Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep163: 5 best job opportunities on LinkedIn.

Episode Date: January 28, 2023

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Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast. In today's episode, I want to share with you the five biggest job opportunities that I got on LinkedIn that helped me grow my career. Now, if you have been on LinkedIn for some time, but you're still struggling to attract new career opportunities, you are doing something wrong. And in today's episode, I will share with you what I have done for more than 10 years being

on LinkedIn that really helped me to attract new career opportunities, even though I was not looking at that time. And before we dive in, I also want to share a piece of exciting news with you. I have been honoured the LinkedIn Top Voice Award for the careers category. So now this is a very special award by LinkedIn given to career experts helping many corporate professionals to grow their careers and I feel very honored to be part of that recognition. So if you have not followed me on LinkedIn yet, make sure that you do so and I look forward to seeing you in my LinkedIn community. Now let's dive into today's episode. Now one of the biggest complaints I hear a lot from many corporate professionals who are struggling to get new opportunities,

even though they've been spending months, if not years on LinkedIn, is the fact that they think it's impossible for them. And I'm here to tell you today that this is totally not true. Now, I've used LinkedIn for more than 10 years and I've attracted new career opportunities almost every month. And even nowadays, as a career coach, I am still getting messages asking me if I'm interested to return to banking, risk and compliance, and all these spaces are obviously spaces of my expertise. And nowadays, my clients and students in my program, The Corporate Survivor, are also able to attract new career opportunities for themselves. Let's get started with the first career opportunity that I managed to get on LinkedIn, and that is an interview with Google. Now you know that Google is one of the biggest companies in the world and it is really almost impossible to get your job application to be seen because you are

competing with thousands and thousands of people. But how I managed to get the interview for a Google position was actually a very interesting one and it started from the time that I was working in Visa. And during that time I was working in Visa, I was seconded to the US for more than a month and where I worked with US leadership and stakeholders, again, based in the US. So one of the vice presidents that I worked with really had a very good impression of me. And even though I've left Visa at that time, she still kept in touch with me because she really valued the work that I have done. Now, fast forward a few months later, she moved from Visa to Google.

And during that time, Google was in the process of setting up their branch or rather their internal audit division in the Asia-Pacific region. And interestingly, the vice president remembered me. And in fact, she told one of her regional directors to reach out to me on LinkedIn to ask me if I was interested to pursue an opportunity with Google

as part of her team. So that is a really, really strong referral from someone who have worked with me before and knew the quality of work that I could present. She was comfortable working with me to a point that she would want me to work with her again on her team. So the regional director dropped me a message on LinkedIn and that was how I discovered that it was a job referral and eventually we met up.

I went through the Google interview process, but of course, ultimately I did not accept the role because it was not really aligned with my career direction. But the interesting point I want to share here is, it's not something that you always think about that people do remember you and you really need to be very good at your job to have a strong reputation that a corporate leader, a hiring manager remembers you good enough to want you again on their team. So that's the first thing, focusing on your value. And that was how I got the referral in the first place. But the second part is also really important, because even if someone wants to refer you, you must be able to be found. Can you imagine if the vice president told her regional

director to say, hey, look for Mei Ping, and he started looking for Mei Ping on LinkedIn, and I didn't exist, I didn't have a LinkedIn profile, I think I would have missed out on that opportunity. So aside from really delivering value in your current job and any jobs that you have been in, but also making sure that you are visible on an online platform, preferably LinkedIn, that houses tens of thousands of corporate professionals, ensures that you can stay connected for a very interesting job opportunity, and you can really latch on the job referral if that comes your way. So it's really kind of a two-part strategy, but I also wanted to share this particular story for me because I know that in Google,

it was an interesting time because I did not apply, but I managed to get headhunted through a job referral and I was found because I had a LinkedIn profile. So I highly encourage you to think about creating a LinkedIn profile. If you have not already have a LinkedIn account or have a LinkedIn profile, make sure that you go and do that right now. Now, moving on to the second job opportunity that I managed to attract on LinkedIn was an opportunity to consider a position with PayPal. Again, as you know, PayPal is one of the biggest global payments companies in the world. And a very interesting part about this story is actually,

I was not even searching for any job at PayPal at that time. And remember what I said earlier about making sure that you have a LinkedIn profile? Now, you also want to make sure that your LinkedIn profile is optimized and has all the right keywords to position your value. Because how I managed to attract that opportunity from PayPal was because of my LinkedIn profile and things that I wrote in there that attracted the attention of the global head of audit of PayPal. So one random day, I switched on LinkedIn. I went into my LinkedIn account and I noticed that there was a message that said that, Hi, Mei Ping, I came across your profile. I looked at your working experience and I think that you are really very suitable for my team in Asia-Pacific and I would

like to invite you to have a conversation with my Asia-Pacific leader to see if you would consider an opportunity with PayPal. So when I read that message, I'm like, what? First, I'm not actually connected with anyone in PayPal, so I was actually really surprised that I was found. But then again, I think it shows you the power of having a strong LinkedIn profile, but also an optimized LinkedIn profile to make sure that you can be found. Otherwise, I would not have had the opportunity to get connected or to attract attention from someone in a slightly different industry than where I was and definitely a different location as well. So that's why I'm saying that after creating an account, you want to make sure that you update your profile and also make sure that you optimize your profile so that you can be found.

