CAREERS NOW 01-21-07

Choose Your Best Networking Sites

DEAR JOYCE: How important is it for me, a 56-year-old, to start a MySpace page? I would create a professional-looking page that makes me stand out. Agree? - S.I.

Best known for youthful users who are attracted by songs, dating opportunities, journals, photos and other Generation Y interests, MySpace has added a jobs component, powered by the vertical job search engine, SimplyHired.com. So cruise the site and make your own call.

But you'll find a better demographic for your situation on a business network such as LinkedIn.com. (You can spot other business networks through a Google search for "list online social networks and "list online business networks.")

LinkedIn gives you access to people and jobs beyond your immediate circle. Looking for a job? You post a profile of relevant facts about yourself, invite your friends to do the same, search your network for contacts, and ask those friends of friends of friends to help you find a match.

(Additionally, LinkedIn has just launched LinkedIn Answers, a new service that allows users to receive business-related advice from their personal networks and countless experts in the LinkedIn network as a whole. Full membership in LinkedIn is fee-based. Subscribers are now allowed to ask 10 questions a month.)

Are recruiters really willing to invest loads of time in looking at your Web presence - social or business networks, blogs and personal Web sites? Yes, it appears they are when they're searching for exceptional talent.

DEAR JOYCE: I am doing a job search under the radar. I can't afford to be "found out" before I have a new job offer. What do I do about a job reference? - A.B.C.

Write "Confidential" atop your resume and during an interview spell out the need to keep your search quiet. If the job is what you want and you think an offer is in the works, say that you'll be happy to have your references checked with your current employer once you've been hired. Even if you don't get a great reference from your boss, chances are good that you'll be kept on if you're doing a good job - managers often don't want to go through the hiring process again.

DEAR JOYCE: I got a call from a woman supposedly at a major company identifying herself as a "sourcer" who said she had my resume and that I should interact with her. I never heard of a sourcer. Is she for real or is this a new kind of scam? - P.A.

She's legit. Corporate recruiting departments are splitting into specialties, often with titles unfamiliar to the general pubic. In addition to sourcer (a specialist who finds good candidates), examples of other titles used these days include referral programs specialist, candidate developer, selection specialist, project manager, consultant, events recruiter and college recruiter.

DEAR JOYCE: I got laid off from a great job in 2003 and I have been looking for work since January 2004. I have been turned away from potential jobs for every conceivable reason you can think of. I even have five personnel services that are supposed to help me, but none have come through. Recently I was denied an interview for a job because I haven't worked in so long that I'm now tagged as "unemployable."

I am looking for temp-to-hire or direct hire employment. There is nothing anywhere that says I have to take temporary assignments to appease the working establishment while I look for a full-time job. If this is the way that employers think, then what am I supposed to do? - X.Y.Z.

Go back to the personnel agencies that have tried to place you and ask for a candid evaluation of what's keeping you unemployed and for suggestions on how to fix it.

If that approach dead-ends, ask a reference librarian or a counselor at a government Career One Stop Center to refer you to a free or low-cost job club where you can share tips and moral support with other job seekers. Locate the nearest center at servicelocator.org.

An unusually helpful book you can use has just been updated: "No One Will Hire Me! Avoid l7 Mistakes and Win the Job, Third Edition" by Ron and Caryl Krannich, Ph.Ds (Impact Publications; www.impactpublications.com; $15.95). I'm holding good thoughts for you.

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