We’re back with more of the worst of Craigslist! Again, for those who weren’t tuned in to the last episode, I’m not picking on Craigslist here - I like Craigslist, Kijiji and other sites, particularly those that can help job seekers get free exposure to recruiters and hiring managers. After all, if you’re unemployed, every penny counts. That being said, just because it’s free to post your resume ad on Craigslist, that doesn’t mean you should take it any less seriously than sending it directly to a company.

I’m also not picking on this job seeker personally - I’m merely analyzing his public post and highlighting mistakes and areas that could be improved for the sake of helping job seekers avoid making those mistakes in their job searches.

This example is another where the job seeker doesn’t even post a resume, and this was on the “Resume” section on Craigslist! So resume mistakes aren’t really directly addressed here in this blog post, but you can get a special report (for free!) on the top 7 resume mistakes and even more practical advice in my book.

In this episode, we delve into another one of the bad postings in the “resumes” section.

Exhibit B:
Headline: I have expertise to help
Impression: What sort of expertise? To help achieve what goal? Are you an expert fast-food burger-flipper or an expert in helping companies get more of Obama’s bailout money? Are you an SEO specialist or do you have expertise in reducing costs and streamlining processes?

Body of the ad:
Dear Hiring Manager,

Please reply for a copy of my resume.

When measuring my qualifications against those of other applicants, I hope that you will consider not just the experiences outlined in my resume, but the overall mentality that I bring to the table. I have built businesses from the ground up, consulted others to do the same, and trained sales teams to grow beyond their previous capacity.

I have been fortunate to have honed my skills within the insurance industry which has provided me with a firm grasp of sales management practices, recruiting practices, and superior training tactics. This combined with the intellectual capacity to continue my personal growth makes me a prime candidate for similar positions in any field. It is my desire to become a long term part of your organization’s growth, but if a contract position is all that is open, I will consider that as well.

In short, I have no doubt that my expertise in managing various processes, people, and production will serve me well in growing your organization. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my experiences in more detail at your earliest convenience.

Best Regards,
XXXXXX

My take:
Any skilled sales person should know that part of your job as a sales person is to make it easy for a prospect to make a buying decision. This person is basically starting off saying “hello, please ask me what I have to offer so I can sell you if you’re interested.” Just like in the headline, he’s making it EASY for the hiring manager to skip over his offer and say “Next!”

Start off by clearly explaining what you have to offer. The first sentence of the second paragraph really doesn’t do the job seeker any justice. For someone who claims to be a sales expert, he takes an awfully long time to get to the point of what benefits he has to offer a prospective employer. Grab their attention, back it up with substance (including a resume), and ask for the sale. It sounds like he’s using a watered-down “soft sell” - almost as if he’s trying not to sell his skills.

Using the passive voice too much works against him as well, particularly since he’s in sales. Why say “I have been fortunate to have honed my skills within the insurance industry which has provided me with a firm grasp of sales management practices” when he could say “I honed my sales management skills in the insurance industry and can apply those skills in other industries as well.”? Much more impact with fewer words.

What in the world does “trained sales teams to grow beyond their previous capacity” really mean? Obviously he’s talking about having improved the performance of his sales team, but he’s simply too vague about it. RESULTS matter, and Sales is a field where accomplishments are easy to measure. By what percent did he grow sales? If the sales team hit $1 Million in sales before his training, and $2 million after his training, that’s a solid, quantifiable result. “Beyond their previous capacity” could mean 1 dollar more than their previous sales. In other words, it’s unquantified fluff.

Did he build

profitable

businesses from the ground up? To what level of revenues & profits? Just about anyone could build a “business” that brings in a few hundred dollars a year in profit. Just print up some flyers, post them in your neighborhood, mow a few lawns, and call it a “business.” Start there and grow it to a landscaping business with 10 crews and $3 million in annual revenues, and THAT can be called a business. My point is not to chip away at him personally or his accomplishments, but to encourage him (and you readers) to be specific and show examples. He doesn’t have to name names - that’s for the interview. But briefly and clearly state accomplishments and provide numbers to show that there’s substance behind the claim.

For a sales trainer, he sure uses a weak close! “I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my experiences in more detail at your earliest convenience.” How about “Please contact me at your earliest convenience so that we can come up with a plan to grow your business.” Or “Call me tomorrow before noon if you want to start seeing results this quarter.” Some might say that sounds a little pushy, but if a company is struggling in this (or any) economy, they want sales people who can deliver results, fast.

