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Using LinkedIn to Research: Who would have thought?

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Using LinkedIn to Research: Who would have thought?

LinkedIn may be social media but it is also the largest career database in the world. (Profiles of people, their career paths, jobs, and companies). Too many people do not realize the value of using LinkedIn to research.

using linkedIn to research

Yes, LinkedIn is:

  • your professional online presence
  • like your resume showing your experience and skills
  • a place to find jobs
  • a great networking platform
  • an information-sharing platform
  • also, a platform where you can do a ton of researching on companies and career pathways

Read this article or watch my screen capture to learn how you can:

  • Discover a company mission, goals, and values
  • Get a sense of the company culture
  • Identify people who work there now or did in the past to learn from and network with
  • See the career path of people who work (ed) there doing the type of job you want to do
  • See which skills, credentials, and training people have that are doing the type of work you want to do
  • And if you are lucky enough, to better prepare for an interview

After you have your LinkedIn profile to “All-Star” status (you don’t want people to see you are researching them or their company and have a profile that does not show your best)…

And, after you have refined your search and focused your career goals (even in broad terms, not necessarily narrowed down to 1 or 2 companies but at least you will want to be exploring some specific types of jobs)…

And, after you have done some research to identify your top 50 companies you are interested in learning more about… (Stuck in a Job Search? Find 50 Companies)

…then you are ready to use LinkedIn as one of your tools in your toolbox to discover mission, goals, values, culture, and much more.

Here are three areas in LinkedIn to research companies, career pathways, and people. 

Watch this screen capture of how to research companies on LinkedIn
(You can follow along with the  blog below)

Youtube LinkedIn
– – – CLICK ON THIS IMAGE FOR SCREEN CAPTURE

For demonstration purposes, I went to the Best Places to Work in Maine website and found a company I did not know well, called NFI North, Inc which provides mental health services.

Step 1] Company Research – Learning about their culture and career pathways.

In the SEARCH bar, type in the company you are researching and make sure you click on the “Company” logo.

This brings you to the company’s LinkedIn page. If you are interested in this company, or when you are interested after your research, click on “+Follow” so that you will begin to receive posts, announcements, and jobs. Look on the left side of the screen for the below tabs.

HOME tab.  Read what they have posted here to get a better understanding of the company culture.

  • Are they active here?
  • What are they posting?
  • Jobs?
  • Helpful tips?
  • Does this “feel” like a company you’d like to work for?

*Note: look to the right side of the screen and you’ll find “Similar pages”. This can be a very serendipitous way of discovering other similar companies

ABOUT tab. Typically gives you a nice overview of the company

JOBS tab. Yep…this is where you’ll find current job openings. Don’t worry if there are none posted or no jobs you’d like to do. Right now, research is what you want to do to find ways to network so you learn about jobs BEFORE they are posted.

PEOPLE tab. Here you will find six columns. You can only view two at a time and must navigate using the “Previous” or “Next” links to the right. (see image below).

LinkedIn to research

This is where you can identify people who work there, where they live, what they do, where they studied, what their major was, skills they have identified as needed in their jobs, and how you are connected. This is a treasure trove of information!

I recommend starting with the 3rd panel over, “What they do”. Click on the “Next” link. Then, click on the “Show more” at the bottom.

Find an area you are most interested in and click on it. (see image below).

This will then show you the people who are doing that job function.

Pretty cool 🙂

I choose “Community and Social Services” and at NFI North, it brings up 54 employees.

LinkedIn to research

You can then choose one of the six panels to narrow down your search even further as to Column 1 “Where they live”

Panel 2 “Where they studied”

Panel 4 “What they studied” You may want to find people who have a similar major

Panel 5 “What they are skilled at” This may help you determine skills you already have or skills you may want to develop

ACTION: this is where the “largest career database in the world” can help you look at career pathways to get to the job you want. Begin checking out some of the profiles of people and see how they got to their job. All the people who meet your criteria can be found below the chart. Pretty amazing isn’t it?

