How to update your LinkedIn profile for 2018

How to update your LinkedIn profile for 2018Whether youre planning a full-scale job search in 2018 or just thinking about your next steps, career-wise, its time to do some prep work in your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is one of the first places tauglichkeit employers scope you out and it can be a recruiting tool as well, so you want to make sure youre getting the fruchtwein out of your profile. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) Update your headline and summary.Your headline and summary are the first things that will be read when a recruiter or potential employer sees your name in a search. That means these have to be on point. You dont need to fit in all of your qualificationsfocus on the ones that you want to feature most prominently. Here are some examples of clear, no-nonsense headlinesTop-Performing Sales Associate2018 Accounting Grad Seeking Entry-Level OpportunityInnovative Graphic DesignerIf you already have a job and will be searchi ng on the DL, make sure your headline doesnt announce too obviously what youre up toremember, your headline will show up in public searches and you never know whos looking. If youll be subtly looking for new jobs, make your headline describe what you do or how you want to be perceived (professionally).Your summary should be more of a narrative of where you are in your career, your best professional attributes, and your biggest accomplishments. To make your summary section 2018-ready, include your most recent projects, achievements, and lessons learned. That means ones from the past year or so, so that youre including the latest and best information. Its okay to take out information that feels outdated or is more than a few years old if the summary is getting a little long. The length is at your discretion, but keep in mind that recruiters and hiring managers may have little time to read and dont want to get bogged down by a full-on memoir while theyre browsing LinkedIn.Update your p hoto.If your current LinkedIn headshot is that one of you as an eager new grad 10 years ago, its time to upgrade. No need to get glamorous Hollywood-grade headshots. These days, anyone with a solid smartphone camera can take a solid photo of your face that you can use as a professional avatar photo. It should be a fairly natural, friendly solo photoyou dont want it to look like a passport photo or, worse, a mug shot. Candid photos are fine as long as you look professionally appropriate. If youre having trouble figuring out if a photo is appropriate, take a look around at other profiles in your field, around your level, and see what people are using.Open up your availability.One of the easiest and best ways to leverage your LinkedIn profile to help create opportunities for yourself is to update your privacy settings. In your Account settings, click on Job Seeking, click on Let recruiters know youre open to opportunities. This is what opens up LinkedIn from living resume to next-level job search tool. It doesnt replace the need to go out and search for job openings or proactively send out your resume, but it increases the chances that someone will find you (the needle) in the database (the haystack) for a potentially great job opportunity.Its a way of letting the recruiters and hiring managers of the world know that youre available, without putting up a big, honking neon sign (visible to, say, your boss) that youre looking to leave your current job. It flags your availability behind the scenes.Update your key words.Given that youve opened up your profile to recruiters and potential employers, you need to make sure that youre giving them what theyre searching for in 2018. That means updating your skills, job history, and summary with the words that are important in your industry nowelend three years ago. This step is especially key if youve had a profile that has kind of languished, un-updated since you got your current job.So how do you figure out what key words to use? Search for current job postings in your field. What kind of skills are they emphasizing? What qualities are they seeking in candidates? Once you know what companies are looking for right now, you can work that language in to your profile and increase the chances of a) matching their search criteria and b) holding interest once someone clicks through to your page.Refresh your profile content.The hardest part of making your LinkedIn profile ready for 2018 is keeping up with it after youve made the initial updates and changes. Some of the information you put in is going to stay static for a while, especially after youve updated your projects and skills from 2017. That means you should turn your attention to live content on your profile page. This is basically a blog where youre able to write what you want. Its not a personal blogit should be entirely focused on your field and your professional life. If you dont feel comfortable waxing on for 500 words about your career philoso phies, you can share links to articles by others in your field or offer commentary on trends. How-to posts are also very popular, if you have a particular skill or area in which you can teach others.According to OKDork, the most successful LinkedIn content postsHave a headline of fewer than 50 characters.Contain pictures, but not videos or other multimedia, to avoid awkward device and readability issues.Are divided into separate headings for ease of reading.Include lists or how-to tutorials.Are substantial (approximately 1000-2000 words).Are not controversial.Are readable for a broad audience (like the lay person who doesnt know much about your field, as well as someone who already works in your field).And as youre thinking about what you want to write and share on your LinkedIn profile, remember always keep it professional. Youre presenting your best career self, so dont derail that by airing your political grievances, or responding in kind to negative comments. And I assume we all know this already, but just in caseno smack talk about people in your industry. If you disagree with someone, and want to talk about it publicly on LinkedIn, do it politely and respectfully.Another key step is editing and proofreading your content before it goes liveyou want to make sure you sound intelligent and put-together, and nothing derails that quite as quickly as five typos in the first paragraph alone.Set a LinkedIn update schedule.At the beginning of the year, set reminders for yourself to update your profile so that youre keeping it as fresh as possible. Consistency is the key to a well-maintained LinkedIn profile, and it shows youre engaged. If you go on a hot streak, posting stuff for a month, and then a recruiter sees that you havent bothered for the past three months after that, it looks like youve abandoned your page. Reminders and a schedule (say, monthly) for posting new content (and updating your existing skills and projects) will help ensure an active, consisten t vibe for your page.If youve been a more casual user of LinkedIn, or you just havent spent much time updating your info, this is a relatively easy way to help set up your 2018, career-wise. Even if youre not sure whether youll be looking for a job, youre getting ready for just in case, and saving yourself valuable time and energy if you find yourself needing to start a job hund on short notice. Its also a handy tool for keeping track of information youll need to set your professional goals or if you need to come up with a snapshot of your achievements and skills for a promotion or self-review. Updating your LinkedIn profile is a great way to get organized for the coming year.

