Feliz Natal, Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten

EQ

Emotional Intelligence

Today I saw this article on my LinkedIn, and I decided to share with you:

"Emotional Intelligence Predicts Job Success: Do You Have It?" - by Drake Baer

It shows you some characteristics of emotional intelligence, and I think it is quite interesting to read from the perspective of a job seeker.

Christmas #3

How to be productive?

Back the time when I was working, I used several strategies to be more productive and to get the most of my "normal" 9h-10h per day at the lab*. And the main strategy was a to-do list.

I am a to-do list person, and after I found that, my life and work became much easier. At the beginning, my to-do lists were often unrealistic because I was always expecting to have more time than I actually had. And this happened a lot at work, where I was often delayed by someone using the equipment that I booked in advance, or by some other thing that appeared in the way. 

With some more practice, my to-do lists became more realistic and they are now my main tool to get productivity out of my days. But, I was/am not productive all the days, and I think that is the secret of it. You can't be productive everyday, but you must always pursue your productivity: the best out of you! 

It is Christmas time, and I still have some presents to finish, a 3-day trip and a returning home trip to prepare,  and all the daily-stuff-routine things. And I am feeling quite confident about the success of these missions! 

My to-do lists are helping me a lot. And you? What strategies do you use to get the best out of you?

Here are some habits that will boost your productivity:

(click on the image to get the full article)

*And I was actually productive - I finished the PhD work and thesis on time! And this was one of my big achievements of 2013!

Christmas #2

We decided to stop spending lots of money in Christmas gifts a long time ago. Now, we only give one gift to a "secret friend" and enjoy the most of what Christmas is for: a time for family, cooking&eating, and smiling.

This describes pretty much my Christmas evening, with the exception for the kids. 

But, this year, as a job seeker, I would like to receive some useful gifts, as follows:

• An haircut and/or manicure
• A black jersey or cardigan
• A black&small handbag
• A blouse and/or a dress (the truth is I need to buy new "more professional " clothes)
• A gift card (I already received one ;) )

If you are a job seeker, and you know that you will receive Christmas gifts, then you should list what do you need most. It is a matter of getting what you need while saving some money. Why don't you try it this year?

More ideas here: 

- 9 Holiday Gift Ideas For New Job Seekers @ Careerealism
- 10 Thoughtful (and Useful) Holiday Gifts for the Job Seeker @ Career Confidential
- Top 10 gifts for job seekers @ Zpolitics
- 10 holiday gift ideas for job seekers @ Examiner
- Gift Ideas for the Job Seeker @ Carrer Rescue

Christmas #1

This year, as a looking-for-a-job-with-no-money-for-Christmas-gifts person, I decided to make my own gifts.

I had always wanted to make my own gifts but I often found a lot of excuses to go through the easy-way (=shopping): "I don't have time", "I'm too busy to do it on my own", "I have money, so I can buy something useful". And as I love to do personalized gifts, this year I decided to spend as less money as possible while spending most of my 168 hours doing nice things to my family and friends*.

So, if you are at home and still looking for an opportunity, take some time to do something that will make you feel happy and realized: do your own Christmas gifts to the ones you care about. 

Ideas? Try to re-use old-empty food bottles by painting them or decorating with candles, make some origami, do your own Christmas postcards, inspire yourself from your surroundings!

Here is an example of what I have been doing:

This is an egg box, and it turn out into a...*

*After Christmas, I will show you the gifts I made!

Focused & Balanced

You already know that I follow the Careerealism blog. And this weekend, I read some interesting posts that complement well with what I have been writing here on "how to be productive and keep motivation while looking for a (new) job?"

Be Focused & Balanced! Do not stay home all day, and remember: "all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage" 

So today, I will only direct you to the two posts that kept my attention:

- How To Maintain Your Focus While Hunting For Full-Time Jobs

- 4 Ways To Balance Your Job Search

Have a nice Monday!

by Me :)

Happy?

Today I found Happify after reading this post:

"An App to Make You Happier (Yup, It Exists)" BY JESSICA STILLMAN

And I started questioning myself if this "being-home-alone-while-looking-for-a-job" thing was taking me to an unhappy mood/state.

