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Accomplish January 9, 2019
"Add me on LinkedIn." —every college student ever
To newcomers, LinkedIn can be dizzying. I first made a LinkedIn profile in junior year of high school. At the time, the platform seemed confusing and somewhat useless. I never got any jobs through the platform, my profile picture was bare and I didn’t use it for a few years. I was in desperate need of LinkedIn profile tips.
In college, I started applying for internships and quickly began to understand its importance. After adding about 50 fellow ENTITY mentees to my “network” (thank you, ENTITY!), I cleaned up my page.
Over the years, I received advice from friends, family, mentors and online research that I can now share with you! Here are some LinkedIn profile tips for any job-seekers like me.
The basic rule of social media: if your accounts are active, they will have natural growth. Because its purpose is entirely work-related, LinkedIn is a bit more unique, so I definitely don’t post as much as I do on Instagram. But I try to share something every week or so.
If you’re struggling with post ideas, go with what you’re already doing! Give people a basic rundown on your current professional life. Or if you’re not working yet, share what other people in your network are doing! They’ll appreciate the boost.
I recently sent my resume and a few professional documents over to a friend’s family member. After giving me a thorough review, she also took a look at my social media and proceeded to give me fantastic LinkedIn profile tips.
She said to always add something to your profile or feed that showcases your personality, like a fun article, picture or video. Recruiters like to see who you are outside of your work life. While you should still keep your posts professional, you still want to show off your passion and interests!
She also gave me some valuable advice about my LinkedIn bio. If you’re applying for a job, look at the profiles of the department’s Human Resources department and try to mimic their style.
There are many different ways of writing professional biographies, but some of these ways can come off unattractive to some and endearing to others. Mirroring an HR representative’s style is a safe way to ensure that your bio will appeal to that company. Plus, the similarities could give off the impression that you fit well with the company’s culture.
As it turns out, I had my profile picture on private since high school. I only turned it public this past summer.
Having a profile picture is pretty essential. If you’re trying to connect with someone and they can’t see your face, they might not remember who you are. Plus, people engage more with LinkedIn accounts that have profile pictures. They simply make your profile more personable.
To check the visibility of your profile picture, click your Me icon, then View Profile, then your profile picture. Your page should take you to a pop-up box with the buttons Crop, Filter and Adjust on the right and Visibility on the left. Click Visibility and select “Public” (includes non-LinkedIn Members) or “All LinkedIn Members” (does not include non-LinkedIn Members), depending on what you’re comfortable with.
Endorsements heavily increase the credibility of your page, and you can get them from fellow co-workers or superiors. They’re basically confirmations for your skills. If you say you work well with kids, endorsements from five different employers support that argument.
So ask your co-workers and old bosses to help you out! It’s simply clicking a button.
If you have a mentor or work colleague you’re particularly close with, you can also take it a step further and ask them to write you a recommendation. These are essentially short letters of rec. They tend to be around two paragraphs at most, so it’s usually not too much to ask for.
Having both endorsements and recommendations will immediately boost the status of your profile. And it always feels nice to endorse somebody back.
So if your LinkedIn is bare, get on it! You never know who might stumble upon your profile. If you want more LinkedIn profile tips, check out these articles about LinkedIn basics and mistakes women make on their profile.
