The professional world can be an extremely confusing place for many students and making yourself professional can seem like a herculean task if you are not sure of what people look for. For many it seems like the beginning and end to getting a job after college is just crafting a great resume, turning it in, and hoping that it all works out and you get a call back for the job. There is, however, more to getting a new job than just throwing darts at a job board. An applicant can stack the deck just a little bit more towards them by building themselves up on the social media site for professionals, LinkedIn.
When it comes to building out a LinkedIn profile, there is a different set of items to keep an eye on. It is a platform built on making connections and building a professional profile that shows off your best careers attributes rather than best pictures. This includes building out professional references, skills, and keeping up on news related to fields you are passionate about. Many of the features of LinkedIn will look very similar to other social media platforms such as filling out information related to where you are from, what job you work, and where you go to school, but other features are noticeably different such as replacing friends with connections.
One other big portion of having a LinkedIn profile is the jobs that get posted on it and the ability to see, in some cases, who the hiring manager in charge of the position is. Many large corporations post their openings on the platform either for application directly on the site or through a linked external site. In many cases when the ad links to the external site, you will get the option to send your LinkedIn profile to the hiring manager automatically. Everyone knows about hiring teams checking social media of potential applicants, so a whole platform allows you to design exactly what you want them to see. Of course, this does not stop them from going through your other social media profiles, so it is also important to make sure those reflect what you want others to see. Putting together a well-organized page to show potential employers exactly what you offer them is a great start and certainly a good thing to have for those jobs that only check a single social media page of yours.
Dylan Enerson is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].