I can easily find happy moments in my life: a hug, a smile, a song, a talk with a friend, a book... but, while thinking about the happy vs unhappy moments, I realized that I still spend part of my day feeling anxious, unorganized, and unhappy for not being so productive as I wanted.

During this productive moment of thinking on happiness vs unhappiness in my life (yeah! It turn out productive!), I also concluded that I still wake up every day with the desire of doing something useful (like I used to feel when I had a job). 

And after that, I saw my big picture: 

I often find happiness in the small things of my daily life. I am an easily happy person with some unsolved issues that cause some unhappy moments. But who hasn't unsolved issues?

And you? How do you feel after "being-home-alone-while-looking-for-a-job" for a short/long time?

Mondays...

Every Monday's morning I ask myself: "what am I going to do today?"

Most of the times, I just want to stay in bed. But I often find myself thinking that I will miss something if I stay in bed. And then, I feel guilty, and I usually get up earlier than I expected. Just because I need to do something. The question is (again): what to do?

I have no clue on what I will be doing today. I feel a certain lack of motivation and orientation, but at the same time, I have an idea of what I need to do... and, yes, that is a start. 

I need to do the following main tasks:

- check my email and write down these main tasks on Google Calendar (it helps me a lot on Mondays! )

- check my LinkedIn

- check my Feedly

- blog

- apply to some job applications that I saw this weekend 

- gym

- laundry

- studying (I am learning a new language!)

- think about Christmas' presents (I will only give presents made by myself this year)

And it is interesting how I often feel after annotating these main tasks: 

I might be doing something useful today!

EDR: Every-Day-Resolutions #5

How to improve your curriculum vitae when you don't have a job? 

I don't need to write a lot about how being a volunteer can boost your personal experience (soft skills) and improve your professional curriculum as well. 

The thing is: if you are at home, unemployed and looking for a new job/career opportunity, you can spend a few hours doing something that will:

• connect you to others
• benefit your health
• make you smile and happy
• make you feel accomplished and satisfied
• keep you away from depression
• make you feel useful
• renew your motivation and creativity, advancing your personal and professional experiences

The saddest part is that, most of the times, we don't even consider to do it because we think we are too occupied for it. But let's face it: 

--> can't you really take 2-3 hours of your weekly 168 hours to do something that will change your life for ever? <--

Please think about it, and look for volunteering associations in your community!

If you want to read more about the benefits of being a volunteer and how to become one, please go to:

- European Voluntary Service

- Volunteering and its Surprising Benefits

- World Volunteer Web

- Benefits of Volunteering (to the individual volunteer)

- Benefits of Volunteering

EDR: Every-Day-Resolutions #4

While looking for a job, we should try to stay positive. 

But do you really know why?

I have been experiencing some "up and down" moments, and I think it is really hard to stay positive all the time, day-after-day. But the truth is: it isn't impossible! 

So, if you feel like you are stuck in a "down" moment, please consider some of the benefits of searching for an opportunity in a positive mood:

• Ideas come out more clearly

I realized that I can't think clearly and be so job-focused as I wanted, when I am on my "down" moments. And the truth is: my job search is more productive when I am feeling positive, confident,  and when I have some more faith on myself.

• Motivation Letters become more attractive 

After applying to different opportunities for a long period without a positive feedback, our motivation goes naturally down. And this lack of motivation is often visible in the Motivation Letters that we write afterwards: they stop being personalized, and become more and more a "copy&paste" of what we have written before. 

So, instead of feeling down, we should try to take the best out of all the previous unanswered applications: look at what you had written and try to improve your Motivation Letters. Improve, improve, improve! This is a learning-by-doing process!  

• Your network grows as never

It is a fact: when you feel positive, you are more receptive to connect with others. And you can use your LinkedIn account as a trial: when you are focused on your job search and your ideas flow out clearly, you naturally write more friendly invitations, and the person who receives them is immediately keen to accept you. This is also true when you attend a networking event: when you feel confident, you are the one who takes the first step, and it shows a lot of yourself! 

