I'm very please to bring you a new blog post on the newest search feature inside of LinkedIn called Signal. Please pay close attention to how this can be used as it offers search functionality for BOTH job seekers and recruiters alike. If you are a job seeker -- like I am -- it becomes relatively important to understand how recruiters using Signal will be prospecting for talent. The important thing to remember is to be "findable".
Judging from my experience, recruiters ARE using advanced tools to locate prospective employees. It is done through key word searches and that is the beauty of Signal. Even though Signal is in the experimental stage, I would encourage everyone who is interested to get a feel for it by taking it for a test drive. The site can be found at http://www.linkedinlabs.com/signal/.
What this tool does is allows users to peruse through updates made on LinkedIn. Without setting any filters, there are virtually hundreds of thousands of updates to sift through. But, when the user sets key word parameters, network level, even company, industry and geographical preference, the list becomes quite manageable.
When the user has narrowed the list of status updates, the key is to be on the lookout for people who could influence hiring decisions. For example industries referring to human resources and staffing and recruiting may be likely candidates to choose from.
The flip side would be from the perspective of a recruiter looking for a status update from a prospective employee. One could surmise that it would be a good idea to "make some noise" on your status updates as to what kind of position you're interested in, what skills / experience may be relevant and what geographic preference you're interested in.
Again, the main focus of using social media effectively in the job search is to limit the time spent using the computer for prospecting by efficiently being found. This should free up your time to do really important things which should definitely include networking and performing informational interviews.
For a very useful screencast on this topic, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZjp_ZEExMc.
As always, this is intended to help my fellow job seekers become better at what they do and to reduce the length of the job search.
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