LinkedIn: Are you sure you’re making the best of it?

By Dr. Sophia Protopapa, Director-Career Development Office, HAEC

LinkedIn is a major professional network. Recruiters and potential employers visit it when they want to find talented candidates for a job. In essence, your LinkedIn profile is your online CV and you can let other people know what you do, what your career interests are, how your talents can bring added value to an organization.

Below you can find a few tips about how LinkedIn can help you manage your career.

1. Include specific keywords that describe your brand or expertise in your LinkedIn Headline. Why? Because potential employers or recruiters use industry-specific keywords when they search for candidates. If your headline or profile doesn’t have them, they won’t find you and this is a problem.
2. Upload a professional picture (not necessarily your favorite one)
3. Upload your CV (make sure it is error free and updated!)
4. Write about your current and past work experience
5. Write about your academic studies (again current and past)
6. Publish your work to date (projects, achievements)
7. Write about any volunteer work that you have done
8. Let other people know about your skills so that they can endorse you
9. Build a network of people with whom you share similar interests or people who could help you with your career
10. Maintain your network by congratulating other people for their achievements, job anniversaries or recommending them
11. Request recommendations from people you trust
12. Follow groups you are interested in
13. Update your status often (even every day if possible) with current information about your projects and interests
14. Do research about the industry you are interested in, specific jobs, the people who are where you want to be
15. Use the JOB search to find out about vacancies and work opportunities in Greece and abroad
16. Publish posts that others will be interested in or start a blog
17. Include the LinkedIn icon and your profile name in your CV.

Don’t forget: Spend time every day (10 minutes will do if you are consistent) to search for jobs and see the trends in the job market worldwide (career opportunities, networks, employer demands, new jobs), update your profile, endorse other people.