Your LinkedIn Profile
Like it or not, LinkedIn is the world's largest Rolodex. One of the first things a prospective hiring manager will do if they are interested is find you on LinkedIn to get a better impression of you as a professional.
So, what do you need to do with LinkedIn to get started?
Create a profile using your personal email address. You can add your work address to verify that you work there, but remember that you will eventually lose access to it.
Include your career history for a maximum of 10 years. Anything before that is mostly irrelevant unless you are in a profession where longevity is critical - engineering, law, medicine, academia, etc.
Switch on the setting that lets recruiters know you're looking for opportunities. Click on 'Me' > 'View Profile'. Click on 'Open to' > 'Finding a new job.' Click on that and complete the rest of the page. You're now officially looking for work. Note that you can open the fact to contacts, recruiters, or anyone. LinkedIn tries not to show recruiters from your company, but it gets it wrong sometimes.
Remove any non-work-related posts: no cats, no parties, no banter.
Go to the skills page and click 'Add a new skill'. You can add as many as you want, up to 50. Ensure that they are real and align with your CV. Note: the more skills you add, the more generalist you appear and the less credible the list seems. Make sure you focus.
Add as many people as you know as contacts. Invite as many as you can — without them, you won't be able to participate in the final activity.
Endorse your contacts for the skills they have. Be honest because the profiling system depends on them reciprocating and endorsing you for your skills. Once this process starts, it will gain speed and recruiters using the system and searching for skills will suddenly find your name popping up.
Add your contact details, and ensure they work effectively and are professional. cutejohn71@hotmail.com probably won't get many emails.
When I was job searching, I switched on the premium features, and I could see which people were searching my profile and which ones then contacted me. This allowed me to experiment with my profile to get the right words, approach, and, importantly, skills.
I could also view other profiles, send contact emails, and use the analytical information available for job searches.
Takeaway: Spend time curating your LinkedIn profile! It's your shop window.
Comments