Post by FPEPro on May 18, 2013 20:11:29 GMT -5
Things to avoid:
- Don't just list your name and degree, and expect a job. It doesn't work that way.
- Don't add all your drinking buddies and post stupid stuff on it like Facebook. This is just stupid. LinkedIn is suppose to act similar to a online resume to highlight who you are professionally. So don't be too opinionated or openly ignorant in public. That will be a death sentence for you ever getting an offer from a company.
- If you post a picture of yourself, be sure it's tasteful, current, and not holding a damn beer in your hand... Make it business like.
- You need connections (i.e. Friends). No connections means no network. No network, means no one will ever see you.
- That being said, don't spam the entire world looking for connections. Strategically research for them. Make sure the majority of them pertain to your industry/field of engineering.
The way LinkedIn works is, you establish a connection to a person, then all of that persons connections can now see you and you will appear in their searches when anything matches their query. The more connections, the larger your network grows, and the more people will see you. My 360 connections gives me 9.6 million connections total in my network, so it gets big quickly.
Also, when recruiters search for terms on LinkedIn, the terms will be pulled from any field entry you make. So when filling out your profile, be very detailed. If there is common acronyms, or abbreviations for something you state in your profile, then put both the full name of that item, and the common acronym, or abbreviation. This is not like a traditional Resume/CV where you want it short and concise. On LinkedIn clear descriptions in great detail work the best at luring would be employers. It just gives you that many more keywords to get caught by their queries.
Next, DO NOT set your profile to completely Private. This defeats the entire purpose of this account. Just be sure to not publicly display too much personal information. I usually hide my actual address and phone number. And never make your marital status and birthday public. Other than that everything can and should remain public.
Now in regards to how to select connections I personally follow this distribution and I have found it to be very beneficial in luring the right people to my profile.
You of course want to target Recruiters to get a potential job, this part is fairly obvious. And Recruiters usually have thousands of connections, so by adding them, you also gain the thousands of people connected to them as well.
But it is also good to connect to peers that do the same thing as you. Some of these peers should be people of high Merit in your industry. They will help drive secondary traffic to your profile via the well know person. Also, I suggest adding a few of your classmates and colleagues here as well. But only the ones that don't write stupid stuff on profiles LoL. (which brings up another point... Never use texting language or emoticons on LinkedIn, this is VERY unprofessional)
In addition to those of Professional Merit, it's always good to add a few people with Scholastic Merit. Your Universities Staff in your field of engineering would be a good start. However in my experience, these guys can be extremely selective of those that they will endorse. But try anyways.
As far as other people and friends outside of your industry or field... I suggest you keep that to a minimum. This is not Facebook. If you add them, be sure they will be professional. The last thing you want is your friends naked ass popping up as a profile picture on the side of your profile. Choose wisely.
If I think of anything else later I will come back and add it here. Hope this helps.
Chris
