Monthly Archives: March 2012

LinkedIn tips for jobseekers

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At yesterday’s American Chemical Society virtual career fair, social media expert and author Joshua Waldman gave advice on how to optimise your LinkedIn profile for job-seeking. Although LinkedIn is not primarily a job search platform, Waldman says it’s safe to assume that potential employers will look you up online and so you should have control over the information presented about you.

To start with, make good use of your LinkedIn headline. This gets attached to your name and photo in every communication that you send within LinkedIn and “is probably going to be in many cases your first impression”, says Waldman. You can write up to 120 characters so instead of just listing your job title alone, consider crafting a statement that explains what you do and what sets you apart from others who do the same. You can change your headline by clicking on the edit link next to your name in the edit profile section.

Once you’ve optimised your headline, take a look at your profile summary. Waldman recommends this should answer the following questions:

  • Who are you – name, job, specialising in…
  • What do you do – what particular problems do you solve
  • Why are you the best – describe your successes

If you are currently unemployed, also explain what kind of job you are looking for in your summary and incorporate a call to action to encourage potential employers to get in touch.

Your overall profile should be 100% complete, says Waldman. “Recruiters and hiring managers have been using LinkedIn for a long time now. They know when profiles are not complete and when they see [incomplete] profiles, [alarm bells] go off in their head.” Profiles that are complete also show up higher in LinkedIn search results.

If you are connected to your current employer and you don’t want them to know you are actively job-seeking, Waldman suggests you turn off your ‘activity broadcasts’. These announce when you change your profile, make a recommendation or follow a company. These alerts can be a “red flag for employers”, says Waldman. To turn off the broadcasts, click on settings under your name in the top-right of the page – the option is under privacy controls in the profile section.

Make sure you include a photo of yourself in your profile. “We are very visual animals,” says Waldman. “If we don’t have a picture, we create a feeling of distrust.” He adds that concerns over discrimination shouldn’t stop you posting a photo – as well as there being legal protection against discrimination, showing who you are can help you find a job you’ll be more comfortable in. “Unless you show up to your job interview with a paper bag over your head, they’re going to see you at some point,” says Waldman. “If the organisation is going to look at your picture on LinkedIn and make a discriminatory decision, that’s probably not a place you want to be at.”

Our final tip from Waldman’s talk is for students who are unsure if they should set up a LinkedIn profile before they start work – Waldman says go for it. “If you really look at your experiences, you can start to fill out a very nice-looking LinkedIn profile right away. You’ll have more time to grow a larger network and you’ll have a leg up on your peers who wait until they graduate.”

We’d also encourage you to join the Naturejobs science jobs and careers discussion group on LinkedIn to see highlights from Naturejobs and to connect with fellow jobseekers.

Which type of CV is best for you?

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There’s more than one approach to structuring your CV, enabling you to tailor the marketing of your skills and experiences to different employers. Hilary Jones, training and careers officer at the UK’s University of York, gave an overview of three types of CV at the Society of Biology’s Life Science Careers Conference last week in London. “There are traditional ways of writing CVs, and more innovative ways that are becoming more acceptable,” says Jones. So which type of CV should you consider for the next step in your science career?

Chronological CVs

“This is the type most people will write if they just sit down and have a go,” says Jones. “It’s all quite obvious and straightforward.” The bulk of a chronological CV comprises ordered lists of qualifications and work history, along with other standard elements such as personal details, membership of professional associations, training and references.

Advantages: Good if your career path has been linear, such as the traditional academia pipeline, and if it’s easy for the recruiter to understand what your previous roles were. “[Chronological CVs are] good for more traditional employers,” says Jones.

Disadvantages: Highlights career gaps, and can be problematic if you are looking to make a career change. If you’re applying for jobs in a new field or sector, “it’s very hard for a recruiter to work out if you have the relevant skills and experience just by looking at job titles,” says Jones. “There isn’t much space for you to help explain how your skills are transferable.”

Skills-based CVs

At the opposite end of the spectrum to a chronological CV is a skills-based CV. The two defining characteristics are the inclusion of a career objective statement and a prominent, extended skills section at the start of the CV, beneath your personal details. The career objective statement “sets your CV in a context,” explains Jones. An example would be ‘experienced biology researcher now seeking to use their skills in a science communication project’. The skills section should be tailored to the person specification of the job you’re applying for. Details of your education and employment history are relegated to the second page, with only brief descriptions highlighting your achievements.

Advantages: Makes career gaps less obvious, and it’s easy for the recruiter to see why they should invite you to interview. You can also talk about more than one job under each skill subheading.

Disadvantages: This is a modern style, so you’ll need to judge whether the organisation you’re applying to will look favourably upon it. Jones cautions against this approach for traditional academic employers.

Hybrid CVs

To balance the benefits of the two approaches, Jones says the safest approach for early-career scientists is to use a hybrid approach. Leave a chronological list of your education and employment history on the first page, but include a medium-sized skills section on the second page.

Whatever type of CV you choose, remember to adapt the content to match the person specification of the role in question. “For every job you apply for, you have to create a completely new CV,” says Jones.

What do you think? Does your CV fall into one of these categories? Have you had particular success with one approach? Leave your comments below.

What motivates you as a scientist?

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To tie in with the latest Nature Outlook, Lenses on Biology, the Nature Communities team asked five biological scientists at different stages of their education or careers to tell their personal stories in a guest blog post. Each scientist studies, works or has an interest in one of the five research fields featured in Lenses on Biology ― cancer, stem cells, synthetic biology, ocean health and climate change ― and they share what motivates them in their chosen subject. You can read their stories below, and discuss your own motivations here or on the posts in question.