In this informative episode, we reveal all the tips and tricks to create a LinkedIn profile that stands out from the crowd. From nailing the perfect headshot to crafting a headline that captures your unique skills and experience, we walk you through every step of the process. We even delve into the 'open to work' feature and discuss how it can effectively signal your availability to recruiters.
But this episode goes beyond the basics. We explore how to transform your LinkedIn profile into a dynamic digital resume that tells your professional story in a compelling manner. You'll discover how to employ a first-person narrative in your summary section and how to inject your values, motivation, personality and mission into your LinkedIn presence.
As we wrap up this episode, we don't lose sight of the ultimate purpose of LinkedIn - not just a job search tool, but a platform for networking and personal brand building. This episode is a treasure trove of actionable advice, regardless of whether you're a seasoned professional or a LinkedIn newbie. Tune in and start unlocking the full potential of LinkedIn today!
CareeRise: www.careerrise.org
CareerConfidence: www.mjcareerconfidence.com
Follow Us on IG!
Follow Us on LinkedIn:
In this informative episode, we reveal all the tips and tricks to create a LinkedIn profile that stands out from the crowd. From nailing the perfect headshot to crafting a headline that captures your unique skills and experience, we walk you through every step of the process. We even delve into the 'open to work' feature and discuss how it can effectively signal your availability to recruiters.
But this episode goes beyond the basics. We explore how to transform your LinkedIn profile into a dynamic digital resume that tells your professional story in a compelling manner. You'll discover how to employ a first-person narrative in your summary section and how to inject your values, motivation, personality and mission into your LinkedIn presence.
As we wrap up this episode, we don't lose sight of the ultimate purpose of LinkedIn - not just a job search tool, but a platform for networking and personal brand building. This episode is a treasure trove of actionable advice, regardless of whether you're a seasoned professional or a LinkedIn newbie. Tune in and start unlocking the full potential of LinkedIn today!
CareeRise: www.careerrise.org
CareerConfidence: www.mjcareerconfidence.com
Follow Us on IG!
Follow Us on LinkedIn:
All right, hello, hello everyone, hi everybody Welcome back.
Speaker 2:We hope you are having a wonderful holiday long weekend. We hope you are resting and enjoying this nice day off right for the 4th of July, because it is the 4th of July, but we're excited to be here with you.
Speaker 1:Yes, i hope everyone's enjoying their time off. I hope everyone is able to have some time off, but regardless, i hope you all sneak in some self-care in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, i was about to say the same thing I hope you're self-caring, love it.
Speaker 1:But thank you for joining us. We, as promised in our last episode, we are going to talk about LinkedIn today.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to talk about LinkedIn. I'm excited I'm always excited to talk about social media, I think on this podcast or listen about it. But LinkedIn, especially because it's so relevant to everything career related, especially in the way that this world and society is going. If you don't have LinkedIn, being very sarcastic like what are you doing? But, in all seriousness, if you're not on LinkedIn, what are you doing, Surely? But yeah, So last week we talked about or last time I should say we talked about personal branding, And if you don't know what personal branding is, in a small, small sentence, it's a representation of you and what you bring to the table essentially in your professional life. But to hear all about personal branding, I would encourage you please go listen to our previous episode of how to unlock the power of personal branding, how that leads into LinkedIn, right, And then you can come back and listen to this episode or listen to it twice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely Today we want to break down LinkedIn and how to build your profile, how to interact with LinkedIn and all the benefits that come with having a quality profile on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so LinkedIn, as any other social media, is very different, right, but there are some similarities. Linkedin is, as we said in the previous one is, the largest online professional networking platform for you to connect with various professionals in a multitude of industries. Right, you can also meet new people, develop new skills, because there's a training portion of it which we'll get into. It's called LinkedIn Learning, right, where you can get certificate. It allows you to really brand who you are and what you bring to the career table. It talks, not, it talks, we talk. We talk about how you can establish connections, you can research on there, you can apply for jobs, you can do so. So, so many things, but one of the most important things to do before going on and using this fun platform is making sure that your profile is in tip-topity shape.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. Once you build the profile, hopefully, with the tips that we provide today, that it'll make it easier to build a profile that you're proud of, that you feel like really encompasses you and all the skills that you have to offer. I always say this for resumes as well as LinkedIn. At the end, once it's built and ready, when you look at it, does it spark confidence in you and excitement to share what you have to offer? And if it doesn't, that means it needs some work. So hopefully, by the end of today's tips, you'll feel that way about your LinkedIn profile. But let's say you build your profile and you are ready.
