Impending graduation is scary. It's starts off slow and then you realize that you have less than two months before you graduate. At commencement you throw your cap and tassel in the air and before you know it, they come falling down with something that's a little overwhelming: ADULTHOOD. For some this means moving onto graduate school but for many (myself included), it means diving into the workforce before the Sallie Mae loan sharks start knocking on your door.
Today's job market is intimidating for everyone, let alone for recent graduates. All through high school and college we were told that even with a degree, finding a job in our field will be nearly impossible. I don't like to sugar coat the reality of things, but that's not the best choice of rhetoric for a 16-year-old. It's true that even with a "hirable" degree, job hunting is hard and it's tough to know where to begin. Learning to use LinkedIn not only helped me find jobs I was interested in, but also helped me learn about the corporate landscape of the industry I wanted to work in.
LinkedIn is a great tool that does a lot more than giving potential employers another social media platform to creep on you with. Learning to use LinkedIn not only helped me find jobs I was interested in, but also helped learn about the corporate landscape of the industry I wanted to work in. Here are 3 reasons why LinkedIn is great:
1. Your LinkedIn profile is a digital version of your resume. Writing a little ditty about my previous experience helped me critically think about my skills and actually helped me write cover letters. Familiarizing yourself with the projects you've worked on and the skills you have is great for preparing for interviews. It gives you something to talk about and you've got a plan on where to steer the conversation. 2. The search engine on LinkedIn helps you prep for job fairs. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn tracks when you're looking at people's profiles and vice versa. This can be a little tricky. As young adults we're used to thinking that creeping on someone's social media makes us clingy and a little stalker-ish. LinkedIn is different on this point. Using your second and third degree connections to find out who is likely to be at a job fair isn't creepy, it's smart. Chances are the higher level employees who go to those events get so many emails about profile views that they won't even notice. You benefit by figuring out who you want to talk to among the panel and having an idea of what to talk about in your elevator pitch. For example, common positions that come to university job fairs are a mix of recent hires, managers, and university relations recruiters. They have a variety of experiences with the company and can answer a variety of questions so if you want to learn more about the work environment, talk to the recent hire. If you want to showcase your skills and inquire more about a specific position, the managers and the recruiters are your people. 3. LinkedIn can help you find similar jobs to ones that you've applied for. You can save job listings on your LinkedIn profile to come back to later. As you save more jobs, the cookie tracking on LinkedIn builds a better picture of positions and locations that you're looking for and emails you positions that you might be interested in. Most of the time those emails can be pretty hit or miss but once in a while you find something that actually interests you and is a good match for your experience level. Even if the positions being sent to your inbox aren't for you, you're learning about companies in the area in your field. Whether you're looking for a job now or in the future I hope these LinkedIn tips help you!
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AuthorEmma Neale: (young) adult, cat mom, and aspiring for adventure. Archives
February 2019
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