LinkedIn

Navigating LinkedIn

What is its purpose?

  • Job seeking tool 
  • Building a professional network 
  • Building an online brand 
  • Employers using it as a recruitment tool 
  • Personal, Professional and Field Specific articles and resources

LinkedIn Statistics

  • 93% of recruiters are looking up social profiles of candidates
  • 42% of these recruiters used information found through social media profiles when making hiring decisions

Building Your Profile

You can choose what is and isn't displayed for different groups of people

  • Turn on/off your profile edits
  • Select who can see your activity feed
  • Select what others see when you've viewed their profile
  • Select who can see your connections
  • Choose who can follow your updates
  • Change your profile photo & visibility
  • Show/hide "Viewers of this profile also viewed" box

 

  • Your profile is 21 times more likely to be viewed if you include a photo
  • Profiles with photos get 36 times more messages
  • Keep your photo up to date & appropriate
  • Make eye contact with the camera & smile
  • Quality is important
  • Update picture of you shoulders up. Professional posture and warm smile with minimalistic background
  • Arrange your information in order of importance
  • Record the pronunciation of your name
  • Pronouns - a new addition to LinkedIn that you can add if you choose to
  • Ensure you add a Summary or About section that expresses your professional identity
  • Add information about your experience in the Background section - Work Experience, Education, Licenses + Certifications, Volunteer Experience (and keep this up to date)
  • Detail your current skills
  • Describe your accomplishments (Publications, Patents, Courses, Projects, Honors + Awards, Test Scores, Languages, Organizations)
  • Create an eye-catching headline - try using www.copy.ai to assist you!
  • Your headline should be a dazzling summary of who you are, what you do, and how you do it.
  • Fill in your industry (or desired industry if you’re not yet working in the field)
  • Ensure that your profile is grammatically correct and does not contain typos

 

  • Succinct description of who you are – keep it brief & to the point
  • Describe your experience, successes, and accomplishments
  • Use keywords relevant to your target industry
  • Go through the summaries of professionals in your industry for inspiration

  • Connect with the Career Bridge MET coordinator if you need assistance with uploading - my.experience@uleth.ca

 

Making Connections

  • Personalize your greeting (spell their names correctly!)
  • Explain how you know them or how you found them
  • Explain your purpose for writing
  • Find a connection point – something in common, something from their profile, something they wrote in a group, etc.
  • Thank them

Job Search Tips & Tools

  • Follow companies you are interested in
  • Get a curated news feed of the industry - the more you engage, the better the algorithm will work for you!
  • Connect with employees of companies of interest
    • Research their career paths
  • Conduct information interviews
  • Find jobs + create alerts 
  • Find alumni from your University