Today’s episode covers an interesting topic. I share my tips and tricks on how to use LinkedIn to build your career and potentially find your next job. I give some of my thoughts on what should and should not be on LinkedIn and ways it should and shouldn't be used.
Thanks for listening! Feel free to reach out at links below
Today’s episode covers an interesting topic. I share my tips and tricks on how to use LinkedIn to build your career and potentially find your next job. I give some of my thoughts on what should and should not be on LinkedIn and ways it should and shouldn't be used.
Thanks for listening! Feel free to reach out at links below
Hi I'm Thomas welcome to the parachute advice. My life has taken a lot of twists and turns and on this podcast I will dive into those. The goal is to help everyone listening learn from my experiences and hopefully avoid some of the mistakes I've made welcome to today's episode of the parachuter Vice podcast I'm your host Thomas. Today I wanted to share some of the top tips and tricks I use to get the most or at least what I think is the most out of LinkedIn, I've had this discussion with many people in my life and I feel like a lot of people just aren't leveraging LinkedIn to its fullest potential, I know I've had conversations with coworkers and friends who are shocked at how many recruiters and connections that I make through Linkedin when they don't too often realize it's because of how they're using the platform or the tool itself so I want to share some of my thoughts on what I found to be the best tips and tricks, this is not an all-inclusive list or the definitive guide to how to use LinkedIn it's just what's worked for me at least worked for me so far, first off my last two career moves I found through Linkedin I've been able to network through Linkedin to build a solid network of people both in my industry as well as those who I think could help me now and in the future for example people in other Industries other businesses are recruiters and Headhunters all around the globe like I mentioned I've built a solid connection and network of recruiters across the country and even some International. I can't tell you how often I get messages or calls just looking for my assistants either, when they're looking to fill a position and they know I might know someone who has the background and skills they're looking for or I've also had long candid conversations with recruiters about candidates that they're looking at who they see I'm connected with. I have never when this comes up I have never badmouth anyone or talk down about anyone I give truthful and honest insights, but I make sure to put his positive a spin as possible on it at the end of the day we've all been there we've all been out of work and the last thing you need is somebody going behind your back and torpedoing a potential new opportunity. That said I also tell people I'll never lie I'm a omit some information or or skim over details but I always give fair and honest feedback so here are some of my top tips that I found work for me first off and this is a top one for me personally. LinkedIn is not Facebook Twitter Instagram or any of those other social media sites keep your personal stuff off LinkedIn what do I mean by this well I'm not talking about the random post about a family event or something personal I'm talking more about a constant, and incessant bias commentary on things like politics social issues or other items that often will fill my feet. A comment here there is not the end of the world what I'm talking about is people who suddenly will fill your feed take during the presidential election, I don't need your constant and ongoing comments about who should or shouldn't win or why or why not the economy is in the state it is because of X person or X reason or X policy I go to LinkedIn to build a network of professional acquaintances. And get unbiased truthful information yes I understand see internet and nothing is unbiased and everything has some spin on it but I feel like LinkedIn is still one of the last places where you still get good information so to that point, keep your personal commentary and personal beliefs off of LinkedIn I personally have seen it to the point where connections that I have are filling my feed with this kind of stuff and I frankly I just on connect with. I've even had people come back and try to reconnect with me after I've unconnected with them for that reason I don't need it in my life I already get enough of this on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and just frankly on cable news, so the last thing I need is this also on LinkedIn all right next one and this is a big one and one that I failed at for many years, have a recent and professional headshot for your photo this is key like I said I was terrible for years I used an old badge photo that was just terrible and out of date, but recently I had a professionally done headshot and I use that now also there's the header photo. I personally haven't updated mine but some people do you may have put something on there about your industry or the current company you're at or something but make sure if you are going to have a photo up there that to is professionally done. And looks good next use LinkedIn to tell a story about yourself and your career this means put as much detail as you can for what you've done and accomplished in your career. Understandably some information can't always be shared for example confidential numbers like sales, or inventory or Revenue may not be something you can share but whenever possible put as much detail as you can for example. I did X Project and it resulted in X dollars in savings or I did X Project and revenue went up by X percent. Maybe you can be vague on something that you can't publicly share perhaps you work for a