Linkedin and you!

Alright if you haven't been reading my posts on social media, you might should pay attention to this one.

So you have a Facebook? Now how would you like a version of Facebook that is simply for finding jobs? That is Linkedin. If you don't have a Linkedin, do yourself a favor and read this. Then go and create your account.

So first thing you need is a decent head shot. Linkedin is where professionals look to find employees. So depending on what job you're looking for, what you will pick for a profile picture will vary. If you are looking for an executive position, then a suit and tie is for you. If you use some picture of you drunk at a party, well expect to be spending more time drunk. As you will still be unemployed months down the road. I just use a basic headshot, nothing fancy. Think Senior photos, but more professional.

The next step is setting up a profile. You need to put your position that you are currently holding on your profile. If you are unemployed, say you are a consultant in whatever field that you want to work in. Java Consultant, .NET Consultant, Database Developer Consultant, etc. This title will come in handy shortly.

Now you have a summary section to put a basic information about yourself. Now where most people screw up is that they just transcribe their resumes onto this page. When a employer gets your resume and goes to look you up on Linkedin, they don't want to just read it over again. This is where you put your elevator speech. An elevator speech is just a short speech about what you are wanting to do and what you have done. I put a short life story and what my current goals are. I do this for two reasons. It makes your profile stand out, and it gives the person reading your profile a small glimpse into your personality. Now there is something very crucial that you need to remember when writing this out. Your job title, try to fit that in to your summaries as much as possible. This increases your weight when being searched by people for your job title.

The next step is filling out education and past work experience(if you have any) Once again here, do not just list off your resume in the summary section. Tell a story. Your resume has to be short and sweet, your Linkedin is where you put all your details. And like the general summary, put your job title in this summary as much as you can, if it relates. This will help elevate you in the search results.

There is an area for skills that you have. This can be anything that you can think of. These will be search terms. This will match your resume on skills that you have. Put down anything that you think is a good skill that you have that can help an company. Public Speaking, .NET, HTML5, CSS3, MVC, etc. These will help recruiters find you when they do an advanced search.

Now one big difference between Facebook and Linkedin is that while in Facebook you want to try and hide your account as much as possible, you need to be as open as possible on Linkedin. You are going to get tons of connection requests on Linkedin as you get your connection base built up. This is a good thing. Even if your direct connections can't directly get you a job, you better believe they are connected to someone who can. And the more connections you have, the higher you show up in a recruiters search results.

There are also groups that you can join. Some are helpful in that there are lots of connections and some of the information is helpful. Sadly, most of them are very, very, very, veeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyy spammy. I tend to steer clear of them because my inbox can't take the abuse.

Lastly, this is just a side note that I learned the hard way. You can link your twitter account to your linked in. This allows twitter posts to go on linkedin or vice versa. Make sure if you do this, then you click the checkbox that makes linkedin check for #IN hashtag in your post before putting it on your linked in. If you forget this step, you will end up retweeting Pictures of Staph infections from Joe Rogan.