Why Writing on LinkedIn Will Help Advance your Career

This feels a little strange as I start to write this here on LinkedIn, but I figured why not write about the platform on the platform itself!

When I was first starting out, I suffered from the age old question of "how will I stand out?"

As a way to answer that question, I was given the advice to start having my voice heard. I was told to pick a platform and run with it. At that point in time, I was not comfortable hearing my own voice or being behind the camera, so I turned to Medium to write about the passion projects I was working on.

These projects allowed me the chance to share how I thought through a problem. They gave me a voice to share what I was learning to others. And to my surprise, I slowly gained an audience, helping those earlier in their career learn what they would see next.

Although I took the advice, I never expected the type of impact it would end up having on me.

Five years later from when I first started posting I can see three major ways in which it has impacted my career.

1. It helps articulate your opinions better

A large part of our role as a UXer is being able to explain our design decisions, especially to individuals outside the design space. We have to find the balance between the amount of information we share to help get our partners on board.

This relates to writing a comment on someones post since there is a character limit and a length in which people will not read. So although the scenarios may be different, both settings focus on you sharing your thoughts in a concise and engaging manner!

2. It increases your network

These days it is no surprise that networking plays a large role in the job search. However, it is not always the easiest to initiate those conversations in a way that someone will actually respond to.

That is where creating a post or responding to someone else's comes in! It allows for an already started conversation just to continue. There is no longer the need to force one. This way as you continue to be active here, it increases the number of individuals you have relationships with.

3. It provides more clicks to your name

It all goes back to the question that started this all, "how do you stand out?" With so many individuals trying to break into UX these days it really does matter what can be found out about you online.

In my opinion, if you only have your portfolio link, you are doing yourself a disservice. The reason being is that if they were to look you up, all they will see is that link. So in other words, they will not be able to learn that much about you and your personality.

Where as if they did that same search, and found various other links to comments or posts you have made, they have more of a chance of seeing really who you are.

At the end of the day, I do understand that the job search is a job in itself. One that is already very time consuming and mentally draining. Yet, with that said, I would encourage you to add in these extra pieces since from my own experience they really do make a difference!