Building a Professional Profile What You Don’t know!
Oct 22, 2014
Building a Professional ProfileWhat You Don’t know!
What is LinkedIn?
O The site launched on May 5, 2003
O Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a
rate of more than two new members per second.
O More than 225 million members in over 200
countries and territories.
O LinkedIn is currently available in 19 languages
O More than 2.9 million companies have LinkedIn
Company Pages.
O LinkedIn members conducted over 5.7 billion
professionally-oriented searches on the platform
in 2012.
Make Connections!
Develop a Professional
Summary Statement
O Your summary statement should resemble
the first few paragraphs of your best-written
cover letter.
O Concise and confident explaining your goals
and expertise.
O Present your summary statement in short
blocks of text for easy reading.
O Add your E-Mail address!
(Phone Number too if looking for a job)
Display an Appropriate Photo
O Remember that LinkedIn is not Facebook!
O If you choose to post a photograph —
strongly recommended — select a
professional, high-quality headshot of you
alone.
O Party photos, cartoons, logos, and cute
photos of your puppy don’t fit in the
professional environment of LinkedIn.
Join the “IN” crowd
O Join LinkedIn Groups!
O Start with your university group — alums love to connect with fellow alums and students
O Find volunteer organizations or professional associations you already belong to
O As a member, you can comment on discussions, find exclusive job listings, and meet people who share common interests
O Stay up to date on industry trends
O Can’t find THE group? Create one!
Claim Your Unique
LinkedIn URL O Claim a unique URL for your profile (for
example: www.linkedin.com/in/yourname)
O This also makes it easier to include your
LinkedIn URL in your email signature, which
is a great way to demonstrate your
professionalism.
O Increase the professional results that
appear when people type your name into a
search engine
Collect Diverse
RecommendationsO Nothing builds credibility like third-party
endorsements.
O The most impressive LinkedIn profiles have
at least one recommendation associated
with each position.
O Get recommendations from professors,
colleagues, employers, and professional
mentors.
Craft an Informative
Profile Headline O Your profile headline gives people a short,
memorable way to understand who you are in a professional context
O Think of the headline as the slogan for your professional brand
O Providing Innovative Social Media & Web 2.0
Marketing solutions in Higher Education
O Modernizing Career Services & Professional Development with Technology and Social Media in Higher Education
Update your status weekly
O Great way to stay on other people’s radar
and enhance your professional image.
O Tell people about events you’re attending,
major projects you’ve completed,
professional books you’re reading, or any
other news that you would tell someone at a
networking reception
Lend a (virtual) hand
O As you build connections and group
memberships, think about what you can do
to support other people
O Comment on a status update, forward a job
listing that fits the criteria of a friend, or
write a recommendation for a colleague
O You’ll find that your generosity is always
rewarded (and, of course, it feels really good
to help someone!)
100% complete = 100% more
likely to get noticed O You can’t build connections if people don’t
know you exist or see what you have to offer.
O Your LinkedIn profile is your online business
card, your resume, and your letters of rec all
in one.
O Don’t be shy: users with complete profiles
are 40 times more likely to receive
opportunities through LinkedIn.
Job & People Search
What you did not know…
O You don’t have to pay for LinkedIn!
O Search for alums working for companies you want to work for and connect!
O Your Google Search & LinkedIn Profile are intergraded
O More people are actually getting jobs through LinkedIn more then ever before!
O Connect with The Berkeley College Network with over 3,140 members!
O Apply for a job with just one (or two) clicks.
O Network, Network, Network
Michael Iris, MS Director of Career Services
[email protected] Ext. 6406