Ways to Show off the Transferable Skills You Gained as a College Student

Ways to Show off the Transferable Skills You Gained as a College Student How to Show Off the Transferable Skills You Gained in CollegeYouve gained valuable transferable skills as a college student that can be used in the job search.Recent and soon-to-be college graduates are faced with so much pressure. Where should you apply for jobs? Are you going to relocate? Do you have enough experience to get the job you really want? What exactly do you put on that resume everyone keeps saying you need?Believe it or not, your college experiences have prepared you for your first entry-level job in many ways, particularly by helping you gain important transferable skills. Transferable skills are the skills youve developed that are relevant in several or all industries. These skills come from clubs and organizations you were a part of, part-time jobs you held outside of school, tutoring positions, internships, work-study assignments, and even class projects.Below are tips on how to capitalize on t he transferable skills you may have gained from six common college experiences. You can use these as a starting point when evaluating your own skill set.Clubs and organizations are great ways to learn skillsStudent organizations are a fun way to meet people and enhance your college experience. They also have the added benefit of boosting your resume since being a part of one teaches you the valuable transferable skills you need to succeed.If you were a member of a club or organization, you can include any projects, community improvement, or fundraisers you participated in. These experiences translate to skills like project management, collaboration, time management, fundraising, funds management, relationship building, and communications.If you held a leadership role in a club or organization, you have even more transferable skills you can add to the list leadership, recruitment, project development, budget management, event coordination, meeting coordination, and other relevant ski lls depending upon the font of organization.Depending on how active your participation was, you could also include marketing, public speaking, promotion, organization, writing, and cultural adaption.Part-time and summer jobs contain many transferable skillsMany students have part-time or summer jobs. While these positions may be short in tenure and might seem unworthy of a professional resume, they should be included. For similar jobs, such as a clerk at a grocery store and a convenience mart, you can combine them as one under job experience since the skill sets will be the same customer service, relationship building, cross-functional teamwork, facility maintenance, transactions, and communications.If you worked on projects across several departments, you can pull skills from each area. If youre unsure which skills to showcase, search for your current job description on a job-search engine and review the requirements listed.RelatedTop Transferable Skills Employers Look for in Candi datesTutoring can be more than educationalMany students tutor others in college. Tutoring is a great way to learn skills in education, leadership, guidance, communications, collaboration, time management, and relationship building.Some tutors work in a tutoring center while others are assigned to a specific student with special tutoring needs. Contingent on the tutoring topic, you could highlight the specific skills you teach. An example would be a tutor in the universittsgelnde writing center, where you developed skills in proofreading, editing, and reviewing papers.Group projects teach more than the topic assignedEveryone groans when they hear group project, but they really do help you develop very important real-world skills necessary for most positions. You learn to manage time, develop milestones, delegate tasks, and contribute to a team. When you are a leader, you learn skills such as project management, leadership, and team development.You also learn tenacity, work ethic, pro blem resolution, and critical thinking all are transferable skills you will use in your first post-graduate job.Work-study assignments strengthen administration skillsCompleting an on-campus work-study assignment can often mean the development of administrative and clerical duties. These skills are relevant in many careers, so they are transferable dependent on what jobs you are applying for.Many work-study positions teach you collaboration, coordination, schedule management, multi-phone line direction, mail delegation, file management, technical proficiencies, attention to detail, and relationship building.Some work-study positions allow students to gain valuable experience specific to their major. If this is the case, definitely highlight it on your resumeInternships provide real-world experienceelend all college students are fortunate enough to get an internship, but if you are, the skills you learn will be a great addition to your resume. Youll gain real-world experience in you r chosen industry while strengthening the skills you already have.If you are lucky enough to have multiple internships so many that they push your resume beyond the one-page mark group them together by relevance so you can include job titles but combine skills. This will help you save valuable resume real estate while still highlighting each role you held.No matter how you earned your skills during college, dont worry. You can turn those experiences into marketable skills and use them to strengthen your resume The above list contains common examples, but of course, everyones college experience is unique. Use the skills youve learned and developed to make your resume stand out amongst the crowd and launch yourself into your future career. Click on the following link for more job-search advice.Bringing this into a resume isnt easy. Learn more about how a professional resume writer can help you make the most of your transferable skills.Recommended Reading14 Reasons This is the Perfec t Recent College rang ResumeHow to Write a Resume Using College Involvement as Experience11 Things to Do During College to Help You Land a Job After GraduationRelated Articles