Speaker 1:Before that, what you want to do is think about what are you using LinkedIn for? Yeah Right, who is your audience? Are you using it as a job seeker? if you're actively in the job search process, are you using it to brand yourself and just showcase what you have to offer? Maybe you're happy with the job that you have now, or you're a student. You're not looking for a job at the moment, but you just want to build your brand. That's totally fine too. Are you using it to network? There are so many different ways to use LinkedIn, and we'll talk about how to interact with it. Once you're building your profile, what you want to do is think of it with that lens of how you're going to be interacting with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say think of your profile and what it's encompassed of, as it's going to change and it's going to update. It's going to evolve As you do in your professional career, so should your online presence. It should also represent the growth that you're having in your professional development. So you may start off getting a LinkedIn by looking for a new job, but maybe in one year or in six months or in nine months, whatever. So have you? you're looking for a different job, right? Are you looking to grow in a different area or seek research in a specific career industry? So always be on the on, thinking about like what am I using LinkedIn for and does my profile, is what I'm showcasing, represent that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely So, as you kind of start working on your profile, please have that lens in mind at this current time, and once you have your lens clarified then we can kind of jump into the different categories and parts of the LinkedIn profile. Yeah, so the first, the first one as we all know, there is a profile photo. This one's tricky, yeah, this one's tricky because you want it to have like a positive emotion behind that photo, but yet it still needs to be professional. How do we find the balance? These are all questions we get as a career counselor all the time.
Speaker 1:But just know that the image there's some, some things to like technical things you want to look at are it needs to show your face from the front and you genuinely want to be smiling in that photo. You also want to be mindful of the type of attire you have. If it's like a collared shirt or something professional, that would obviously be ideal, because that the top of your shirt should be showing, generally speaking, and then the background, what your background is all in that small, tiny photo. Those are technical things you want to pay attention to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fun, yeah, these. These seem very, very technical on it, you're probably like what, like, that's so silly, like, but these things are very, very much so thought of and they do really play a huge part into who is attracted into looking into your profile, right? So you should be the center of your image and your background should not be described, should not be distracting towards your audience, just like as you would in like a zoom meeting, right, like you want to make sure you're having a neutral background, your clothes or what you're wearing doesn't doesn't clash with your zoom virtual background or something that you're saying or is really hard to see in pattern. So it's really choosing and taking a professional photo by doing the best that you can, making sure that you're smiling, you're having like a welcoming face, right, because this is who you will be seeing in a professional manner and it will take you a couple tries The person who gets a perfect headshot on the first try. I wanna meet them Because it took me a long time in mind. Constantly it keeps changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same here. I finally have one that I'm happy with now, but it took me a while to get a nice LinkedIn photo as well. If you're in college, see if your college career center has a service that has a professional photo being taken, because there are, with technology these days, there are ways where career centers can offer that. But if you're not in school or you don't have access to a career center, totally fine. You could take a really quality photo with a regular phone and you could have a friend or a family member someone take it for you. Just the things to keep in mind. Your face should be at least 60% of the frame in that photo.
Speaker 1:And it's a pretty small photo, as you'll see on the LinkedIn profile, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find a nice area with a nice background to take it, or it could just be a clean background like a blank wall. That's okay too, as long as it's meeting the 60% of the frame. you have a smile on your face and it's definitely showing your face clearly. Those are the main things.
Speaker 2:I will also say it should not be a selfie. Yeah, it should really be taken by somebody else. It should not also be a full body picture. It should be at least coming. You should at least be able to see your shoulders. You wanna be able to see your shoulders in the image and have a neutral background. So it shouldn't be a selfie. I know if you're a college student and you're listening to this, it's very tempting to use a selfie, but we recommend that you do not and you have a professional headshot, as you will be carrying this with you for a long, long time until you get a new one.
Speaker 1:Definitely Really cool fact about profile photos LinkedIn members with a photo are 21 times more likely to get their profile viewed and nine times more likely to gain a connection request. That's crazy. Yeah, that's interesting And, if you think about it like me, as a user of LinkedIn, not as a career counselor just as a human being interacting with LinkedIn when I or any social media platform for that matter when I don't see a profile photo, I'm automatically I'm suspicious, Yeah, I'm hesitant.