Step 2] Advanced Search – Identifying people who work there or worked there.

I like to start by going to the SEARCH bar in the upper left of LinkedIn, putting my cursor in the box, and press ENTER. (no need to type anything in this now – I’ll show you why) 

LinkedIn Screenshot

I like to use the “All Filters” function which will allow us to find people who currently work at NFI North and who worked there in the past. Both can be very helpful in understanding company culture. Click on “All Filters” and you will see a number of options. Find “Current Companies” and type in the company you are researching. It should pull up their logo. Select it.

Then do the same for “Past Companies”.

APPLY – In my case, it shows 7 people who are connected to me. One of them is a 2nd level connection (Derik) and six are 3rd level connections. 

*Note: My 2nd level person identifies which of my 1st connections are connected with Derik – If I want to connect with Derik, I could always reach out to these folks for introductions. 

ACTION: At this time you could review these people’s profiles to see what they do there, but I want to continue the research.

*Note: Do NOT connect from this screen because it does not allow you to write a note. When connecting always go to the person’s profile, choose CONNECT, and add a note as to why you’d like to connect.

Let’s click on “ALL FILTERS” again in the upper right.

Many times I am looking for “warm connections”, so I want to see if anyone graduated from the same college as me. Scroll down and type in your college. I selected the University of Maine (even though I didn’t graduate from there, I’m pretty sure no one graduated from Oregon State University at NFI 🙂

APPLY

In my example here of using LinkedIn to research, I have one possible “warm connection” who attended the University of Maine. If you do not know this person, I do not recommend connecting. You can always connect later if you do an informational interview or meet them somewhere. Right now, your focus is researching.

Now you know people who work there, people who worked there in the past, and how you can find alumni. A good start for your company research. Remember, LinkedIn is a tool to use. If you want to reach out to any of these people, find their contact information and ask for 10-15 minutes of their time…but this is another blog.

Step 3] Leaving LinkedIn to research on company websites & social media

Click on “Visit website” at the top and begin to explore the company’s website. 

  • Is their messaging consistent with what you’ve learned so far?
  • Does their mission resonate with you?

Typically at the top or the bottom of the website, you will find their social media links. You’ve already done the LinkedIn research, now check out their “messaging” on Facebook, Twitter, and wherever else they are.

  • Is their messaging consistent with what you’ve learned so far?

Use your analytical skills to determine content but also pay attention to your instincts and feelings. Not everything can be explained with data, and you want a company that “feels” right to you.

There are many other ways to use LinkedIn as a “tool in your toolbox” to learn about companies, develop your network, and identify possible careers. This is just one way that many of my clients will use LinkedIn as the largest career database in the world.

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

How to slow down

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Are you walking too fast?
Want to know how to slow down?

How to slow down

I just finished an 81-mile backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in California with my two hiking buddies of 38 years. (Rees and Howard). We have been section-hiking the entire 2650 mile trail from Mexico to Canada since 1981 and Howard was completing the PCT on this 81-mile section…I had to be there with him.

There are many ways to hike the PCT. We choose to do sections ranging from 50 miles to 400 miles in length picking different sections from 1981 to present. Other people, called ‘through-hikers” attempt to do it in a single season, typically from April to October.

While walking about 11 miles per day and reflecting on many things, I considered the dichotomy of these two approaches to the same trail.  My hiking buddies Rees and Howard often talked about what the through-hikers were missing in their sprint to do the 2650 miles in ~5 months. My point has always been that there is more than one way of hiking this trail…just like there is more than one way of navigating your career development.

Section hiking allows us to hike at some of the best seasons for each section of trail. Rees and I hiked in the Mojave desert three years ago in April and were lucky enough to catch the desert bloom. The wildflowers were amazing!! We were able to hike this last 81-mile section in early August after a HUGE snowfall year that shut down the high Sierra’s in May and caused many through-hikers to wait or skip ahead because the snow was simply too deep.

