LinkedIn

There are 347 million professionals using LinkedIn worldwide. Let's join them.

A social network for work?

 

Linkedin is a social network for work professionals and was created in 2002 by Reid Hoffman. Users of the platform use it to connect with other professionals, get the latest news, inspiration and insights from people and communicate with people within their network.

On the network users can search for jobs, join work-related groups, and submit job applications through Apply With LinkedIn.

Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of more than two new members per second.

Let's start with your profile

As with more socially orientated networks, LinkedIn is centered around your profile page. Within your profile you can add your job experience, professional summary, honours & awards and your education.

What differs within LinkedIn is that it is crucial to complete your profile as much as possible. The platform measures your profile strength which has a direct impact on how highly you appear within search results. With this in mind, we have pulled together the key information that needs to be included within your profile.

  • 1A professional profile photo

  • 2A summary which highlights your experience and interests

  • 3Your current position with description

  • 4Some of your previous positions

  • 5A good variety of skills (not too many, though!)

  • 6Some honours and awards

  • 7Your education

  • 8At least 50 connections

  • 9Work samples or projects

  • 10Recommendations: from tutors or employers

    Once you have set up your highly rated profile it’s time to make connections, join groups and follow companies. This will begin to expand your network, populate your news feed and allow you to contribute to and view discussions.

    • Connections
    • Groups
    • Companies

    Connections are crucial to LinkedIn and the platform recognises this. Your starting point is to find close work colleagues and connect with them. Once you start to build up your network, LinkedIn will suggest very accurate connections to you. You can then reach out to these (possibly new) people to connect, thus expanding your network.

    LinkedIn groups are a fantastic way to collaborate with users around a specific topic. Groups can fall into a lot of different categories which include societies, support groups, specific networks and brands. However, there is a big difference between groups and companies. For example, you could have a group for Gateshead College Alumni but the company would sit on the Gateshead College company page.

    As with all other social media, companies are choosing to represent themselves within LinkedIn as a platform. These company pages allow for users to follow their activity and receive updates - if you’re looking for a job at the perfect company, following them is certainly a good start. A company page includes an introduction to the company, recent updates and connected employees. Most companies will also post vacancies within their page - very handy to know if you’re looking for a job with them! 

    93% of companies use LinkedIn for recruiting.

    So, how do we find a job using LinkedIn?

    Jobs Board

    An ever growing section of LinkedIn is the jobs board facility. The jobs displayed are specific to an individual user and allow you to apply directly from within the platform - very very useful!

    Endorsements and recommendations

    You can say good things about yourself all day long but good things from your peers carry so much more credibility. LinkedIn allows your connections to endorse you and this will improve your profile significantly - do you read the description or the customer reviews?

     

    Connect

    As most users within LinkedIn are looking for networking opportunities it’s acceptable to send a few random connections but always introduce yourself and give a reason why you’d like to connect. Yes, it’s less creepy than a random friend request on Facebook but still needs justified.  

    Share

    If you share useful articles with your network that provide insight, information and encourages discussion it proves your knowledge in the industry - in this case, sharing really is caring.

    Want to use LinkedIn to find a job but need more help? Book an appointment with us.

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