We talked about finding your next job opportunity via LinkedIn. We acknowledged that there’s a LinkedIn game to be played, and we must learn how to play it – whether we like it or not.
This could include:
Sending connection requests to people
Commenting on other people’s posts
Resharing interesting posts
Sharing direct messages to continue a conversation
Plus more!
We highlighted that it can feel super overwhelming to turn up to do this day in and day out. Also, it’s off-putting to see so many people who have applied for a LinkedIn-advertised job already.
I wonder, with the complicated state modern social media platforms are in right now if we have also reached peak LinkedIn.
Put another way, are there more effective ways to get yourself out there and find your next opportunity?
Of course, I’m biased and I actively share that being part of the MoTaverse is indeed one important way to do so! There are plenty of ways to contribute to raise your profile. Internally we keep an ever-growing list of ways to contribute and receive a Community Star badge each month. It currently stands at 40 ways.
Christine highlighted that her network and networking skills – via LinkedIn and beyond – have become a superpower for creating opportunities.
So what do you think? Where next for LinkedIn and its impact on the QA/Testing/Quality Engineering communities?
There are lots of different platforms and ways to find a job. Unfortunately, you can’t rely on just one if you want to have a choice and consider different opportunities. You can always check company websites and apply directly. Personally, from my experience, LI has been the most effective tool in the end - not because of its social network features or networking but because there are a lot of users (recruiters), and it’s a nice job ad aggregator. But if you want to improve your chances and be in a better position during negotiations, use different approaches and resources simultaneously
For me, I’d say it’s important to make your contributions visible to as many people as possible. Social media is massively discoverable and adopted by hiring managers so putting stuff there really helps.
Why does sharing contributions visibly help?
Allows people to see what your testing skills are
Shows you’re open to learning and upskilling yourself
Shows your outreach to non-testers
I’ve talked in the past about weaponising your contributions, making the most of what you’re doing to showcase your skills. Having a place to showcase your awesomeness to the most amount of people easily maximises the value of the contributions you make.
For whatever reason, networking typically doesn’t work for me - or it hasn’t yet. So, keeping a lookout for opportunities is more helpful.
And, that’s one reason I started writing Failure is Feedback. It’s basically my living resume and keeps documents that I got tired of writing when joining new companies.
@shad0wpuppet - totally agree. LinkedIn was the example we were discussing, primarily due to the scary number of applicants stats. Currently I am using at least 6 recruitment sites and other professional sites such as the BCS.
I am also applying directly to websites if I hear of opportunities. It is a full time job,
In the last few months, LinkedIn has been flooded with ai generated content, and now it’s a bit tough to distinguish between non-ai and ai generated posts. It’s okay to take the help of AI tools for writing but writing whole content with AI that too so lengthy post has somewhere decreased the value of content on Linkedin.
Now anyone can write on anything so it’s a bit tough to judge someone’s skill based on content they share on LinkedIn. Everyone is trying to be an expertise
Other options that can be impactful are showcasing live projects and code, and their testing skills on Linkedin instead of posting ai generated content.
There are still genuine people on LinkedIn, connecting with whom can be beneficial, but we have to filter them out.
If you have a solid GitHub portfolio then the recruiter can find it there also.
Also, currently, people are spamming LinkedIn with fake job posts so in my opinion LinkedIn is good for making connections and reaching out to people through DM or Comment for referrals for the next opportunity.
I definitely agree that it is important to do multiple things to stay “findable” or visible. When I interview people I was always looking for their contributions online if it is linkedIn posts or now definitely any posts on MoT or articles on dev.to.
As a job seeker I was doing these things:
connecting with people via LinkedIn (if you are the 2nd connect to an HR person you pop up easier for them on their search)
build up or brushed up my github profile (can also be done for manual test strategies or test case and plan creation)
Actively mentioning in my LinkedIn posts that I was “Open to Work” and also setting my status on Linkedin (that was the hardest one for me)
But I have to mention that some of my past jobs I got through employee referral programs where employees get a Bonus if they bring someone on board. I was always reached out by former Devs I worked with (even if it was just 1 month of overlap)