I know my analysis of his “cover letter without a resume” is about 3 times as long as his cover letter, but I’m trying to help people understand a key point: the level of thought that goes into your job search is directly proportionate to the level of success you reach with it. If you don’t think about how every phrase you use either helps or hurts your job search, it’s probably hurting your job search. Every statement and phrase in your cover letter and resume should be able to pass the “so what?” test and help support the answer to the question, “Why should I hire you?”

Another interesting tidbit: This job seeker, as well as the previous one I profiled had selected: “Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job seeker.”
If you’re serious about finding a job, why rule out recruiters who could help you? Yes, there are some recruiters that use shady practices and unethically shop candidates everywhere they can, and some lazy ones who act like you’re the perfect candidate because of one keyword came up on an automated search of your resume, but there are also lots of VERY good recruiters who help companies find talented candidates for placement with employers.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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The person who posted this letter raises some very valid points from the jobseeker’s standpoint - while on one hand, these systems can streamline the hiring process for employers by making “qualified” people easier to sort through, the limitations of these online applications certainly cause them to miss out on many great candidates through trying to pigeonhole each and every job seeker.

I, for one, have encountered many of these types of sites and many of them “force” you to enter your most recent salary or last year’s W2 earnings, some in a range as narrow as within $3000 (e.g. $72,000-$75,000). While this may make it easier for a hiring manager to determine which candidates are within their target range, thus reducing the time spent on potential employees who either expect too much in salary or don’t know their real value in the job market, it also alienates many potentially great hires.

Any investment website, stock brokerage site, mutual fund prospectus, and so on is legally obligated to state something to the effect of “past performance is no guarantee of future performance”, thereby warning investors that what they’re putting their money into is by no means a sure thing.

For a job seeker, I firmly believe that this also holds true for the value of an employee. For example, someone who was laid off sometime last year and is still searching (perhaps they didn’t get my book?) wouldn’t have a normal full year’s salary reflected in their W-2 from that year. Or what if a family member was sick, the person was injured in an accident or any number of circumstances prevented them from hitting their real earning potential? Or what if they went back to school to strengthen their skill set and learned new things that made them far more valuable? Or they started a business that didn’t support them, or even failed, and they learned a ton but didn’t earn a ton.

Most job books out there, as well as interview advice books and the advice of resume writers, career coaches, and so on, are darn close to unanimous in stating that you should not talk about salary in the first interview, unless of course the employer brings it up, then there are ways to elicit the employer’s target salary range for the position without having to directly state your salary.

So if I’m applying for a position online, and I come across a site where they demand your salary history, or target salary within such a narrow range, I choose not to pursue an opportunity with that company. I personally feel that it’s not their business exactly how much you made last year, and it’s shortsighted of them to expect this information. They lose potential candidates who are savvy enough to know that this should not be a requirement for consideration as a prospective employee of that company.

Personally, I strongly feel that my compensation with a new company should be based on what they think I am worth, which is directly related to how well I presented myself in the interviews, how my past accomplishments can be leveraged even better in the new position, and most importantly how much value I can convey that I can actually deliver to them as a return on their investment in me as an employee. Past earnings have little to no bearing on this.

That being said, if you only made $25,000 last year and you’re shooting for a $100K opportunity, you may be stretching yourself a bit far. A lot of that depends on your mindset and abilities. If you have a $25K mentality (like a salary thermostat), your mind may be set for that earning level and you’d have trouble keeping a $100K job. But if your knowledge, skill set, and mindset has grown to $100K or more, it wouldn’t necessarily be a stretch at all.

Of course one approach would be to check sites such as Salary.com to get an idea of what the pay range is for that position within your geographic area, and use that for the target salary. That being said, if the question is about your past salary, and you put in your target salary, you risk being disqualified as a candidate or (if you’re “found out” after you’re hired) dismissed as an employee of the company.

What do you think? Are the expectations of these companies fair? Would you reveal your exact salary? Or are these forms only good for companies who only understand the “short head” and have no clue about the “long tail”(As described in Chris Anderson’s great book, The Long Tail)?

Or is this the real reason why the button at the end of the page usually says “Submit”?

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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First, I understand the challenges of “blindly” posting your resume for the world to see. It is difficult to attract attention, particularly when you don’t know what you’re looking for.

