattered you want their advice, and if you end up being successful, they get value from the relationship as well. Making it easy for them to say yes is the tricky part; you don’t want to burden them with a long email or ask for too much of their time.

Thinking creatively and proactively about your trajectory is a necessary part of moving forward in your professional life, and LinkedIn can be an excellent resource and tool to help you map your career.

Being Afraid to Speak Up

resume template

Anyone expecting to see great results from using a generic resume for their job search is setting themselves up for a big disappointment.

Employers, recruiters, hiring managers, and HR personnel are not seeking “general” candidates to come in for interviews, they are looking for candidates who know what skills they have to offer and where they can best fit into a company.

Focus in a resume is very important. Unfortunately, many job seekers are under the impression that it’s a good thing to have a generic resume because they can cover a lot of ground when in fact, this is definitely not the case.

It’s very easy for people to find and fill out a resume template, which is why many people opt to use it. Looking for work is a job in itself and if not taken seriously, it will result in a long, stressful, and drawn out job search that will be a big disappointment in end.

Your resume should “tell me about you” and go beyond a laundry list of duties and responsibilities, which a generic resume pretty much offers. It is NOT the way to go if you want to stand out or grab the attention of potential employers, recruiters, hiring managers, and HR personnel.

• Make certain your resume is an achievement-based resume allowing it to reveal your areas of expertise, leadership skills, ability to take on challenges and succeed, as well as any other trait or quality you want potential employers to know about you.

• Don’t skimp when it comes to your resume. Commit to due diligence when it comes to writing your resume. You get out of it what you put into it.

• If you need help with your resume, get it. Take advantage of what’s available to you online and get advice from resume writing experts.

• BE CAREFUL when viewing resume samples online or looking at a friend’s resume to get your creative juices flowing. All resumes are not created equal.

To bottom-line it, when writing your resume, think of yourself as the product and the employer as the buyer. Before a buyer will consider purchasing a high-end product, the product must gain their interest, establish its quality, and present its value. Once these factors are determined, they’ll move to the next step – buying the product.

Now, let’s put this analogy into perspective. If your resume generates interest and demonstrates your value as a qualified candidate, you’ve effectively sold yourself.

Sample interview questions of the common type are listed below. Answers are included. But perhaps suggestions for tailoring your responses is a better way to put it, since specific answers are impossible to provide. Practice answering these sample interview questions out loud to yourself or ask a friend or relative to help you.

Don’t feel that you have to answer right away. Interviewers know that you’re nervous and expect you to think a bit, so do think carefully before you answer. But don’t hesitate too long or it’ll appear that you’re stalling. Interviewers will ask open-ended questions to see where you’ll go with them, so try not to ramble while you’re thinking of a real answer.

Q.
Tell me about yourself.
A.
This is the dreaded, classic, open-ended interview question and likely to be among the first. It’s your chance to introduce your qualifications, good work habits, etc. Keep it mostly work and career related.

Q.
Why do you want to leave your current job? (Why did you leave your last job?)
A.
Be careful with this. Avoid trashing other employers and making statements like, “I need more money.” Instead, make generic statements such as, “It’s a career move.”

Q.
What are your strengths?
A.
Point out your positive attributes related to the job.

Q.
What are your weaknesses?
A.
Everybody has weaknesses, but don’t spend too much time on this one and keep it work related. Along with a minor weakness or two, try to point out a couple of weaknesses that the interviewer might see as strengths, such as sometimes being a little too meticulous about the quality of your work. (Avoid saying “I work too hard.” It’s a predictable, common answer.) For every weakness, offer a strength that compensates for it.

Q.
Which adjectives would you use to describe yourself?
A.
Answer with positive, work-oriented adjectives, such as conscientious, hard-working, honest and courteous, plus a brief description or example of why each fits you well.

Q.
What do you know about our company?
A.
To answer this one, research the company before you interview.

Q.
Why do you want to work for us?
A.
Same as above. Research the company before you interview. Avoid the predictable, such as, “Because it’s a great company.” Say why you think it’s a great company.

Q.
Why should I hire you?
A.
Point out your positive attributes related to the job, and the good job you’ve done in the past. Include any compliments you’ve received from management.

Q.
What past accomplishments gave you satisfaction?
A.
Briefly describe one to three work projects that made you proud or earned you pats on the back, promotions, raises, etc. Focus more on achievement than reward.

Q.
What makes you want to work hard?
A.
Naturally, material rewards such as perks, salary and benefits come into play. But again, focus more on achievement and the satisfaction you derive from it.

Q.
What type of work environment do you like best?
A.
Tailor your answer to the job. For example, if in doing your job you’re required to lock the lab doors and work alone, then indicate that you enjoy being a team player when needed, but also enjoy working independently. If you’re required to attend regular project planning and status meetings, then indicate that you’re a strong team player and like being part of a team.

Q.
Why do you want this job?
A.
To help you answer this and related questions, study the job ad in advance. But a job ad alone may not be enough, so it’s okay to ask questions about the job while you’re answering. Say what attracts you to the job. Avoid the obvious and meaningless, such as, “I need a job.”

Q.
How do you handle pressure and stress?
A.
This is sort of a double whammy, because you’re likely already stressed from the interview and the interviewer can see if you’re handling it well or not. Everybody feels stress, but the degree varies. Saying that you whine to your shrink, kick your dog or slam down a fifth of Jack Daniels are not good answers. Exercising, relaxing with a good book, socializing with friends or turning stress into productive energy are more along the lines of the “correct” answers.

Q.
Explain how you overcame a major obstacle.
A.
The interviewer is likely looking for a particular example of your problem-solving skills and the pride you show for solving it.

Q.
Where do you see yourself five (ten or fifteen) years from now?
A.
Explain your career-advancement goals that are in line with the job for which you are interviewing. Your interviewer is likely more interested in how he, she or the company will benefit from you achieving your goals than what you’ll get from it, but it goes hand in hand to a large degree. It’s not a good idea to tell your potential new boss that you’ll be going after his or her job, but it’s okay to mention that you’d like to earn a senior or management position.

Q.
What qualifies you for this job?
A.
Tout your skills, experience, education and other qualifications, especially those that match the job description well. Avoid just regurgitating your resume. Explain why.

Q.
Why did you choose your college major?
A.
The interviewer is likely fishing to see if you are interested in your field of work or just doing a job to get paid. Explain why you like it. Besides your personal interests, include some rock-solid business reasons that show you have vision and business sense.