— Stopping to enjoy the Mule Ear flowers in bloom–

Section hiking also allows us to manage our miles/day better. Most years we hiked about 12-15 miles per day. This year, our goal was 11 miles per day which was very comfortable. We often had our miles for the day completed by 1 pm which gave us a great siesta time in the heat of the day.

Meanwhile, the through-hikers we met along the trail (they were heading north and we were heading south) were all under pressure to hike 25-30 miles per day…some were actually hiking 40 miles per day!! While these hikers were getting up at dawn and walking until dark, we were stopping for breaks on the tops of mountains, taking 2-3 hour lunch breaks with naps, and setting up camp as early as 1 pm and no later than 5 pm every day.

One thing we do on the trail is to have discussions on things like “You are the average of the six people you hang out with. Who are your six people and what characteristics do they have you would like to emulate?” and “What are your goals for the next couple of years?” With 11 miles to walk each day, there is plenty of time to think and discuss many topics.

Not everyone can hike the PCT for 11 miles per day as we did…
so how do you slow down?

Just like in career development, there are many paths to success.

Is through-hiking the PCT in one season better or worse than section hiking? I believe there are times you must be goal-oriented and focused, like the through-hikers doing 25 miles per day (or more) totally focused on getting to Canada by October 1st when the weather turns nasty. And then there are times when we need to slow down and enjoy the moments of life presented to us each day.

For those of you who are “through-hikers” in your careers, “go for it” and push for your goals. But…(there is always a but isn’t there?) don’t forget that your brain and body need breaks from the intensity.

For those of you who are “section-hikers” in your careers, where the goals are not as intense as some, make sure you carve out the time each day to be “present” with yourself and the people you love.

How To Slow Down

  • Create a routine in your day that builds in quiet time to either read, write in a journal, or simply reflect.
  • Set a timer so that you never sit longer than 45 minutes. Then stand up, stretch, do Qi Gong, walk around, and maybe instead of texting or emailing someone, walk over and talk with them.
  • Practice mindfulness in your day. This can be a simple as eating your lunch or snack with no distractions. No checking your email, watching T.V., or listening to music. Just chew your food, one forkful or bite at a time. Don’t take the 2nd bite until you have thoroughly eaten the first bite. Focus on eating only. Clear your mind of everything else. Be mindful of the moment.
  • Take a short walk to get outside if you can. Being outdoors has scientific proof that it is good for us. (No music, no podcasts, just walk alone or with a friend).
  • Be “present” when you are with someone. This is a trait that my hiking buddy Howard is great at. When you are with Howard, he is totally with you and you can feel it.
  • Turn off your phone for a period of the day. Too often, we are “chasing” messages, phone calls, and emails. They can wait. Take control over your day.
  • If you can, take a “tech-free” retreat for a half-day or a full-day. I try to take a full-day “tech-free” retreat once per month. I write, read, meditate, and plan for the upcoming months. My brother chooses the months of the year that has five Friday’s in it, as there can be no ‘standing’ meetings scheduled on that day. He does his retreat about five times each year.

There are many ways to slow down in our lives, but all too often, we do not take advantage of it. My backpacking trips help reinforce the importance of slowing down. When I am off the trail, I often think back to our 11-15 mile days and how I feel when I can remove the clutter of our fast-paced world.

I’d love to hear what you can do to slow down in your day.
Please share your thoughts here.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

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Staffing and Recruiting Agencies

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Staffing and Recruiting Agencies
When to refer a client or student.

staffing and recruiting agency
– – – – ANOTHER TOOL IN YOUR TOOLBOX- – – –

Career coaching is not an exact science and results can not be guaranteed. Kind of like fishing. I can take a person fishing to my favorite spots with my preferred lures, but it does not guarantee we will catch fish… it depends.

Same is true with career coaching. Many things are out of my control.