Speaker 1:I'm like is this a real profile? You know, there's so many, so many issues out there with technology these days and not knowing if the person is legitimate on the back end of that. So without a photo, it causes more questions, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i get real suspicious very, very quickly. So if you don't have a profile picture, i'm kind of questioning unless I know who you are, yeah Right, unless I know who you are and we've met or something like that. But a lot of the time I do end up declining individuals who don't have a profile picture for that very reason, which leads me to thinking about the banner. So once I'm drawn in by the photo and I click, you get to see the banner, and the banner is the image that's right behind you, is that very long image that's awkward in dimension sizes And a lot of individuals actually have trouble figuring out what is the right banner for them. We know that LinkedIn has options for you already And if you don't like one of those options, you can definitely use different platforms like Canva or Adobe to create your own banner.
Speaker 2:That's what I've done. So if you go on my profile, you can really see. You can not really see, but you can see that this one is very unique and it's because I made it on Canva. So you do have a couple options here, but you definitely want to have a banner right, something that's not distracting, maybe a little relevant to what you're doing. I know a lot of our students have the school, which is really beautiful, but if you're just a regular old person, like us too, you can really do whatever you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and actually I've noticed a trend lately where people will put in the banner. They'll make it on Canva or similar platform where they'll put their name and then there's a line underneath their name and then there's their like title. If they have a degree or if they're majoring in something, they'll put that and that'll be their banner. So that's something that's very clean. It's very simple. It's just your name and your title. You could do that, but there are. You could also be creative and kind of pick a banner that shows a little bit more of your creative side or your interests in the industry that you're in.
Speaker 2:So remember, this image isn't forever. You can change it as often as you want. I would say maybe not every day, maybe not every week, but every once in a while. Again, your profile is gonna be updating. It's gonna be refreshed, so you definitely wanna give it a refresh when it needs it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely Okay. So let's say, you have your photo and you have your banner. You're happy with those. The next big part of a LinkedIn profile is your headline.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this, armin and I were talking about this before we started recording. We both agree that this is probably the most important part of your profile. It is. It's not probably It's the most important part. Why? Because that is the true calling card into if people want to click on your profile. Right, is that headline? and that headline for those of you who don't know, is the line exactly right underneath your name and pronouns, right? Many individuals, this is auto filled in by LinkedIn once you put in your current job or your most recent position. Right, they say like employee at yada yada yada. Or for me, i remember it said like assistant director at UCLA, but I went in and crafted it very uniquely to what I wanted to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so actually a lot of people don't know this, but you can change your headline and we encourage you to change your headline. The reason is because, if you think about it, let's say someone is looking at your profile maybe a recruiter or just anybody right Who's looking to network. If it's just your most recent position sometimes our titles are so elaborate like people don't even know what they mean And your most recent position doesn't encompass all of what you have to offer.
Speaker 2:I always have to explain what assistant director means.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seriously, it doesn't mean anything to someone who's not working in that same space. So, with that said, your most recent position does not encompass everything that you have to offer. So what you want to do is keep your headline a little bit more general and you could have different words with with dashes that separate the words, that kind of showcase different aspects of what you have to offer, because then the user, whether it's a recruiter or somebody who's trying to network with you, they kind of see more of an overall image of you just by looking at your headline And then from there they can decide if they want to move forward and read your work history and everything else that you have in your profile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is where thinking about like how you're using LinkedIn is the most important right, because if you're using it as a job seeker, then is your headline calling towards aspiring fill in the blank or the industries you're looking to work in. What is it about that headline that's making you seem like a job seeker, right? Or if you are content exactly where you are and you just want to brand yourself right.