--> "Happy people get more job opportunities" <--

And J. T. O'Donnell explains you 10 reasons why - here.

Organize your email! #2

Here are other useful suggestions to organize your email inbox:

- 7 Tips to Better Manage Your Email!

- How to Organize Your Email Inbox

Have a nice weekend!

Organize your email! #1

When you are looking for an opportunity to work, and/or if you already applied to a few positions,  you will find yourself stuck with lots of webpages, emails and other contacts. 

So, it is time to: organize!

As you may know, I love to organize things, and there is actually one thing that I need to organize over and over: my email inbox.

I use gmail, and in my opinion, it is a good one for starters and it is really easy to organize. So, here are a few tips on how you can organize even better your gmail inbox:

• Labels:

- They are the best way to organize your email. I have 26 labels, including personal labels as "Friends&Co.", "Family", "Home", professional labels as "LinkedIn", "old-job-related", and other labels such as "Travels", "publicity", etc... To create a label, you just need to go to "Settings" --> "Create a new label", name it and voilà!

• Filters:

- After creating your labels, you should direct your emails to the corresponding labels. And that's when filters enter in this story: open the email that you want to label, select the small down-arrow in the up-right panel, and choose "Filter messages like this" --> "Create filter with this search" (in here, you will find the email address that will be labeled) --> "Apply the label" --> "Create filter".

- You can also add a label to a specific email, and for that you just need to open the email that you want to label and then click in the "label" sign that is presented in the upper menu. 

• Important/non-important mails:

- You can "teach" gmail what emails are important or not by selecting the arrow (´) that is immediately before the name of the sender in your inbox. Prioritize your emails is an important step towards organization! 

• Stars:

- You can star your emails, for instance, when it is something that you need to do during the day --> so you will not forget about it while it is starred.  

- I usually star my very important emails, either for professional or personal reasons.

• Mark as unread:

- Sometimes, after having starred an important email, I mark as unread to organize and prioritize even better my email inbox!

- I also try to clear my inbox as much as possible in a weekly basis: I only keep visible those emails that correspond to unfinished tasks, work, events. All the others are archived! 

A gap between academia and industry

As a recent PhD graduated trying to do something useful in this world, I often find myself trapped in a huge gap between academia and industry. 

And, sadly, there is nothing new about it, I know. 

The truth is: I expected a gap, and I also expected that moving from academia to industry would take time and lots of effort and "no's". 

What I didn't expect was to find myself (and others like me) in a so difficult situation just because we are trying to do the most logical career pathway. 

Within this topic, I found the following articles very interesting. Please have a look:

- The PhD-Industry Gap

- What have we done to deserve this? It was about a good cause after all…

- One Step At A Time: Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry

After being in that gap for a while, I recently decided to build my own bridge by recognizing that an internship/training program could be the best option to take some industry experience. 

And, as I am in a post doc period of my life, I am available to boost my skills and professional experience!

Have you already considered an internship/temporary experience? Build your own bridge from academia to industry!

 Have a nice weekend!

The networking thing

If you are looking for an opportunity to develop your skills and expand your experience, you will probably read about how important is to build up a network, not only on the web but also a real one!

And so, this week I attended my first real networking event and it was amazing! 

Before a real networking event, you must prepare yourself with some of these items:

• Contact cards:

- You can not go to an event like this without a contact card! 

- You can make cards with almost any office tool, I used the powerpoint and I set the page orientation to portrait and used 8.5 cm x 5.5 cm.

- Select wisely what do you want to write on the card. My information was simple: Name, small description, about.me, phone contact, email address.

- The card layout must be as simple as possible, and at the same time, it can show a little bit of your personality (depending on the networking field).

• Volunteer for presenting your work:

- You should always ask if it is possible to present your work/skills/interests to the audience, in a 5-7 minute slot. The audience get closer to you if you catch their attention, for instance, in a stage presentation, and they will remind you at the end of the event. 

