Tag: jobsearch

Why Hire Me

by Mill Montejo on June 3, 2019 in Career Tips Tools Advice, Job Search, keywords, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Tips, Self Help, Tech Tips

Mill Montejo business card — Get a Job Search Superhero on your team!

✅ WHO I AM – WHY HIRE ME TO HELP:

I am a Nationally Certified Online Profile Expert (NCOPE), and an active member of The National Résumé Writers Association. I was The NRWA’s Education Chair for a few months in 2012 and then I went on to serve 5 years as their first Social Media Community Manager. I currently help the organization facilitate monthly career related webinars.

I’ve spent 7+ years, developing résumés and profiles that convert into interviews and new jobs for job seekers.
Prior to that I was a Fleet & Operations Manager for 7 years that worked closely with Human Resources to recruit both drivers and operations staff.
I handled inbound candidates through the complete hiring lifecycle from their recruitment, to their interview, and thereafter where I was tasked to make hiring recommendations to my superiors. Finally once hired, I handled new employee on-boarding and training.
I became very passionate about putting the right (peg) candidate in the right (hole) job.
On average – 75% of my clients see an increase in LinkedIn profile views within days after I revamp their profile.
85% of my résumé and or LinkedIn clients receive calls for an interview.
As of our most recent client feedback survey, we were thrilled to learn that an average of 75% of our clients have been interviewed or hired after we helped them with their career documents and LinkedIn profile.
We work with clients from all around the United States remotely using Skype, FaceTime, and other similar video chat options along with phone, text, and email to optimize their career brand.

✅ WHAT CLIENTS SAY ABOUT ME:

To see valid, verifiable reviews of my resume writing business, written by my clients, please see Google reviews –> click here and also visit my LinkedIn recommendations, and Yelp reviews.

Mill Montejo & The Talent Mill Team
CONTACT THE JOB SEARCH SUPERHERO FOR HELP!
201-667-2994

Upload your résumé for a free critique where we tell you exactly how we can help & give you personalized project quote.

Pick 3 dates on the calendar and we will call you for a 20 minute no obligation, FREE phone consult about your career document needs and goals.

LinkedIn Success To Do List

by Mill Montejo on December 14, 2017 in LinkedIn, LinkedIn Tips

LinkedIn currently has more than 277 million users in 200 countries and territories around the world, They host 3 million business pages, 2.1 million groups, and 77% of all published jobs. So it’s easy to understand why LinkedIn is the most popular social networking site for professionals, job seekers, and businesses, and enterpreneurs selling their services. About 48% of recruiters post their jobs exclusively on LinkedIn. After the recent Microsoft purchase, LinkedIn is only expected to grow more as Microsoft is certain to integrate some or all of its Office 365 Cloud products with the platform.

Getting to know how to navigate LinkedIn is very important for professionals in active or passive job searches. The following list has been compiled from the collective expertise of knowledgeable recruiters and resume writer colleagues that have spent years assisting job seekers with their career documents as well as LinkedIn profiles.

A professional photo
A customized profile URL
A keyword injected headline
A profile summary rich in keywords that sets you apart from the crowd
A concise career story that is easy to understand
Profile sections structured so that your career trajectory is easy to read
Powerful action based statements
Quantified achievements per job role
At least 50 skills that connections can endorse you for
Be a member of at least 2 LinkedIn groups
Have at least 2-3 recommendations or more
Showcase certificates and highlight your education

Profile Sections Character Counts and Image Dimensions

With the release of the “new desktop experience” for LinkedIn in early 2017, some of the character limits and graphic sizes have changed. This cheat sheet will provide a quick reference to the current guidelines (as of November 2017).

Character counts on LinkedIn include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation.

Name field:

First name: 20-character limit

Last name: 40-character limit

Headline:

120-character limit

Summary:

2,000-character limit

Summary preview:

Depending on the device being used (desktop vs. mobile), LinkedIn will show the first two lines of the Summary (and then a prompt to “See More”). The preview is approximately 25-40 words (or 200-250 characters) — again, depending on the device.

Vanity URL (customizing your LinkedIn public profile URL):

30-character limit (5-character minimum)

http://www.linkedin.com/in/________

Cannot use spaces, symbols, or special characters

The customizable part of the URL is not case sensitive (JaneJobseeker, janejobseeker, and Janejobseeker will all point to the same profile).

The URL can be changed up to five times within six months (however, changing your URL frequently is not recommended). If a URL has been used and then changed, that URL will be unavailable for use by anyone for six months.