private company that doesn't want to share their revenue numbers but you might be able to say I did a project that increase Revenue by X percentage, it shows that you are doing things and accomplishing things and bettering your employer and your current company and that makes you more appealing to other employers. I think of each job I put on LinkedIn as a detailed record of everything I did in accomplished. This is why I'm regularly updating my current role I also like to use this as a way to review and see if I'm progressing in my current rule. Truthfully it's one of the reasons I most recently changed jobs I started to realize that I had nothing new to update on my current role I had become stagnant and wasn't growing when you're updating, make sure you use keywords that apply to your industry as well as explanations on some of the words you're using because maybe it makes complete sense in your industry. But doesn't to other people. Most recently at my new employer I was helping them updated job description because they thought it made complete sense and when I read it having worked there for eight weeks it made sense to me and then I step back and realize that if I hadn't worked there for eight weeks. I would not have understood a lot of the words and Concepts that they were trying to prove a so I left those in there because I think they were vital like specific things for the industry or specific tools we use but I added explanations that were more generic that would have let people understand across multiple Industries do this on your LinkedIn profile as well also make sure your resume and Linkedin match this is a big one you can't say you did Exon 1 and y and another, so how do I do this well frankly I use LinkedIn as an extended resume and any time I need to send a resume out for a job I'm just copying pasting all of the information from LinkedIn into my resume I'm tweaking it and paring it down so it fits onto a more concise set of pages and it's tailored to the specific role on going for so if the roll is heavily focused on Saline projects I might focus on that and leave out some of the other stuff I've done. Maybe it's a job that's heavily focused on supply chain or planning I might focus on those things but then at the top of my resume I have a link to my current LinkedIn profile and yes, I have claimed my personal LinkedIn link and I recommend all of you do that as well so for example mine is my first initial last name. It looks professional and it makes sense but this then allows somebody who's looking at your resume to go on LinkedIn and see your background in Greater detail so maybe you want to send out I don't know a six page resume but we all know no one wants to read a six page resume I know somebody who's reviewing resumes right now for positions past three pages and frankly I start to zone out. But if I see two pages concise with a lot of rolls, I will likely go on to LinkedIn and look at their profile to see if they have greater detail make sure your LinkedIn profile is completely filled out with all pertinent information I can't tell you like I said earlier in this episode how many times people have come to me and said I don't understand no one looks at my profile I'm not having Headhunters reach out to me through Linkedin what am I doing wrong and I pull up their LinkedIn profile and they've gotten maybe a job or two on there, or maybe one job that just says they've been at the same company for 30 years but they never showed progression or multitudes a jobs they have no picture no summary barely any educational information frankly they might as well just not have a LinkedIn at all at that point. That's the problem alright let's talk about Job titles and this is one I've had issues with and want I've seen other people have issues with your profile headline and job titles are weighed heavily in LinkedIn search algorithms State the most accurate name for what you do to clarify to a reader if your formal title isn't clear for example when I was with it with with a company, we use the term PT l-- or production team leader which was an internal title but it really just meant supervisor. So I was actually doing the work as of a supervisor but that wasn't clear to anyone who looked at my LinkedIn or even my resume, they often ask me interviews what's a production team leader at some companies a leader is simply an hourly employee with a little more responsibility when reality was I was a salary. So I kept the title of production team leader on LinkedIn and on my resume but I clarified production team leader and then in parentheses parentheses, supervisor materials team and Warehouse team so anyone who looked at my profile or did a search for supervisor materials or supervisor Warehouse or supervisor my profile came up. And even though it's still had my actual title they understood what I did. This is just one example from when I worked at GE but I've seen this many times for other people and even throughout my career where I've realized that my title. While accurate to the company doesn't fully convey what I do to somebody who doesn't work at that company let's take for example my current employer. They like to use the term coaches and Captain's on the shop floor to talk about supervisors and managers of areas nothing wrong with that but if you put that on LinkedIn people have no idea what you're talking about they be like what do you. Coach a football team a soccer team what are you doing, find a put it on there but clarify and be clear so people understand what you do just don't falsify information you are clarifying information here you are not trying to upsell or make things up. It is simply a way to get better description for a confusing title be careful with that. Don't get yourself caught in a trap where it might appear that you're trying