From Layoff To Re-Employment – A LinkedIn Success Story

Steve Tylock

I’m happy to present this first hand story of one of my direct connections – from his layoff to reemployment. LinkedIn played a prominent role, and you can see how he used the site to accelerate his job search.

And that’s what I like to hear;-)

Worked on a project together

I had worked on a project with Mark for a bit more than half a year, ending early this year.  His company let him go in a restructuring in September.

And oddly enough, it was his wife who purchased my e-book for him as a gift – and she responded to a couple of the messages I send out encouraging readers to get the most out of LinkedIn.

After I realized that it was her and not Mark – using a shared family account – I mentioned that I knew her husband.

And yes, he’d had his LinkedIn account well before September, but really wasn’t using it for much.

Necessity changed that.

Mark’s story

And so without much more introduction, let’s get to his story first hand:

So, I got a new job!  Looking back, I’d have to say that LinkedIn was a valuable tool in the whole job search process.  I spent a fair amount of time working on my LinkedIn profile, which was populated for the most part from my resume.  Once I was happy with my profile, I started expanding my list of connections.  I then came up with a list of 4 or 5 connections for each of the positions I held in my career and sent them each a request for endorsement.  I figured if I got 1 or 2 from each I was doing well.  After a few days, the endorsements started rolling in.  What an ego boost that was!  All in all, I received 13 endorsements – a whole lot more than I ever anticipated.

It was interesting to see where a lot of my connections were working.  I had lost touch with many of them and LinkedIn enabled me to reconnect.  I then began looking for connections that were working in the companies I was targeting for my job search.  I found 3 people that I used to work with (or work for) that I setup meetings with – a lunch meeting, a breakfast meeting, a meeting for coffee.  In each case, I learned something valuable about the company I was targeting and in most cases, identified one or two new contacts that would be helpful for further networking.

I also networked with connections I found on LinkedIn that were in the same situation as me.  This was particularly enlightening since it helped me understand what worked for them and what didn’t in their search.

Finally, LinkedIn helped me gain perspective on the people I would be working with in my new job.  Looking at their profiles and their connections helped me learn more about their background, experience and interests.

All in all, I’ve been pretty impressed with the tool and would highly recommend it to anyone looking to make the next step in their career.

Regards,

Mark

Building blocks

Mark did well – building his profile and connections first, adding recommendations later, then searching and researching.

This is important because you have to get your house in order before you start working with others.

How would it look if you were asking for references, but hadn’t bothered to describe your role in that position?

Reconnecting and research

In addition to building confidence, LinkedIn’s resources helped Mark extend his search.  Reconnecting to others helped highlight potential paths forward and additional resources that might be available.

Did you see where Mark researched contacts at his new company?  That was in addition to his efforts to check into target companies, former co-workers and job searching peers.

I’m very happy for him

And it looks like he’s off to a great start with this new position – after just 3 months.

He’s probably going to keep active with LinkedIn too;-)

Getting started earlier

If there’s anything that could be added to this story, that would be a suggestion to get going earlier. In one of my classic posts I implore professionals to get started networking while they are happily employed.  Here’s a few:

There’s lots of good reasons to do it, and not much of an argument against building your network while you’re employed…

What’s your story?

I’d love to feature other success stories here – let me know if I can share yours.

To your continued success,

steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock

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