Linkedin and Job Searching
Over the next few weeks in these blog posts I will explore the Job Searching functions in Linkedin. A variety of reasons prompt me to dig deeper into this Linkedin tool.
Today’s Economic Situation
Today’s economic situation is a big starting point. Listen to the daily loss of jobs. Politicians promise to get the jobs back. The jobs are not coming back! Today’s economy is like a snake shedding its skin. One form of the economy has spent is course. Another form, a digital, world based economy, is being born. The old world is not coming back. Let me share with a couple of examples.
Disappearing Hospital Jobs
Recently, the hospital where my wife works as a manager experienced layoffs for the first time in 20 years. These aren’t low level positions. Many of the positions were positions like financial analysts, people who had worked at the hospital for 30 years. The hospital which is part of a larger health organization recently consolidated their hospital accounting systems into one system. They don’t need a financial analyst at each hospital. These jobs are not coming back.
General Electric
Our two year old refrigerator stopped working. I called the GE Customer Services hot line. They set up a service call for the next morning. At 7:30 that morning, I received a computerized call that said I was next in line for service and the repair person would arrive in 30 minutes.
At promptly 8:00 the repair person pulled into my driveway with his truck. Loaded with a laptop computer, he quickly diagnosis the problem as a malfunctioning mother board which controls the main operation of the refrigerator. He unscrewed four screws, snapped in a new mother board and the repair was completed in less than 20 minutes time.
I asked him where his service center was located. He said he operated completely out of his home. GE no longer has a service center with staff, a building, phones, a warehouse, store managers, etc. His daily work is set up by the GE computer with work schedules and directions. All parts are routinely sent to his home. He can do 10 service calls per day. He keyed in the activities he completed on my refrigerator into his lap top as part of my online record and at the same time a new mother board was being sent to his home for future use. He had a hand held credit card processor.
The repair man told me he no longer needed the skills once possessed by older repair men. Engineers had reduced most parts to snap in place parts. Older repair people took apart things like motors and tried to fix them on the job site. This was time consuming and not very cost effective. By plugging the refrigerator into his laptop, he could diagnose the exact problem area.
You have a major corporation that has coordinated engineering, customer service and repairs into a new system that essentially operated from a person’s home with the aid of computers and the internet.
GE no longer needs an expensive service center. A home business application is now more efficient and effective. This is a great example of the changing landscape and how home businesses in a variety of shapes and sizes will have a prominent place in the new economy. The old service center jobs are never coming back.
College Students
Beyond my beliefs about the economy, I have made a personal commitment to helping others with job searches. My daughter lives in Portland Oregon and works as a coach for students in college. The business she works for has contracts with over 50 colleges to provide personal coaching to students. She does weekly phone calls with each student.
Many of these students are graduate students just finishing their studies. With today’s economic situation, they cannot find a job. They are frustrated; she is frustrated. I have promised to provide her with a Linkedin resource she can share with college graduates.
My Church
I have offered my time as a resource for an unemployment group at my local church. About 30 people attend a monthly meeting for inspiration and skill building for their job searches. Most of the skill building has been confined to resume writing and interview skills. These skills are important. I also believe a digital networking like Linkedin can add resources for their job searches.
Over the course of these posts, I will look at the direct ways Linkedin can aid in a job search. I will show how other Linkedin functions can be used in a job searches. I have invited several expert Linkedin authors to write a guest post on job searching. It is my hope to bring together as many thoughts as possible on how Linkedin can be used a resource in today’s trouble economy.
To be continued, your comments are welcomed…
Al Hanzal
