This document provides guidance on developing an effective LinkedIn profile. It discusses the importance of LinkedIn for professional networking and recruitment. Key aspects of a strong profile include a professional photo, well-written headline and summary, thorough work experience using accomplishment-focused language, relevant education details, and engaging with connections through meaningful recommendations and messages. Maintaining an up-to-date profile highlights one's brand and skills to employers.

1. Developing Your LinkedIn
Erin Bullard
Manderson Graduate School of Business
Career Services Specialist
embullard@culverhouse.ua.edu

2. What is LinkedIn?
• Over 300 million global professionals
• 3 million + company profiles
• 85% of employers say that a positive online
reputation influences their hiring decisions

3. The Basics of LinkedIn
It’s all about Professional & Effective networking
– Connect with professionals and colleagues
– Gain insight into companies of interest and their employees
– Engage in industry-relevant
conversation
– Stay on top of current industry events and
opportunities
– The ability to develop a detailed online resume
and portfolio that emphasizes your strengths

4. The Importance of LinkedIn
• 80% of recruiters coming to Manderson use
LinkedIn as part of their search
• 65% of all recruiters use social media to
evaluate character
• Almost all recruiters use social media to
evaluate grammar and spelling

5. Aspects of a Good Profile
Picture
Headline
Summary
Work Experience
Education
Projects
Honors/Awards
Organizations
Activities & Societies
Volunteer
Skills & Endorsements
Additional
Information

6. The Right Photo is a Recent, Formal
Headshot

7. Questionable Photo Choices
• Group Shots• Clearly unrelated to
your professional
aspirations
• Too Small
• Unflattering
• Blurry

8. Customize Your Headline
This is your #1 branding statement!
This Not This
Wordsmith with proven ability to translate
business objectives into communications
strategies and tactics
Account Manager with 15 years experience
in exceeding sales goals is ready to help
your company
Helping clients find solutions to challenging
problems in supply chain operations
Proven Financial Analyst and Consultant
Looking For New Opportunity
Kelly J. Welch at Professional
Speaker
Asistant Manager
You got questions, I got
answers!
I’m a closing machine!

9. Summary:
A Compelling Overview
• What do people say about you?
• What are the main things people should know
about you?
• Human Factor – show some personality.
• Give yourself a voice
– Demonstrates your writing skills
• Make it easy to find your contact info

10. Examples of A
Good Summary
http://www.linkedinsights.com/3-stunningly-good-linkedin-profile-summaries/

11. Relevant Summaries
• Jen Pollard
– http://bit.ly/JenPollard
• Joseph Wolfe
– http://bit.ly/JosephWolfe
• Shabad Grover
– http://bit.ly/ShabadGrover

12. Have A Descriptive
Experience Section
• Use Action Words
• Conversational Tone
• Be Thorough
• Quantitative Details
are a must
• Use the STAR method
– Situation
– Task
– Action
– Result

13. Work Experience Examples
• Travis Autry
– http://bit.ly/TravisAutry
• Sarah Renner
– http://bit.ly/SarahRenner

14. Education
• Tag The University of Alabama
– And any other schools you may have attended
• Include your degree & majors/minors
• List the years you attended
– (if your graduation date is in the future, that’s fine – list it!)
• Include any relevant details about the university
– Accounting major – include the rankings of the accounting
program.
– Interested in career in sports marketing - include
Alabama’s culture of sports.
• GPA is optional
– >3.5 preferable

15. Courses
• Illustrate your curriculum by
emphasizing those courses that might prove
your skill set
• Determine what skills are relevant for the
positions you’d like to apply for
• Go beyond those courses typical of students
in your program
– Which classes did you particularly excel in?
– Which classes would you be able to apply your
knowledge of in a job position?

16. Projects
• Class Projects give you relevant, “real world”
experience
– Detail the project parameters, goals, actions
taken, and results
• Tag classmates you worked with
• Example:
– http://bit.ly/leahstuart

17. Organizations
• Include positions
you’ve had within
organizations
– Just like work
experience, but you
typically aren’t paid
for this
• Leadership
positions especially
• Example:
– http://bit.ly/prakash
sudhir

18. Volunteer Experience
• Just as valuable as
work experience
• Relatively easy to
get involved as a
volunteer
• http://bit.ly/mhdeck

19. Activities & Societies
• Honor Societies
• Intramural Sports Teams
• Clubs where you were not
heavily involved
• Little room to add detail –
typically just listed
• Example:
– http://bit.ly/jennijohnston

20. Skills & Endorsements
• Organize your endorsements
based on relevance and
importance of skills
• Endorse others to encourage
reciprocity
• Make sure skills are relevant
to your experience and
future career goals

21. Honors & Awards
• Scholarships
• Dean’s List
– Note the number of
semesters
• Awards for
Competitions

22. Additional Sections
• Languages
• Certifications
• Patents
• Publications
• Test Scores
• Interests
• Personal Information
– Birth date
– Marital Status

23. Adding Content
• Creating an online portfolio through LinkedIn
– Pictures
– Presentations
– Papers
– Projects
– Links to sites
– Publications
– Videos
– Graphs
• http://bit.ly/susfant

24. Recommendations
• You can request a
recommendation either via
LinkedIn or personally
– Be specific about what you’d like
the recommendation to focus on
• A specific project, job, work,
skills, etc.
• Aspects of good
recommendations:
– Provide some context and define
the professional relationship
– Concentrate on specifics –
project, skills, etc.
– Be genuine
• You can reciprocate the
recommendation if you feel
comfortable enough to comment
on their professional work

25. The Power of LinkedIn:
Connecting With Others
• It develops a more
powerful and
trustworthy
connection when you
take the time to
personalize your
message.

26. Researching Companies
• Example: Google
– http://bit.ly/googleLI

27. Research Employees & Career Paths
• Which university/universities
did they attend?
– This could provide insight as to
where the company recruits.
• What degrees do they have?
– Do you have a similar degree that
would qualify you for a similar
position?
• What experience do they have?
• What positions did they
previously have?
• Where are they located?
• How do they describe their job responsibilities?

28. Connecting through a Mutual Contact
• Tell them:
– Who you are
– What you have in common
– Why you want to connect?
• How can they help you?
– Ex: You aspire to work for the
same company and in a similar
position and want some advice
on how they got there.
• Don’t give a sales pitch
• Keep it short & to the point!
• Be tactful

29. Your Personal Brand
“Personal branding is the process
of developing a “mark” that is
created around your personal
name or your career. You use this
“mark” to express and
communicate your skills,
personality and values. The end
goal is that the personal brand that
you develop will build your
reputation and help you to grow
your network in a way that
interests others.”

30. Your Brand is a Start-Up
• Treat your career as a startup
– Companies hire people to monitor their brands
– They have a clear, consistent brand image & message
• SO SHOULD YOU!
• Monitor your online activity
• Post!
– Consistently post material that is valuable to your brand
• Using social media for your social/personal life is fine
– Update your privacy standards
– Use the Grandma Rule to judge what is appropriate

31. Questions?