The Internet is a stalker's paradise. A little Googling can give you someone's life story. Half the time, people are vomiting their day-to-day movements on blogs, Twitter and Instagram so you don't even have to dig too deeply. So how can you make this work for you and your career?
Whether or not you're looking for a job right now, connecting with people who share your interests - and future job title - is very important. And worth the semi-creepy research.
This guest post was written by Michelle Tran, a junior art director who's okay with being overly nosy.
The Creepy Things I Do on LinkedIn:
The We Went To The Same School So We're Cool, Right:
2. I went through every member in the group, and made a list of everyone that had a job I wanted.
3. I visited each individual's page to check their resume, experiences and skills, and picked out people I might want to connect with by age and location. (People in the NYC area, that had graduated no more than 6 years roughly so that the age gap wouldn't be as big, and so that we may have more in common to chat about.)
4. Then I connected with them, including a note that I am also an alumni of their alma mater and their program and just wanted to ask some questions.5. If they accepted, I sent a more detailed message asking if they were willing to chat with me about their experiences, how they got their job, and/or take a look at my portfolio.
The Public Private Investigator:
1. I use the suggested people tool that LinkedIn has. If I know a name of one recruiter, I see who else they suggest and make a list of recruiters.
2.Then I google them and find out their work email template (some are MTran@agency or Michelle.Tran@agency-usa) and then reach out to them directly via email, instead of on LinkedIn.
When I'm feeling especially bold, I'll do this with Creative Director emails as well.
The Background Checker:
1. To gauge the type of people that are working at an agency I admire or want to work at, I took at the LinkedIn profiles of employees who work there. I check out their experiences, resumes and portfolio links to see what other people are doing.
2. I take note of what we have in common and what I need to be doing.
The I See You Over There Looking At Me:
2. Sometimes I connect with them. Especially if it's a recruiter or another AD. (One time I requested to LinkedIn with a person who looked at my page and asked if they could give me their professional opinion on why they looked at it and how I could represent myself better. That person decided to forward my resume/book to HR.)
3. Sometimes I see who we are both connected with and ask that person to introduce me.
Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn , Twitter and Tumblr.
You never know what may happen.
