What is Linkedin? And why should you be on it? Linkedin is a great platform where you can gain access to over 300 million professionals, network with UMBC alumni and highlight your skills and abilities!! Here's how to begin:
Create a Profile
- Use information from your resume to complete the Education, Headline, Summary, Coursework, and Extracurricular Activities sections.
- Include a headshot photo of you alone-- it's easy, and you could take it yourself from your phone, or borrow a camera from the digital media lab in the AOK library
- Add a skills section where you can highlight particular skills in which you excel. Additionally, connections can endorse you for particular skills.
Actively Connect with Others
- Connect with professors, advisors, peers, your co-workers, and anyone else you may know.
- Linkedin has a "Find Alumni" tool to search for UMBC alumni by location, industry and major to connect with or just to explore career paths.
- Join alumni and industry groups and be active by engaging in discussions to make yourself stand out.
- Create a unique profile link and add it in your resume and other professional documents to help colleagues connect to you.
- Use your LinkedIn connections to your advantage, ask for informational interviews, job leads, mentoring opportunities, or just general career advice.
- Create an appealing headline with your area of study and/or career ambitions, and passions -- consider keywords that appeal to recruiters.
- Formulate a key action word heavy--summary that includes type of positions you are seeking, and vocabulary that would make you the ideal candidate
- Include volunteer activities, relevant projects, internships and extracurricular activities.
- Ask for recommendations from professors, advisors, internship colleagues and supervisors.
- Double check to make sure the grammar and punctuation are correct!
- Follow accounts of companies and organizations that you are interested in and are eager to learn more about industry trends for that type of organization.
- Use as an interview prep: look for current employees, as well as company group pages to better prepare for informational and job interviews.
Best,
Natalia Alfaro
Career Peer