Speaker 2:So, for example, when you use my life and my professional background, i might put like higher education, professional right So individuals know, or counselor I'll put counselor first So I can give you ideas of what I do. But this is where you really want to think, like, am I using this to attract individuals who are looking for candidates, right So recruiters and employers or am I just looking to tell the world, like what fields I'm in and what my knowledge and skills are in?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're a job seeker, you could put something like aspiring, whatever industry you're looking for job in, let's say it's graphic design, aspiring graphic designer, dash, something else that you might also have an interest in or skill in. So it could be a few different things that you pick or you just put aspiring and then that way recruiters will know you're actually job seeking in that industry. If you're not using it for the main purpose of looking for a job, you could kind of just list it. So some examples are some really good ones that we've seen on LinkedIn. Someone has like social media editor dash. Content and digital strategy dash, creative marketer helping brands connect with people. That sounds so cool because it's telling the reader this person has skills in social media and marketing and strategy. But it's also telling the reader a little bit about, like, their purpose. Right, they want to help brands connect with people. That already shows like this person has passion for the work that they're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really an opportunity for you to sell yourself in a few words, and I know that's extremely hard. But this is where you really want to think like, okay, if you were to put your professional experience in one of those word cloud generators, what are the words that would come up? right, you want to think really strategically about what that looks like, and here's where I invite you to ask your peers, ask people in the industry you're maybe wanting to go into, or people in your industry like hey, what does this sound like when you read this? What do you interpret this as? Because it's really good to get feedback. You want to know what the world's thinking. The other thing I want to say about like being the calling card. I know we talked about head shot profile picture and your name and your headline is in your actual. You might see this on LinkedIn, but individuals have, like LinkedIn has this feature right Where you get to have this like little banner flag thing in your profile photo.
Speaker 2:I'm doing the motion with my hand. Obviously you guys can't see me, but, armin, i can. The circular motion. It's a circular motion of where you have the option to really figure out or like, add there, like you're open to work, you're open to network, or you're new to LinkedIn, right? So you, there's a small video on it. Linkedin has that. You can really put that in there in your profile header. So when individuals are looking at your headline, they're saying, oh, i don't know social media content creator, right? I'm seeing that and I'm also seeing that this person is open to work. So that invites me. It gives more of an invitation for you to come and seek, if you're also looking for individuals in that industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the cool part about that feature is you can choose if you want it to be visible to everybody or just recruiters.
Speaker 1:So, let's say, you're trying to change the job that you're in now and you don't want anyone in your current workplace to see that you're open to work. You could keep that feature just open to recruiters, so that's a really cool part of it. But yeah, that is a great feature. If you can't find how to add that, you are welcome to reach out to either of us through our websites, which we always have linked in the show notes, and we can walk you through that process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes. So LinkedIn, we got the banner, we got the photo name headline Oh, name. Let's talk about name real quick. A lot of individuals, like myself my name is Maria Jose, but I do go by MJ, right? So I get asked all the time like do I add my preferred or lived name, or do I add my name that recruiters will see on my resume, right? So we encourage you to list the name that you're most comfortable being called by, right? The name that you live by is what it's called as well. So some individuals have their lived name in parentheses or they'll have their legal name in parentheses. Do it However you feel most comfortable and however you want to brand yourself, right? You don't ever want to feel uncomfortable in your own brand, in your own skin.
Speaker 2:So I just wanted to add that quick reminder, because I get that question a lot about which name do I put and how should I add the name that I prefer to call by?
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, whatever makes you more comfortable, because, at the end of the day, this is your brand and how you want to represent yourself to the world. The only thing with the maybe the legal name if you're using, like the shorter version of your name or nickname that most people know you by, but then you have the legal name. if you think about your network, maybe people who at your work setting, people in the industry, people in school if you're a student, if they know you by your legal name too, it might be helpful to have that in some capacity and parentheses or so, just so that they know exactly who you are. And then, of course, your preferred name can be the main part of your name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, so let's transition. Carmen and I talked about how headline, the photo, the banner are very important pieces, especially the headline. Okay, let's talk about some other harder parts about creating your LinkedIn and your LinkedIn profile.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one thing I want to say, as we're kind of now getting into heftier parts of LinkedIn right, your summer, your experience and things like that One thing I want to say is that your profile is an extended version of your resume and your business card, but it should not be an exact copy of your resume, because there is like a lot more that you can add in your LinkedIn that maybe there's no room for on a resume.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you all remember, in our chat GPT episode, we talked about how you should always tailor your resume. You want to be very specific towards the job and industry you're applying for. Now, when we're talking about LinkedIn and this is visible to many individuals here's where you're allowed to be a little bit more broad. Right, you're allowed to be more general and it's actually preferred because you want to leave the question when people are looking at your profile open-ended, so you can fill in the blanks when it's time to meet with that person, when it's time to chat, have an interview, apply for a job. So, as we're getting into these different pieces of LinkedIn, you may hear Armin and I speak very broadly or very generally about certain things, but that's because this is where you want to do that, so you have an opportunity when applying for a job or a different opportunity in a cover letter resume to be very specific and targeted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely So. on that same note, with resumes, i know we often get the question of should I upload my resume to LinkedIn? What do you say to that MJ?
