Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile for Job Seeking

Miriam Salpeter founder of Keppie Careers, is a career coach with over 10 years of experience. She encourages, enlightens and empowers job seekers for success by writing top-notch resumes and providing a toolbox of practical tips and support. Learn more about Miriam and Keppie Careers at her career advice blog: www.keppiecareers.wordpress.com. Miriam is joining Gina and I as we participate in the Great Blog Off. Enjoy!
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Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile for Job Seeking

By Miriam Salpeter

In light of the fact that linkedin has become and looks to be a continued source of choice for people who love to hire passive job seekers (those who may not actually be seeking a new job), I thought it would be a good idea to remind readers to pay attention to your linkedin profile!

First, a note on visibility….

If you use linkedin, you know that your visibility goes up the more connections you have. Your second- and third-degree connections help put your profile in front of more people. I am a 2nd degree connection to both candidates for President! (Yes, Obama, and McCain are on linkedin!)

There are several ways to increase your connections:

1. The preferred way is to link with friends and colleagues. When I started on linkedin, I convinced a friend who always sends mass emails to a g’zillion friends to join linkedin. In about a day, she had over 100 connections, all of which became my 2nd degree connections.

2. Another easy way to increase your visibility is to link with a LION (linkedin open networker). These LIONS have over 500 connections and welcome any invitation to link. You gain visibility to all of their connections with the click of a mouse.

Your profile…

First things first – Be sure that anything in your profile is spelled and punctuated correctly! Typos scream, “don’t hire me” to anyone with a critical eye. Have someone with an eagle eye proof your profile. (Keppie Careers will be happy to assist in revising or proofing your profile. Email us at results@keppiecareers.com for details.)

Especially if you are looking for a job, focus your profile to include skills and experiences that will be of interest to potential employers. As with a resume, don’t just list what you did – help the reader envision you working for them by highlighting your skills and accomplishments. As you would with your resume, use active and interesting language.

Unlike a resume, you can use mini paragraphs in your profile. Keep it short – large blocks of text are hard to read. It should be somewhat conversational to grab the reader’s attention. It is okay to use “I, me or my” in your profile, unlike in a resume. (Don’t overdo it, though. You don’t want to appear self-centered!)

Make use of the “HEADLINE” feature. It goes right under your name and is the first thing people see. If you are a marketing professional, you can say so! Maybe you are a “Skilled problem solver and community builder.” Think of a tag line that grabs attention and describes you.

I really like the “Summary” and “Specialties” sections. This is where you can briefly sum up what you offer. If you have a “Highlights of Qualifications” or an “Accomplishments Summary” section on your resume, it should be easy to transfer it to linkedin. The “Specialties” section is like a list of tags – keywords that describe you and your work.

If you have a website or blog, use the “other” category and name your site when you add the URL. Also, you can edit your linkedin URL in your profile to include your name. Ask colleagues and clients to “recommend” you on linkedin. They can say all of the flowery, fabulous things about you that you can’t say about yourself! Only ask those you know will write a quality review. Most people will discount a poorly written recommendation. Especially when you are job hunting, your linkedin profile may be your golden ticket. Make sure you keep it shiny!

Keppie Careers will help you with every aspect of your job search…Resume writing, linkedin summary editing, interview prep, career coaching…Contact us to see how we can take your job search up a few notches! www.keppiecareers.com

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Just something to think about as we begin The Great Blog Off. Thank you for taking the time to join us for the The Great Blog Off. Feel free to donate to the Business Channel Charity Accion. Accion helps small businesses all over the world to become established through small, manageable loans and business advice. This concept of microlending is fabulous and their payback record is impressive. Click here to make a donation>>>