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Career Readiness

Creating LinkedIn

Today’s lesson will focus on:Creating a LinkedIn that will get recruiters reaching out to you.

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Class Agenda:

LinkedInAt the end of today’s session, you should feel better answering the following questions:

1. How is LinkedIn helpful to my job search?

2. How do I utilize and update my LinkedIn?

3. How do I effectively display myself on LinkedIn?

This session’s topics will be:

• LinkedIn Overview

• Effective Job Searching

• Creating LinkedIn

Deliverable: Send a Customized Link to your LinkedIn meeting Byte Back Checklist Standards (Assignment 07-LinkedIn

Standards)

Due: Tuesday

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LinkedIn Overview:

A Professional Facebook?LinkedIn is a social network that can mainly be used

as a professional networking tool.

LinkedIn & Employment• More than 73% of employers are using Linkedin to

recruit but only 14% of all Linkedin users are currently using Linkedin to hunt for jobs

• In 2014, 55% of recruiters considered a candidate based on a social profile

• How do recruiters use Linkedin?– Post Jobs, Vet Candidates, Search for Candidates, Generate Leads

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LinkedIn Overview:

Why Use It?

Build credibility and branding to employers

– Internet Searches of your name

Share advice and find answers

– Connecting with people you meet

– Groups

Research employees and employers

– Company Sites

Discover new employment opportunities

– Job Postings

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LinkedIn Overview:

Discovering Job Opportunities

By reviewing the Jobs section, you can look up opportunities tailored to you based off your location, experience, and education.

• Will receive updates based on your searches (if you allow)

By Searching for a Job on LinkedIn, you can see:

• People you know at the company

• Fellow alumni at the company

• People you know who know people at the company

• Who posted the job!

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Building Credibility & Brand:

Main Aspects of Your Profile

Headshot

• Choose a headshot that will make a good impression

Headline

• Your way to introduce yourself to the world. Some examples include

Summary

• A type of ‘Cover Letter’ that explains your unique talent

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Building Credibility and Brand:

Other TipsIf you have a common name, use your middle initial to stand out from the search engine crowd.

• Use the initial in your resume and other documents.

Claim your hyperlink!

View Profile -> Edit Profile & URL -> Personalize Your URL

www.linkedin/com/in/bockszym

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Who Would You Want to Interview?

Office Administrator Seeking Executive Assistant

Seeking positionTechnology Leader Advocating for Minorities in Tech

Seeking Opportunities

Unemployed at Unemployed

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Creating a LinkedIn: Headline and Summary

Your Headline

A headline is a 120 character hook that appears in LinkedIn Searches along with your headshot.

• Recruiters can search for you based off what is in your title.

• Utilize this hook to best encapsulate who you are, and entice employers.

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Creating a LinkedIn: Headline and Summary

Headline Structure1. Title• Use a Career Focused Title that encapsulates your current work and where you hope

to head.– Career Counselor

– Experienced Business Analyst

• If you are transitioning, you can try to capture that.– Aspiring IT Professional

2. Connect this with one of the below qualities to help demonstrate yourself as best you can in 120 characters.

• Catchphrase – Relentless for the Success of Those I Service

• Qualities Focused– Advocate for Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship | Bold Strategy | Strategic Partnerships |

Technology Enabler

• Skills Focused– CompTIA A+ Certified, SaaS, Business Consulting

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Creating a LinkedIn: Headline and Summary

Headline Structure (IT)1. Title• Use a Career Focused Title that encapsulates your current work and where you hope

to head.– Career Counselor

– Experienced Business Analyst

• If you are transitioning, you can try to capture that.– Aspiring IT Professional

2. Connect this with one of the below qualities to help demonstrate yourself as best you can in 120 characters.

• Catchphrase – Relentless for the Success of Those I Service

• Qualities Focused– Advocate for Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship | Bold Strategy | Strategic Partnerships |

Technology Enabler

• Skills Focused– CompTIA A+ Certified, SaaS, Business Consulting

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Creating a LinkedIn: Headline and Summary

Your Summary

"Your summary should include your experience, skills, motivations and interests," Decembrele said. "It's a great place to highlight what you want

to be known for, and to let your personality shine through too.“

– Blaire Decembele, LinkedIn Marketing Director and Career Expert

• Think of it as a Condensed Cover Letter or Elevator Pitch.

• Main points to hit Upon:

– Conversational

– Uses Keywords from Intended Industry

– Invites Others to Connect:

• I love meeting new people and learning new things, so please feel free to say hello and share a story with me!

