Linked in - From basics to beyond

Introduction

So here it is, albeit about a year late. My first article "Linked In Basics - Is your profile ready?" had varied success and I believe it did help a few people out. It stemmed from quite a few people approaching me for help and assistance with finding work. On review, looking at their profile and CV/Resume I found many reasons why in fact they were struggling. Some people sadly do not have anything special going for them, I possibly fall in that category, but where I see most people fail is how they portray and inevitably sell themselves as a candidate. Some have brilliant skills and experience, they just, for whatever reason do not fully know or understand how to communicate that to hiring managers.

This has become more common with what I am doing now. I have recently joined a specialist InfoSec recruitment company, RedBlue Security (Website currently being upgraded). I have been appointed to establish a Physical Security recruitment function within the well established firm. With this I have been on the other end of the spectrum, searching and sourcing top candidates for existing Physical vacancies. I have come across some exemplary profiles and CV's/Resumes and then on the other hand, incomplete profiles, of candidates that after messaging, getting their resume and having a subsequent Skype interview turn out to be superb candidates, yet at first site they didnt not look like that.

In this article I will cover what I mentioned in my first article, namely

• Adding meat to the bone
• Optimizing your profile

Important Notice

**Please note with my previous article Linked In has changed considerably. This has come with much communicated discontent about Linked In, and more specifically how it has affected Premium Users. To that degree a few things on the previous article are out of date however the basis of it is still valid. For example how endorsements have changed and become to some degree more relevant **

Meat to the bone!

So with either following my previous article or by doing things yourself you have updated/loaded the basics of your profile. Your profile is not recognized as an all star profile (I also do not like the term". So here we will run through a few things that can help you reach that 100% complete level.

In this segment we will cover the following;

• Job Experience: Things to consider, key words, relevance, how a recruiter (Premium) sees your profile and important notes.
• Endorsements: What has changed and how it comes into use
• Recommendations: In my mind, where all the value lays. Receiving and giving

Job Experience

So you have loaded a specific segment of your work experience. This is both past and present.

• You load your Title - Use the full title as apposed to an acronym (BD =Business Development, PM = Project Manager, SSM = Site Security Manager). You do this as it creates more layers to search when recruiters are looking for candidates, especially the "Boolean Method"
• The company you work for - NB! See if your company is listed and select it. You will then be visible from the companies page.

• Dates from and to (Either an end date of "Present", experience narrative (Input info about the company, where you fit in, what you have achieved). This is key. When a recruiter using premium searches for specific criteria and key words when the matching profiles come up, it will highlight in yellow, all the words from your profile that match the criteria. This is to some extent like SEO - Seach Engine Optimization . The more words you have matching their criteria, the higher up on the listings you will come up. Eg Below using the words via "Boolean Method" "Security AND Hostile"

• Media: When adding specific experience you are able to load media. That includes photos, videos, links, examples of work etc. This I find personally a pretty good addition to the work you completed. Pictures paint a thousand words, but be mindful of media which publicly could be a breach of Operational Security (Opsec) or shows possible security structures (Which can be exploited), or may be misconstrued by individuals in relation to the company. Best tip is to seek advice on this from your companies policies. Something that comes up quite often is a picture, without consideration of what is the background, for eg someone in the background breaching HSE policy. It can cost you your job, and others along with embarrassment so tread carefully.
• Privacy settings: Be aware that within your privacy settings you can edit who can see what. For eg, you can set that publicly all someone can see is your company and title, however once these individuals have joined your network they can see your experience narrative. This can be double edged though. With hiding it in public view, and it then being visable as a connection it gives benefit to joining and growing your network, but this can also mean aspects of your profile are not searchable. To see the difference between your full profile and public profile, at the top near your headline there is an option to "View public profile"

The points above as I always say are not complete or all you can do. There are many ways you can input your experience. Key is to do it, and complete it.

Endorsements

Endorsements is something Linked In implemented quite a long time ago. It has however changed recently. In my previous article I commented that there is no real value in endorsements. This commentary has not changed too much as anyone in your network can endorse you for skills you clearly do not have experience in, however now it will show the best person (Which highly amount of endorsements in a similar field) has endorsed you. This is an improvement but quite frankly, that person may also be endorsed for experience/skills they actually have limited experience in.

Recommendations!