That’s why it’s even more important than ever to know what you want and to clearly state it. If you want “a job” or “a career” or (like in the example below) “a position in a growing company which supports upward mobility and growth,” you’re competing against EVERY job seeker on the planet, or at least in your geographic area.

But if you’re specific about what you want, what you’re looking for, and what you have to offer a company, you’ll find that you’re competing only against the other candidates who know what they want. I can assure you that’s a much smaller group of job seekers.

So many of the resumes I see remind me of when I was a kid, hanging out in my grandfather’s hardware store. There was a regular customer who described himself as a “Jack of all trades, not worth a darn at anything.” Is your resume like that? Some of the top resume mistakes are covered in my free report and in my book.

In this episode, we delve into one of the bad postings in the “resumes” section. Names and other contact information have been changed to protect the innocent.

Exhibit A:
Headline: New BBA Management Grad Looking for Entry Level or Development Program
Impression: Not too terribly bad for a new graduate, but nothing extraordinary. That being said, the job seeker didn’t say what kind of entry level - are they looking most for marketing, accounting, finance, procurement, sales, HR, or what? “Entry Level or Development Program” is a bit vague, to say the least.

Body of the ad:
Hello,

My name is XXXXXXXXX. I am a recent BBA graduate looking for a chance to prove myself and get a foot in the door. I know that I can impress if given the opportunity. I am very computer savvy and pick-up on new programs quickly. Further, I have various office and retail experience and am interested in building a long-term career. My objective is to obtain a position in a growing company which supports upward mobility and growth. I want to build a career where my education and work history contribute to the development of long-term relationships with co-workers and customers.

You can contact me anytime at (123-456-7890), or e-mail me at the above address, to further discuss my education and work history, or to request a copy of my cover letter and resume. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

P.S. The majority of my work history was pre-college, and may not appear stable. However, I was still very young with little responsibility. If given the chance, I will impress you with my solid work ethic and drive to grow and improve. Thank you again for your consideration.

Mistakes:
1) There was no resume included in the post! The ad was posted in the “Resumes” section of Craigslist, so that’s what employers expect to find when they click on the headline of an ad.
2) The person is “focusing” on what they want and hope to do, not what the company’s needs may be. (I had to put “focusing” in quotes because there’s really no focus to what she says she wants to do - but apparently it’s about her, not about the employer). They aren’t specific at all about what type of position they want, what skills they have, or how they would be able to contribute to the company’s bottom line.
3) A BBA in Management is good, but it’s also still rather vague. Did this person minor or focus in marketing, HR, finance, accounting, operations management, or what? What computer skills do they have? Are they “very computer-savvy” in Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or in XHTML and PHP? AS-400 or Solaris? Or just MS Word and Excel?
4) There isn’t a clear reason why an employer would even want the job seeker’s resume. It’s not hard to post a resume in with an ad like this, yet the person didn’t even show enough initiative to do so. If she’s concerned about privacy, she could make it anonymous but still include information on skills, accomplishments, and so on that would be of interest to a prospective employer. Maybe if the resume were there, it would generate some interest, but I’m sure 99.9999% of recruiters or hiring managers are NOT going to email that person and request her resume, particularly in a job market with 10% unemployment like we currently have in Georgia.
5) The person states that they are “interested in building a long-term career” - but isn’t that true for everyone who goes through the effort to get through college and get a degree? Most people who don’t have degrees are also interested in building a long-term career as well, so this really doesn’t set her apart from the hordes of other candidates.
6) The P.S. bad-mouths her work history, but the reader would have never known that without seeing her resume in the first place. This just gives a prospective employer yet another reason not to contact her.

You, as a job seeker, have a limited amount of space in your cover letter & resume to grab the recruiter’s attention. Use it wisely. Don’t waste your time or theirs with generic self-centered fluff.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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Some of the top resume mistakes are covered in my free report and in my book.

Bad headline #1: “Seeking Work”
Similar bad headlines: “Looking for employment / career”, “Seeking immediate employment”, “seeking a job”, and any number of variations.
Key mistake made: Stating the obvious. Why else would someone post their resume online? Of course they are all seeking work.
My suggestion: Be specific about what type of work you are seeking and clearly state it in your headline. Most employers aren’t looking for someone who just wants a job, they are looking for people who want (and can do) the type of job they have available.

