Having a professional social media presence these days can help you a lot of landing in your dream job. However, by social media, we are not talking about Facebook or Twitter, you need a better one, a more specialized one – you need LinkedIn. People think creating a standard LinkedIn profile is just like creating a Facebook profile, and that is totally wrong. Yes, there is a bit of similarity between the concepts of the two platforms, but they are now completely different.
Today, you would learn about the ins-and-outs of LinkedIn, how creating a better profile can change your career drastically, and how to make your LinkedIn profile stand out.
What is LinkedIn? – Everything You Need to Know
If you think LinkedIn is based upon the social media giants that we use every day, you are totally wrong. It all began in 2002, even before the journey of Facebook or Twitter. The pioneer behind the professional revolution was Reid Hoffman.
Hoffman planned to create a platform for enthusiastic and modern professionals where they could do better networking and thus created the website in late 2002. The website was finally launched on May 5, 2003. The Oxford graduate thought of making the lives of professional simple. Although the dream began in 2002, it was 2006 when the company shed off the cocoon and embarked a new horizon.
Why is LinkedIn so popular these days?
You can call LinkedIn to be the hub of global professionals. Ambitious and growth-oriented professional think of it as one of the strongest tools of networking these days. Not on the job seekers but also headhunters use LinkedIn to scout the most promising talents out there. That’s why professionals from more than 200 countries and every fortune 500 companies have put their trust on LinkedIn.
The traditional face-to-face is now losing its appeal as you can make a global presence with such a powerful medium nowadays.
How To Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out? – Analyzing The Major Components
As we have said, creating a LinkedIn profile is not like any other social media platforms. However, there are a few similarities between them. After all, it is social media for professionals.
There are ten crucial components of a LinkedIn profile that can make all the differences. There they are –
- Profile Photo – You need to get a professional photo to impress the peer. By professional photos, we mean photos that can focus on your core strengths personality. However, you must not put a selfie or yourself enjoying a party. Neither you should use a passport size photo that looks too mechanical. One last LinkedIn profile picture tip – just use a simple profile photo showcasing your confident smile.
- The Headline – The 120 character headline make a difference between you and some random John Doe. Use it smartly. Follow the samples attached below to know about LinkedIn headline examples for job seekers.
- The Summary – This is another way to make yourself stand out. The summary is a bit more comprehensive than the Headline as you get 2,000 characters to show your biggest strengths and intriguing skills. How to write a good LinkedIn summary? Just be creative here.
- Professional Experience – Tell the world what do you do and how to do it. We suggest you rather than creating a simple list, be creative, something out of the box.
- Skills and Endorsement – This is where LinkedIn stands out. You will not only have to add the skills you have but also have to get endorsed by others. Your networking skills will be handy in this case.
- Recommendations – This is another perfect opportunity to show your networking skills. A more recommended profile will always be of high value compared to a profile that doesn’t have any recommendations. Recommendations work like adding credibility to your profile and makes it more authentic.
- Getting into Groups – Groups are where you become more social. You can meet new people having the same professional ideology and source of better jobs for yourself.
- Educational Qualification – if you have a lucrative degree, make sure to add that in this section. Although, some say that this section is more important for entry-level professionals who don’t have much professional experience.
- Projects – Projects give your profile the much-needed boost. A lot of recruiters think to work on more projects truly make a person better suited for more experienced jobs. Think of like the list of the wars that a warrior has fought so far.
- Publications – Do you love doing researches? This may be a chance to let the world know about your talents. This is the best place for academic professionals like school-teachers, college professors, or educational coaches.
How Can LinkedIn Help in Your Job Hunt?
We think you already know the answer to this question. With a strong LinkedIn profile, you can do smarter networking on a global scale. If you are not happy with your current job, you can make contact with the company or the person who would give a proper evaluation of your job.
Without LinkedIn, you would have failed to connect to the companies or the professionals with who you would love to work. LinkedIn has opened new opportunities and better networking platform for every people in the world. Think of a world of 7 billion people being in a single network and helping each other achieving professional goals. If you are looking for jobs then rather than sending our resumes you could just try uploading resume to LinkedIn and send the link.
