Figure 1.
Nowadays, employers hire their new employees is very different than twenty years ago. Employers need to read the resumes from the letters or emails of their applicants in that time, while they read their profiles on social networks right now. In many social networks on the Internet, LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world. According the statistics of LinkedIn (2014), its network is over 200 countries and has more than 332 million members. Its target audiences are students and professionals, and about 80 percent of companies find their employees in LinkedIn. Therefore, having a professional profile in LinkedIn is the first step for college students to achieve their professional goat.
What are LinkedIn profiles and how to use them?
LinkedIn profiles are not only a photo and a resume. They are the rich information about your career, education, interests, and skills, and the information are searched by companies over the world. In order to attract your employers, you have to design your LinkedIn profile carefully. First of all, a professional headshot and headline is the first impression of your potential bosses. A smile and positive current headshot will give a professional image to employers, and the headline should be short, attracted and can describe your ability but not limit to one position. In addition, your experience and skills is the most important part that the viewers desire. Thus, you should describe your education, internship, jobs, or other skills and experience in detail. Finally, a simple, no good grammar error, and interesting summary is very useful to let the readers know more about you and convince them to hire you. By the way, don’t forget to put your contact information in your summary. The figure below shows how to create your LinkedIn profile in easy ways.
Figure 2.
How to use LinkedIn to market yourself and build your network?
As students, learning how to sell themselves in the current market is really important. A survey points out that “92 percent of recruiters reported using social media to recruit candidates,” and “73% have successfully hired a candidate” in 2012 (Paula Brand and Shahrzad Arasteh, 2013). Thus, the first step is to create a professional profile in LinkedIn, the largest professional social media. Secondly, you need to update your status and information in LinkedIn frequency. When you got new experiences or skills, don’t hesitate to put them online. Also, when your supervisors appreciate you, it’s better to ask them for a letter of recommendation and put it on LinkedIn. Finally, there is a customer URL in LinkedIn. It is very useful to show your sample works in your web site or blog.
LinkedIn is also an important tool for us to expand our network. According to Debbie Bardon (2004), “A network has to be made up of people and links between people.” Thus, although you have a sharp profile, it does not work if you have a bad network. There are several steps to improve your network by using LinkedIn.
- Send invitations to all your relatives and friends. The first and important step to tell people that you are on LinkedIn is to invite your relatives and friends through LinkedIn because they are always the solid supporter in your network.
- Follow the employer pages that you are interested. Find out what kind of companies that you like. Search and follow them in LinkedIn. Most companies will release their job posting on LinkedIn.
- Join the groups which are related to your career as many as you can. The more groups you interact, the more opportunity you will get.
- Connect the people who work in the companies that interest you. While you connect more employees in your desired company, you will know more information and culture of the company, and you will have more chances to get a job.
LinkedIn is an online social medium which designs for professionals to connect each other. In recent years, more and more college students create their profiles on LinkedIn and use them to enhance their status. Thus, it is significant for college students to learn how to create a professional profile and how to network on LinkedIn.
References
Bardon, D. (2004). Online Social Networking for Business: An Interview with Konstantin Guericke, Marketing VP, LinkedIn. Online, 28(6), 25-28.
Brand, P. p., & Arasteh, S. s. (2013). USING LINKEDIN and TWITTER for JOB SEARCH and CAREER MANAGEMENT. Career Planning & Adult Development Journal, 29(3), 33-44.
LinkedIn. (2014). About LinkedIn: Company Information.Linkedin.com. http://press.linkedin.com/about. Accessed on 10/15/2014.
Figure 1. http://gallinghouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/linkedin-recommendation.jpg. Accessed on 10/15/2014.
Figure 2. http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/linkedin-profile-tips1.jpg. Accessed on 10/15/2014.
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