  • I can assign work to my client…but did they do it?
  • I may encourage them to network but they might make a “bad impression” not a good one (See It Cuts Both Ways)
  • Sometimes it just takes more time than the client expects
  • *You can fill in as many areas here as you’d like…there are lots of examples of things out of our control as career service providers.

I was working with a client who had taken time off to care for his elderly parents and wanted to return to the workplace. He could not go back to his past job and was ready to find new work. Very bright man. Always seemed to understand what needed to be done, but had difficulty with the networking required to find his “ideal job”. After a number of failed attempts, I suggested he contact a local staffing & recruiting agency to find work and extend his savings, while he continued his search for the “ideal job”.

Staffing agencies fill temporary, full-time, part-time, temp-for-hire, and even permanent positions. Recruiting agencies can do the same but are typically working with companies that are hiring professional and executive positions. Recruiters are always looking for talented people for specific companies and often in specific industries. Finding the recruiter that meets your client’s needs is the key to success. (Check out my interview with a recruiter and a staffing agency owner for ideas on how to do this).

Coaches and clients may want to utilize staffing and recruiting agencies but it does not replace the work we do as career coaches, it can complement our work.

Here are 8 reasons why you might refer a client/student to
a staffing and recruiting agency.

  • A stay at home spouse can ease back into the workforce and try different employers in the areastaffing and recruiting agencies
  • A temp or contract position still gives time for a person to continue the search for a full-time permanent position
  • It can extend a person’s savings or out-placement severance pay
  • Prevents a gap in their resume
  • Gets a person’s “foot in the door” which can often lead to full-time work
  • A person with few skills or experience can build skills and work experience…like a coop or internship
  • If a person is new to a geographic area, it is a great way to build their network and references
  • Recruiters specialize in specific areas and when you find a recruiter who is looking for people in the industry you want to work in, they can be real assets in your search

Remember that staffing and recruiting agencies do NOT work for the job-seeker, they work for the company hiring. It is their job to find the best candidate for the position so that the company will come back to them and ask for more referrals.

As a career coach, we need to have many “tools in our toolbox” and referring to a staffing and recruiting firm is just one of the many tools we should have available to us.

Photo credit: Pixabay / Tumisu

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

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Do you need a business coach?

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Where are you in your own career development?
Would you benefit from hiring a business coach?
I know I did.

business coach

As a career coach/practitioner, if you believe you provide value to your students/clients, is it time for you to hire a business coach to help you improve?

I was reluctant to hire a coach to help me with my private practice but after about 3 years of being full-time with Peak-Careers Consulting, my business was leveling off and I wasn’t growing as much as I wanted. Hiring a business coach was an investment I wasn’t sure I could afford. Or was it an investment I could NOT afford to NOT hire a business coach?

I already have an Advisory Board for Peak-Careers made up of six people who are familiar with career counseling and providing career services. It is made up of a diversity of people and views that I consult with regularly. But their expertise does not include running a small business and all the intricacies it takes to be successful.

 My arguments for hiring a business coach are true even if you are not in private practice. How will you improve your own career?

Just like what we can do helping students/clients, a business coach can “nudge”, support, and inspire us in our own career development.

Why I hired a business coach…

I needed someone who understood small businesses and could help me think differently. Someone to challenge me to grow and to guide me on a regular basis. But most importantly, to hold me accountable to the action steps we create in our meetings.

My “to do” list had items on there that kept being moved to the next week or month. I knew I should be doing them but it was my inaction that kept me from doing them. My business coach would give me things to work on and when we met again in two weeks, I really did my best to do them knowing she was going to ask.

How I hired a business coach…

The first thing I did was ask my network of private practitioners if they had used a business coach and if they found it valuable. Some had used a business coach, many others had not. Most found value hiring, some did not. The key is to find the right business coach for you and then to do the work.

After asking my network, I checked out a number of business coaches websites and eventually took three of them up on a complimentary 30-minute coaching session. I highly recommend taking them up on this 30-minute session to see if it is a good fit. Do you like their style? Do you feel a connection? Did you pick up any tidbits that help you move forward?

