We continue with part 2 of our 3 part series regarding what job search tool gives you the highest probability of success to land that dream job after you have a best in class resume, LinkedIn profile and cover letter. Effective networking online with LinkedIn is the #1 job search tool. Last week Part 1 discussed leveraging your college/university alumnus.
Thanks to all who read, commented and liked.
Part 2 of this series discusses leveraging LinkedIn professionals that you share a common prior employer (“employer alumnus”) to request a coffee or conversation for career advice (informational interviews) for your dream job. Having these informational interviews can help take away the jitters for a formal professional interview.
The 2nd strongest bond online you can have with someone is a common former employer. Whether you both worked for say Goldman Sachs, IBM or NBC at any point in time, you still have a common bond.
From my own experience as a professional career coach and that of my clients, our statistics show:
- Between 20%-30% of those employer alumnus we invited to connect did so
- This statistic is not as high as for college/university alumnus (30%-70%), but still pretty powerful after you exhaust college/university alumnus
After connecting with employer alumnus, the success rate for getting a coffee or conversation was about 25%. So, for every 100 LinkedIn invitations we sent to an employer alumnus, we converted about 25% of (20%-30%) or about 5-6 contacts to coffees/calls.
So, networking works.
Since so many employers over the years have been taken over, merged, etc., please make sure you include all related employer entities in your LinkedIn search. If you worked at Merrill Lynch which is now Bank of America Merrill Lynch (“BAML”), contact BAML professionals and be honest you are a Merrill Lynch alumnus.