Why you need a LinkedIn... and How to Get Started
You need a LinkedIn! It is much more than a clean social media platform. It is an opportunity to find, and land new jobs as well as engage with recruiters looking to hire you for your skills. Learn more in this how to get started with LinkedIn.
First career series post and I'm going to talk to you about the importance of building a proper online persona. You Need A LinkedIn!
Finding a job is a lot like finding new friends. You get to pick your friends based on their qualities, what they like to do, their values, and even their hobbies. Its important to know that when you look for work, hiring managers (the people looking to hire you) are more importantly looking for someone they feel they can learn to trust and do the job. So a LinkedIn is where you turn those professional relationships into an actual metric for other people to see if they should hire you too.
"Job seekers with a comprehensive LinkedIn profile have a 71% higher chance of getting a job interview." - LinkedIn.com
A Resume Is Not Enough
Employers look you up! They will look at any and all social media to determine what kind of person you are to work with BEFORE they invite you to an interview. This is an easy way to validate if a persons resume is actually real by seeing the people you are connected with matches with your prior job experience. Take my public profile for example:
This is only a small snippet of my resume. Anyone can make a profile on LinkedIn look this good. The difference is in who I am connected with. I have all of my previous bosses, my professors, my college colleagues, my projects and highlights from my entire professional experience. This is the proof that I am well liked by my coworkers, and that I actually worked in these places with other real people. LinkedIn is the place someone figures out if you are who you say you are professionally.
