Picture yourself in five to
ten years. Are you still in the same job? Doing the same thing you’re doing
now? Chances are, no, that’s not what you picture. You plan on moving ahead and
moving up in your current career or maybe even in a different career. Well,
that’s a lot more likely to happen with a targeted LinkedIn profile filled with
value statements.
Let’s examine why this is the
case starting with a little bit about LinkedIn. LinkedIn came on the scene
touted as “a Facebook for professionals”. It was a way to network, offer
skills, find hidden job opportunities, and build industry or function
knowledge. It quickly emerged as the “Gold Standard” for business networking
and it doesn't look like they are relinquishing the title anytime soon.
When they first came into
vogue the site was mainly geared toward high level executives; people who had
amassed years and years of experience and accomplishments. However, just like
Facebook was only for college students at first, things change. Now, LinkedIn
is where you go to position yourself as a career professional and make useful
contacts. Not to mention the groups. The LinkedIn groups are GOLD!!! Pick an
industry and there’s a group for it on LinkedIn. These groups offer
information, guidance, job tips, and support, as well as, actual job postings!
A job board NOT peppered with mystery shopper or fraud ads. Real jobs for real
people.
As more and more employers
are performing their due diligence before hiring, we find that they are turning
more and more to LinkedIn. A lot of large companies are even requiring current
employees to have and maintain a LinkedIn profile. So, it looks really good if
you already have one. Everyone knows what you’re going to find on Facebook; pictures
of vacations, kids, funny pictures, etc. There’s always the possibility of them
finding something you might not want them to see as well. Advice? Make
everything on your personal social networking sites private to anyone that’s not
already on your friends list. This drives away unwanted attention to your
personal life. Remember we are all responsible for maintaining our own boundaries.
Get LinkedIn, get LinkedIn,
get LinkedIn!!!! Your LinkedIn will consist of one picture that you choose. It
should be a professional looking headshot. This does not mean you have to hire
a photographer. It just means no MySpace angle bathroom pictures, employers don’t
care what your dog, kids, or spouse/partner look like, and they don’t care that
you met Michael Jordan unless you work in sports. Just a friendly headshot that
makes you looks reliable, relatable, and most of all hirable.
Once you have your picture,
you’ll need to write a summary. A lot of people choose to write their summary
of qualifications or career profile direct from their resume. That’s okay, but
this space is really the only chance the employer will have pre-interview to
get an idea of your fit into their corporate culture. Therefore, I suggest
writing it in narrative. Just like you’re introducing yourself. It should be
friendly, professional, and should contain key skills that will compel the
reader to continue, just like a cover letter.
Next you’ll need to add your
experience, job by job. For this section, always, always, always copy and paste
from your resume. Everything you show an employer regarding your background and
skills should be consistent. If it’s important enough for the employer to know
about, it should be in the resume first. Then, copy and paste your job history
from your resume into any professional online profile you have. Content and
consistency are king in a successful
job search. There’s a special skills section under the job history, use your
core competencies. FILL THIS SECTION as
best you can!!! These are the keywords that cause your profile to pop up in
employer searches. LinkedIn makes this relatively easy, as they give you a drop
down menu of skills as you type. Make sure anything you choose is backed up by
your experience and accomplishments.
Now all that’s left is to
make connections with people you know in your industry or target industry. If
you have friends that use LinkedIn, connect with them, the more quality
personal connections you have the better. Do not, I repeat do not, LinkedIn
request employers or people you don’t know but want to know. LinkedIn maintains
its professionalism by taking reports of unsolicited connection requests very
seriously. Request to connect with enough people you don’t actually know and
LinkedIn will remove you. The best thing to do is find LinkedIn groups that are
in-line with your career or target and join them. Participate in the
discussions and comb them for information and opportunities. As you become more
involved on LinkedIn, the people in your target industry begin to recognize and
remember you as a positive contributing group member. This facilitates requests
to connect that are encouraged and accepted.
I’ve heard a lot of people
say that LinkedIn is not for them. They don’t work in an industry that uses it,
or they don’t have an important job so they don’t need one. Let me put it this
way, unless you want to stay at the same career level, in the same industry, in
the same function for the rest of your working life, then you need a
LinkedIn profile. This site is the first site ever to allow both, a job seeker to control their search
effectively, and allow an employer to source quality candidates from one place.
It’s here, it’s not going away, it’s getting bigger, and you need to be on it!