Bad headline #2: “Prof. seeks immediate employment”
Key mistake made: Ambiguous abbreviation. I thought “Prof.” meant “Professor”. The resume poster used it for “Professional.” Many, if not most, of the hiring managers she was trying to attract likely thought the same as I did and simply went on to the next headline that more clearly matched what they were looking for.
My suggestion: Don’t abbreviate when it doesn’t help. Just like with any headline, your goal is to catch the reader’s attention so that they will read what you have to say. A resume headline follows the same rules.

Bad headline #3: “Your next employee”
Key mistake made: This is yet another vague headline with almost nothing to attract an employer or a recruiter. While this person might get a point or two by being a little clever with her headline, those who do click to see her resume will more likely than not find that the job seeker doesn’t fit their needs.
My suggestion: “Your next client relations manager” or “Your next Customer Service Tech Support Representative” would still have that touch of being clever but would get MUCH more targeted interest. Recruiters looking for that type of skill set would be able to see from the headline that the resume would warrant a closer look for them. Recruiters looking for any other skill set could move on to the next one that does fit their needs.

Bad headline #4: “I.m looking for work”
Key mistake made: Technical foul: punctuation. This person either doesn’t know the difference between a period and an apostrophe, or isn’t detail-focused enough to care about the difference.
My suggestion: At the VERY LEAST, make sure that your spelling and grammar are correct in everything you use as part of your job search. Some people rationalize this by thinking “no one cares if I make a tiny mistake” but the reality is that employers DO notice, and with mistakes as simple as this, prospective employers will think that you are sloppy, mistake-prone, inattentive, and have low standards. None of those are a good thing.

Bad headline #5: “I NEED A JOB! I’ll literally do anything!”
Key mistake made: In addition to being vague as to the type of job wanted, this one absolutely REEKS of desperation - even worse than the would-be pickup artist wearing too much Drakkar Noir at last call on a Saturday night… one to be avoided at all costs.
My suggestion: Don’t come across as a desperate job seeker. While you may be desperate, it doesn’t help to look desperate. If you have multiple skills, it’s OK to post multiple variations of your resume, focusing on each skill set with a different ad and different headline. Of course you shouldn’t post the exact same thing twice, but similar posts with slightly different targets can increase your chances of getting that job you want.

Bad headline #6: “(school name) grad need job, any job…now!!”
Key mistake made: More desperation, more vagueness, and so on. Name-dropping the school can be good, particularly if it’s a well-known, reputable school, but the rest of the headline turns me off. Bad grammar doesn’t help either.
My suggestion: Something like “(school name) BBA - Marketing with Online Marketing focus seeks to grow your company’s market share” or “(School name) BBA - Marketing seeks market analysis opportunity to help you find new markets”

Bad headline #7: Looking for a job in (City 1), (City 2), (City 3)
Key mistake made: While this person knows where they want to work, they don’t seem to know what job they can do.
My suggestion: Be specific about what type of job you want. At least this person knows where they want to work, geographically speaking, but the headline basically says that location is more important than responsibility.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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My response: That’s an excellent primary strategy. Connections are still the way many of the best jobs are found, and too many job seekers spend all their time on the computer and not talking & meeting with people face to face and on the phone. That being said, automating the Internet portion of your search can help you find opportunities that your connections aren’t immediately aware of, and the opportunities you find online may be something they could still help you with - a one-two punch, so to speak.

I’d set up Google Alerts for specific keywords related to your search, and get the daily digest so you don’t get a ton of emails all day from each time Google finds something online that fits your keyword search. For example, set up one for your target position and include your state or geographic region so the results you get are more geographically targeted. You may want to set up several different ones, such as “director business development Chicago” “director software sales Chicago” and so on. If you’re getting way too many results, add additional keywords to make your search more specific (e.g. “director enterprise software sales Chicago” or “director CRM software sales Chicago”).

Another idea would be to search your target titles and “resume” to find people who have worked in that area, are working in that area, and are looking to work in that area. Then reach out and contact them. You may be able to share opportunities with the other job seekers that you aren’t as interested in pursuing, and they could do the same for you. Naturally, not everyone will be open to this approach, so you could try connecting with them through LinkedIN or Facebook first, then float that idea to them. A simple email with a friend request saying something like “we haven’t met yet but I see you’re in the ___ industry. I’ve recently relocated to Chicago and would like to connect to see where we may be able to help each other. ” Then mention your job search once you’ve started a “conversation” with them.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, set up job search agents on Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Indeed, and the various niche job boards that are likely to have what you are looking for.

