Skills Are Recruiter Magnets

Do you want more people to find your LinkedIn profile?

Here's the easiest fix - add skills.

Did you know: According to LinkedIn data, members who list at least one skill, receive up to 2x more profile views and connection requests and up to 4x more messages.

Do a little research and see which skills are in demand/required for the jobs you are targeting:

📍 Analyze LinkedIn job postings for skills required
📍 Look at LinkedIn's Career Explorer for your desired role and see top skills

Now you are ready to add these skills to your profile.

💡 You can only list 5 featured skills in your About section.
💡 And your profile can now accommodate up to 100 skills.

You can add skills to About, Experience, Volunteer, Education, Projects and more!

Use a blend of skills:

💎 Industry Knowledge
🛠 Tools & Technologies
💪🏻 Interpersonal Skills

Do this today and see how many more profile views you get!

For The Brave and Bold: Message people who have looked at your profile and ask if they have additional questions you can answer.

And if you want to see the slidedeck for this, check out my post on LinkedIn

🔎 JOB SEARCH

30 Common Job Scams and How to Protect Yourself | FlexJobs

25% of people have fallen victim to job scams at least once. Please, review these scams so you don’t get scammed. 

• Fake jobs and/or companies

• Company impersonation

• Ghost jobs

• College/University impersonation

• Phishing scams

And the list goes on with details to help you identify and protect yourself. 

Where To Get Financial Help When You’re Unemployed | The Job Hopper

Do you know how many weeks of Unemployment Insurance you will get? And what is your plan when that runs out? This post has a list of resources and tips you should know about. There are Federal and State resources, local resources and resources for generating income when unemployment runs out. 

6 Hot Resume Topics: Truths or Mistruths? | Adrienne Tom, Career Impressions

Opinions vary when it comes to resumes. Do you wonder about use of color, photos, mailing address, length, or ATS-friendly resumes? These plus other commonly debated resume issues have been answered and it’s worth every second of your reading. 

💻 LINKEDIN

Take full advantage of LinkedIn’s most powerful features | Neil Danzger

The simplicity of the graphic shouldn’t fool you. Most LinkedIn users have not adequately completed these areas of their profile. As Neal writes in his post: 

Employers need to:

↳ find you easily
↳ hear about what people say about you (recommendations)
↳ read a meaningful About section that isn’t a vanilla recap of your career/education
↳ learn about your experiences outside of work
↳ see examples of your work, if available

🗨 INTERVIEWING

Interview Breakthrough: The Secret Sauce to Acing Your Next Job Interview With AI - Standout Summit | Ashley Thomas

This is one of several sessions offered in Jobscan’s Standout Summit presented this week. This one on interviewing covers: 

• Conduct research: company, industry trends, and target role, so you ask meaningful questions and demonstrate genuine interest.

• Tailor your approach: different interview formats (e.g., behavioral-based, panel, etc.) and company cultures.

• Craft compelling narratives: PAR stories.

• Handle tough questions: challenging or unexpected questions.

Did you miss the other Standout Summitt presentations by Jobscan? Check the playlist out here.

⚙ AI

 The work tasks people use Claude AI for most, according to Anthropic | ZDNet

What kinds of employees are using Anthropic's Claude chatbot and for what types of tasks? This is the analysis done by Anthropic. What it found was that software engineering tasks made up the majority of the queries in the dataset. Writing and editing were the next most used tasks.

The report also found that AI augments human capabilities 57% of the time and automates work -- directly performs tasks for people -- 43% of the time.

Finally, the research showed that AI tools are used more often by people in medium to high-paying jobs, such as data analysts. Workers in both the lowest-paying jobs (like hair stylists) and highest-paying jobs (like physicians) rarely use AI systems, typically because their work focuses on hands-on tasks.

🔮 WORKFORCE

Tough trade-offs: How time and career choices shape the gender pay gap | McKinsey

“58.7 percent of women participate in the labor force, compared with 70.2 percent of men. And what women and men do at work diverges significantly over time. Our research finds that that divergence, over a decade or more of work, drives almost 80 percent of the gender pay gap of 27 cents on the dollar—what we call the ‘work-experience pay gap.’”

• One-third of that work-experience pay gap is because women accumulate less time on the job than men.

• The other two-thirds arise from different career pathways that men and women pursue over time.

• As women switch jobs, they are less likely to move into occupations projected to grow in demand, instead often moving into shrinking occupations.

• Some employers enable greater movement into growing occupations for all workers while reducing the gender pay gap, even adjusting for the industry mix.

💰 CAREER

Workers need hope, and people leaders can help give it to them | HR Brew

According to a recent Gallup report, 64% of global adults want leaders who instill in them a sense of hope, followed by trust (27%), compassion (5%), and stability (5%). As leaders and/or HR professionals, understand what you can do to provide hope to your employees during times of change. 

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📶 RECRUITER PERSPECTIVE

The ATS Score Problem: Separating Fact from Fiction | Jan Tengze, Job Search Guide

“While the idea of an ATS score is based on a real process, the specific numbers generated by many online tools are often unreliable and should be interpreted with caution.” Tengze walks through what is important to focus on when crafting a resume. Things like simple formatting, content quality, and most importantly, the appropriately used keywords.

💗 WELL-BEING

You've Heard Of FOMO, But What Is 'FOBO'? | Caroline Bologna, Huff Post

“FOBO, or fear of a better option, is the anxiety that something better will come along, which makes it undesirable to commit to existing choices when making a decision,” says author and venture capitalist Patrick McGinnis” For example, you’re in a grocery store and need to buy coffee and become paralyzed by options - whole bean, organic, dark roast, etc. It's the worry that stops you when making a choice, mainly when you have many options, afraid that a better—or perfect—pick might show up right after you decide. Do you have FOBO?

EVENTS

Job Search Challenge

March 25-April 22, 2025
Get weekly job search goals/actions for 5 weeks plus instructions
Plus weekly check-in calls
$39

JOB SEARCH VISUAL

I  came across this gem from a year ago (thanks @HungLee )

For all job seekers hesitant to turn on the Open To Work banner (even if just recruiters see it) will this change your mind?

Please follow me on BlueSky

DID YOU MISS THESE

22 Best Job Search Tips From the Experts for 2025

6 Ways NotebookLM AI Streamlines Your Entire Job Search

Laid Off and Looking: How To Stay On Track & Motivated (video)

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

CIVIC MATCH

Civic Match by Work for America is for federal workers making a job transition and campaign staff departing 2024 campaigns at the federal, state and local level.

Local governments across the country are eager to leverage your talents and expertise to help improve local government functions, from public health to infrastructure projects, and fill essential public service roles.

COACHES CORNER

LinkedIn: Advancing Your Skills - Peak Careers

March 15 – April 19, 2025 I’m pleased to offer this online seminar that addresses the three major components of LinkedIn.

• Creating a powerful profile

• Building a quality network

• Engaging with one’s connections

Peak-Careers is an NCDA approved provider. Also meets CCE approval for GCDF.

Details and registration here.