Speaker 2:I always have a hard time answering that question, even on like zip recruiter blast, or indeed, i always have a really, really hard time because, well, this is not my final answer. I promise One. It depends on the situation, right, because sometimes we get individuals who are very, very just. Their goal is to find any job at any cost. Right, that is what their goal is. So that's a different conversation to have. However, when there's wiggle room to be the most strategic and tailored possible to this opportunity, or that tailored isn't the right word, but you know, what I'm trying to say is, i do not suggest you actually upload your resume on LinkedIn, because then you're pigeonholing yourself into an area, or you're going to be uploading what we call your master resume, right, which is where you have all of your experiences and none of it is tailored towards whatever opportunity. And guess what? All of your employers and the recruiters people looking can see it. So when they see that on LinkedIn and they see a different resume when you're applying, there's going to be a couple questions there.
Speaker 2:So I MJ career counselor 2023, does not encourage you to upload your resume towards your LinkedIn?
Speaker 1:Yeah, i second that for the same exact reason, because, generally speaking, you want your LinkedIn to be comprehensive but broad enough where it leaves room for question and for curiosity on the recruiters or viewers, and so getting too specific with the resume might actually work against you in that purpose?
Speaker 2:Yeah, have them stay curious, because that curiosity I love that you use that word that curiosity and if you're listening specific person you'll know stay curious came exactly from you and this is to one of our listeners who did tell me this phrase stay curious. So I hope you're listening and you hear that we use that because we want our employers and recruiters to stay curious about who we are, because that guess what That intrigues them to want to interview us, to want to get to know more about us, and then we get to fill in all of the blanks, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, a little mystery. Never heard nobody. Yeah, okay, perfect. So now that we kind of have the gist of what we the vibe that we want LinkedIn to have, let's talk about the next category, which is the LinkedIn summary. So this is that kind of paragraph, like a space, where it's at the top of your profile, right after your headline, your photo and all of that. So it's that summary section which we've seen so many different versions of, and it's actually evolved over time. Back when LinkedIn first started, the common trend was to write your summary in third person, so everybody was writing it like that, and you might still see some profiles out there that have the third person point of view. However, it's changed a lot. Actually, it's more common now to use first person And really the gist of the summary is to tell a story that shows your values, your motivation, your personality and your mission.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so talking about how it's evolved over time, it reminds me a lot of like in resumes when we see professional summaries or objectives, they're written in third person, right Like every resume should be written in third person. So this is not that, and times have changed and individuals and their thoughts have changed. So use this space to really be personal And again this, just like LinkedIn, will always be, it's going to be refreshing. So how are you using the space to really target the audience you want to target? Are you telling a story about how you're changing career, how your career pivoting right, you're looking for a different job or a different role in another field? Are you telling the story to say how you are seeking for new opportunities to grow?
Speaker 2:and become a leader, and to do this and to do that? Are you telling the story about who you are and how you even got into this role right And how you're so excited and passionate about doing the work that you do and that you're always seeking opportunities to grow? I'm quoting myself because I think that's what mine says, but you really have to be intentional when you write this and like who am I writing it towards? When someone's reading this, will they understand what I'm trying to say and what my point is here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. This is that side of you that maybe the employer can't see on a resume. It's that personal side, right? It's your purpose and your mission. So LinkedIn is a perfect place to show that. And now this is your brand. You want to be able to also describe your talents, whether that's transferable skills or their specific skills, like concrete work related skills. You could list those as well. Like in my summary section, i have a few sentences of my mission, my purpose, why I do the work that I do and how long I've been in this field, but then I have a summary of qualifications that actually lists specific skills. I chose to do it that way because I wanted to highlight the concrete and transferable skills in a succinct manner, with bullet points, but you don't have to use bullet points at all. It could be more of a paragraph field.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the most important points to really take away from this is be you. Be as you, as you can be. I don't even know if that made sense. Yeah, be the most authentic version of yourself in here, because this is the part where this could literally make or break somebody wanting to call you or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Your quote just reminded me of Dr Seuss. It sounded like a Dr Seuss. I love that. What's the common the most?
