As a continuation to a series of blogs about LinkedIn, let’s dive in with what it looks like to utilize LinkedIn. Once you have set-up your profile, your next step is learning to navigate the site. There are plenty of ways to connect with employers and find potential jobs to apply for. This short post will help lay some of the foundation of ways to get started with this process.
||It’s Never Too Early To Start||
Building a network is important, but it isn’t necessarily easy. It takes time to meet people, get your name out there, and feel like you have several connection. Start the process early. Take time to connect with professors, even if they are not necessarily in your specific career, they often have contacts with former students as well as plenty of employers or people who can connect you further. Additionally, don’t be afraid to talk about your career goals with family or in other circles of people in the workforce. Just expressing your interests can often go a long ways.
||Connect||
Don’t be shy. Add people to your network. Even if you don’t know someone super well, it doesn’t hurt to connect with them on LinkedIn. The more connections you have, the wider your pool of potential is. With more people on your network, you have more people who will see your posts, interact with your profile, and get your name circulating.
||Be Bold||
Reach out to people on LinkedIn. Send personal messages to people letting them know you’re job searching and if they have any connections to help you out. You should never simply ask someone for a job, but reaching out to people is always a good idea to build your network. Customize each message you send to show that you value the person you’re speaking with. Better yet, reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn. Confidence shows initiative. After applying to a job, let the recruiter know and ask a question or engage with them. Don’t be afraid of putting yourself out there. The boldness may just land you the job.
||Browse Around||
Use LinkedIn as a resource to find potential companies you’re interested in. Plenty of employers use LinkedIn and frequently make posts about their companies projects and initiatives. You can get a pretty great sense about employers based off of their profile pages. Follow different companies and people that interest you. You can then share those posts and interact even more with companies that you would want to work for.
||Search||
Lastly, you can always search for jobs. You can narrow down filters to make it more applicable to you, and then you can often apply straight from LinkedIn to different opportunities. Try and follow-up and make a connection within the company in order to have a more personal relationship to the job you’re applying for.
There are so many ways that LinkedIn can help you find a job. The more you interact with the site, the more comfortable and easy it will be to understand how to use the site to its full potential.