Group Created: February 1, 2008 Current Membership: 7,791
This is a network for Senior Technology Professionals in Chicago to stay connected. The average tenure of a technology professional at any given company is barely over 2 years. So even if you’re not looking for a new job today, it’s important to stay in touch with people who can help you when the time comes. This group can help you do that.
Who can join the CTN? Technology Professionals who currently live within the Chicago area, and current clients of Speed Up My Search who hire local IT talent.
Our 3 rules:
- Be kind and respectful in your comments. If someone posts hate speech of any kind, they will be immediately removed and blocked from the group. There won’t be a discussion about it, they will just be removed.
- Keep the conversations around technology and technology related jobs. This is not a place for political opinions, thoughts about race relations, or even why it’s great to be a Chicago Bears fan. This is an inclusive group for all IT professionals who reside in the Chicago area, even local IT Professionals who are Green Bay Packer fans are welcome, but let’s keep the discussion about IT.
- Please do not advertise your products/services to the group, nor invitations to webinar/seminars. The only promotions allowed are from sponsors of our monthly networking meetings so we can keep them free for members to attend.
Any promotions you see posted in this group are from companies who sponsor the group to support our meetings. All others will be removed and the person advertising will be removed from the group. As a full-time IT recruiter and a job search advisor for IT executives, I won’t have time to discuss it, the person will just be removed as soon as the advertisement is seen or brought to my attention by a member.
How can this Group help my job search right now, this very minute?
Connect with the Administrator on LinkedIn to gain access to his contacts, deep in industry leadership.
Check out the Free Employer Resources to help you land the best people quickly.
Check out this great article about how to give and receive Great References!
If your job search is urgent, visit SpeedUpMySearch.com for a job board with thousands of jobs nationally, and a strategy to land those jobs fast!
Check out our current Job Openings
Connect with Group Members directly to share leads
Not a member yet? Click Here to join today!
How can this group help me get a job?
Other than starting open discussions in the main conversation feed of this group, here are a couple ideas that have worked well for many of our members about how they use this group to find local IT jobs.
Many of our members are passively looking for a new position and don’t want their employers to know about it. So, to use this group discreetly, they consistently search the membership list for people who work at the companies where they intend to apply. If they reach out to someone BEFORE they apply, then that person could possibly earn a referral bonus for referring them into their company. That deposits positive social capital with their new network connection AND it shortlists their name in the application pile since they were referred by an employee.
Reaching out to people outside of your network requires you to use an “Inmail”, LinkedIn’s version of an email and they limit the number you can send each month. However, when you are in the same LinkedIn group with someone you can message them for free – even people outside your network! Rather than starting completely cold, you have a common bond since you are both in the same group which is exclusive to Chicago area technology professionals. That commonality will increase your odds of getting a response to get help you need.
Another way to effectively use this group is to search for members by title, specifically seeking a list of people who do what you do. Once you have your list of people who do what you do in this group (all of which are local to the Chicago area), then open their profiles and take note of the companies who hired them. That effectively gives you a list of companies that hire people who do what you do, in your local area!
From there, set job alerts up for those companies so that you will be notified any time those companies post a new job. Now when you reach out to our group member, you not only have the common bond of being in the same group, but you can also show very specific interest in them and their background by inquiring about their thoughts of the company where they used to work. You may get insights about the work environment, the culture, the application process, and you may even get introductions or insider knowledge to get your resume pushed to the top of the pile.
Networking is a powerful tool and an effective way to land your next job faster, and this group can be a primary resource to help you get there faster.
