JSTK #4: LinkedIn
Welcome to the next edition of the Job Seeker's Tool Kit, a series of articles written for Austin's PMI chapter members to help prepare for the inaugural Austin PMI Job Fair, being held in October. To see the list of the articles in this series, go here.
If you haven’t already, check out linkedin.com and create a personal (free) account. It only takes a few minutes to set up a basic profile. There is so much to it, there’s not enough space in this email to cover how much it can help you, so we will focus on the resume and recommendation features.
LinkedIn is a professional social media site, intended as a virtual networking tool for professionals. This isn’t MySpace for adults, but a way of connecting to, and getting recommended by your peers. People can and do get jobs through LinkedIn, either through their job board, or through networking. It’s a great way of sharing more information than you would on a basic resume, and people can see what your peers think about you.
LinkedIn has over 13 million members, and is growing about a million new members every month. The most basic membership, a personal account, is free. There are advantages to having a premium account, but most people don’t need them.
The advantages to using LinkedIn are:From the job seeker’s prospective, there are a lot of advantages to LinkedIn. But don’t overlook what it can do for you when you aren’t actively seeking. Networking is a big part of the job seeker’s network, and it works best when you have a network established when you don’t actively need it.
When you have a profile, you can have people you are immediately connected recommend you. These endorsements allow others to see how good you are at your job; it also allows you to easily identify who to use as a reference when you are job seeking.
Create an account, and transfer your resume to it, including a summary as well as job history. You can invite your colleagues, past and present to connect, and ask them to recommend you. Don’t forget to recommend them.
You can also set up a vanity URL to your profile that you can add to your resume, cover letters, email signatures, and business cards. It’s recommended that you change that URL from the default, random alphanumeric to one including a variation of your name.
For more information on LinkedIn, to to this blog's LinkedIn and LinkedIn Primer categories
Suggested Reading:Next Edition: Business Cards
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