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LinkedIn

This is a social network targeting professional connections and the process of marketing oneself for vocational options. Your LinkedIn profile stores all the data required for occupational applications: your CV, Customer Reviews, the work you are interested in, previous employers, your professional experiences, past presentations/projects, etc. can all be made visible to corporations hunting for employees.

To get an edge in your graduate job hunt, you need to exploit your internet presence to the fullest. Secure your profile, remove inappropriate pictures, etc. but also use the web to connect with companies and make connections across the globe.

Points to keep in mind:

  1. Know what career you want before you set up your LinkedIn profile. Be aware of the industry, role or employer you are aiming for as this will help you develop your profile markedly versus haphazardly. Having an ‘employer-centric’ approach gives you a much better chance of connecting with the people who matter.
  2. Your email id should be professional and official – use your name and make sure it is an account that you check daily.
  3. Create a LinkedIn account and preferably finish filling the relevant details in one go. A complete profile holds much more value and results in broader employment options (your profile will come up in more searches).
  4. The sketch requires a comprehensive review of your education, work experiences, recent projects, your employment status at the moment, and a gist of who you are in essence, and three recommendations. Once you have concluded all profile data entry, you can edit your privacy by choosing the settings option. Decide how visible you would like your profile to be and remember to keep renovating it as you add to your closet of accolades and work experiences. You can also shift the order of section visibility through a simple drag and drop command.
  5. Don’t forget to use an appropriate photo. Schedule a shoot with a skilled photographer (a friend perhaps?) and dress up professionally. The picture should focus on the top half of your body, above the shoulders. Your photo provides a lot of credibility to your description as employers can see the face behind the talent and words.
  6. The initial part of your profile is the first thing employers will see, so make it prominent. Use statements that speak of your aspirations, as this is more useful to companies. You can edit your search link by clicking on the edit button next to your public profile. Customise your URL as there might be others with the same name and LinkedIn is a massive database. The search tags in your summary and experiences section should be comprehensive and focused because the right combination of tags will lead to your profile.
  7. Moreover, make sure that your description is reflective of who you are, as from other potential employees. Firms search for vibrant personalities who can add to the diversity of their organisations regarding aptitudes and perspectives. An enthusiastic candidate with vivid dreams and passions is seen in higher regard as corporations get an idea of who the person is. There are a few blank boxes where you can get creative talking about yourself. The main three are professional experience and goals, and critical skills. This is the selling point to an employer – you are bringing out who you are as a brand and why you deserve to be hired. Keep the content full of active verbs, and don’t include anything irrelevant. Be concise and focused. If your CV is scattered about various interests, organisations will see you as a confused candidate, unsure about your future.
  1. A unique highlight was LinkedIn’s smart software that organises your Resume based on distinct categories, highlight the most significant information at the top of your profile. Unfortunately, LinkedIn no longer offers this function. However, on the bright side, you can still export your LinkedIn profile as a PDF.
  2. Once you have uploaded your experience, you can solicit references. There is a distinct function for this on LinkedIn, and since it only needs to be a sentence or two, referees will not begrudge you this time. Potential employers will look favourably on this since it eliminates the need for them to cold-call your referee. References are a vital part of an executive’s decision about your application, and they form a lasting first impression. Also, you can now get endorsements for your skills, but be prepared to endorse others in return.
  3. Do not connect to someone unless both you and the person have a viable reason for doing so. Recruiters are unlikely to accept requests from unknown, unemployed graduates. You will get relevant suggestions based on mutual employers, education institutions, majors, professional interests, and your contact book. There are options to invite people to your account to connect. Network digitally once you have met a prospective employer in person. This will make sure the firm’s executive remembers you, and they will be able to keep up with all your updates.  Perhaps you could land a job with them later in the future?
  4. Join LinkedIn groups by industry; they are a good place to get advice and find enterprise professionals. Forming the right connections is vital to your career’s success as being a member of related groups will boost your visibility on LinkedIn and increase your ripples. Group recommendations are automatically suggested, but you have the choice to search for/ form new groups. Groups have data recorded – statistics, popularity, the tangent of the group, etc. which you can view to understand the relevance to your professional aspirations, as well as the potential return you could receive by joining.
  5. Regularly browse for job opportunities and keep up to date with corporations that pick your fancy by ‘following’ them. The search engine helps you make narrow searches based on geographic location, industrial sector, and various other eliminating factors.
  6. Do not connect LinkedIn with other social media unless they display you in a professional light. If you have a suitable website or Twitter feed that might improve your chances of employment, then link to it at your discretion.

What is more, just as you should think twice before putting links to your private networks on your LinkedIn account, think twice before you link to LinkedIn on your out-of-hours networks.

 

July 11th, 2017

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