Get connected p1 - Military Transition - Military Times EDGE

Navy Counselor First Class Gerald D. Rauen is leaving the service this fall, and he’s counting on the Internet to get his outside career rolling.

A career recruiter in Cincinnati, the 20-year veteran would like to continue as a recruiter in civilian life. He already knows the Web site Navy.com as an invaluable hiring tool. Now, as an applicant himself, he is trolling the big job boards — CareerBuilder, HotJobs and others — and has poked a mouse into social networking on LinkedIn.

While there are plenty of online avenues, that doesn’t mean your next career is just a click away.

The value of these tools lies largely in how you use them, said Alexandra Levit, author of the job-search book “How’d You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs and How to Get Them” (Ballantine Books, 2008). “It’s not about the sheer number of contacts you can gather. It’s about gaining access to those people with whom building a relationship can be beneficial, and then following up with those contacts over time.”

Along the road to making contacts, Rauen has learned that it pays to be thorough. “There are a lot of things you need to fill out, and you don’t always find what you are looking for right away. A site might ask what kind of job you are looking for and you don’t see ‘recruiter’ on the list, so then you have to really look to find the right match.”

After a couple of months’ searching, he also has learned that while the Internet may move at lightning speeds, job boards and other tools often do not. But online job tools can give your career a boost when used properly. Here are a few of the best, with do’s and don’ts from job-search guru Levit.

LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, users create online profiles summarizing their professional expertise. Members then form networks of trusted contacts and from these build connections among like-minded professionals with similar interests. Discussions between members allow users to glean information about possible jobs and business opportunities while making themselves visible to potential employers.

This social networking site is “by far and away the best job-search tool available right now,” Levit said. “You can search for companies of interest to you and find people in related disciplines in different departments within that company. You can establish relationships with those people and possibly get in the door that way.”

To make it work, a job seeker will need to have a strong LinkedIn presence.

“That means you have to make sure your profile is up to date and is a good online representation of you. I also highly recommend people use the ‘References’ feature, where you ask previous employers to write a reference for you [and attach it to your profile],” Levit said.

LinkedIn isn’t a job board, a place to troll for opportunities. It’s a place to make connections, to explore possibilities.

“You want to join LinkedIn groups, and you want to participate — to make yourself visible,” Levit said. “If you actively participate, you’ll begin to make the connections you need to move ahead.”

ComeRecommended

A newcomer on the scene, this free service offers a quick and easy way to get your professional recommendations in front of potential employers.

“You can store your recommendations from previous employers in there. Then employers can go to this Web site [also for free] and look for candidates. When they find people on there, those people already have references right there,” Levit said.

A word of caution: “I would never use a current employer as a reference, although in the military your superior officer may already know you are separating, in which case that may be OK. You also don’t want to use friends and family. It’s got to be someone who has worked with you in a professional sense.”

To make best use of the site, get an early start.

“Even if you are not looking for a job right now, you should have some references lined up, so that when you do need them, you will have them ready to offer an employer,” Levit said.

VisualCV

Why just post a résumé, when the digital age offers the chance to produce a far more inclusive picture of your skills? That’s where branding comes in. The idea is that by combining information from various media, a job seeker can give potential employers not just the highlights, but the whole picture.

A leading player is VisualCV, a free service that allows users to build an online résumé combining audio, video and digital media.

“My profile has a photo, my writing samples, links to my other social networking profiles,” Levit said. “It consolidates all your online properties, so that you get a Web site devoted to your entire career.”

All nice, but there is a catch. Roll up your Facebook persona in your online brand, and employers may end up reading about your kid’s first day of kindergarten or Aunt Sally’s appendix.

“You have to be careful about the amount of personal information you are sharing,” Levit said. “Sometimes people get consumed. They think the employer really does want to see ‘what kind of person I am,’ but it’s a fine line.”

Twitter

The latest entrant on the social networking scene is gaining traction fast, but for many, Twitter remains a relative unknown. That’s a shame, since this free service may be one of the best online tools for launching your new career.

Users can blast out 140-character blurbs to their circle of “followers” in real time. Professionals can keep each other updated on their thoughts, ideas or actions as often as they wish.

“It’s actually the most useful for people who are job hunting or trying to make a career change. Because Twitter is still a pretty small community, it gives you access to people you would never have access to otherwise,” Levit said. “Even high-up executives are likely to give attention to your tweets, which remain something of a novelty.”

Tip: Don’t blather on. “The best way to use it is to post things that are relevant to your interest. Nobody cares what you had for breakfast, and if you are posting those kinds of things, nobody is going to pay any attention,” Levit said.

Path101.com

Online tools can do more than just speed up your job search. Some of the best can help you understand what job you ought to be searching for. Path101, for instance, offers a free personality test, résumé analysis and career advice.

There are dozens of such guidance-type sites online. This one is free, and its offerings are typically practical and accurate, Levit said. When using any such tool, however, it is best to take its findings with a grain of salt.

“You can get a lot of these for free just by doing a general Google search, but you have to be careful. You don’t want to take things completely literally,” Levit said. “In this case, I like the organization of the site, and I like the services in general.”

Payscale.com

How much you get paid in your new job will depend a lot on how much you ask for. Before coming up with a number out of the blue, find out what others are making.

“Before you go into an interview, you absolutely need to do this. You should have a salary range in mind based on what other people are making in the same position, so that when you name a number, you have a leg to stand on,” Levit said.

The search begins

Rauen is on LinkedIn. He trolls the boards, looking for the right fit. Soon he will likely be tweeting, maybe even composing a virtual brand. He’s not alone. For those seeking employment, the Internet, with its wealth of new tools, is proving an increasingly popular — and effective — way to put your résumé in play.

Be profile-smart

When you’re building an online brand, separate the personal and professional, said Veronica Fielding of Jump Start Social Media, a company that counsels people on how to use online networking. Make sure the profile you’re presenting to potential employers is appropriate.

Facebook can be a venue for keeping in touch with loved ones, but that shouldn’t be part of your networking efforts, Fielding said.

The professional part is “not an environment where you put crazy photos or show the wild side of yourself,” she said. It gives you the chance to showcase your personality and well-roundedness, but that doesn’t mean old toga-party pics. You can maintain separate personal and job-focused profiles to make sure employers don’t see something untoward.

Similarly, starting a blog or personal Web site gives you the chance to show off new media skills, your eye for page design or a particular talent. You have to be careful that you’re not branding yourself inappropriately, though, Webb said. You can have a beautifully formatted site, but posting passionate political writings on it could make you look bad to potential employers, she said.

“Expressing your political, religious viewpoints — it’s never a good idea unless it’s tied to a job you’re applying for,” Webb said.

— Tali Arbel