Looking for a job? Here’s how LinkedIn can help you

Rappler.com

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Looking for a job? Here’s how LinkedIn can help you
LinkedIn has free tools that can help you land your ideal job



MANILA, Philippines – Across the globe, we’re seeing unprecedented changes in the career landscape, as a result of the global pandemic. Many professionals are struggling to adapt to working remotely. Many organizations have also downsized and have frozen hiring. This has led to fears of job loss and not finding new opportunities.

However, the swiftly changing work environment may also bring about new opportunities in the digital space. With online learning resources and professional online networks like LinkedIn, job seekers can now pick up new skills to remain productive and competitive, and market themselves effectively to prospective employers and headhunters.

Here are some quick tips on how to do this. 

Step 1: Ensure you have the right skills through learning online

Let’s face it, what we think about the workforce will fundamentally change in the coming months. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), social distancing – and, by extension, working remotely – will continue for at least 18 months. This means both jobseekers and current professionals have some adapting to do.

LinkedIn Learning is an education platform that offers over 16,000 courses taught by real-world experts. To help navigate these challenging times, there are over 440 LinkedIn Learning courses being offered for free to help professionals deal with the new skills needed to cope amid a pandemic. 

Here are some suggested courses for jobseekers:

Step 2: Optimize your LinkedIn profile

You need to advertise your skills. Your LinkedIn profile should be an accurate representation of your professional life. Maybe it’s Filipino nature to be uncomfortable with self-promotion – hence the term buhat bangko. However, being humble is different from selling yourself short. 

What can you do? Here are 3 tips.

  1. Pick the right profile and background photo – your profile photo is your calling card. Make sure your photo is recent and looks enough like you. No full-body photos, please. Your face needs to occupy around 60% of the frame. Lastly, wear what you’d wear to work. If you are in a creative industry, be a bit lax. If you’re in a more serious working environment, be a little formal.

    Now, if your profile photo is your calling card, your cover photo should be your personality. Make it stand out, give viewers a sense of what you do, and what matters to you. Use it to make yourself memorable. 

  1. Revamp your About and Featured sections The About section of your profile should not be a space to reiterate your job title. Give readers a taste of what you do and why you do what you do. Keep it short, 2-3 sentences will do. Imagine this as the part where you get to do an elevator pitch of yourself.

    Your Featured section, on the other hand, should be your story. Make it personal. For example, don’t just list down the skills you have; bring it to life by telling people how you brought those skills to life. Link articles you’ve written and published.

    Share media like presentations, videos, images, and other sample works that are the highlights of your career. Take your time to draft this part, regularly revise. Sharing your story will always be a process. 

  1. Grow your network and get endorsementsOne of the most accessible and most impactful things you can do with LinkedIn is growing your network.

    As a first step, link your profile to your email address book. This helps LinkedIn suggest people you can connect with. And each connection can spawn more connections. From here, you can then request endorsements. Find connections that you genuinely feel deserve an endorsement from you. This will hopefully push them to return the favor. 

    You can also directly reach out to trusted connections and ask for an endorsement. Ideally, you get to manage your endorsements so that they reflect the core skills and expertise you attached to your personal branding.

Step 3: Practice for your big interview  

Did you know that LinkedIn has an Interview Preparation feature? 

With this feature, you can get access to videos and articles from experts and hiring managers on how to answer frequently asked interview questions. You can also test yourself by writing down or recording yourself answering these questions.

Free users can get connections to review their practice responses or get instant, AI-powered feedback. Premium users also get access to exclusive expert-approved sample answers.

You can learn more about LinkedIn Interview Preparation here.

These are just some suggestions to be a power user of LinkedIn. The job platform has a lot more free features you could play around with, and tailor-fit to your needs and that of your chosen industries. Find the job that is meant for you here

– Rappler.com 

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