• If you believe that I can be of help to you, please get in touch or connect.

• There are tough technical problems to be solved, so if you want support, I’d love to chat.

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Creating a LinkedIn: Work Experience

• Title: Your Job Title

• Company: Search for the Company you

worked at

– Link it to the actual company’s LinkedIn page, this

will help connect you with the larger community.

• Location: City and State

• Start Date/End Date: Focuses on Month and

Year

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Creating a LinkedIn: Work Experience (IT)Description

• There are different methods to this, no strong results pointing to particular solution

• Employers will only see first several lines– Put major accomplishments in first few lines

Relay all relevant tasks in bullet point format up top.

(Basically insert your resume)

• Managed Salesforce to interact and track engagement with 500+ students annually, writing detailed reports on interactions.

• Set up and broke down 10+ workstations in preparations for in office events.

Relevant IT Qualities:

• Any Software/Hardware you operated, Critical Thinking, Communication, Customer Service, Project Management, Multitasking

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Creating a LinkedIn: Education

• School*: Institution you took class at/with

• Degree: Only put for Degrees, Certifications will go in a separate area

• Field of Study: You can put the class title here (CompTIA IT Fundamentals)

• Grade: Not required, put if 3.5 or above, otherwise leave out

• Activities and Societies: Clubs or leadership positions you may have held

• From Year/To Year (Or Expected): Make sure you put it for more recent trainings or to cover job gaps.

• Description: Put bullet points of activities or modules you completed

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Creating a LinkedIn: Education

Through a Byte Back Lens

• Education: For the classes you took at Byte Back

• Digital Badging: Industry Certified Proof of your IT knowledge– Provided with your certification

– Will show up in Certification field on LinkedIn

– More information here: https://certification.comptia.org/certifications/comptia-digital-badges

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Creating a LinkedIn:

Skills

• Applies to Search Ranking Algorithm

• You can only receive endorsements from 1st

level connections for skills you’ve acknowledged you possess.

Ways to Manage Skills

– Add Your Own

– Delete Skills

– Pin and Reorder Skills

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Creating a LinkedIn: Endorsements

In addition to receiving endorsements for connections, you can endorse others.

I Scratch your back, you scratch mine.

• By endorsing others, you open yourself to your own endorsements.

• Only endorse others who you have worked with and for skills you know they possess.

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Creating a LinkedIn: Recommendations

One of strongest ways to show your credibility, recommendations are written endorsements from

connections.

• You can ask past managers, clients, or coworkers to Recommend you

• By providing your own recommendations, that can help prove your respectability in an area.

– Don’t hand them out like candy, though.

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Your Interests

Groups

– Follow groups that will help display your interests and passions

Companies

– Follow companies to get updates from them on your timeline

Schools

– Same idea as companies, just for Educational Institutions

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Your Interests: Groups (IT)

Groups

Type in a general area of interest in the search field then select the ‘Groups’ category. After requesting and being granted access, you will have access to their message board to gain and request information.

• Group Examples– Helpdesk 2.0 (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2050253/)

– DC/Baltimore Information Security Professionals (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1851805/)

– Washington DC IT Professionals(https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1625267/)

– African-American Women in Technology (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/137485/)

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Your Interests: Companies

Companies

By looking at an Employer’s Company page, you can view:

• Company Overview

• Open Positions

• Connections you know at that company– Great way to network and find out more information!

• Follow companies to get updates from them on your timeline

• Good idea to follow companies you may be interested working for in the future and interact with their posts– Also suggested for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

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Your Interests: Schools

Schools

– Same idea as companies, just for Educational

Institutions

– Follow past educational institutions that were

post High School

– Follow potential future educational institutions

you plan to attend or work for

• Ex: University of the District of Columbia

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Privacy Settings

Overview Video From LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-linkedin-for-

students/explore-privacy-settings-and-account-types

Main Points:

• Insert Contact Information and make it visible to at least 1st degree connections, otherwise it might be hard to teach you

• If you don’t want your job to know if you plan to switch, you want to turn ‘Sharing Profile Edits’ Off

• Profile Viewing Options will allow people to know you viewed them or not

• Lots of options, so don’t be afraid to explore all of them

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Class Review:

Creating LinkedInHow do you feel about answering the following

questions?

1. How is LinkedIn helpful to my job search?

2. How do I utilize and update my LinkedIn?

3. How do I effectively display myself on LinkedIn?

Please send a customized URL to your LinkedIn, meet all checklist standards, by Tuesday before

class starts.