By combining these, you’ll spend less time trawling for jobs online but you’ll still get the ones that are relevant. By setting this up once then tweaking as necessary, you’ll be able to spend the bulk of your time leveraging your connections but not miss out on online job postings.

That will help you keep the numbers up without spending as much time as you would without automating this aspect of the job search.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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Mark details his “CIO Job Search: A Real Life Chronicle” and in this particular post he shares how his approach changes as he figures out how to do this more effectively & efficiently, as steps in the plan are accomplished, and as he gets more realistic information on the time that tasks actually take him to do given his own personal set of circumstances and constraints.

A number of great points are raised here:
Raising Visibility: Firstly, Mark was able to blog about his progress in a very high-profile way (CIO Magazine is one of the best magazines in that niche), which made it easier for him to be found by just the people who would be looking to hire someone with his skills. While you may not be able to land a spot blogging about your job search on a major magazine, why not (if you don’t have one already) start a blog that helps you showcase your skills? Even making a 5-minute video of yourself sharing some of your expertise and posting that on YouTube and other sites can help you get that jump in visibility that could very well lead to your next job.
Showing expertise and adaptability: Mark is also sharing his expertise in a way that is not only useful to readers, but also shows that he has the ability to transfer his skills to different areas, industries, and types of projects. He probably didn’t learn project management during the course of a job search, but applying a project plan to a job search has the one-two punch of keeping him on track and highlighting his ability to utilize his knowledge in multiple areas. When you think about it, nearly everything that has a defined start, finish, and desired outcome can be treated as a project.

Now for a few tips:
1) Add a few highly targeted niche job sites to the Top 10 Leads sites for daily review. He has set up alerts on these sites so that new jobs are emailed to you, saving you the time of trolling through sites (which can be a tremendous time drain).

2) His weekly target of applying to 3 to 5 new positions a week can be increased somewhat. Which number is right for you depends on a number of factors, including your level of experience, specialization, the number of companies in your target industry (or whether you’re targeting an industry or a job function), and more.

2a) That being said, he’s obviously putting some time, thought, and effort into the companies where he is applying. He’s taking charge of his career and strategically looking for his best next professional move, not just the first job offer that comes along. The advance legwork you do before you send your resume is crucial. This should include researching the company & position so that you can more effectively tailor your resume, cover letter, and other documentation to the job at hand. Also find and reach out to connections through LinkedIN, Facebook, MySpace, Spoke, Ryze, FastPitch, and other social networking sites and contact real-life friends & contacts, asking them if they can refer you to any connections at your target companies.

3) He laments that “some (specific target employer sites) have auto searches, but most do not.” Google Alerts work great, and they are not only free to use, they’re also almost as easy as a regular search. Most Google Alert users simply punch in a search term and set up the alert, but did you know you can instruct your Google Alerts to search within a specific site (just like you can in a regular Google search)? Use the “Site:” command. For example, if you want to search within Raytheon’s website for Project Management information, positions, and more, you can start by setting up your Google Alert for “Site:www.raytheon.com project management OR project manager”. If this yields too many results, you can narrow the search constraints further so that you get results that are more specific to your needs.

Thanks, Mark, for sharing your approach, experiences, and modifications to your results. These days, a job search really can be a full-time prospect, so it’s vital to make the most of your time & effort. For lots more useful advice and shortcuts, (WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG AHEAD) see my book, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves.

Hey, here’s an idea: If you’re seeking a project manager position, why not take your job search project plan to the interview along with other project plans you’ve used in your work (with confidential info removed or redacted, of course)? Particularly if you’re earlier-on in your career, this can be helpful in showing that you understand the principles and applications of project management well enough to be able to apply them to multiple types of projects.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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Top 10 Reasons to Start a Business in a Recession

“More publicity. Less competition. Talent waiting to be scooped up. Here’s why starting in a recessed economy may give your business a better shot.”

Having started multiple businesses with varying degrees of success, I can say that one thing to keep in mind that it’s not easy to be your own boss. It takes discipline, the ability to wear many hats, understanding your market, your customer, and much more. Starting out with a fair amount of capital can help greatly, as it expands your options and can help you reduce the sweat you put into the early stages.

