[This is Part 3 of Job-Hunt’s Online Job Search Tutorial.]
You’ve Landed Your New Job! YEA!
Congratulations! Celebrate, and enjoy your success! Update your LinkedIn Profile with your new job title and employer name.
If someone has been helpful, send them a note to let them know that you have your new job and to thank them for their support. Stay in touch with them, if possible, and help them if you can. A solid personal network is better than the Internet for finding your next job!
Then, make your next job search easier by keeping your successful job search/career “foundation” alive.
It has taken a lot of effort to find and build and nurture your job search network. These are people and resources that may help you succeed in your new job, and now you can help them in their jobs or in their job searching.
- Important: Go back over your diary to see sites where you have left your resume, registered for job sites to send you e-mailed opportunities, etc. Return to those sites to delete or “inactivate” your resume and to stop those e-mails so that your new employer doesn’t think that you are still job hunting.
If a site won’t let you delete your resume (some don’t), change the name on the resume to something that is jibberish – a string of letters and numbers or something else unfriendly, so you won’t be connected to that resume by your new employer.
People do get fired by employers who think that they are job hunting, so make sure that your job search is suspended when you start your new job.
- Note in your diary or tracking log the job site(s) led you to that job and/or had the most promising leads, best responses, most interviews generated, etc.
- Keep track of the versions of your resume that were the most “successful,” particularly the one that led you to the new job.
- Note which techniques were the most useful (search criteria that brought exactly the right jobs in the right places, etc.); you may never need them again, but just in case you do…
- List the Web sites that had the most useful information for finding good employers and preparing for interviews.
For Your Next Job Search
These days, very few jobs are secure. So, now that you have established a good foundation, including an updated resume and online presence in the social networking sites, don’t let it die. You don’t want to start all over for the next job search.
And there will be a “next” job search. Count on it!
1. Keep Your Network Alive (So It Will Be Ready Next Time)
As a savvy networker, you’ll want to help them any way you can, too. Remember the new networking mantra for the 21st century – WYGIWYG: What You Give Is What You Get!
Stay active and visible on LinkedIn:
- Continue to update and improve your LinkedIn Profile.
- Add more connections and recommendations in LinkedIn.
- Join appropriate LinkedIn Groups and participate in the Group Discussions.
- Write and publish posts on LinkedIn Pulse.
- Stay active on Twitter.
These activities can help you be more successful in your current job, as well as laying the ground work for that next job search.
Your network will make your next job search easier, and you want to help them, too. So stay in touch.
- Connect on LinkedIn, if you aren’t already connected.
- Send a check-in email periodically — like sharing a great (relevant) article or sending holiday wishes.
- Send out news about your profession or industry, via the appropriate LinkedIn Group for that industry or profession and also via Twitter.
Do your best to help the members of your network succeed. They may not all help you back, but you will find that many have in the past and will in the future, too. And those strong ties can help you both be more successful in the future, as your careers progress.
2. Keep Track of Your Accomplishments
Keep your LinkedIn Profile up-to-date, highlighting your accomplishments and those of your employer. Maintain a list of accomplishments in your current job that will enable you to update your resume very quickly, if necessary.
Quantify those accomplishments — dollars saved or sales made, percent of improvement (or savings or whatever), paying particular attention to important keywords like “profit” and “revenue.”
3. Maintain Your Profiles
Your LinkedIn Profile will actually help you do your job better, too, helping your employer succeed. You will also be able to learn new things, meet new people, find out about new technologies and competitors, stay ahead of (or at least even with) the competition, and more. And, fortunately, you will be better prepared should you need to launch another job search.
Focus on LinkedIn, currently the social network used most often by most professions for professional visibility. LinkedIn is also, of course, THE favorite network of recruiters.
More: Secrets to a Knockout LinkedIn Profile Summary.
4. Brag About Your Employer
Even if it’s a horrble place to work, there must be something good about it or you wouldn’t have accepted their job offer. So, find something positive to say about your employer and/or their products or services, and make that visible in LinkedIn.
Post updates about the organization (positive ones!), and also share something positive in your LinkedIn Profile Summary and also in the Work Experience section relevant to the employer. Maybe they are the “bigest CPA firm [or whatever] in the eastern suburbs” or “winner of the best [whatever] award.”
Hopefully, your employer will be reassured that your LinkedIn participation isn’t part of a job search, and you’ll be spreading the word about how great they are. That will reflect well on you (currently and in the future), and will also enhance your value in the job market.
5.Continue to Use Your Tracking System
It will help you keep your network alive and well for next time
When you have your new job, check out the hints for maintaining your job search network for next time because this will probably not be your last job search…
IN CONCLUSION
Yes, it is a LOT of work to find a new job! There are very few true short cuts, but the Internet has increased the apparent size of the job market, automating the application process while also adding some new complications (like protecting your privacy). In a way, the Internet has made it more difficult to find a job. For more on job hunting, read the articles written by Job-Hunt’s Job Search Experts on everything from resumes to networking to social media (particularly LinkedIn, of course), working with recruiters, successful job interviews, personal SEO, personal branding, and personal online reputation management.
Back: Part One or Part Two
About the author…
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…
Don't forget to share this article with friends!