Speaker 2:popular one from The graduation book All the places you'll go, okay, yeah, or Green Eggs, and.
Speaker 1:Ham, i don't know, It might be Green Eggs and Ham but there is a quote in one of those that is like super popular, and what you just said reminded me of that quote.
Speaker 2:I bet it might be all the places you'll go. I don't think anybody would quote Green Eggs and.
Speaker 2:Ham, i don't know, i don't know, but yes, it was very inspirational. Yeah, be the best, be you. I don't even remember what I said, but yes, just be you, be the most authentic. You really have your true voice shine across here because, unlike in your cover letter and resume, this is the part where you get to really allow that passion to be forefront. Right, you want to allow people to understand where you're coming from, who you are, why this is important to you. It's almost like you're sales pitching away about who you are.
Speaker 1:It truly is Okay. the next section after summary usually is the experience section.
Speaker 2:I'm like sighing and smiling at the same time, because this one's a little tricky depending on who you are, where you are in your professional life, because this can look like many things for an individual. This can look like because LinkedIn is formatted in the way that it is. Experience is the third thing that you see. Just kidding, i think it's the second thing you see as a category on the profile. Really, if you, it depends how much experience you have and in what ways you want to shape it, because you can't move it around like you can on a resume. It's stuck there to the page and you just have to go with it. Experience, for me, can be very versatile, but you have to be very. You have to critically think about how you want this to be shown as, because it's going to be look very different than on a resume.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, generally speaking, what you want to do, some technical tips first before getting into, like, how to talk about your experiences. some technical things. If the company you are listing has a LinkedIn page, it's best to link it to that page, because then it will show the logo of the company and it looks more legitimate, just like we were talking about the profile photo, where there is no photo, it makes people question if it's legitimate. The same thing applies to jobs where it's listed. There's no company profile photo, people question if that's legitimate.
Speaker 2:That's true, that's very true, and you can look more into the company and things like that. So you definitely want to be able to link it.
Speaker 1:Link it to the company and then from there you want to put your job title. You could also be creative with your job title, so if you feel like your job title doesn't fully encompass what you do which is often the case for many jobs out there you could put your official job title and then do a dash and put a little bit of another descriptive title that maybe you feel explains your role a little bit better and then beyond that you get into the body of explaining what your role was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for example, arminay an example would be social media manager, right? What does that even mean? Maybe I put like a spacer and I say content creator. Oh okay, i have a little bit more understanding of this person as a social media manager, and they also create content for this right Instead of just leaving that up for assumption.
Speaker 2:Exactly, that's an example, and it is totally appropriate to also add a little bit more context into what your role is. I know individuals are often hesitant about saying, well, that's not really my role and I don't want people to get confused and all these different things, and that's totally valid. I was once like that too, but you definitely want to do what is going to make the most sense for the person reading your page too. So if adding a little bit more context helps, then you want to be sure to do that Exactly.
Speaker 1:So once you have the title down and you're comfortable with that, you get into the body, which is usually the hardest part I've seen of a LinkedIn page and, of course, of resumes too, and I keep comparing LinkedIn to resumes because there is a lot of similarities but then also differences between the two. But with LinkedIn, a lot of times we get questions about how to talk about the past job experiences, because a lot of times people think they can just copy and paste the bullet points from their resume onto LinkedIn and that'll be good enough. But unfortunately it's not.
Speaker 2:You and I have had this conversation on and offline and I'm smiling because I still haven't looked at my LinkedIn and I should I really should, because I still have bullet points, but not for the reason that I copied and pasted on my resume, but because in my brain that's just like. It's like how I thought things were supposed to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's how we were taught, because we were taught to do resumes before LinkedIn, right, and so everyone always thinks oh, okay, experience section, you do in bullet points. But actually LinkedIn, especially the way it's evolved now, it actually prefers more like a paragraph description of your job experiences versus bullet points. Because for the same reason, if you do very specific bullet points of all the things you're doing on the job, it pigeonholes you to. Maybe the recruiter or the employer is thinking, well, i kind of want someone who has these additional skills, and maybe you do, but it's not part of the job. You haven't done it at that job, so you're not listing it in the bullet points. So if you keep a more general description, a paragraph summary of your main role and what kind of skills you use in that role, that's going to keep it general enough where it keeps people questioning and wanting to talk to you more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i absolutely agree. I absolutely agree and need noted hallmark MJ Go, update your LinkedIn Refreshing. It's time for a refresher. Yes, yeah, again. Arminne was talking about leaving it broad, leaving it open up. You want to make sure that you're able to get your point across, but without being so specific. One of the really cool updates that LinkedIn has is now you can actually add skills to a specific experience. So before LinkedIn just had you have like a skill section at the bottom and then people can endorse you on specific skills that you have, which is still really awesome, right?