• Small resume of your work:

- If you can't do a brief presentation of your work/skills/interests, then you should be prepared with a a small resume of your abilities, expertise, etc... and please write them down in your contact card (just a few strong words).

• Answers:

- Be always prepared in advance to answer some questions: what are you doing at the moment? If you aren't working, prepare yourself to the "why" question. What are you looking for? Do you want to work in academia or in industry?

- And, please, do not be shy, ask questions too! 

During a real networking event, please:

• Do not seat in the back

- Take the front seats so everyone can actually see you!

• Use the coffee breaks to improve your networking skills

- Talk, talk, talk! Present yourself (ideas, thoughts, opinions, etc...) and change contact cards.

• Smile 

- Your body language is extremely important! Be confident, and smile! There is nothing better than a smile to attract people.

• Be yourself and talk with others as much as possible

- You just have to pay attention to avoid any inconvenient word/sentence. And that's it! 

After a real networking event, you need to:

• Stay connected 

- Use your web-tools (LinkedIn, email, etc...) to keep the connection.

•  Follow the other's work

- Now that you know the name and the voice too, pay attention to the progress of his/her career. Stay updated!

• Get in touch from time to time

- And if an opportunity comes, send a message, an email, or make a phone call so the other one will know that you are still interested, still looking for an opportunity to collaborate, and so on...

And, perhaps in a near future, the opportunity that you are waiting for may come to you (not from the sky, but from your work and networking!).

EDR: Every-Day-Resolutions #3

How to improve your curriculum vitae when you don't have a job? 

You can join a lot of activities that will boost your personal experience and consequently your curriculum vitae.

Today I am going to write a short resume about:

- Toastmasters -

Have you already heard anything about it? If not, this post is for you!

• What is the Toastmasters?

The Toastmasters is like a workshop, but instead of just listening, here you "learn-by-doing". This Toastmasters' philosophy gets you out of the comfort zone to improve your public speaking skills. 

• How does it work?

By attending a Toastmaster club, you will improve your communication skills: you have to present several topics, and in each one, you are evaluated regarding your voice, body language and humor (among others). 

You will also improve your leadership skills: you have also to evaluate other presentations by performing different roles on that evaluation, and your own evaluation is also assessed by a member of the club.

• Where can I find a Toastmaster club?

You just need to look here and find a club near you.  

Have a nice weekend!

EDR: Every-Day-Resolutions #2

Hobbies.

I like a lot my hobbies. 

And my tip for today is:

- find your own hobbies and spend as much time as you can on them.

But, what kind of hobbies can you do while you are looking for a new opportunity/job?

You are the only person that can decide on how do you want to spend the weekly 143 hours that you've got after your job search (considering that you spend on it 5 hours per day, 5 days-a-week).

 So, I ask you: 

what kind of things did you usually want to do when you were working in your previous job but you hadn't got* a time slot to do it?

Here is my list:

- Read more books

- Watch more interesting movies

- Running/cycling

- Go more often to the gym

- Write an useful/interesting blog

- Read and follow other useful/interesting blogs

- Nurturing my friends/family

- Meet new people

- Painting

- Cooking delicious meals

- DIY presents (as we are in November, I've always wanted to have more time to prepare my presents for all the birthdays I have in this month, and for Christmas too)

- Go for a long walk and take some nice photos

- Improve my curriculum**

- Do more volunteer actions

In my list there are two types of hobbies: one type that directly affects my personality and welfare, and the other type that enhances my soft or technical skills. Can you see the difference? 

Try out yourself and leave a comment with your hobbies' list. 

* - "You have more time than you think!"

** - I will write about it later.

EDR: Every-Day-Resolutions #1

So you got a big no. Then, what?

- You restart you job search, 4-5 hours per day. 

- You occupy yourself with positive things, old hobbies, old wishes, dreams.

You still have plenty of time in your 168 hours per week to fulfill your life with the things you like most.

Today, I decided to share with you this thought: 

"21 Things You Should Force Yourself To Do Every Day", from the Thought Catalog --> Here

After a big no, it is important to start with small routines: 

• organize your own-thoughts, 
• make a list of what do you want to do next (job-related and hobby-related), 
• choose what you really want to do with your life (again)!