Now, the PayPal position was eventually something that I did not accept because the position was a little bit junior, but the sense of discoverability is still a real thing because if you cannot be discovered, then there's also no opportunity for you to even think about whether this job is the right one for you. So the luxury is in the consideration process and the more you can attract opportunities, then the more you can really think about whether,

hey, is this something I want to do right now? And if it's not something I want to do right now, then maybe later. But it all starts with LinkedIn. And onto the third opportunity that I managed to do right now and if it's not something I want to do right now then maybe later but it all starts with LinkedIn. And on to the third opportunity that I managed to attract on LinkedIn surprisingly this time was a recruiter approached me for a position at Alipay. Now if you don't know Alipay is part of the Alibaba group which is really one of the e-commerce giants based out of China. Now this is a a regional position, again, based in Singapore. And it's also one of the first times that I received a direct message from a recruiter. So this was really many

years ago. And basically, in the recruiter's message, it says that, Hi, Mei Ping, I was browsing through LinkedIn, and I came across your profile. I looked at all the skills, experiences, and achievements that you have had. And I think that you're a really good fit to work with Alipay as one of our managers. So is this something that you're interested to consider and can we get on a call? So usually recruiters' messages are pretty direct and you must really have a very strong profile of relevant experiences, skills and achievements in a well-articulated version in your profile to really entice a recruiter to want to drop you a message and just say, hey, are you interested? And if you're really interested, then I will work with the company to see how you can go for an interview and potentially be part of the team. So that was

when I learned that, hey, actually, even though I'm not actively hunting, just by having a strong LinkedIn profile, there are recruiters out there, talent acquisition people, HR people are constantly looking for candidates. And if I want to stand out, I need to make sure that I'm selling my profile and I'm selling my professional value in the right way so that they will really think of me. And the best thing is that now the recruiters are selling the job to me. It's not Mayping pushing for the job, but it's the recruiters thinking that, hey, Mayping's profile is awesome. And therefore, you know, is this something that you want to do? So as you can see here, it's a very different dynamic versus, you know, you pushing, pushing, pushing and feeling frustrated. Rather, this is a

process of attracting. And the attracting always starts from having a strong LinkedIn strategy to know exactly how to update your profile as a corporate professional that recruiters are attracted to and they want to talk to you versus just going around LinkedIn and hoping for the best, which from banking, some from MNCs, e-commerce companies across multiple and multiple industries. And that was when many, many years ago, I think this was almost 10 years ago, I learned the power of making sure that you have a strong profile, optimized profile, and the profile also contains the right value positioning for you. Because that's something that I think a lot of people miss out upon thinking that just a profile is good enough but it's not really good enough you need to make sure that your value positioning is very clear and this is something that I go through in more detail with students in my program in their online LinkedIn branding modules because it is very detailed there's just so many things that

you want to make sure you get right but the beauty is that you only get it right once and then eventually you can see all the interest come in. So it makes a lot of sense, at least to me, to invest that few hours going through all the modules that I teach in detail. And right now it's module six of the Corporate Survivor, going through the modules in detail, setting your account up correctly and wait for the recruiter's messages to come in because your profile is definitely designed in a way that they'll be very interested in you if you do it right. So let's move on to the next career opportunity that I managed to attract and maybe this is a slightly different example because opportunity number four was an interview with Visa. Now Visa again is one of the biggest global famous company in the world and

this was a role that I eventually accepted that allowed me to travel to more than 20 countries covering Asia Pacific, Middle East, Central Europe and Africa. So an amazing opportunity and how I managed to leverage LinkedIn to get this opportunity was utilizing LinkedIn Jobs. So in case you don't know, LinkedIn has a job search functionality that actually accumulates a lot of interesting job opportunities that you can consider depending on the industry, the company, the role and the job title that you want. It's a very comprehensive platform. And I remember back in 2013, one of the days I was scrolling through the LinkedIn jobs tab and I noticed that, hey, Visa is hiring for an audit and risk specialist,

audit and control specialist. And I thought the job description looked really interesting. Now, again, I was not really in a position to actively job search, but the opportunity presented itself to me because I was on the platform. I was scrolling through some of the jobs and I realized that, hey, this is a great opportunity and let me give it a try. And I give it a try. And I gave it a try. I made the application through the LinkedIn platform itself.

And within three days, I got a call for interview. And the interviews actually happened really fast. And within 30 days or less, I managed to get the job offer. So it was really, really, really fast. And as you can see here is your profile is also really important because if you set your profile up correctly, what this also means is that the LinkedIn algorithm understands what your skills are, what your value is, what your experiences are, and it will match the right job with your profile.

