​LinkedIn Guide

LinkedIn helps you create career opportunities, allows you to share your experience, skills, and qualifications with future employers, while also allowing you to build and interact with your network and grow your online brand as a professional.

When you’re looking for a job, LinkedIn is one of the best places to start. Your LinkedIn profile is your chance to be noticed by recruiters and hiring managers. So ensure you don't miss the opportunity to show your expertise, skills, and experience.

Even if you’re not actively looking for a new job, the majority of recruiters (including Mason Alexander!) use LinkedIn as a sourcing tool to find candidates to fill positions. So keeping your LinkedIn profile current and up-to-date could allow a great new job opportunity to come right to you.

We’ve put together some basic, yet vital steps to follow for your LinkedIn journey.

Some essential tips for creating your LinkedIn account –

1. Your Headline

Your headline can be your current job title or the specialist area you work in. Or it can even just say who you are and where you want to go professionally.

2. Your Photo

Ensure you have a professional profile picture for LinkedIn. If you don’t have a professional one, take a photo against a plain background, preferably white, while you’re wearing business attire.

3. Summary

Make sure you include your summary. Here you should include a few paragraphs outlining your professional background, your skills, key areas of

expertise, and what you can offer potential employers.

You should also mention here what you are passionate about and what motivates you. It also gives you the opportunity to say you are open to work and to explain gaps in work history and how you’ve kept your skills up to date.

4. Experience

Add in your previous work experience, along with what you’ve accomplished within these companies.

• List your tasks and responsibilities within each role – using bullets points as it’s easier to read
• Include any accomplishments within your roles – such as any results from projects you’ve been involved in. Try to use numbers and stats if you can, as these will stand out more.
• Check your grammar and spelling
• Add the company logo if possible (this can be done if the company has a LinkedIn page). Adding a logo makes your profile look more visually appealing.

5. Education 

Begin with your highest achievement and work down. Youdon’tneed to mention all classes you’ve taken – just list the ones that you think are most valuable and impressive by employers in your industry.

6. Certifications, Projects, Volunteer Experiences, Accomplishments, or Languages

Under your work experience and education are additional spaces where you can show off any additional background and qualifications. If you are fluent in another language, add it here – this is appealing for a lot of companies. Or if you’ve done any volunteer work add it in here too. Adding this information to your profile is a great way to showcase what makes you unique. But remember that if these skills and experiences are important to landing your next job, you should also try to work them into an earlier section.

Once you have your profile complete start actively using LinkedIn.

Here are three simple tips to get you started with LinkedIn –

1. Start Requesting Connections 

You can begin building your professional network online by connecting with people you already know, but you can also request connections from people you don’t know who might be able to help you grow in your career.

You can request to connect with people who work at companies or in jobs you’re interested in. You can even look for people by searching keywords within the search bar like “marketing manager” or “engineer” and so on.

Make sure when you are requesting to connect with someone that you also include a personalised message to that person.

2. Start Posting

All LinkedIn users can write posts or even articles on the platform. Posts will help you build up your reputation as an expert. You can post your viewpoint about what’s going on in your industry or comment about any recent industry development, and possibly show off your writing skills at the same time.

You can share relevant articles you’ve come across elsewhere online. Even if you’re a new professional or new in your industry, everyone has something to contribute, and other users will notice this effort.

If you don’t feel ready to write your own posts just yet, you can start by commenting on other people’s posts. Select relevant interests on your profile and follow experts, thought leaders, and others in your industry who have careers you’d like to learn something from. Then, you can engage with their posts on your news feed. This way you will learn, gain some connections, build your network and also get some food for thought for your own posts in the future.

3. Join LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups are a fantastic way to find like-minded professionals in your industry. You can discuss relevant topics in a more focused setting and become more engaged within your industry. Plus, the other group members are a large pool of possible connections!

You now know the basics of getting your LinkedIn profile up and running! Next time we will discuss the best ways to really engage with your network and grow your online presence and professional brand further.

And if you are looking for your next career move reach out to Mason Alexander today! We are always here to help you with your job search and career move in any way we can.

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