#finding work

I recently came close to getting one, but the office is an hour away from me and I’m not that confident in my driving skills. I had an entire mental breakdown which ended with an email to the hiring manager explaining I can’t commute that far.

Comrades Helping Comrades via LinkedIn - A Tutorial

Here’s how we can use LinkedIn, mostly known as being the primary social media website for CEO douchebags, to improve one another’s professional CVs or resumes with little to no effort and very little time investment.

LinkedIn Jobs: Surprisingly Effective Way to Find (Hopefully Less Shitty) Work

LinkedIn Jobs is actually a pretty good way to feel out what jobs are currently available in your region for whatever position or industry etc. you are interested in.

I have personally gotten 3 jobs through LinkedIn, purely by spending my lunch hour messing around in the search tab on the LinkedIn Jobs page. 

If you need to get out of a shitty job, or want to look for any possible hope or potential gig you could apply to, LinkedIn Jobs is a great place to casually look. The success rates are surprisingly solid compared to other job sites, and if you are a younger adult, it looks great to potential employers if you have a LinkedIn profile set up, even if you don’t have much to put on it yet.

It’s Not Just for Office Workers

It’s not just for office workers, either. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking LinkedIn is solely for CEO douchebags, but in reality, I know two people in construction who got their current gigs through LinkedIn, I know a lot of people in healthcare who got their jobs through LinkedIn, I know a welder who got their current job through LinkedIn, and I know a lot of people who got pretty good apprenticeships through LinkedIn.

No matter what you do or what your skills are, if you need a job or need a better job, set up a LinkedIn and use the tips below to immediately improve your changes of at least getting an interview for something better than wherever you work now:

If you are struggling to get a reference for a job application:

It is possible to give recommendations to your comrades, which will appear on their main page when employers or recruiters check your profiles.

How to Endorse Someone on LinkedIn

How to Get a Reference on LinkedIn

Go ahead and contact your friends on LinkedIn. Even better, set up your profiles with your friends at the same time, add each other as Connections on your pages, and give each other references.

There are two ways to do this, as linked above, but there are also others. These two are just the most common ways to do it; There is also the official LinkedIn page about this here, but it doesn’t cover the other methods available.

You do not have to be co-workers to give each other references. Like I said, there are other methods, and client or friend references are just as valuable as co-worker references. If challenged about it, just call it a character reference instead of a professional reference. This is fine, and allows you to beef up your professional profile without having to lie about anything.

How to beef up your profile page:

Fill it in: Free header making tool + 5 minutes = Way better chances of escaping your shitty current job or getting a job in the first place 

The number one easiest thing to do is just fill in the basics on your profile. Add a photo of yourself that is at least somewhat professional, and if you can, customise a header.

Even just having the bare minimum on the page is already way more than a lot of people bother to fill in, and it immediately makes your profile more interesting to potential employers.

I recommend especially making a custom header, because it makes your page stick out more compared to the default headers, and recruiters are more likely to contact you or remember you when sending out interview links.

Use Canva to make a custom header quickly and for free. You can also use any other free graphics making site/software you’d like, but Canva is fast, simple, and works just fine in my experience with it. 

TIP: Even if you think something isn’t worth including on your profile page, if it is something you have done or training you have done of any kind, include it anyway. 

There is a Volunteer work section; You can add things here that may not have been “formal” volunteer work, but for example, if you helped your family or friend(s) at their place of work or something like that, add it in this section anyway. It looks good, and it’s a true representation of work you’ve done to help others that may not have been paid-- And was therefore by default volunteer work! It still helps give a better idea of your overall skills and experiences, which employers like.

Skills Checkmark Badges: Employers love this shit!

There is a Skills and Endorsements section on the page; This allows you to select shit like Microsoft Word and add it as a skill to your profile.

More importantly, you can also take short 15 question quizzes on each skill you have listed, and if you pass, you get a checkmark on your profile page to prove your competency. Here are some from my own profile: 

Employers and recruiters look for these checkmarks as confirmation that you know what you’re talking about in regards to whatever software etc., and if you fail one of the quizzes, there is no negative-- It does not appear as a failure on your profile, and you can re-take the quiz at a later time if you’d like.

There’s no downside to attempting the quizzes, and the more checkmarks you can get in your Skills section on your profile, the better. These quizzes are easy, quick to do, and can boost you in the job search algorithm.

Mutual Aid: Seriously, write like a couple sentences for a fellow comrade to put on their profile, and you might be the person who gets them the job! Or they might get you the job! 

This post is super long, so I’m leaving it at this for now, but if you have a LinkedIn profile and would like a casual recommendation, message me and I’m happy to write something up for you to add to your profile so that your page can look better to a potential employer. 

Like I said, you and your friends/co-workers/etc. should, if at all possible, do an exchange and write a short reference for each other. Doesn’t have to be super complex or detailed, just highlight key skills and make it positive. That’s all it takes to really boost your profiles and look that much better to any recruiters/employers who might be checking your page.

And that’s it for now! I hope this helps! 

If anyone else has any LinkedIn tips, feel free to add them! 

I apologise for not making posts for the last few months; we've all had fucked up stuff happening in our world. Fires in Australia, the COVID-19 pandemic, all that. I'm still hoping for 2020 to be better, but not by much. I'll still considering this year as the year of hindsight (pun intended). The whole pandemic is making it difficult to find work; even then, I'm looking to work from home for the time being. Hopefully, I'll get a job for the sole purpose of spoiling my boyfriend (he's spoiled me a lot, so I think it's fair that I do the same for him). In the meantime, I'll get to job searching. Praying to the gods I find something. If anyone knows a job finding spell, DM me. Thanks.

Namaste darlings