Let's switch it to English

From this day on, my blog will be written in English. It is something that I have been thinking since the very beginning of this thing. I need to practice, to become again completely fluent and I have time to learn new words. 

And for today: how to recover after a big no? 

In the first place, what is a big no?

A big no is what you receive when you are not selected for something that could have changed your life for better in the next coming months. Instead, it usually drives you to the uncertainty of being a human being and it makes you feel bad, sick, tired of the world that you are trying so hard to move from.

A big no makes you feel down. There is nothing new about this. But we must always learn from these big nos. Saying that, what can you learn after a big no?

• Every big no has a meaning so uncover the meaning of your big no. Why did it happen? Was it because you were not so good as you thought? Not so well prepared? Not so convincing? Not so convinced? Or was it because of other random reason apart from you?

• You should be prepared for that decision. Were you well prepared for that decision? Probably not. Probably you spent the last few days, perhaps weeks, waiting for that great moment when your luck would change and get that job, that not-dream-but-close-job. But what about your plan B? Do you have any alternative?

• "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction" (by Sr Isaac Newton). In this specific case, you don't need to react in the opposite way but you must react as quickly as possible to start a new adventure in the realm of uncertainty: get up from that bad mood and do a reset on your PC, mind and spirit. Refresh your job search and start to apply (again)!

Don't ever wait again for a big no.

Still about LinkedIn

Today I found this text that meets what I have been writing here in the blog.

And since to read a little bit more about LinkedIn and its add-value's features does not take too much time, why don't you try this text that is pretty well resumed and interesting?

I wish you a good week!

See you soon,
Sofia.

Writing a Cover Letter - Tip #3

After writing some keywords in your Cover Letter, it is fundamental to distinguish yourself from all the other candidates and to captivate the person who is reading "you" by small gestures that make a huge difference:

2. Captivate with a "Hello" and direct your Cover Letter to someone that actually exists (a name, not an unspecific "Dear Sir/Madame"). 

Begin your Cover Letter with:
"Hello, dear (nome)

I am Blablabla..."

3. Exemplify more.

When you write about your personal/professional motivation for that specific job, you should always demonstrate that you are the candidate that they are looking for by exemplifying that you fill their requisites with your own experience. For instance, if you say that you are a "hard worker", then you must give an example that truly demonstrate that. 

4. Highlight your intention to get that job opportunity at the end of your Cover Letter. 

At the end, try something different! Do not end-up your Cover Letter with a standard "I am looking forward to hearing from you"; instead, refer that you would like to have a chance of personally explain why you fill their requisites.

Add your phone contact and/or email as well. 

The last but not the least, do not forget to thank him/her/them for his/her/their time. 

To read more about Cover Letters, please have a look at Careerealism website: here, here and here.

Writing a Cover Letter - Tip #2

Yesterday I wrote about the content of a Cover Letter, but there are also other important tips that I do not resist to share with you. 

• How to captivate with your Cover Letter:

A Cover Letter has always a beginning paragraph, a middle one, and an ending one. Three well-defined parts, in which you present yourself and explain your whys (as I mentioned here yesterday).

The best chance is that you might write your first Cover Letter using this format, without taking the risk of personalizing it.

But you can and must distinguish yourself from the other candidates in your Cover Letter. And how can you do it? It's simple: 

1. Keywords

Everything that will distinguish yourself from others in your Cover Letter is based on keywords.

And how do you know what the specific keywords to use? 

First, it implies some work+careful while applying to a job opportunity. Hence, you should:

- read well the job offer

- underline all the keywords on that offer

- mention those same keywords in your Cover Letter, such as soft or technical skills that appear in "requisites" section. 

- add some "key verbs" that demonstrate your creativity and attitude. For instance, verbs like "exceeded", "mentored", "maximized", "optimized". Look for more examples here. 

- bold all your keywords/key verbs!

November

Good morning!

Today is a special day, and for that reason, I will be unavailable in the next 2 days here in the blog. 