And that's how the amazing opportunity to work with Visa actually popped up because my profile had a really good fit. And that's why I managed to spot the job first. That's why I also got the opportunity to interview first and eventually get the job. So this fourth story is a little bit different from the earlier ones because for the earlier ones, it's solely attracting. But this one, you can definitely be a little bit more active to seek out the opportunity maybe not in a desperate way because if you're not an active job seeker then it's not so much desperation on your part but i always think it's really important to keep your options open to just scroll around and again you know if you are setting up your profile correctly

then the opportunities that are appearing in front of you, right, based on the algorithm are probably opportunities that makes better sense to you. It fits better for you. It actually works better with your career growth. And that's really something you want to aim for. So that's why foundationally, I always talk about making sure that you are setting up a very strong LinkedIn profile and you're setting it up as a corporate professional, not as an influencer out there because guess what? Unless you're trying to become an influencer, then it's a different story. But if you're listening to my podcast right now, I would say that 99.9% of you, you want to grow your career in the corporate world. You want to increase your salary. You want to increase your income for yourself and your family. And therefore, if you want to set your LinkedIn profile, you want

to make sure that you are learning how to set it up correctly for a corporate professional. Just like I have been a corporate professional, that's why I also teach these strategies to clients and students in my program at the moment. And that's really something that you want to make sure you get right as well. Big job opportunity that I managed to get on LinkedIn, and that is the opportunity to join Standard Chartered. Now, I've truly grown my career in Standard Chartered. And since I joined, I managed to get promoted every single year with 20 to 30% salary increment. And I made it to Senior Director and Head of Governance and Control while only in my 20s. And it would not have been possible if I was not on LinkedIn and I was not discovered by the global HR.

So let me tell you exactly what happened. Again, this was one of those stories where I attracted the opportunity versus seeking it out. So as I said, I've had the LinkedIn profile at that time for a few years already. And over time, as I learned how LinkedIn works, I gradually optimized my profile to a point that if you look at it, you probably want to hire me, you probably want to reach out to me and that was exactly what happened. So one of Standard Chartered's human resources team was scrolling around LinkedIn looking for job candidates for a new team that would be set up for a compliance function. Now she is someone who is actually working for standard chartered human resource talent acquisition so again this is an internal staff not an external recruiter that i shared in the

third story so this recruiter this internal talent acquisition staff was looking around and she came across my profile and i remember during that time it was during the year end which you probably think that a lot of people are not working, but guess what? People are working, so never take for granted. So she sent me a message on LinkedIn in the message, and she said she found my profile, and she thinks that I have a very high job fit with what she's looking for, and she was wondering whether at the beginning of the year, I would be keen to come for an interview, and we can then talk a little bit more about the role and so forth. So I had a look at the beginning of the year, I would be keen to come for an interview and we can then talk a little bit more about the role and so forth. So I had to look at the role and I thought it was actually really interesting, even though again at that time I was not necessarily looking.

I remember what I said about always making sure that you are open to new opportunities to fuel your career growth and that was exactly what I did. So I decided to go for the interview and eventually accepted the job and since then on my career has only gone up as I climbed the career ladder with Standard Chartered and I remain very thankful because I know that if I did not have a strong LinkedIn profile, if I didn't correctly position my background, skills, experiences, and the value that I can bring, the achievements that I have already gotten, then I probably would not have received the message asking me if I'll be interested. So now this is basically HR selling the job to me, not me asking for the job, but HR selling the job to me, which I think is a good situation to be in.

You want to be presented with new opportunities, and that's something that I've definitely done for myself. So all in all, I think that LinkedIn as a career platform, it's a goldmine of a career platform. And I think that if you don't have an account, then you are definitely missing out because the traditional way of looking jobs through all these other job portals is a little bit outdated already so LinkedIn is the new one and you want to really want to make sure you get there and as someone who has been on LinkedIn for more than 10 years in the corporate world and nowadays as a career coach and specifically today just gotten recognized as the LinkedIn top voice I can let you know that LinkedIn is the future. And if you're applying a

very strong LinkedIn strategy, you know exactly how to set up your profile, you know how to do your networking in the right way that doesn't burn you out, you know how to engage in a way that you can attract attention from recruiters, HR, talent acquisition, hiring managers and corporate leaders, you will have multiple job opportunities for you to choose from as you grow your career. And I think that's something that's truly powerful. And for me, having a very smartly thought out LinkedIn strategy was really one of the reasons also. I managed to change careers to a different industry, to a different company, to a different job, to a different role. And that's all through the power of LinkedIn.

So if you have not on LinkedIn already, I highly recommend that you create an account. And if you really want to learn the step-by-step to apply an effective LinkedIn strategy from LinkedIn profile setting to the optimization, to the networking strategy, the engagement strategy, the job search strategy, then make sure that you check out my signature program, The Corporate Survivor at www.thecorporatesurvivor.co. So online LinkedIn branding is covered in module six and phase three of the Get Visible with Personal Branding module. And it is also part of my job search strategy bonus lessons that you will get lifetime access should you join the course. So in the meantime, I'm also planning to run several LinkedIn workshops to be announced. So make sure that you follow me on LinkedIn

and you don't miss on any of the new announcements. So in the meantime, again, if you want to learn the step-by-step, then I look forward to seeing you in the program and hopefully in our live workshop sometime soon. All the best in your career and I'll see you in the next episode. Good luck!