to falsify your title or your responsibilities, that's why I always leave the title of my job on there as my employer explains it with explanation or clarification all right be mindful of your profile settings if your job searching you can adjust your profile settings to let recruiters know you're open to work and if you don't necessarily want your current employer to find out about it you can tweak your settings further to hide this info from anyone working at the same company as you you can also control who sees your updates so remember for example when you're updating your profile. Make sure to look at the settings maybe you don't want your employer senior updating your profile because they might get the wrong impression all he must be job searching when all you're doing is simply updating or clarifying, that said when you're out there looking for a new role. Make sure that you tell people that is well okay another one and I think a big one and one I've seen a lot of benefit from Recently is become an active user. Once your profile is finished or cleaned up you can't just abandon LinkedIn until the next time you're applying for a job or the next time you think you want to need it. You need to be an active user. Actively using LinkedIn will help you grow your network it helps you be more visible to your existing Network and will help you learn about other things going on whether it's specific to your role industry or potential opportunities this can be as simple as. Posting information about your current employer for example recently I've been posting that I'm trying to fill two positions in my company for my team. It might be liking other people's comments or sharing other people's posts. For example my sister has been highly recognized a few times now at her current employer and I simply make a comment about how great I think that is and I share that post I can't tell you how many views I get from that because now I'm not only. Exposing myself to my network but her network and then subsequently other people's Networks. You can go in and see who's viewed your profile and see who's viewed some of your posts and liked and commented on them or just viewed them and it's amazing how quickly re-sharing a post like that can go across the globe, those are all people who could potentially help you grow your career or your network next requesting connections and doing it correctly. One of the best parts about LinkedIn is it's the number one place to network. You can build a professional Network by simply connecting with people you already know but you can also request connections from people you don't know who might be able to help you grow your career. That said if you do this make sure to include a note explaining your goal I can't tell you how many times random connections of just popped up no explanation for why they want to connect. Or even in some cases when there is a message it's clearly a generic copy and paste message most recently I had someone who reached out and said hey I see we have a bunch of Connections in common I would love to connect, that's weird because we have one Connection in common not a bunch clearly a copy and paste message what do I do with these. For a while some of them I used to accept and then I realized that my network was getting cluttered with people that weren't either value-add or I didn't even know so I did some Cleanup in that aspect and now I've just simply begun to decline those if I don't know you. Or your message isn't clear on what you're looking for. Or I don't think we can mutually benefit from a connection I just decline it and yes that's key mutually benefit. I'm not looking to use people I don't want people looking to use me I'm looking for an opportunity to mutually benefit each other like I mentioned earlier having a recruiter your network can be beneficial to you but it can also be beneficial to me there is a recruiter that I've worked with a few times based out of Pittsburgh. Who regularly will call me and talk to me about what the job market looks like in the midwest in manufacturing because they're based on the east coast and they don't know what's going on but they also, look for and support companies in the midwest will have a conversation for a half hour 45 minutes catch up I share information she shares information it's a mutually beneficial relationship. Also don't spam people I can't tell you how many times I've accepted a connection because they look like someone who could. Help me and I could help them maybe they're in a service industry or. An adjoining industry to what I'm in to suddenly have my in box filled with Spam from them trying to sell me a product or a service. I used to respond and simply say no it's not something I'm looking for or I it's not something I managing my employer to continually get hassled and spam. Now I've simply stopped responding to them. If I get one spam message I let it go if I get two or more I unconnect from them I've even had people who after upon connected because it still shows up in their message area continue to spam me until they realize that we're not connected anymore. Super annoying please don't do it all right back to the job search. Like I said my last two jobs I got because I was following the companies through Linkedin. And I saw the jobs pop up on my feet and I immediately went and applied so it's key to use LinkedIn LinkedIn for things like that following companies in your area companies in your industry following companies in a new market maybe you want to move or. Oftentimes jobs will pop up faster on LinkedIn and they do on indeed or other sources or maybe not faster. Put more information or you can see how you're connected there. I'll be candid I've even told my own employees because my goal is to help them be successful as possible if they're ever