The current economic times are worrisome for many soon-to-be college graduates. Many professors, career councilors and public relations practitioners are suggesting students start looking for jobs now, during their senior year. According to Jennifer Montez, a writer for the blog “New Grad Life,” LinkedIn is a great place to start.
For those of you who are not familiar with LinkedIn, it is an interconnected network of professionals around the world. This social media network allows users to be introduced to and collaborate with many different qualified professionals. Montez believes that job hunting can be easier when using LinkedIn because as a user you can build a strong contact and reference foundation. LinkedIn offers different demographics; 68 percent of its users are ages 35 and older, and 72 percent are college graduates. In the current blog post, Montez provided 22 ways to dominate LinkedIn that could eventually help you land a job. Here are the tips that I found to be most helpful.
Upload a good picture of yourself. Make it professional to leave a good first impression when potential employers look at your profile. A picture can make or break a job; I personally know a few horror stores where friends were not hired because of a photo the employer saw prior to the interview.
Complete your entire profile and include prior jobs. LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to highlight your resume and link your personal blog’s RSS feed and Twitter account. Your resume represents the work you’ve done in the past and your blog gives an example of what you are capable of doing.
Invite people you meet in different business settings, such as networking events and conferences. This builds your professional network. LinkedIn provides custom introduction text when sending an invitation; it would be helpful if you wrote where you met the person in this area.
Build your reputation through joining different groups. This is a great way to make new connections and participate in diverse group discussions. Eventually, you might want to create your own group.
LinkedIn is a tool we should all be using. It provides a more professional way to network, yet gives you the opportunity to integrate bits of creativity through linking your personal blog, Web site or Twitter account.
For more information about the Montez’s 22 tips, here is the blog post, http://newgradlife.blogspot.com/2009/11/22-tips-for-landing-job-on-linkedin.html
Just killing some in between class time on Digg and I found your post . Not normally what I like to read about, but it was certainly worth my time. Thanks.
These tips are so true