The Power of LinkedIn:
During my freshman year at Indiana University in 2008, my introduction to business professor challenged me to create a LinkedIn page and become an active member on this up and coming social networking website. As an eager young college student I happily complied with his suggestion and created one, as did most of my peers. Throughout my undergraduate work however, I rarely utilized LinkedIn, even as I began my internship and career searches. (Boy was that a mistake)
When I accepted my first job offer during my senior year in Bloomington I didn’t expect to be in the job market again for years. However, that first opportunity wasn’t a great for me as a young college graduate pursuing her first entry level position.
So less than nine months after I accepted my first offer, to my surprise, I was in the job market again. But also still working full time, making search efforts daunting. With this in mind, I needed my search efforts to be timely, yielding productive results. So I decided to give LinkedIn a try, as my professor had suggested years beforehand.
I invested less than 30 minutes to update my LinkedIn profile page to better represent my abilities and experiences. Then I utilized the job search functionality to the ideals I was looking for in my next career move. Within one week, I had secured over 6 interviews for entry level positions in the Indianapolis area. One of those interviews landed me here today, writing this blog.
Today, as a technical recruiter for Anchor Point Technology Resources, LinkedIn is a fundamental aspect of my day. It’s almost become like a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to me, as I am frequently refreshing my screen for updates and browsing profiles. It’s a new social media addiction for me and one that produces beneficial results for my career.
I am on a daily basis amazed by the power of LinkedIn, especially as it continues to gain popularity and usage worldwide.
As a LinkedIn advocate, I urge my network of peers, friends, and family to update their profile to accurately illustrate their skills, expertise, and current work situation. In today’s market, we all know how critical it is to have an ever expanding network of trusted colleagues, resources, and references.
But as a recruiter, I can tell you it is utterly essential to be active on LinkedIn in order to best position yourself as a working professional. You simply will be overlooked for your next great career move if you don’t stay active on LinkedIn.
So as I mimic my college professor’s words of wisdom, I urge you to become an active LinkedIn member. Your career path and continued success will thank you one day if you do.