Speaker 2:Because it's somebody else saying like, hey, not only do I think I'm awesome, but Arminne also thinks I'm awesome and can encourage, counsel somebody, but now in your experience you can add a couple again, a couple of specific skills that align really with it, with your this specific role, right? So, for example, critical thinking, strategic planning and analyzing I don't even think that's a word analysis, right? Whatever, whatever you're wanting leadership that are very catered and targeted towards that experience role. You definitely can do that, and that's something that employers are looking for, instead of scrolling all the way to the bottom and looking at what your overall skills are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really cool because, like with each experience, you kind of list the skills and then you'll notice and the employers will notice there's patterns of skills you use across different positions, but there's also unique skills that you might have that are showcased like okay, i use this skill in this role, versus just putting it on the skills section. They don't know where you use it, how you use that. So having it assigned to the role actually kind of holds more weight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, And I've, oh I've also seen this is individuals tend to use the same skills for each role. I encourage you, the more versatile your skills are, you definitely want to do that. It creates more variability. It shows that you have a lot more skills than you're, than you're seeing. You can use critical thinking once or twice or strategic planning if you want, but I wouldn't say not for every position.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i agree. All right. Now, talking about skills, there is and you already mentioned this, mj there is a skills section. So the cool part about that is you could take a skills assessment So you don't have to actually like think about, like, oh, sit there and think about, oh, what skills do I have? You can do that as well and include skills that you feel that you have, but then you could also take an assessment, which is probably one of the newer features, because it didn't exist when LinkedIn first came out. But you could actually take a skills assessment on LinkedIn and then it will tell you, and usually those are like the technical, concrete skills.
Speaker 1:It'll tell you oh, you have these skills based on how you answered the questions, and then it'll show up in your skills profile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, these are hard. I will tell you a little. Miss MJ, a little while ago, not a little while ago, but like I think one or two years ago I tried to do one of these and they were pretty tough, like I remember.
Speaker 2:Oh, i could totally do Microsoft Word, and then we're asking like specific questions or like things that I was like I don't know. So skills assessments are really good, i would say. Yes, the fact that this is a legitimate assessment is really cool. But this also gives you the opportunity to kind of assess yourself right and your professional experience and say, hey, let's take a moment to kind of really reflect what my skills are, what skills I'm looking to grow or enhance and what skills I don't have yet that I want to learn Right. So really be thoughtful about this section as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's also skills badges, Once you take those those are so cute. Yeah, so if you score in the top 30% on these assessments, on each one, the ones you scored that top 30%, it will be displayed at the top of your profile, and so that's really cool because it catches the employer, the viewers attention right at the top.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i'm noticing, i'm not noticing. I'm noticing because I'm looking at something, because I'm looking at LinkedIn. But, aside from the different skills, sections and categories, there's so many other categories were we're talking about, like the fundamental, i would say, of LinkedIn. but there are things that you can really do to have your profile stand out right. So, for example, if you're excited or you're passionate about a project that you've done, maybe at work, or a side hustle, or something you've done in the past or anything like that, or something you're doing independently just for fun, who does stuff just for fun? now, if you do, let me know in the comments.
