CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTER PRESENTATION:
LUKE ZEIGLER
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTER
BUILDING A LINKEDIN PROFILE
EMERGING FROM THE CLASSROOM
Session Agenda
 Who we are and The Services we offer
 How Do You Get Started?
 Networking / Connecting
 Questions and Answers
The Career Development Center
Individual appointments with Career Advisors
•Resumes
•Applications
•Cover Letters
•Interview Preparation
•Internships
•Graduate School
•Targeting Your Dream Job
M, W, TH, F: 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Drop in hours: W-TH, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Tuesday evenings until 6:30 p.m.
We are here to help – Top Floor University Center
570-422-3219
What is LinkedIn?
 Founded in 2003
 LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network
 It has over 300 million members and growing
 1M people join every 22 days
 Largest business network (4th behind, Facebook, Twitter
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& You Tube)
Average income of the LinkedIn user is $108,000
20% are senior executives
80% have Bachelor degrees
60% are decision makers
300 M individuals with profiles and only 30M are
students!
Why use LinkedIn?
It’s a great career management tool
 Network with other professionals who can play an
important role in your development
 Helps you find jobs and employers find you!
 Target audience is college students and professionals
 Get an edge on the competition
 Learn about companies, occupations, and industries
Social Media Drives Hiring
How Employers use
LinkedIn Today:
- 96% Searching
- 94% Contacting
- 92% Vetting
- 93% Keeping tabs on candidates
Why use LinkedIn?
Gain access to experts in your industry:
 Use the Q&A to ask a network of professionals
questions or advice
 Join LinkedIn groups specific to your industry
for group discussions and news
How is LinkedIn Different From Other Social
Media Sites?
 It allows you keep your private life
separate from your professional life
 LinkedIn is information rich and not a
photo and personal sharing system
 Understand how far your reach goes
LinkedIn – How Job Seekers Use it in 2014
LinkedIn is where they do most of their jobseeking activity:
• 40% contacts referred me for a job
• 34% contacts shared a job opportunity
• 32% made a new professional connection
• 32% contacts provided an employee’s
perspective on a company
http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/job-seekers-use-social-media-2014-infographic/
How to Get Started
• Go to the LinkedIn website:
www.linkedin.com and create a profile
How to Get Started
 Change your Privacy Settings so your Profile is
not visible until you are done
 Turn off Activity Broadcast
 Home/Settings/Privacy Controls/ Turn on/off you
activity broadcasts
Creating a Profile
• Customize your public profile URL
• Make your URL easier to remember
• Can be edited under profile settings
Creating a Profile
• Your headshot is the first impression – 11X more likely
to get profile views with a picture
• Use a professionally taken photograph headshot that
shows you in the best light
Creating a Profile
• Be detailed about your education, internships,
volunteering, jobs, study abroad
• Be authentic and include a strengths summary
• Use key words in your profile that are relevant in your
industry or desired field
• Check spelling and grammar
• Optimize your Profile with keywords
• Keep it fresh
• Use “ |” to divide text & create visual breaks
The more you put into it the more you will get out of it!
Creating a Profile
Create a Headline to grab the reader’s attention
• The headline appears under your name and next to your
picture
• Do not limit yourself to the default job title and employer
• Use the 120 characters to market yourself
• Don’t use a title, be creative & describe yourself
• Present your brand and goal
William Jones, Unemployed and Looking
Quick Fixes To Improve Your LinkedIn
Headline
 The Minimal-Effort Profile
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Add specifics (such as your full work history for the last 10 years, certifications, or skills)
 The Default Headline
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When you specify the details of your current job, LinkedIn will ever-so-subtly include a
checkbox that is already set to “Update My Headline to (your job title)”. If you leave
this information as is, site users will see “Bob Jones, Vice President Finance at ABC
Company” throughout all your activity.
However, if you uncheck the box and then edit the Headline available when changing
your name field, you’ll have the chance to advertise your career level and competencies
with “Bob Jones | VP Finance, Controller, CFO | Growth, Capital, Funding, & Technology
Strategies.”
The key in altering your Headline is to use terms that will trigger your hit rate for both
your job target and current position (and potentially your industry). Inject a brand
message related to your success, as in these examples:
 Martin Forester, IT Director. SAP, Infrastructure-Building, & User Responsiveness.
Manufacturing & Medical Devices
 Claire Wilson | Enterprise Account Executive Accelerating Channel Sales to $40+
Million in Managed Services Markets
Complete an Interesting Summary
• Take advantage of the 2000 characters
• Tell people who you are
• How to contact you
• Why they should hire you
• Core competencies
• Add your email
• Be sure to use proper capitalization and grammar
Summary
 Let employers know what you can do for them
 What are the benefits you can bring?
 How can you make them money? Save money?
