Linkedin: Improving your profile for job searching
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The document provides guidance on improving one's LinkedIn profile for job searching, including adding a professional photo, customizing the LinkedIn URL, completing one's profile with education, work history and skills, exploring career ideas by researching what previous alumni have done, connecting with colleagues and interest groups, and being proactive in job searching by contacting companies and gathering recommendations. The document also recommends maintaining data protection and security settings while using LinkedIn for professional networking and job searching.
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Linkedin: Improving your profile for job searching
- 1. Careers and Employability Centre Improving your profile for job searching
- 2. In this session we will cover how to: • Improve your LinkedIn profile • Research careers using LinkedIn • Make use of networking on LinkedIn • Use LinkedIn for job searching • https://students.linkedin.com/uk In this session
- 3. Improving your profile First things first…… • What sort of jobs are you applying for? • What are the key words that employers in this area are likely to search for? • What skills are important in these jobs?
- 4. Improving your profile Key information • Photo – recent, professional but friendly, smile! • Customise your LinkedIn URL – your name or name and job area • Privacy settings: • make sure it is public • make sure your employment status indicates you are job searching
- 5. Key information Headline: about 10 words, not job title, include key words Summary: • first 2 to 3 lines are the most important • include key words • include your experiences, goals, success stories… Have a look at this example CV. Improving your profile
- 6. Improving your profile Complete your profile • Education, work history, volunteering etc • Skills and endorsements – up to date and relevant • Get recommendations – ask University tutors, work managers, team members, societies • Add links to show off your work visually where relevant, eg. presentations, show reel, blog • Regularly update your profile
- 7. Exploring career ideas University of Sussex alumni pages https://www.linkedin.com/edu/alumni?id= 12726 • What have previous graduates of your degree have gone on to do? • What skills have they developed? • What skills are important in their work roles? • Can you find out how they got into their current career?
- 8. Different ways to connect •Work / volunteer colleagues •University of Sussex alumni •Follow companies you are interested in Join interest groups – 2 or 3 •Follow individuals – not just famous ones; who inspires you? •Invite people to connect with you •Ask for recommendations Networking on LinkedIn
- 9. “Hi, I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” Networking on Linkedin Who could you connect with? Can you think of: • work or volunteer colleagues? • organisations? • interest groups? • inspiring individuals? ….. you could connect with. Work in pairs to come up with some ideas.
- 10. Job searching using LinkedIn More than an online CV • Make sure your employment status points out that you are job searching. • Make it easy for recruiters to find you. • Highlight key skills. • Include links. • Include voluntary work and interests to help you stand out. • Upload your CV so recruiters can access it.
- 11. Be proactive: • Contact people – build your network • Follow companies you want to work for • Contribute to groups • Ask for recommendations • Gather relevant skills and endorsements Job searching using LinkedIn
- 13. BUT REMEMBER … But remember… • Data protection – think about what you put online • Security settings – you can strengthen these, 2-step verification possible • Notifications – you can switch these off • Separate your personal and professional online profiles
- 14. What next? How could you improve your profile? List 3 things you could do to improve yours …..
Editor's Notes
- Make yourself easy to find – searchable Before you start, list some key words relevant to the job area you’re interested in. What key words are recruiters and employers likely to be looking for? But avoid BUZZWORDS like: Motivated, Creative, Enthusiastic, Track record, Passionate, Successful, Driven, Leadership, Strategic and Extensive experience You could look at websites in the job sector, careers pages, or some typical job descriptions…. Decide which words you need to get in to your profile – in your: headline Summary Recommendations skills and endorsements ACTIVITY: can you think of 6 key words for a job area that you are interested in? If you’re not sure of a job area, just choose one you know a bit about and concentrate on that one or ask and we’ll suggest one. 5 minutes – then feedback – write some key words on flip chart.
- Potential employers and recruiters want to know as quickly as possible: who you are, what you offer, how you would fit in to their organisation, how they can contact you. The most important bits are those that people will see first: Photo: keep it professional, recent/updated, smile (to look friendly) Change your URL to your name; if that’s already taken use your name and job area.
- Essential to work on the headline and summary are these are the areas employers will look at first and you can use your key words…. Headline: include some of your key words –don’t leave it as a job title, keep to about 10 words (120 characters max) Summary: 2,000 characters. Space to: expand upon your broader experience, success stories, and professional goals and objectives integrate keywords ACTIVITY: Here’s a student CV – we’ve created a couple of headlines. Which do you think work best? Why?
- LinkedIn gives higher prominence to completed profiles. Complete: Education, skills, volunteer associations, work history, etc. Include all the interesting stuff that doesn’t fit on your CV, but paints you as a well-rounded individual. If your volunteer experience directly pertains to your job search, put it in as work history, so it’s up in the relevant section, not down at the bottom. Keep your work history relevant - You don’t need to list every single job you ever had - only list the jobs that are relevant to your current career goals. As your skills and endorsements list grows, filter it to include those most relevant to the work that you do or the jobs you are looking for. Ask contacts for endorsements – Uni tutors, work managers, work team members, volunteer managers etc etc Add images or documents to your experience to create a visual portfolio along with your standard CV information. You can upload your dissertation, presentations, BUT where they are relevant to the jobs you are looking for. Add links to relevant sites; if you have a work-related blog or online portfolio, make use of the three URLs you are allowed - use discretion though. So you’ve got a LinkedIn profile….. NOW WHAT?????
- But remember… Not all job sectors are well represented on LinkedIn, eg. health care
- There is an etiquette to networking on Linkedin – think carefully about how you interact with people. You can network in many different ways: Connect with: Sussex University alumni Work team members (this includes volunteering) Follow companies you want to work for and sign up for alerts about their recruitment campaigns. Join GROUPS - think about the groups that you follow: Join 2 or 3 that you think you could participate in Join groups relevant to your industry and where you want to live Contribute to the groups where you can – you can ask questions to find out how people got in to their careers, ask them about any ideas you have etc. Delete those that prove not to be useful If you want to connect with someone you have NO connection with, you could join a group that they follow and connect with them that way. Follow the right people, not just the famous ones. Who are the leaders and influencers in your career interest area? Who inspires you? Invite people to contact you – but get your profile sorted first!
- You may have this sorted or you might feel a feel a bit lost and unsure of where to start…… ACTIVITY: Who could you connect with? Can you come up with 5 possible connections you could make?
- Easy for recruiters to find you – use key words important in that job area, personal URL, focused headline and a key worded summary Highlight key skills – what are the employers looking for? Include links to any online work or related activities you can, or links to employers you’ve worked for.
- BE PROACTIVE – the more activity you are engaged in online, the easier it is for recruiters to find you.
- To summarise……
- Security settings: You can opt for a 2-step verification process Make your password at least 15 characters long including numbers, lower case and upper case – a hacker can work out a 10 character password in 1 week, 15 characs would take 150 million years! You can choose who sees you looking at their profiles etc.