Career Inspirations Podcast
Get opportunities and job offers as the industry expert

If you are a senior level professional in transition, you are now witnessing the most fiercely competitive labour market in your career. As a six-figure professional with many successes under your belt, you’re not a typical job seeker. Rather than seeking out jobs, business leaders should be seeking you. It’s clear that your visibility is critical to your future in today’s market.

Let’s start by looking at your job search from the perspective of someone who will be hiring you. If I were a business leader looking for someone to drive my company forward through turbulent times, the first thing I would do is contact the top individual in my industry. I probably already know that person’s name as he or she is well known as the expert – the very best catch possible.

As a top professional, wouldn’t you want your name in this executive’s database? There are many advantages to being the first person on the list. You’ll learn about the job opening before anyone else knows about it. You won’t be competing in a job search against other candidates. And, best of all, since you are known as an expert on the subject, the organization will already believe that they need to compensate you well in order to attract you into the role.

So, how do you do this? How do you become known as the expert in your industry? Becoming known is not the same thing as being good at your job. There are many people who are very skilled, but only a few are sought after. In order to become one of those elite few, you need to cultivate your professional presence and your connections.

Some clients tell me that they can’t see themselves “cold calling” to make relationships. Others say that they just don’t feel comfortable bragging about themselves. Cultivating your business presence and connections does not require you to do either of these things. It is about making true, valuable relationships where people know about you, but more importantly, they know you.

Let’s start with cold calling. I don’t ever recommend going to people blindly to ask for a job. Instead, why not have people come to you? One way of doing this is by developing a strong online presence and actively making meaningful connections through the Internet. If you are not already on LinkedIn, you are missing out, but if you are on LinkedIn and you’re not actively leveraging it, you are doing yourself a real disservice. You’re wasting time playing on the Internet rather than using it to gain opportunities and offers.

LinkedIn is the business professionals Facebook or MySpace. But, don’t get me wrong. LinkedIn is not entertainment. And, it is no small matter. LinkedIn currently has over 40 million members in over 200 countries worldwide. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members. Most recruiters and leaders looking for experienced professionals tap LinkedIn before they ever think of posting a job.

Here are some things that you should be actively doing today. Bypass cold calling and stop bragging about yourself. Start to develop relationships by making new connections with peers and industry experts. I’m not talking about asking for recommendations or aggressively increasing your list of connections. Instead, why not recommend some leaders who you have worked with previously. How about joining industry groups and participating to become known as an expert. What about researching the leaders you would like to know better and answering their LinkedIn questions. Our clients have reported many other ways of leveraging LinkedIn to create buzz and gain true business opportunities.

There are numerous ways to cultivate your online presence. I’ve highlighted only one today. Why don’t you start here? Take some time today to connect with me on LinkedIn. Then, join our new LinkedIn group, Canadian Top Talent. Find out what other like-minded professionals are doing to become known as experts, gain opportunities, and attract job offers.