looking to leave the company which I hope they're not but if they are and they see I'm connected to a company they desperately want to work for. Come talk to me I'm happy to help them happy to share information I'm happy to put them in connection with them by having Open Candid conversations like that I can't tell you how many times in my last four or five years I've had employees come to me to talk to me about, their job in their career and ultimately have been able to find ways to make them happy and keep them at my current employer because they feel so confident having that candid conversation and it all came up because I simply said hey if I can help you by link by connecting with somebody on LinkedIn don't hesitate to ask me, also there's a summary section on LinkedIn this is a great place to tell your story in a single simple paragraph. What I like to do is highlight what I've done what I'm doing as well as what I can do. That's it just really clear concise this is where I've been this is where I'm at and this is where I want to go back to the algorithm issue. And making sure you're an active user. Another big one here is share your organization's content even if you're considering rolls and other companies or even if you're not happy with your current employer which if you're not happy you probably should be looking for a job and not just staying there and being miserable. It's still a good idea to share your current companies content to your profile. This shows that you're active on your profile and that you're proud of your current organizations work that's being posted on their social media channels this will look good to your future employers as well as look good to your current employer it also shows your enthusiasm for what you do, all right another one make sure your profile is public and open, hence why I say LinkedIn is not like Facebook if it's only professional based information that's common knowledge then you should have no problem making your profile open and public, under the small picture of your face in the drop-down menu you can set privacy settings the reason it's so good to be public is a it allows other people to find you some HR individuals and smaller employers don't use LinkedIn recruiter because they don't want to pay for, but by having your profile open in public they can still use Google and find you. I've had plenty of people reach out to me just through that method alone even some small Employers in my local community. Have I taken the roles usually not because they're smaller employer and they're not offering what I'm looking for but the fact they were able to find me and talk to me shows that it works. Alright your education section this is another big one and when I struggled with for a while and I'll explain what my struggle was. But if you've earned a degree make sure that you have a graduation date there the last thing you want is for it to look like you attended college with no graduation day. In this day and age there's a lot of employers who assume then you just didn't graduate maybe you took coursework maybe you made it through the first three years of a four-year degree and you dropped out for one reason or another this isn't a judgment on you doing that. But if it's an employer who's looking for somebody with a four-year degree who's graduated it may look to them like you haven't graduated. So make sure you have a graduation date also make sure how you post your educational information is clear this is where I struggle. When I was an undergrad I double major. And for many many years the way I had it posted I realized it was not clear to employers it even came up in some interviews where they didn't fully understand the way I had it listed on my resume so now I've broken it apart so I went from listening as finance and economics. To a Bachelors in finance and a bachelor's in economics see the difference there I didn't get a bachelor's in finance and economics I got a Bachelors in finance and a bachelor's in economics I double major I did not do a single unique finance and economics major finally back to the earlier comment about being open to work or updating your profile, I have found a specially when I'm actively job searching, a lot of benefit in turning off the open to work for say two or three hours on a Sunday afternoon and then turning it back on I can't tell you how many times I've done that, and on Monday morning the number of views I get on my profile from recruiters has jumped after dropping off, if I'm actively looking I might do this once every week or two if I'm not actively looking I might only do this once a month or once every few months. The same goes for updating your profile. Make sure you're continually updating your current role and maybe even tweaking the wording some of your older stuff again you're not here to falsify or or upsell things just making updates because again this makes you an active user and will bump you up in the algorithms both on LinkedIn Google and everywhere else they look at how active our user is this is just some of my tips and tricks that have helped me I hope some of these tips and tricks help you I know that they've helped me build my network and grow my career, is it like I said earlier isn't an all-inclusive list no is it the end-all-be-all list no but I think they're all good tips and tricks that will definitely help anyone who's looking to get a little bit more out of LinkedIn and further grow their career using thank you for listening please join me again for future episodes. You can contact me at parachute advice podcast at gmail.com again that's all one word parachute advice podcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram at parachute advice again thank you for listening and please like And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Music.