One Reason LinkedIn is so Cool

I am not actually looking for a job for myself right now, but I am always on the lookout for resources that might help teachers and other education personnel in their job searches. I'm told that hiring managers now spend a majority of their time on LinkedIn looking for suitable hiring candidates, with very little of their time any longer spent posting jobs. I've been building my professional network on LinkedIn and have been pleasantly surprised to see that I have contacts from a variety of sources, not just my contacts from work.

LinkedIn has its own job search area, and for fun I typed in a few key words and a location, just to see what came up that might be of interest to teachers. I noticed something that I had not been aware of before: each available job tells you how many people in your LinkedIn network have a connection at the company that is posting the job. At first I didn't pay much attention to that subtle little link, but I had kind of an aha! moment when I realized that I don't know a single person who works at, say, Ernst & Young. I was curious why LinkedIn thought I did, so I clicked the link.

I was right; nobody that I know directly does work for the companies that came up in my search. However, I had numerous "2nd Degree" connections - which means that the connections listed know someone who is directly in my network. WOW! What a powerful way to use networking -  how in the world would I otherwise have found out, for example, that my former brother-in-law or my neighbor knows someone at a company that is currently hiring? Just click the "Get introduced through a connection" link. Introductions let you contact users in your network, through the people you know. If you want to contact a LinkedIn user who is two or three degrees away from you, you can request an introduction through one of your connections. Your connection will, in turn, decide whether to forward it on to the desired recipient.

Get that LinkedIn profile up and start building your online professional network!

“Some very competent, qualified teachers will be out of a job through no fault of their own, and many of those people will likely never see the inside of a classroom again.”

Those words, spoken by our superintendent, have haunted me. Where will all of those competent, qualified teachers go? How do they find a new direction for their professional lives? Will they know how to begin a job search in an entirely new field?

I have spent the past month gathering resources to help former teachers, librarians, and other now- or soon-to-be-unemployed school personnel in their quests for new employment. I found that on many career-coaching web sites, the information is more pertinent to those people who have had previous careers in business-oriented fields. On Teachers Reinvented, all the information is geared specifically to recareering educators. So if you haven't "increased sales 200%" or "managed a successful merger between two Fortune 500 companies" lately, this is the place for you! On the web site you'll find information on how to determine your particular skills, strengths, and interests to help you define the new type of job you'd enjoy. You'll learn how to network in the 21st century, and get some tips for resume-writing and creating your own "Personal Brand." 

What are your thoughts? What information would you like to see posted here? Let's get this conversation going!