Opportunity Magnet
Is your LinkedIn profile an opportunity magnet?
Remember that a magnet both attracts and repulses iron.
You want your LinkedIn profile to attract desirable opportunities, as well as repulse opportunities that are of no interest. Those are a waste of time to pursue!
As you construct your LinkedIn profile, you need to be very clear on the kind of opportunities you wish to attract.
I want to give you two examples: first, how this client attracted only the opportunities he wanted, and second, how another client located her opportunities by using the same strategies.
Opportunity Magnet in a Niche Market
When you work in a niche—or narrow—market there are usually not a lot of job opportunities. I have a client who has a niche Ph.D. in the K-12 and higher education market. He wanted to get out of this specialty and, instead, to move into a human resources role, utilizing much of the same skill set.
Previously, I wrote that, when you are operating in a small or niche marketplace, it is just like selling a niche product like a vintage Fiat. Many people may not be interested, but you only need one buyer.
We branded him as a “data photographer.” This brought a few opportunities, but nothing concrete.
He complained that the brand phrasing in his LinkedIn profile was not attracting enough traffic. I told him to wait and give it time.
Within a month, he had an interview and was told how they “just loved” this phrasing. It was just what they were looking for. The position was for a company working in the human resources space. His profile was a magnet—not for many opportunities—but for the right ones.
As it turns out, the company decided not to fill the position but contacted my client a few months later with another opportunity. He was offered the job after a fairly painless interview process.
When you are making a pivot into a new profession or industry, you will not necessarily attract a lot of suitors. You just want to attract the right one that will hire you for the right job.
For More: Managing Your Career is Like Selling a Vintage Fiat
Finding the Magnet in a Niche Market
I am working with a lady who has a Ph.D. in mathematics. She wants to break into a very specific niche of the pharmaceutical market. She has done something similar in the past but was struggling to find people who were doing exactly what she wanted to do. But…she knew they existed.
We found some marketing collateral from a pharmaceutical consulting company and researched it for vocabulary. We found three very unusual, or niche, terms used consistently in this material.
We searched LinkedIn for profiles who used these terms and—BINGO!
We found hundreds of individuals who used these terms in their profiles. They were working in the area that my client wanted to work. Much to my surprise, one of the individuals was someone I helped several years earlier. I then contacted him and made an introduction.
Since that time, my client found an individual who basically had the same educational background as her, who had also made a pivot into this niche profession. Now, she has someone who has walked the trail before her. This person is acting like a sherpa for my client, introducing her to people and giving her guidance.
All of this was possible by finding the right terms to use in her LinkedIn profile and searching for others in these industries. My client just needed to find the right key to her magnet.
For More: Anatomy of a Passive Candidate’s LinkedIn Profile
The Law of Attraction
According to the Wikipedia:
The law of attraction is the name given to the maxim “like attracts like” which in New Thought philosophy is used, to sum up, the idea that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life.[1][2] This belief is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are both made from “pure energy”, and the belief that like energy attracts like energy.
It is all about finding which things will attract opportunities to you AND find the key to what others are using to attract opportunities to themselves.
What is your magnet?
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