LinkedIn is the largest business-oriented networking website geared specifically towards professionals. It has over 900 million members, in over 200 countries. While Connect UMass is a great resource for connecting with UMass Alumni, a professionally written LinkedIn profile can connect you to opportunities and networks that you may not have been aware of with professionals beyond UMass.
Intro (the top box/section of your LinkedIn profile - where your picture is)
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Photo – MUST HAVE Photos should be professional looking and no selfies
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Headline – include keywords your desired job/career/field/skills you want to use
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Industry – choose what best fits the career path you are seeking
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Education – turn on “show education in my intro”
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Location – enter zip code for either home or school and click City dropdown and choose the option that gives you a metro area instead of the single town
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Contact info – update/add as appropriate
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Open to – choose “finding a new job” to show recruiters you are open to work
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Add job titles for positions you realistically could be hired for. Make sure to use the drop-down to choose the title wording as it appears on LinkedIn.
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Add locations for any area where you would be open to consider working.
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Choose employment types as appropriate.
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Visibility - choose who can see you’re open
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Public profile & URL
Found in the top right-hand corner of the “my profile” page. In the top right-hand corner, you can click the pencil to edit your URL. Try to make this include at least your first and last name.
About/Summary
Should be written in first person. Keep it to a few sentences. The content should mirror your elevator pitch.
Work Experience
Include both paid and unpaid experiences that are in line with your career interests. Elaborate here with a brief description of your role and highlight accomplishments in this position.
Education
Fill in the fields as completely as possible.
Skills
Add skills which are in line with the skills needed in the job you want. Even if you only have a beginner level of experience from a classroom setting, it is worth adding.
Recommended Profile Sections
(Featured, Licenses & Certificates, Projects, Courses, Recommendations)
Add sections that are relevant for your career path and personal accomplishments.
Additional Profile Sections
(Volunteer Experience, Publications, Patents, Honors & Awards, Test Scores, Languages, Organizations, Causes)
Add sections that are relevant for your career path and personal accomplishments.
Interests
Follow influencers and companies that are relevant to your career path and personal interests.
Employers typically pay for an upgraded version of LinkedIn for their recruiting team. This allows the recruiters to have advanced search functionality to find candidates who match positions they are trying to fill.
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Every field where you enter information into LinkedIn is a searchable field for recruiters.
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There is not a defined rule for how a recruiter should build a search and which fields they will choose to utilize, so your key data needs to be represented in multiple places where appropriate.
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LinkedIn uses an algorithm for returning the order of search results. They don’t publicly share the algorithm, but will advise top fields are Name, Headline, Company, Title.
Recruiters have the ability to use filters to narrow their search results to show individuals who are “open to work,” “active talent,” “have company connections,” and “interested in your company”.
Most recruiters search by utilizing a job title, skills, and location.
- Many will enter job titles and skills into a “keyword” search field which means it looks for those words anywhere they may appear on your profile.
- The most important fields to insert your appropriate keywords are Headline, Job Titles, Job Descriptions, Summary, and Skills. The most important keywords should be in many of these sections. Don’t worry about it being redundant – it is consistent.
- Job Titles – for any work experience you have that is career related, you need to make sure the title you include on LinkedIn is a real-world title explaining the work you performed. Even if your title was “Intern” you should say something like “Social Media Marketing Coordinator – Intern.”
- Please note, recruiters can also run a “years of experience” search. This is calculated by LinkedIn based upon the time you have spent working in each of the roles in your Experience section. You can unintentionally create a misleading “years of experience” by including non-career relevant work experience.
- DO NOT include a random list of important words or a string of everything you can think of anywhere on your profile. You will come up in a search, but most recruiters see this as sneaky.
Don't let your profile become stagnant! LinkedIn is a social media platform, so you should keep your engagement with your profile fresh.
Keep your profile up-to-date
Each semester, revisit your LinkedIn profile to ensure the information is up to date. Check on the following fields:
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Photo: Ensure you still look like your picture. When your future interviewer looks at your picture, will they recognize you when you arrive for an interview?
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Headline: Is it still relevant and appropriate?
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Summary: Confirm the content includes what you have learned and experienced most recently. If a proposed future plan, or future graduation date is listed, make sure it is still correct.
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Experience: Include any new work experiences, internships, school projects that are career relevant.
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Education: Make sure your proposed graduation date is still accurate and listed courses are updated.
Sharing content
Why: Many people create a LinkedIn profile and then let it sit there and hope something good will come from it. Think of it like a plant, if you don’t water the plant, it is very unlikely it will grow. Additionally, the more you share content and add connections, the higher LinkedIn says you will rank in search results.
What: The general rule is that information you share should be relevant to at least half of your connections. This means if they see it in their feed, they will see it as appropriate and potentially useful information.
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Your blog posts (only if career relevant or professional in nature)
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Industry news and research – don’t be afraid to comment with something like “wow, this is fascinating news…I can’t wait to see what they do with this!” Adding your brief opinion or reason for sharing the content provides additional insight into you as a human.
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Requests for information or links to places to learn more about a topic or industry. Example: “I am very interested in learning more about XXX, what are some of your favorite resources to stay on top of advancements in XXX?”
How: Just start typing in the “start a post” box. You can share links (photo, video, website) or simply write a comment without any hyperlinks. LinkedIn will suggest hashtags – use the ones that are relevant. It will help other people find you who may choose to connect or follow you.
Liking/Sharing Content
Look at what your connections are sharing. If you appreciate what someone shares, you should like, comment, or share. A “like” shows your connections you are passing along your approval. A “share” provides you the ability to share it like a new post and make a comment. Best practices say you should be sharing relevant content twice a week.
It is important to connect with the right people on LinkedIn.
Your connections should include:
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Working professionals in your life including family as well as family friends
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Your classmates in your major
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Faculty and staff members from UMass
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Alumni at companies where you might like to work, or who have a career path you admire
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Use the search bar to find the University of Massachusetts homepage
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Click the “Alumni” tab on menu
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Add keywords to locate alumni in companies, fields, or titles of interest
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Use the date range to narrow down the search
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Click a bar in the graph below to further define the search
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Use the “next” button to see further filters you can use
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Scroll down the page to view the profiles that are a match for your criteria
Unless you are requesting a connection from someone you know very well, you should take the opportunity to “add a note” to your invitation. You are limited to 300 characters, so choose your words carefully. Your message should include three sentences:
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If appropriate, remind the person how you know each other or where you met. If you do not know this person and want to know them, then start with a little bit about you.
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Let the person know what you saw in their profile that is of interest to you.
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Let them know what you want / ask your question…
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Would you be willing to connect with me?
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If you ever have 15-20 minutes, I’d love to hear more about how you started working in the field and what skills you believe are most relevant to the profession.
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I would love to hear more about your work with “company name,” would you be willing to schedule a time to connect?
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I would love to chat about whether my background might be a fit for any of your current or future openings.
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Creating a Portfolio on LinkedIn (how to add media to your profile) – Video Tutorial (3:28)
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Rock Your LinkedIn Profile (LinkedIn tips from Craig Barry, LinkedIn employee and UMass 2018 Alumnus) – Video Webinar (53:07 total length; Tips & Tricks through minute 25:00 followed by Q&A)
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Want People to Accept Your LinkedIn Requests? Use these 10 Templates