The best thing about LinkedIn is that you will not have to scavenge newspaper or job portals for new openings. You can do it here. Even in many cases, the recruiters will hunt you down. So, you can say it is a two-way road where the job seekers and recruiters both try to find the perfect match.
LinkedIn Tips and Tricks That Would Be Handy
Now, we would discuss some great LinkedIn tips and tricks that would help you along the way. Check it out –
- Don’t rush, take all the time you need to curate the perfect profile. Rather than being lazy, you should fill out every form and complete the profile setup 100%.
- Getting a custom URL will give a positive signal to other LinkedIn members. Moreover, a custom URL is always a better choice comparing to some gibberish numbers and symbols. It would also be handy when you are sending LinkedIn link to profile.
- Use the LinkedIn profile components as efficiently as you can. Use a better photo, write a compelling headline, and connect to as many relevant people as possible.
- Use numbers rather than words! This is a quite smart move. Numbers can be more reliable and logical compared to words.
- Regularly use status updates on your relevant profession to grab the attention of the people having a similar profession – you can be a community star.
- Don’t hesitate, ask for a recommendation. If you are serving the community, you should feel shy about asking recommendations. Certainly, a profile with more recommendation will have more weight compared to others.
- Be social. We are not asking you to be annoyingly chatty but being social and warm would help you in your journey here in LinkedIn.
- Always refrain from using hate speeches. Nagging and constantly complaining about everything is not a professional attitude ever. Instead, you could come up with positive and constructive solutions to existing problems.
- Keep in mind – it is not just a social media account; it is your modern and updated resume. Use it like one.
- Don’t be mechanical. Having a humane side is also considered to be one of the most positive things about a person. Talk about your hobbies, values, believes, and ideology. It is equally important to be a better person while you are trying to be a better professional.
- Include every single job that you have ever worked on. Let it be a professional road for you. Some people only include the major professional landmarks in the profile not mentioning everything, and we don’t think that is a good approach. You may never know how your career would turn out to be.
- Include extracurricular activities and volunteer projects that you have taken part in your life.
The major mistakes in the LinkedIn profile making
It is quite simple. Till now, the parts that we have talked about will help you create a better profile and enhance your networking skills in LinkedIn. You should already know what could be the worst mistakes that you can make.
However, these are the worst things that you can do while creating your LinkedIn profile –
- Using a non-professional photo
- Not filling out every form in the profile properly
- Missing Headline
- Poking others annoyingly for jobs
- Adding company names, acronyms, a weird symbol in the Name field
- Not being active
- Sending spams
- Being too personal
- Using LinkedIn like Facebook or Instagram
Some Samples of The Most Successful and Interesting LinkedIn Profiles
Okay, you are almost all set to go. We want to share some of the best LinkedIn profiles 2019 samples that could help you create your own. Check them out –
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittneyborowicz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/xandgriffin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryankratz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spoiltchild
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbiwhitaker
Getting Jobs Through LinkedIn Profile: Is It Real?
Yes, you can land on your dream jobs through your LinkedIn profile. There is no doubt about that. These testimonials will help you assess the real scenario (all of them are collected from Quora)
“ALL. THE. TIME.
I’ve hired 100s of people over the course of the last few years at Facebook, Apple, Quant Trading firms and startups across every level (university grad – VP of Engineering) and I’d say 85% or more of my hires come through Linkedin.” – Seif Khafagi, Lead Recruiter at Facebook
“I Landed an amazing job at Amazon 10 months ago because a recruiter found my profile and reached out. I didn’t even have to go through the hassle of applying because they came to me. Google even called me two months ago.” – John Marty, Manager of Product Mgmt. at Amazon (2017-present)
“A summer day of 2011 during a lunch break, I was browsing LinkedIn and typed in the job search engine “maritime engineer”, the role I figured out to be the best fit with my skills, experience, and career direction. A job ad from The Netherlands came up and I clicked the link of the advertiser. I filled out an online application form and submitted my resume. I wasn’t expecting to receive an answer but I did and it was positive. After a few emails and an initial phone conversation with HR, they flew me to Gouda for an interview.” – Marco Necchi, Structural Engineer Sharing Career Self-Management Tips