As I enjoy to share with you good stuff, today there is a special edition here in the blog:

3 posts in one row!

by Me :)

Dicas para escrever uma Cover Letter - parte I

Bom dia!

Depois de ter escrito um pouco sobre como elaborar um CV e optimizar a nossa procura de oportunidades, hoje é o dia de escrever sobre algo muito importante e, por vezes, desvalorizado:

a cover letter.

• O que é uma Cover Letter?

Uma Cover Letter é, em português, uma carta de apresentação. Tal como o nome indica, é um documento que podes (e deves!) anexar ao teu CV quando concorres a alguma oportunidade de trabalho. E é neste documento que te apresentas e que mostras o teu potencial para a oportunidade em questão.

• E qual o conteúdo da minha Cover Letter?

Uma vez que é uma carta de apresentaçao, em primeiro lugar deves apresentar-te! (parece óbvio mas muitas vezes não nos apresentamos convenientemente).

Apresentar-te requer que sejas educado e formal, começando por exemplo assim:

"Good morning/ Dear Blablabla*

I am blablabla and I would like to apply for the Y position at the Z company."

* Idealmente, deves sempre dirigir a tua Cover Letter para alguém da empresa (seja dos Recursos Humanos ou da área onde estás a concorrer).

Depois de te apresentares, deves logo mencionar as razões pelas quais te estás a candidatar àquela oportunidade. Como por exemplo**:

"One of the main reasons to apply for this position is to get the opportunity to develop and expand my professional experience in the blablabla field. As you can see in my CV, I had been working with blablabla technology for five years and I was a key person for the development and implementation of that technology. Taking into account my previous experience, I think I have the desired skills to embrace this opportunity and I would like to demonstrate it in a company that stems for such high-values as the blablabla company does."

** as razões dependem sempre do que realmente sentes e dos requisitos que a empresa pede e tu achas que tens.

Por último, deves sempre mencionar as razões pelas quais a empresa te deve escolher a ti para aquela oportunidade. Como por exemplo***:

"In addition to my professional experience, I believe that there are some reasons that make me suitable for working with you in the blablabla company. I am young, creative, focused and well-organized person, etc..."

*** aqui deves mencionar as tuas soft skills, ou seja, qual será o teu verdadeiro input como ser humano naquela posição e/ou empresa.

---> A tua Cover Letter deverá ser única, personalizada para cada oportunidade em questão! <---

LinkedIn: as pessoas que interessam

Na minha vida, gosto de ter por perto as pessoas que interessam. E esta filosofia também se aplica na network que mantenho no meu LinkedIn.

Acredito que existem sempre duas fases principais na nossa conta do LinkedIn:

- quando estamos activamente à procura de trabalho

OU

- quando já estamos a trabalhar

E é muito importante que consigas perceber que diferenças deves observar no teu perfil de LinkedIn quando passas de uma situação para a outra. Passo a explicar:

- quando procuras activamente trabalho, deves expandir a tua rede de contactos, maximizando a qualidade face à quantidade

- quando já trabalhas, deves eliminar contactos que já não façam sentido e deves maximizar aqueles contactos que realmente conheces (que conheces pessoalmente, ou seja, a tua real e verdadeira network).

Este exercício é contínuo! Terás muitos contactos ao longo da tua vida profissional, faz um esforço por manteres sempre a tua conta do LinkedIn organizada, arrumada somente com o que te interessa!

---> Mas como é que fazes para adicionar as pessoas que te interessam? <---

Depois de teres adicionado alguns grupos e empresas, está na hora de procurares pessoas dentro desses grupos e empresas. E a procura depende muito do que pretendes fazer a seguir:

- se pretendes concorrer a uma oportunidade X na empresa Y, então deves adicionar uma pessoa que esteja relacionada com essa oportunidade X na empresa Y. Por exemplo, no meu caso, se estivesse a concorrer para uma oportunidade de researcher na empresa Y, procurava por alguém que estivesse relacionado com o laboratório/área em questão (p. ex., head of the lab, principal researcher, etc...). 

