While at least having something on these sites might be a good start, you are going to need to find a way to stand out in the crowd. You are going to have to slay a monster. This is when you are going to need to start building your brand. The best place to start, LinkedIn. If you haven't created an account yet, why not? And if you have, are you finding that you are getting a lot of hits? If so, awesome you are doing something right. If not, how about we take some time and update your profile to maximize exposure.
So the first thing that you need to look at is the exact thing that everybody else will see first; Your profile picture. I am no saying you need a professional headshot, that doesn't hurt, but a picture from a college party with your shirt off won't send the right signal to those that will want to hire you. I would say post a picture that would be exactly how you look going into an interview.
The next thing that you need to put down is your title. Now if you're unemployed, put down that you are a consultant in your field of expertise. Consultant is a much more palatable than unemployed to somebody looking to hire. Secondly if you have a job research your job title. While "Code Warrior" is a fun title of mine, it is tough to search for if you are an HR employee looking for a specific title from a list handed to them. You will need to find a title that is more generic, while still getting the point across as to what you do. So do a little research and find out what are some industry. Start here and find a title that suits your needs. Also, don't forget your Jr, Sr, or level in your title, that will help people know how to question you in the time of an interview.
The next big chunk on your profile is your summary. This is where you are going to put your elevator speech about your life. Remember, this isn't just an electronic version of your resume, this is the electronic version of you. If I wanted to just read your resume, I would go to Monster. This is your chance to show your experience as well as your personality. Tell the story of you, where did you first find your passion for the field you are in or want to be in? What have you done to strengthen those skills? Where do you want to be in the next year? Next five?
Next up, job history. This one is pretty self explanatory, you are going to put down what you have done at all your jobs up until now. Apply the same rules as you would with the summary, only explain about some of the projects you have worked on. BE WARNED this can be a double edged sword, as the summary and experience sections are used in the search engine. So if in a past life you worked with VB.NET and you put it down. You better believe that people are going to hit you up with VB.NET jobs.
Let's get back into that search functionality. How do people find you when they search? Well a lot of things are taken into consideration, but the biggest impact will be from your job title. LinkedIn will match you up to a search based on what you have titled yourself. This goes back to finding something that is an industry standard. The next thing you can do is sprinkle your title or variations into your summary and experience. So for me, my title is developer 1; In my summary and experience I have developer, dev, develop, developed, etc. over a dozen times. This moves me up in the search rankings because I look to have more experience than the next guy.
Well there you have it. Go ahead and update that LinkedIn and take on the world. Or you know, you can sit around and roll the Dice while hoping that the Monster under your bed doesn't attack.
