LinkedIn is your most valuable professional social networking tool. Largely because of the speed you can react & engage with industry professionals and hiring managers.
- You can connect with professionals in your sector
- Get seen by employers looking to hire
- Learn more about job roles and your industry
- Keep up to date with news
- Find and apply for jobs
- Chat in real time, to your network
- Reach out for help, advice, or promote yourself.
Firstly, as mentioned with regard to your CV, you’ll need a professional sounding email address. Do not use inappropriate references in your email address. Create a new email account if you need to, something that will stay with you throughout your professional career.
The more detail you fill in on your LinkedIn profile, the more engagement you will get.
Upload a photo - You will get much better engagement if you include a photo. Your photo should be of you, on your own & be in a professional or relevant setting
Write a Headline - Your headline is 120 characters, where you can grab the attention of your network – it should say, who you are, what you do and what you are looking for.
Your headline should attract the kind of employers you want to work with and be engaging enough to get them to read more about you or connect with you.
Your Summary
Your LinkedIn summary can match your CV profile, it’s to let people know who you are and what you are passionate about – where your skills are, and what you are looking for from your career, in a short, imaginative way.
As with your CV, its better to write in the first person.
You should use phrases that show you have some knowledge of the sector, include relevant keywords, and let your network know if and how you want to be contacted.
Work Experience
List your work experience as is on your CV – its really important to align the two, recruiters looking at your CV will check your LinkedIn so make sure the two match perfectly.
Include details of any work placements, shadowing or internships.
Achievements
LinkedIn advise your list your achievements at work using the STAR method - Situation – Task – Action – Result.
Portfolio - You should also add portfolio links or images here.
Skills
It’s possible to add up to 50 skills on your profile. - LinkedIn recommend you add 5 skills or more if you want to appear in searches. You can look at some of the skills listed on similar job profile to be sure your skills are relevant.
Education
Again its important this matches your CV , list you education and schools, as well as any awards or projects you have been involved in.
Connections
LinkedIn, like any other social network works better the more connections you have, reach out to people who interest you and start to build your network.
Start with people you know at university or college, and through work experience / internships. These will be great people to get endorsements for your skills from, people who know you and can vouch for your skills
As you meet people though networking or industry events, connect with them, you don’t need to send them an essay saying why, just send them a connection request, most people will be happy to grow their network too.
Get Noticed
The best way to get noticed on linked is to be active, share news, updates, and comment, share and like other peoples posts.
Creating your own content will get you noticed and raise your profile, but be sure you’re maintaining a positive, and professional image.
You can also join groups within the LinkedIn Network, relevant to your career/industry.
Search and Follow
You can look up people who interest you, business owners who inspire you, and its great practice to look up people who interview you.
You can follow brands that you love, so you can keep up to date with news and job adverts, and look at the hiring managers at these companies.