Speaker 2:I want to know what you do just for fun. But there's a projects, right, and I'm going to couple that with the featured section as well. There's a featured section on LinkedIn where you can feature specific things about you and your profile and your experience on there to really grab the readers attention, and the featured section actually goes at the top of your page once you add something. But I want us to really highlight, like, the different categories and how you can really make your profiles diverse and as versatile as possible to meet whatever audience you're seeking right. There's projects, there's the education section, of course as well. trainings, license or certifications, awards, interests So many things you can add on here. I know we're talking about, like your profile, we're going in depth on a lot of these, but you really want to be and think about how are, what are the pieces that you want to add to the puzzle so we can see the whole picture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i mean also keep in mind too, just like resumes. A lot of people think, like with LinkedIn, is it just paid jobs that I should put on there? And the answer is no. Unpaid experiences are just as valid, so anything really goes. That kind of showcases the skills you want to highlight. And also, sample work is really cool to upload. So if you worked on something let's say you're in the creative field right Social media content creator, something like that graphic design And you have a document that showcases your work that you did at a previous job or in school, you can upload those sample documents to showcase a type of work that you have or your style, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, and that reminds me of your portfolio, right, if you have a portfolio, you can definitely add that link in there in your. When you're updating your personal preferences at the top, when you're adding all of those contact details, right, your email, things like that at the top your header, your headline, you want to add that in there. Right, you want to add as much as you can about yourself to really, really target the population you're targeting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then another cool feature and section is recommendations. Those are awesome because you could actually have people who have worked with you, who have managed, supervised you, really anyone, maybe a peer from school or anyone that can speak to your skills and qualifications. You can ask people to write recommendations for you on LinkedIn And it's usually about a paragraph long. It doesn't really have to be too long. However much they want to write, it's totally up to them. But if you have people in your network who can speak to your skills, it's great because then you already have standard recommendations on your profile. So when someone's looking at it, it's now you're not just the only one saying you can do all these things, but you have people kind of speaking on your profile. So it's always a great idea. If you feel like there are people who can speak to that, i would encourage you to ask Someone just did that with me recently who I had supervised, and they were student employee in our office and now they've graduated, they've moved on and she's really great at keeping her network.
Speaker 1:So in one of our conversations post graduation she asked if I can write a recommendation for her and I was more than happy to do that. But this is a great way, as, if you're transitioning from one role to another, one status to another, you can ask people at this previous site that you've been at to maybe write as you're transitioning to the next phase of your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, recommendations are very, very important because they're things of like. They're like your calling card. You know, when people ask for references, like here's somewhere where you can physically post that and it's seen and it can be same individuals as your references or they're different individuals or people just giving you like a little bit more of a heavier pat on the back right saying how amazing you are and really showcasing that to the world. So recommendations are really cool feature of your profile and things that you can have on there. So we talked about profile a lot and we hope that we've covered every section.
Speaker 2:We can possibly think again, armin and I do this on the daily so this is something we we love helping people build because, again, it really alludes to that confidence you have within yourself and your professional brand, right of who you are. So, again, if you need support and building your LinkedIn profile, please reach out to us via our our websites and we can totally help you with any part of your LinkedIn profile and see what that is. But we're going to move and we're going to change lanes And now we're going to talk about some of the things that you can use on LinkedIn that are important to you. Right if you're looking for a job or looking for ways to to grow, if you're looking for an internship or different things like that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know, let's say you, you've built your profile and you look at it, you feel confident, it sparks excitement. You're like, yes, i have these skills. Yeah, like I had a student once Tell me wow, i didn't even realize I had all this stuff to offer.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, that's how you should feel. So, let's say, you get that feeling, you're proud of it. So what's next? like, how do you actually interact on LinkedIn? That's true, a couple of things, and we will not get in depth about these today, but we will talk about these in our next episode. Yeah, couple of things. One is LinkedIn is really great for networking, and then the other piece is the job board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, linkedin. So here's the secret LinkedIn is actually like the top job board in the US currently. So we always I know people are always talking about like, indeed, super cruder. I'm not and I'm whispering here, whispering to the listener I'm not saying don't use them, but LinkedIn is the top job board currently in the US. Globally. I'm assuming it's going to, it's growing to be that way, but in the US it is the top job board and you can do so many cool things and you can see so many things right like. We can get into depth and in different episodes, because I get really excited about how many things you can filter through and who you can see is on there and if you can see you're a good candidate and how many people apply right, here we go. I'm getting excited. But you can definitely use the job board and other things on LinkedIn to really benefit and enhance your career professional development.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So really great ways to interact with LinkedIn and really, really useful. Whether you're a job seeker, whether you're just showcasing your brand or building your personal brand, or whether you're building your network. Either way, it's continuing to grow. It's continuing to become bigger and more important part of your career journey. So I would encourage all of you to start, if you don't already have one, to start building a LinkedIn profile And if you do have one, we visit it and see how you feel about it And we will talk about how to interact with it in terms of networking and the job search process on LinkedIn in our future episodes, in our next episode.