Archives for February 2010 | ASQ 0502 JobSeekers

ASQ Baltimore (Section 0502) is now on LinkedIn

February 22nd, 2010

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The Baltimore Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ 0502) is happy to announce the creation of the LinkedIn® Group: ASQ Baltimore Section 0502.

What is LinkedIn and how can it benefit you?

LinkedIn is a free online network of more than 55 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing over 170 industries and 200 countries.

Through your network you can:

Connect with former colleagues, alumni, or other ASQ 0502 members and discover new networking opportunities

Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know

Manage the professional information about you that’s publicly available

Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts who come recommended

Create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems

Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners

Gain new insight from discussions with like-minded professionals in private group settings

Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals

Post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company

How can you join LinkedIn and add ASQ 0502 to your profile?

If you are a member of ASQ 0502, you are eligible to join the Section’s LinkedIn group. Click here to join LinkedIn, or if you are already a LinkedIn member and want to add the ASQ 0502 Group to your account.

When you join, you can create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can then form enduring connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts. LinkedIn is free to join and has a stringent privacy policy. They will not rent or sell your personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes or share your contact information with another user.

What are the benefits of adding the ASQ Baltimore Section 0502 Group to my profile?

Many professionals advance their careers and business goals by counting on industry and professional groups, alumni organizations, industry conferences and corporate alumni groups to help them make new vital business contacts.

Helps you manage your career through referrals/advice/networking from ASQ Baltimore members

Allows you to interact with the ASQ Baltimore community of professionals who share a common experience, passion, interest, affiliation or goal.

Provides access to a list of all fellow ASQ Baltimore Section 0502 group members currently on LinkedIn.

Group members are able to communicate freely with one another through LinkedIn messaging.

Offer members a private space to strengthen old business contacts, and to be introduced to new ones.

A forum is available for topics to discuss topics and proffer solutions.

As a member of the Baltimore Section, am I required to join LinkedIn, add the ASQ Baltimore Section 0502 group to my profile, etc.?

No, this is an optional service for ASQ 0502 members as an added value to your current membership.

How do I get more information before I start ?

If you wish to read up on LinkedIn and how it may be useful to you before you sign up, please go to the JobSeekers website and review the Introductory article on LinkedIn.

Eric Finegan,
Internet Liaison/Webmaster.

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Article: How Do I Get Started / Use LinkedIn?

February 22nd, 2010

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Some people may not be aware of how to use LinkedIn, or why they should use LinkedIn.

LinkedIn® is located at http://www.linkedin.com. The help section on their website is good, but you can spend a lot of time reading the help system to get a handle on why you should use LinkedIn, or the best way to use it.

Although I have spent time reviewing LinkedIn and many websites, blogs and articles about why and how LinkedIn should be used, I realize that everyone has a different style and reason for using LinkedIn. So, I am going to provide a number of resources for people to read/review in order to best use LinkedIn the way they wish.

One piece of advice that I would use that is not emphasized enough, is that you should use a personal email address as your main email address/login account. The main reason you do not wish your only/primary email address to be a company-supplied email address is that you never know when you will lose access to that email account. If you lose your job, you may not get a chance to change your LinkedIn account. If you need to, set up a personal/free account (use gmail, hotmail or yahoo), and use that as your LinkedIn signin account. If your primary email account on LinkedIn is a work account, change it as soon as possible.

Resources:

LinkedIn for Dummies. This is an actual book (not a website) written by Joel Elad. This will give you a good overview of the LinkedIn service. Note that the pictures of the interface are old, as LinkedIn is changing constantly and has added a few features since the book was published, but this is a good introduction, whether you read it before you sign up / use LinkedIn, or use it as a tutorial. This book is widely available, even at the library. To view the “Cheat Sheet” from the book, check out this link (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/linkedin-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html).

How LinkedIn Works (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/linkedin.htm) This website is a good tutorial website that outlines all of the different ways and reasons to use LinkedIn. If you wish to understand LinkedIn without signing up for it, this is a good resource.

LinkedIn Quick Start Tutorial by Patrick O’Malley (http://www.patrickomalley.com/linkedin-quick-start-tutorial.html). This is a blog article designed to get you started on LinkedIn within 15 minutes — a good article to use if you just want to get started as quickly as possible, and then learn as you go along.

I’m On LinkedIn – Now What??? (http://imonlinkedinnowwhat.com). This is both a blog and a book/DVD, written by Jason Alba. The blog is on a website, promoting Jason Alba’s books and services, but if you start at the oldest articles and read through to the newer articles, you will get good strategies for using LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn Personal Trainer (http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com). Similar to the previous resource, this is a blog by the author of a tutorial book on LinkedIn. The blog has a number of interesting tips/items for you and you should start at the oldest articles and read through to the newer articles on this blog as well.

Additional Resources:

Here is an article addressing the concerns of people who are currently working and may not wish their network or their current bosses to think that a LinkedIn profile automatically means they are looking for a job (LinkedIn can be a very useful tool for your current job and your current employer, if used properly): LinkedIn: Tips to Manage Employer Risk (http://www.boldcareer.com/blog/2008/7/7/linkedin-tips-to-manage-employer-risk.html).

LinkedIn Intelligence (http://www.linkedintelligence.com/) is an additional blog where you can get further information. There are numerous articles/opinions on using LinkedIn such as (http://designresumes.com/blog/2009/09/linkedin-or-linkedout/), (http://www.linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin/). Explore, there is plenty of information out there.

LinkedIn has their own blog (http://blog.linkedin.com/), where new features and uses of LinkedIn are discussed. This is interesting to see the information behind the scenes.

As I come across useful articles on using LinkedIn for Career Management, I will post them onJobseekers.

If you have any questions, please contact , and I will do my best to assist.

Good luck .

Eric Finegan (courtesy of finegan.info)
Placement Chair

Tags: linkedin

Poll: JobSeeker Poll

February 18th, 2010

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Yes, unfortunately, this is the second poll this week (for ASQ Baltimore Section members), but the ASQ Baltimore Section would like your feedback on our Career Management program (whether you participate or not). This is not the National survey referred to by the Message from the ASQ 0502 Chair earlier this week.

The JobSeekers poll is online at http://www.asqbaltimore.org/jobseekers/poll-feb-2010/

The poll should take 5-7 minutes and asks you questions about your usage of the JobSeekers program, and requests your feedback. Please feel free to add as much commentary as you wish. You are able to perform this poll anonymously through the website if you wish, although we prefer you receive your email so that we may contact you if we have questions (use if you wish to be anonymous).