Ah yes, good ole LinkedIn. The “social media” site your college professors made you create and then you never touched again. Truth be told, I may have become one of those people had I not become a recruiter. For me personally, my social media professor tasked us with creating a profile and making it an “all-star” ranking. This is LinkedIn's designation that says a profile has most if not all sections filled out, and actually helps optimize your profile in search results.
Throughout college I received a few hits: insurance sales, financial planning internships, intense messages from LinkedIn-ers wanting to know my goals, etc. I was hopeful that my dream internship or first job out of college was one in-mail from a recruiter away.
Unfortunately it didn’t happen for me right away. When I started looking for a new job after my first one out of college, however, I decided to hop back on LinkedIn. I applied for a job there last time and got it, maybe I’d have the same luck again?
I decided to select that I was open to new opportunities (a setting I'll talk more about in part two), which prompted a few messages from various recruiters in the area. Some were for customer service rep jobs, others were for recruiting roles. Either way, it was reassuring that people were interested in me as a candidate.
Out of all of the applications and cover letters I sent out, I got my current job from an in-mail. The manager of my office sent a short and sweet message looking to talk further about the role they had open. I said sure, hopped on the phone with her, and the rest is history! That simple decision to click a button helped me get the job, way more than any job application had.
Moral of the story: LinkedIn works if you let it. That being said, there are a number of things you should do to put your best foot forward.
Let’s start with the basics: building out your profile to make it look complete. The easiest place to begin, your experience section!
Add all relevant jobs, including descriptions of your job duties in each. This does not mean, however, that you need to put your cashier job from high school five years into your professional career (sorry Piggly Wiggly). If you want to make it easy on yourself, just copy and paste the bullet points on your resume into each description box! I prefer to convert the bullet points into a little blurb but it’s ultimately up to you. Here’s an example off of my LinkedIn:
While it’s short and sweet, it includes the basics of what I do day to day. Other things you could include: technologies you use in your job (especially if you’re in IT), key accomplishments, an explanation of what the company does if needed, and more.
If you’ve been promoted in a role, LinkedIn has a new function that will group together positions at the same company as long as the dates are within a month of one another. Just something to note that will organize your profile and help clean it up a bit.
This brings me to my next point: double check your profile to ensure dates of employment are correct. When you add a new position on LinkedIn, it’s easy to just add the role and not update your last to reflect you’re no longer there. Luckily for you, LinkedIn will give you a helpful reminder. When adding a new position, a text box will pop up asking if you’re still at your last role. By simply checking the box, it will update the end date for you!
Either way, ensure you update your previous role with your end date so that everything is accurate, instead of looking like you’re working multiple jobs. LinkedIn will keep counting it toward your years of experience, which can be deceiving. Call it a pet peeve of mine if you will.
Another thing to include: skills and certifications. Your skills section makes your profile more visible to recruiters, particularly when recruiters are sourcing according to specific skills. Adding skills also helps your connections give you endorsements, but we’ll get to that more in a later blog post.
If certifications are something you’re actively pursuing, add those in too! As you get more certifications, continue to update the section to accurately reflect your education and professional improvement. Employers love to see candidates educating themselves and gaining skills: show them off!
One last thing to complete your profile: add a profile picture! To me, this adds the final personal touch your profile needs. With that being said, make sure it’s a professional photo of just you. You don’t have to hire a photographer to take a headshot, either. Instead find a friend with a good camera, iPhone or otherwise, a blank wall, and a nice outfit you’d wear to work, suits not required.
Pictures that should not be posted: Snapchat filtered photos, blurry or unclear pictures, and webcam photos. These include any pictures that are close up or at an odd angle. If it’s not straight on, maybe opt for one that is. If you’re feeling up to it, add a nice cover photo too. I would suggest a nice graphic, no personal photos. Here’s an example of my profile:
Having all of these components on your profile creates a great base. The work isn’t done there, though! Next week, I’ll be covering LinkedIn connections, profile visibility, engaging with companies, etc.
More on that later - see you next Wednesday!
This article is my own and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TEKsystems.
Comments