Creating a LinkedIn profile

Welcome to our quick guide on getting started with LinkedIn. It will highlight the key messages from our careers workshop designed to help you get started with using it. The websites referred to in this recording are displayed on your screen in the description below the video. This is the first of two videos on using LinkedIn. The second video on making the most of LinkedIn looks at how to use it effectively once you have a profile set up. In this first video, we will explain what LinkedIn is and why you should use it, helping to create your profile with tips for each section. And we'll touch on managing your digital footprint. For the purposes of this video, we will be referring to an example LinkedIn profile we've created, belonging to Alex Winter, a fictitious Edinburgh student. You can view it online. LinkedIn is a social media platform, like Facebook or WeChat, but used professionally for your career, rather than casually for fun. It is important to remember this key distinction when you're using LinkedIn. A Linkedin profile is, in some ways, rather like having a CD online. Indeed, at some future point, a recruiter may even find and approach you about a job. However, this is unlikely for a new graduate. Instead, it tends to happen once you have specific job skills and experiences needed by an employer. Don't let anxiety that your profile isn't good enough and doesn't mirror that of an experienced executive or scientist stop you from using it as a student or graduate. It can and should develop as your career develops. What's more important just now is that you are using it, that it is informative, professional, and up to date. On their about page, Linkedin state that they are the world's largest professional network with more than 1 billion members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The numbers cited by LinkedIn hint at a key reason why you should use it. It offers global connectivity at enormous scale. It offers a relatively easy way to network and connect with professionals to whom you can ask for advice. It gives you a great way of keeping all your contacts in one safe place, unlike old fashioned business cards. It allows you to search for vacancies globally on its ever growing jobs board. Because it includes organisations, as well as people. For example, businesses, governments, charities, universities. You can follow and keep up to date with these as well as your personal contacts. The platform offers a massive amount of career information and inspiration, something we'll look at in the second video. Finally, it can offer additional information to compliment the CV. Let's look at building your profile. Rather like a CV, the profile is divided into sections. The first is your personal details. Add your name without any titles and a location. Contact details could include links to personal websites, G Hubs and online portfolios. It's probably better to use a personal rather than a university email which expires on graduation. According to LinkedIn, adding a photograph, make your profile 14 times more likely to be viewed. The photograph should be a head shot against a plain background, so for example, a white or Magnolia wall. Your face should be 60% or more of a circle, and it should not have anyone else in it. Smiling is good. The photo needs to be of reasonable resolution so as not to be blurry. There's a link offering more advice on this below. You can opt to add a background image. Alex has put a view of Edinburgh. Doing so can suggest something about you and or the career you're aspiring to, as well as adding interest. For example, civil engineers might find a photo of bridge, conservationist of a landscape or wild animals, financiers, a vistor of the City of London. Linkedin generates a default headline based on your circumstances, for example, student at the University of Edinburgh. You can edit this to a headline that better encapsulates who you are and what you want to do. Alex has gone with Edinburgh student and aspiring publishing media professional. The A section allows you to write a short profile. According to Linkedin, making it 3.9 times more likely to be viewed. The screen shows up to four lines of text, and while you can write more, busy readers might not click through to read the Extra. Four lines is probably enough. It should expand on your headline, offering a little more detail of who you are and what you've done or are aiming to do. You could highlight any relevant skills, achievements, or experiences. In the experience section, you'll list any jobs and work experience, providing sub description in addition to the name of the employer and the role so as to convey what you gained from doing it. Only the first line of each job summary is immediately visible. Use it to give a concise headline summary. In the first example, Alex has written, assessing the acoustics, assembly, and operation of sound equipment. Below that, you can add further details, what have been the key components or tasks of each job. If they don't relate directly to the role you want to go into, are there any transferable skills that may have allowed you to use and develop? For example, customer service, research, negotiation, organising. Although LinkedIn doesn't offer bullet points as you might use on a CV, you could use the asterisk symbol instead. Keep these further notes reasonably brief. Length should be in proportion to relevance of the role to your reader. Don't discount the volunteering section. This can be as equally valuable as paid employment in helping you to develop professionally. In the education section, include your qualifications as they are officially designated? Adding grades is optional, but if they're good, shout about them. Just like the experience section, don't simply list your qualifications. Provide some description to convey what you gained. What have been the key components of your degree? Any relevant courses that might appeal to your audience? In this example, Alex focuses on transferable skills rather than the academic disciplines of his math degree. In the project section, which is optional, you could add additional activities you've engaged with conferences or hackathons, or relevant projects and coursework. If it's a personal project, this is straightforward. If it's a university assignment or project, check with the academic supervisor that you're allowed to add it. You can upload resources or alternatively link using resources that showcase your work, perhaps using a github, tiny URL, or bitley. If you have extra curricular activities that don't fit under volunteering or experience, you can also add a note about them here. Alex has added math sock and Publish Ed. How far back should you go with your education? Well, it really depends on your situation. Undergraduates may well include school or college qualifications that got them to Edinburgh. A mature student doing an advanced degree with a 20 year career or perhaps a PhD student with a first degree and a master's, may feel going back to school exams isn't necessary. In the skill section, it's a good idea to begin by looking at internships and jobs in your chosen industry. What are the employers looking for? What skills are they listing? Do you have them? If so, list them. If not, what could you do at Edinburgh to develop them? List any honours or awards that you have, but this section is optional. So don't worry if you don't have any. Include any languages you speak. You can select your level of proficiency ranging from elementary to native or bilingual. Another optional section is organisations. If you're a student member of any professional body, you could list it here. Examples might include Institution of mechanical Engineers, ACCA, the Accountancy Body, or the British Psychological Society, and so on. Finally, your interests. This section shows any companies you have chosen to follow or groups that you have joined. It also includes schools, in other words, universities that you might have studied at or aspire to. Following companies, groups, and universities will provide you with useful information in your linked in feed. But it also sends out a strong message about your interests to any recruiters browsing your profile. So make sure these messages are consistent and align with your career goals. In our example, Alex wants to work in publishing in the media, and so they're following broadcasters, such as the BBC, Sky, Channel four, National Geographic. And publishers, such as Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, and Pearson, all of which are consistent with Alex's career interests. Remember, you can edit and change these at any time if your career goals change. Once you've written your profile, there are a couple of things you can do to finish. At the top right of your home page, you'll see profile language and public profile in URL. Linkedin offers you the chance to write a profile in a different language. If you're looking to work overseas or indeed back in your home country, it might be useful as a way to reach an audience that are searching Linked in in a different language. You can choose which of your profile languages is the default one. Linked in assigns every user a unique URL. Usually, your name followed by a jumble of letters and numbers, which makes it a bit long, untidy, and unwieldy. It's complicated if you want to paste that onto your CV. So you can customise your URL by clicking on the pencil. This also causes your linked in profile to show higher in search results. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Check your spelling and grammar. Use the links below to get further insight. All social media platforms leave behind a digital footprint. What's yours? Have you ever Googled yourself? Take some time to look over these resources from the Institute of Academic Development that will help you to understand and better manage your digital footprint to become e professional and to stay safe online.