That being said, running your own show can help you stretch and grow in ways you never thought possible, and even if your business fails the experience you gain can be very valuable should you decide to jump back on the so-called “traditional” career path.

It can also help you move toward the financial freedom that just working for someone else is less and less likely to achieve. There are lots of small businesses, internet businesses, and more that can be started on a shoestring and become quite lucrative. More on that in future posts - stay tuned!

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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Hound.com, for example, doesn’t really do anything (that I can tell) that you couldn’t do yourself. They scrape company web sites for job postings, so you see the jobs that the companies actually have on their websites. Flipdog did just about the same thing a few years ago before they were gobbled up by Monster. You could easily do this yourself - target the companies you want to work for and look at their websites. The advantage that Hound offers is that it can save you a tremendous amount of time, as well as listing jobs from companies that you might not have heard of but have jobs like the one you’re looking for.

With the huge job boards like Monster , Career Builder and Hotjobs, they charge the companies as much as $500 or more PER JOB LISTING. This can get expensive fast, and hiring costs are already sky-high. Combine that with the sheer volume of applicants for each job listed on those big job boards, the time it takes to sort through all those resumes just to get to a reasonably manageable number of applicants to contact for initial screenings, and you (the employer) have got an administrative nightmare on your hands before you even interview a candidate.

Craigslist is really useful, too, and inexpensive for employers (in cities where it’s not still free to post). I got my last job through Craigslist, my girlfriend’s new job started with a Craigslist ad, and I know more and more people who are finding great jobs that way.

Niche job sites are a great option - they’re smaller so there is less competition from other job seekers (many of them only know about Monster and the other big boys) and the sites are more targeted - meaning fewer resumes but a much higher percentage of the resumes an employer gets are better qualified. I’ve listed quite a few of them here and here, and there is also a more complete list in my book.

Of course, social networking tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and others are becoming more and more useful as part of a job search. Employers search for you on these sites - why shouldn’t you search for them? Through connecting with people inside the companies you’re targeting, you have a better chance of accessing the hidden job market, and get in the door before they post the job on their own and other websites.

So to answer the question, or at least address the question, it depends. If you’ve got a lot of time and not much money (maybe you’ve been laid off), it makes sense to do the work yourself. If you’re short on time and money isn’t as big of an issue (maybe you’ve still got a job but see the writing on the wall), perhaps paying to join a site like Hound makes sense.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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Guy Kawasaki offers some great tips on using LinkedIn as part of your job search. For the post, go here to 11 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job by Guy Kawasaki

A few of my favorite points are to use LinkedIN to get the work out that you’re looking for a new opportunity, the various tips about getting information about a company, and to build your network before you need it.

I’d add a few things to this:

1) Help establish yourself as an expert by answering questions that others ask. It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out answer - use it to also show that you can clearly put together a coherent answer without taking 5000 words to do so if you can do it in 100. It’s a win-win-win: You help someone by answering a question they need answered.
Others benefit from seeing the answer.
You show that you know what you’re talking about by answering intelligently.

2) Don’t just ask for recommendations - give some as well. Go to the profiles of the contacts you respect and admire, and go ahead and write them an unsolicited recommendation. They’ll appreciate it, it can help them, and they may be more likely to help you in your job search.

3) Link to your other online social networks on your LinkedIn profile - this helps let your personality show through and make you appear more like a person and less like a faceless resume. A word of caution, though: Make sure your profile doesn’t have photos, posts, and videos you wouldn’t want your future boss to see. It would be a real shame to miss out on that dream job just because that college photo of you passed out on the couch with a moustache drawn on your face (or worse). How conservative should your profile be? That depends on your job, your industry, and other factors. For example, if you’re an elementary school teacher, your profile had better be really conservative (creative is fine, morally questionable is not), otherwise your boss might get so many calls from angry parents that your job is no longer yours. If you’re in a totally different industry, the “rules” may be very different.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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That being said, there’s a terrific blog post here outlining 10 things to do immediately after a networking event.

I especially like the part about incorporating Facebook into your networking strategies. I’ve been using Facebook quite a lot lately - I think it’s much more professional than MySpace, but also incorporates the social aspect better than LinkedIn. More on those later, but they should all be part of your ongoing career management and online networking strategy.

To your success,

David B. Wright
Author, Get A Job! Your Guide to Making Successful Career Moves
www.thegetajobbook.com

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