Recommendations as I have said above, to me personally is where the second biggest value in Linked In lies (The first being having a profile or experience that is searchable). Recommendations can be added on Experience segment of your profile as well as courses and is shown as a narrative bit of feedback in relation to your time with said company or course. Recommendations can be received or given by yourself.

Worked somewhere where you feel you impressed or made a difference? Ask individuals in senior positions for a recommend. The bigger the person is recommending you the better. Ask clients for recommendations, subordinates, given a course? Ask for a recommend. The narrative is visible, along with the number of recommendations you have. I personally have 22, from management, clients, course colleagues and various individuals I have had dealings with. I think an individual in my network with the most has racked up 66 recommendations, a Mr Jordan Wylie. A man who taught me so much about networking and its value, asked on a course he delivered for students to connect with him and if they believed his instruction/lessons were good to give him a recommendation. Jordan has grown as probably one of the best connected people I know in Security, Risk Management, training and the Maritime world.

"Networking is about giving, not receiving..." - Jordan Wylie

Summary: What we have gone through above forms the "Bread and butter" of what Linked is about, namely being a searchable form of talent and bringing your profile to the top of searches. Get it done, get it right, get recommended!

Optimizing your Profile

What we went through above forms basis of optimizing your profile and is the first step to do so. What we will go through now is further optimization in the continuous pursuit of ranking higher on searches and getting hired.

Growing your network:

• Growing your network is key. Its important to reduce your degrees of separation to like minded/experienced individuals and hiring managers. It increases your reach when posting something (An update, article, your availability and your unique personal brand). To increase your reach its important to add connections and also accept connection requests. However in my opinion if you are working in a specific industry, and someone comes out of left field and you cant seem to establish reasoning as to why this person wanted to connected maybe ignore the request, or message the person and ask the reasoning. To some extent this is a numbers game, however quality in your profile and network is important.
• Following companies and individuals is also a good way to to build your network with job posts (That you can like, share, send to individuals or tag them in and of course for you to possibly find vacancies to apply for). Sometimes if I believe someone could add value, and has a good history of activity or has posted articles that could be of use, but you are not quite ready to take the leap and connect with them, you are able to follow them. They will get a notification and this may possibly lead to them sending you a request to connect.
• Hiring managers/Recruiters are usually very open to connecting but may not communicate back with you if your skill set does not match something they have vacancies in, but do not be too disheartened. I personally try make an effort to message individuals that connect with me, say thanks or ask how I may be of assistance. Connecting or following these people also allows you to be the first to hear about breaking vacancies at the company.
• Groups are a brilliant way to increase your reach, grow your network an inevitably increase traffic to your profile. Join some groups that have content relevant to you. Comment on posts, share insight, help someone out along the way. I personally try my best with groups, but I am often not good with staying up to date and inputting to the groups. Try your best and spend a little bit of time each day.
• Content posting. Content posting, whether it is an article like this, a link to a news article, media, videos etc are a brilliant way to increase reach and get your name running through people feed, however remember what I mentioned in the last article. This is not a social media platform. Keep it professional, keep it relevant, ADD VALUE. I try post an article I find online every day and share info from your network which may be of use/relevance to your network and extended 2nd degree network.
• Profile editing: As mentioned in the previous article, when editing your profile you can choose to notify your network. This means when you add or edit something on your profile, that info will be relayed to your network via their feed. This is a good way to pop on your networks timeline, however if you are doing a whole bunch of changing, or overhauling think about switching this function off as it can come through as spamming someone TL.
• Posting you are unemployed, or seeking: This may sound odd, and this is only my personal opinion and yes I have been guilty of this myself but I believe posting experience or a thread about yourself being unemployed does not look good and always gets me concerned. Rather post something about your availability, keep it positive, after all you have experience that can add value. Having a headline title with something like (Transitioning) from the military is good and immediately shows someone like me that you are in the Military, but you are ETS'ing. Think about this, and of course do as you see fit but keep it positive!

Summary: There is so so much an individual can do to optimize your profile! From everything mentioned above, to having a cool banner on your profile. These are just a few ideas/tips to consider and in no way exhaustive. Find what works for you and best of luck!

I hope this article has been helpful and that it may have given you some food for thought. I really do try my utmost to help individuals on Linked In and in my personal life and that forms part of why i do these articles and why I interact with my network.

If you feel this article may be of use to someone in your network please tag and share this. If you have any comments or feedback, drop it below.

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