Eventually, I went with Mandy because I felt like her strength was working with businesses who have been in business about 3-5 years to help them move forward to that next level.

What my business coach has done for me…

My business coach does not know as much about career services as my Advisory Board but knows the struggles of a small business. She has helped me reframe my thinking about what it takes to run a business. Here are just a few things she has helped me with:

  • Focusing my time daily. I now use a “to do” list with only 3 things on it each day
  • Focusing my longer-term thinking by using a 3-month whiteboard wall calendar
  • Rethinking how I use my Advisory Board (not an easy conversation to have with your Board)
  • Discussing pay for virtual assistants
  • Changing my marketing message to appeal to my ideal clients
  • How to grow my e-mail list
  • How to grow my individual career coaching clients
  • And much more… including her being “cheerleader” of sorts pumping me up when I needed it and challenging when I needed it.

An outside perspective…

There are simply things as an individual in private practice that you want to discuss with someone and that someone is not always in your network. Even if you are not in private practice, having a business coach, or possibly a life coach, can help you move forward in your own career development. By hiring a business coach you are able to have the discussions on topics that may be uncomfortable having with your network.

People in the business world often will hire life coaches or executive coaches. But I came from higher education and the thought of hiring someone to coach me never crossed my mind. I encourage you to consider the question of “How will you grow in your profession?”  “Could a business coach be what you need to move forward in your own career?

If you are thinking about starting a coaching business or are struggling with yours, you may want to check out our 5-week, online seminar, Building Your Coaching Business.

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

It’s All About The Conversation

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it's all about the conversation
—————— My conversation/interview with Skip Niles summer of 2018 ——————

As career coaches, we must always remember that it is all about the conversation. It is not about the assessments we give, or the advice we hand out, or even the resources we share. Without a quality conversation, we are unlikely to be that helpful to our clients. By discussing assessment results and consistently checking in with our clients, they can then learn how to interpret whether they are on the right track.

It’s all about the conversation.

When I was the Director of Advising, Career, and Transfer at a local community college, I taught a Career Decision Making class. I gave three different interest assessments—one personality and two values assessments. I always would say as I prepared the students for each one “Don’t believe the results of the assessments”. They’d look at me confused and typically ask, “Then why are we taking them?” I explained they should be suspicious of all assessment results. It isn’t until we discuss the results and make sense of them within each person’s specific life and situation that we can believe them.

The power of Career coaching is in getting the students or clients to explore their own beliefs, values, interests, and experiences and really listen to their interpretation of their world. If they present a skewed picture of their own career development or see obstacles where there are none, it is our job as the coach (advisor, counselor, practitioner…whatever you call yourself), to challenge their thinking and help them figure out how to move forward. Again, it’s all about the conversation and getting them to figure it out with our help.

Read how I use card sorts to create the conversation.

We should provide resources and information when appropriate, but the real power in the coaching session is getting the client to uncover important themes and realize they often have the answer within themselves, they just need a coach to help pull it out.

There is nothing worse than hearing someone say “My guidance counselor told me I could not do that.”  Or, “my parents said that I should do _________.”  Because when someone else says you can’t or shouldn’t or even should do something, it will be that person who is wrong when it doesn’t work out. Yikes!  Now we can suggest, offer, and nudge when appropriate but never lose sight of the fact that it is indeed all about the conversation.

Asking those great open-ended questions that get the client to think about things forces them to really try to make sense of their own career development. I am always listening for their words and phrases and my goal is to get them to be the one talking at least 60-70% of the time.

It's all about the conversation
Thank you_Pixabay-Geralt

Many of their own conclusions will not come in the current session. It may happen when they leave and do more thinking about your conversation, on a walk they take in two days, or maybe even a month from now. The key is to get them thinking and taking ownership of their own career development. You do that by making sure it’s all about the conversation.

Note: this blog is based upon Chapter 7 in my book A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Clients Create Their Next Move due out in May 2019.

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

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