- Some people are landing jobs through the help of their LinkedIn posts.
- A current sales strategist got a job after someone at the company saw her LinkedIn post.
- A career expert at LinkedIn shared with Insider how laid off people are using the platform.
The US labor market is still hot: Job growth soared in January as 517,000 jobs were added.
But many companies have made layoff announcements over the last few months, meaning many workers are now having to figure out how to find a new job. Social media and social networks may be beneficial for these new job seekers — like LinkedIn.
Kayla Lazenby, now a sales strategist at SalesHive, was one person who was laid off last year who turned to LinkedIn.
She had previously made a career jump from education to tech and she told Insider she "used networking as a huge way to break into this industry." After being notified she would be laid off from her job at an edtech company, she tried networking again.
"I knew that if networking carried me this far, that it was going to carry me once more," she said.
She posted on LinkedIn about how the company she worked at has laid off some people, including herself, and how she was available for work.
She found success in getting a new job just two weeks after learning about being laid off. The chief customer officer at her current employer commented on her post noting that the team she leads is looking to expand.
Similarly, Wen Huber was able to find a new job after being laid off by posting on LinkedIn, according to a Wall Street Journal article. He made videos in what he called the "Laid Off" series and shared them on the site. In one video he shared some things he learned a week after being laid off.
"When I was applying, to be honest, I didn't feel very confident because there was such an influx of competition with a lot of people also being laid off," Huber said per the Wall Street Journal.
Huber told Insider that he was "shocked and not sure what to do next" post layoff.
"So many companies were doing layoffs during this time so I had been seeing a lot of posts on LinkedIn from people announcing they had been laid off," Huber told Insider in an email. "Given my background as a content creator, I saw a unique opportunity to share my story on LinkedIn in a creative way."
"After releasing my video, a few companies had reached out to me but there was one that stood out which was a small tech startup," Huber said. "They were interested because my post had caught their attention and they enjoyed my story. From there, we had a few conversations back and forth, I met with the team, and then they offered me the job."
Huber accepted a position as a social media manager about a month after being laid off.
There are people who have been laid off like Huber and Lazenby who are finding work relatively quick through the help of networking and social media posts about their layoffs.
"We're seeing a trend emerge where people affected by layoffs are increasingly turning to their professional community on LinkedIn to share their news, ask for help, hone their professional skills and help find a new opportunity," Andrew McCaskill, a career expert at LinkedIn, told Insider in a statement. "For Black professionals this is critically important with just over half (55%) of Black professionals saying that they have the network, community and resources to find a new position if they get laid off."
"And the community is responding," McCaskill added. "Many of those who have reached out to their community have been successful and landed a new job in a matter of weeks."
There are many companies who have made layoff announcements, like Zoom and Dell. And although the length of being unemployed in weeks is low compared to where it stood in 2021 per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it's still taking people time to find a job. Half of unemployed workers had been unemployed for 9.1 weeks or less in January, per BLS.
But those who have been laid off may be able to find some help instead of just directly applying to roles.
"New LinkedIn research shows that more than half of working Americans say they have the network, community and resources to find a new position if they get laid off," McCaskill said. "We are seeing this in real-time as the LinkedIn community has rallied around each other throughout the pandemic and even more so now in light of layoffs."
Based on her experience networking, Lazenby advises people who were laid off or looking for work to be "intentional with who you're talking to."
"Look at the people who have done the things that you want to do and have been successful in it, and those are the people that you want to network with," she added. "You always want to be in a room with people who are smarter than you so that you can learn and you can grow yourself. And I really believe that that's how every job I've landed since I've been in the tech industry has been because of networking."
For Huber, he said that "as a social media manager, I believe social media can be a great opportunity for some."
"People love stories," Huber added. "That's why I turned my unfortunate experience into an opportunity to tell my story that people could follow rather than just a static post announcing I was laid off. Putting yourself out there can be very intimidating, but figuring out a creative approach to sharing your story can be really impactful. Creating a video may not be for everyone, so find a creative way to tell your story and make it 'you'."
Have you recently been laid off or made a career switch? Have you used social media to find a new job? Reach out to this reporter to share your story at [email protected].