O que importa é adicionares alguém a quem possas enviar o teu CV (para além de fazeres a candidatura online ou formal, é claro!).

- quando queres apenas aumentar a tua rede de contactos, é importante participares nos grupos, nas discussões, e veres quem participa também, se é interessante para a tua busca de trabalho/oportunidades. No meu caso, já adicionei muitos contactos através dos grupos que pertenço. Caso contrário, teria que usar a opção "add as a friend", coisa que não seria verdade. Assim, uso a opção "Groups", o que faz todo sentido!

Por último, o que deves escrever quando adicionas alguém no LinkedIn?

Quando adiciono um amigo, alguém que conheço bem, uso apenas "Friend" e deixo estar o texto default que o LinkedIn tem.

No entanto, quando é alguém que não conheço e/ou que gostava muito de ter na minha rede de contactos e esse alguém é uma pessoa importante na minha área e/ou para a minha busca de oportunidades, então nunca uso o texto default do LinkedIn!!!

Nesta situação, personalizo sempre os meus convites, como por exemplo:

"Dear (name),

I have been following your work in the blablabla field and I admire your ability to blablabla. Therefore, I would like to invite you to my professional network on LinkedIn. 

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

Blablabla."

Somos pessoas, gostamos de contacto humano e não de perfis e números. Por isso, usem o vosso charme, a vossa capacidade de interagir com os outros para cativar as pessoas que vos interessam! 

More about LinkedIn

Tenho muitos colegas que não usam/exploram a sua conta do LinkedIn convenientemente quando se encontram à procura de uma oportunidade.

Muitos até cometem o erro gravíssimo de não ter sequer uma foto no perfil, ou mantêm a primeira foto que colocaram há alguns anos atrás. Por isso, depois de construíres o teu perfil, é muito importante actualizares a tua foto!

Já com o teu perfil escrito e com foto, é hora de explorares todas as ferramentas que o LinkedIn te dá! Mas cuidado, antes de começares deves questionar: 

- se queres que as outras pessoas saibam que andas à procura de trabalho;

- ou se não podes mostrar isso porque te encontras actualmente a trabalhar numa outra empresa.

Por isso, antes de começares a explorar as ferramentas do LinkedIn, é fundamental explorares as configurações de privacidade para definires quem é que consegue: ver o que tu fazes/ver quem tu segues/qual é a tua network.

Com a tua privacidade definida, começa a procurar por:

• "Groups"

- Procura por grupos que existam da tua área. P. ex. numa das minhas primeiras pesquisas, escrevi "biotechnology" e obtive 1499 grupos relacionados. Como é óbvio, não vi todos os grupos, porque filtrei um pouco mais a minha pesquisa por línguas e por open groups ou members only.

- Ao adicionares um grupo, verifica sempre as definições para esse grupo como, por exemplo, se queres receber notificações diariamente ou semanalmente. Isto é muito importante para que não enchas a tua caixa de correio com demasiados emails todos os dias!

• "Companies"

- Podes manter a mesma área que usaste para descobrir os grupos, mas agora consegues filtrar ainda melhor que empresas gostavas de seguir. Podes filtrar por localização, por tamanho da empresa e por empresas que estejam a recrutar via LinkedIn, entre outros. No meu caso, usando "biotechnology" e filtrando por "Portugal", obtive 33 resultados. Nada mau, ein?

• "Jobs"

- Nesta secção, podes procurar oportunidades por área de trabalho, localização, empresa, experiência, indústria, entre outros.

- Se mantiveres a mesma palavra-chave usada até agora (no meu caso, biotechnology), consegues ter uma percepção da quantidade de ofertas relacionadas com a tua área principal de trabalho (no meu caso foram 25: not so much!). Podes e deves sempre repetir a pesquisa com outras palavras-chave, seleccionando as empresas que já segues actualmente.

Agora que já fazes parte de alguns grupos, já segues algumas empresas e até encontraste oportunidades que te cativaram, é muito mais fácil adicionares as pessoas que te interessam e construir uma network interessante para a tua procura activa de trabalho. 

Para a semana há mais.

Bom fim-de-semana!