I had a first today! Someone connected with me LinkedIn.com, then asked me for career advice. I’m an open networker on LinkedIn. An open networker means I’m open to receiving connection requests from people you don’t know on the platform.

Connecting with people I don’t know is not unusual. Getting a message asking me for career advice after connecting, that’s a first.

I’m a Data Analyst in my current role. He explained that he wants to become an Analyst and asked if I had any career advice for him. A concise message with a simple question. Few details.

I had to think about this. Why me? I’m not a career counselor. One look at his LinkedIn profile revealed the reason. He’s a Sales Consultant who wants to become an Analyst. My career progression over the last seven years has been from a Sales Consultant to a Project Coordinator to a Data Analyst. Not a common transition.

I did respond to him with a couple suggestions. I’m sharing what I said to him. I had time to think about the question so I’m giving far more details here.

First, make sure you list specific skills under each position. Recruiters search for skills. My profile lists Excel development, Microsoft Access development, Sharepoint administration, Dynamics CRM administration, among other skills. Every call I received from a recruiter was asking about my skills, not my positions.

Second, learn from the experts. I knew to focus on skills because I started listening to career advice podcasts before and during my search. I also listen to podcasts about the field I’m interested in building a career. It’s an excellent way to keep up with treads in any field. You can catch a recruiter’s attendance with the skill listed on your profile. However, you need to be able to have a convincing conversation during the interview. Podcasts can help with that.

Here are some podcasts I listen that help me know how to conduct the search (recruiting trends). Then have convincing conversations about the skills and business trends. [Keep in mind some these podcasts are newer.]:

Search for your skill and see what podcasts come up.

Thank you for reading CAPMandMore!