 Make them efficient
 List specialties
 Discuss an outside passion
 Spell out what and where you want to work
Good LinkedIn Summary=
strengths/skills + interests + tie-in to industry
Example Summary and
Headline
Experience
• Complete experiences and use keywords
• Use key words in your profile and
experiences that are relevant in your
industry or desired field
• Top 10 overused buzzwords on LinkedIn
profiles 2013:
Responsible
Patient
Innovative
Strategic
Expert
Analytical
Creative
Organizational
Effective
Driven
Experience
Add Other Profile Information
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Volunteer Experiences & Causes
Certifications
Education
Honors & Award
Skills Section – tell things you are proficient in
• Languages, test scores, patents & others…don’t put in basic
courses like Accounting 101
Education
Additional Information
Join Groups
• Create business circles and connections (45 available)
• Gives you a platform to seek advice
• Gives you the opportunity to showcase your expertise
Influencers
Connecting to Others
 Connect with people in industries that interest
you
 Limit of 100 profiles to search by
 With companies that you want to learn more
about
 Geographies that you would like to move to
When connecting, NEVER use the built-in message:
“I’d like to add you to my professional network on
LinkedIn”
Connecting to Others
 Carefully evaluate who you allow to connect
 Employer look at these and look for
appropriateness
Connecting to Others
 Accept and invite strategically
 Don’t just invite everyone who pops up on “people
you may know.” Invite to build your network the
way you want to build it
 Diversify your contacts
 Use your network – announcements or
questions are ok
 Update regularly
Connecting to Others
State Your Intentions Upfront
Hi Joshua,
I obtained your name through the ESU University LinkedIn
Group. I graduated from the School of Management last
year and I am in the process of making a career transition. It
would be helpful for me to ask you questions about your
experiences as an Sales Account Manager for Cisco.
I am not expecting to discuss a particular employment
position but I would appreciate being able to talk with you
on an informational basis.
I thank you in advance.
Regards,
http://careerealism.com/common-linkedin-mistakes/#BMfGRtflXuCXt3i0f.99
LinkedIn Recommendations
 Happy customers
 Team player
 Current supervisor
 Former supervisor
 Board or Volunteer Head
Be Proactive and seek them out!
Recommendations
Skills & Endorsements
Networking
Begin Establishing a Network
• Your best network is with those you know and trust already
Explore Career Fields (Alumni Paths)
• Search Alumni by major, employer name, career keywords,
interests, etc.
Explore and Follow Employer Pages
• Use as a research tool, look for job postings, announcements
for opportunities
Reach out to Recruiters
Searches Beyond the Basic Account
 Find one person and search their contacts to
have a richer search
 Job search feature
 Search by zip
Top 3 LinkedIn Profile Errors
1. Failing To Use All The Space Provided
 Work history only includes titles, or you skipped
sections like Interests or Specialties
2. Mistaking A Resume Summary For A
LinkedIn Summary
 Write a more personalized, bullet-point account of
your background and qualifications
 Break up the text visually so employers can quickly
scan through for key words, and consider adding
decorative bullet symbols for easier readability
Top 3 LinkedIn Profile Errors
3. Presenting Data Inconsistent With Your
Traditional Resume
 The problem arises when your job history, education,
or achievements appear differently online than on
paper
 To spot discrepancies: print out both your resume and
your LinkedIn profile, reviewing the facts you’ve listed
 Must deliver the same value proposition message as
your resume
Getting hired today requires a strong online identity!
Keep Profiles Updated
Make Any Updates to Your Profile
• As you would update your resume, you should also keep
your LinkedIn account updated with your updated
resume, contact information or profile information
Be Active
• Participate and interact often, the more you interact the
more contacts you make, growing your network
Things To Immediately Do On LinkedIn
 Put Up a Photo
 Join About 45 groups. You’re allowed up to 50 groups on LinkedIn
 Post Discussions on Your Groups on a Regular Basis
Participate in threads with useful remarks not self-promoting
 Let It Be Known You Are An Open Networker, don’t’ just connect
with the people you know
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Accept all or almost all connection requests that are applicable
 Get Recommendations (Endorsements)
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Proactive recommendation seeking involves reaching out and asking
someone to recommend you. Passive recommendation seeking involves
recommending someone, at which point LinkedIn asks them to
recommend you back. The latter is actually a bit more effective.
If you have endorsements you will appear higher in the search!
http://www.careerealism.com/immediately-linkedin/#hQyzg1SMJ8dDDtP0.99
Ways to Improve
 Add rich media to brand messages
 Graphic, presentation, video, link
 Attach to your Summary or under each job in the
Experience section
 Cut the dense paragraphs
 Break apart any paragraphs loner than 3 lines
 Add bullets
 Contact information
4 Clues Your LinkedIn Strategy Is Working
 Your Search Appearances And Profile Views
Have Increased
 The People Viewing Your Profile Are In Your
Target Industry
 People Are Reaching Out To You—Both On
And Off LinkedIn
 Opportunities Start To Come In
http://www.careerealism.com/linkedin-strategy-clues/
LinkedIn University
LinkedIn University
 Broaden your networking with a larger
community
 15,000+ ESU Alumni LinkedIn connections
 Degree/major categories
 Get university & other associated networks
updates
 ESU LinkedIn University
Social to Professional Networking
 LinkedIn
 Write a blog
 Create video’s on You Tube
 Participate on online communities
 Tweet
Questions & Answers
Thank you!