Website URL (links):

256-character limit

Status Update:

600-character limit

LinkedIn Publishing:

Headline: 100-character limit

Post: 40,000-character limit

Experience:

Job title: 100-character limit

Position description: 2000-character limit (200-character minimum)

Recommendations:

3,000-character limit

LinkedIn Groups:

Conversation title: 200-character limit

Body: 2,000-character limit

Comments: 1,000-character limit

Maximum Number of First Degree Connections:

30,000

Graphics:

Personal Profile Image:

400 x 400

Maximum File Size: 8MB

Acceptable File Formats: PNG, JPG, GIF

Personal Background Image:

1584 x 396

Maximum File Size: 8 MB

Acceptable File Formats: PNG, JPG, GIF

Common Sense Reasons Why LinkedIn Users Should Be Scared of the New Open Candidate Feature

by Mill Montejo on October 18, 2016 in Career Tips Tools Advice, LinkedIn, Private Job Search

This post is intended for all job seekers that have active profiles on LinkedIn since they stand to lose the most, or gain the most with the new “Open Candidate” feature. I can introduce evidence to you that LinkedIn does not have a lock on error free web development and how mistakes with your content can and will likely happen. All users must take responsibility for their profile privacy settings, or risk being found out by a current employer while looking for another job. Sure firing you for that specific reason is illegal, but we all know there are many ways to skin a cat when we want to.

Over the past few weeks you may have heard about a new LinkedIn feature called “Open Candidate” where a signal is sent to certain recruiters that you are “open” to receiving open job offers to apply to. While turning this feature on might raise your profile within a recruiters search, I am not convinced that all the kinks have been worked out of LinkedIn’s site coding.

I have been managing a couple of LinkedIn groups for 3 years now and there have been all sorts of technical glitches which I have reported to LinkedIn support. Upon doing so I was told that they have been aware of the problems with the group notifications showing ‘errors in total number count’ and they are working on it. I have included images below of graphical interface of a mess that is my groups management console.

These errors have been there at least 2-3 years.

LinkedIn Groups Notifications Number Error

In this article from Design Week on September 26. 2016 by Sarah Dawood, she quotes LinkedIn as saying “this is the largest redesign this LinkedIn’s inception.” With this website overhaul going on I would treat lightly in adopting their fresh out of the box Open Candidate feature. I’ve already given this same advice to one of my very own résumé clients. It’s safer to not run the risk of letting your boss get wind of your job search and can you. Sure, they can’t fire you for looking for other work, but we all know there are ways to disguise that.

Another article I’ve recently read on TechGenYZ.com by Ankeeta Pareek shares some good tips on how to make your job searches more private. If you do decide to use the Open Candidate feature and something goes wrong, at least you will be limiting and fragmenting the online data to give you time to prepare a backup plan (i.e. attempting to delete digital trail that you were seeking other employment). Determine ahead of time if your current life and financial situation is worth risking by being an early adopter of this feature. At a time in history where even password manager sites like “Lastpass” get hacked, the DNC gets hacked, movie stars and celebrities have their images stolen, companies lose confidential data and are blackmailed, do you really think that it will matter to LinkedIn that they accidentally leaked your information? See all of their many disclaimers about the Open Candidate feature below.

This is the switch you will flip to signal certain recruiters that you’re open to job offers.

How It Works – Disclaimer

Share Career Interests With Recruiters – and more disclaimers.

Open Candidate Disclaimer – whoops!

So the final question for you to ask yourself before you hit that switch is this; how badly do you want to be an early adopter and try out this new LinkedIn Open Candidate feature in the hopes of finding a new job? If you’re still employed it takes a bit more thought, patience, and common sense. IMHO it’s better to wait and see what happens with this feature as the website is redesigned rather than to turn on that “signal” and have it go haywire.

Be careful, and as always, best of luck in your job search.

*Have you started using the new LinkedIn Open Candidate feature to market your profile to recruiters? Are you concerned that your current employer or others will find out that you are actively entertaining job offers? Comment here or drop us a line via the contact form with any questions.

Job-Seeker Action Verbs — By Skills Sets | Quintessential LiveCareer

by Mill Montejo on September 29, 2016 in Action Words, Career Tips Tools Advice, Résumé

One of the parts of the client résumé we like to focus on at The Talent Mill are the action words and phrases that jump out at the reader when they first look at your career document. Some argue that these words are just “fluff” and distract from the purpose of the résumé to list your skills and experiences.

I would say that synonyms have been around for as long as the English language so why not pick the best ones to describe what you’re good at? Why not tell them in the strongest terms just how your brand and experience translates into opportunities for their company? To this end, I have included a link I came across that helps you find alternate words per skill set.

“Listing of critical action verbs organized by skills. Action verbs describe key job-seeker skills and accomplishments and make employers take notice.”

Source: Job-Seeker Action Verbs — By Skills Sets | Quintessential LiveCareer