Should I have a LinkedIn account?

“How can I find a proper job that fits me?”, “Where should I promote myself for a job?” Those are the most common questions that come from fresh-graduate students who are still looking for a job. Now, what is the correlation between job seeking and LinkedIn? You may have heard of LinkedIn during your campus life. LinkedIn is a social network specifically designed for career and business professionals. Over 65 million professionals use LinkedIn to cultivate their careers and businesses. Simply, LinkedIn is about building strategic relationships. However, LinkedIn is unlike the other social media platforms that let you be friends with everyone. LinkedIn even stopped showing your actual number of connections once you have 500 because it’s about quality, not quantity.

LinkedIn has so many features that support you to brand yourself, but it will be useless if you don’t know how to utilize it. In this part, we won’t talk about how to create a LinkedIn profile step by step nor will we talk about their features one by one. Rather, we will find out about the key to have a dynamic and compelling LinkedIn profile. Why would you need it to be powerful? Remember that you are not the ones who seek for a job. To win the position or get a valuable connection, you need to do some “decorations” with your LinkedIn profile.

There are five important keys to make your LinkedIn attractive. The first attempt is to uniquely sum up your title and skills summary, and make it as specific as possible because it may determine their first impression towards you. Second, keep your LinkedIn up to date with your achievements, education, experiences, skills, and even your current position if you have a job. Third, use LinkedIn like you use your other Social Media and make sure that your LinkedIn is interesting to be visited. Posting some documentation is needed as a proof of your experiences, and don’t forget to make your profile as complete and professional as you can. Fourth, use LinkedIn groups to get more insights. Find ideas, support and valuable information about the industry you are interested in. Lastly, start talking! Made your connections and have a real time conversation with them.

After all, you may start to continue questioning, “Is it really necessary to have LinkedIn?” Let’s jump to the first benefit. Using LinkedIn, the number of job vacancies based on your criteria can be found in just some taps, instead of giving effort to buy a bunch of newspapers that serve a page of job vacancies with uncertainties. From this condition, LinkedIn has offered you the simplest and most effective ways to find the best job for you. Move on to the second benefit. LinkedIn can help rank your name on Google. How? Getting ranked on Google’s first page can be difficult, but LinkedIn is a well-known and powerful network — and Google’s into it. Thus, it’s typically easier to get your LinkedIn page to get ranked on Google compared to your homemade website or online portfolio. Have you ever imagined Mark Zuckerberg seeing your name? LinkedIn helps you to know more about a company and the employees all at once. These days, many companies maintain their own LinkedIn pages where they’ll update company information, share company news and insights, and showcase current employees. 

The simple conclusion is that LinkedIn give many networking. You can build relationships from mutual connections, folks in your field, and even your greatest role models. It doesn’t matter if you are currently still in high school or not on an internship program. You have to start building your LinkedIn account. Besides, it is necessary for job seeking. You can use it as a tool to save your achievements and experiences. Make sure you don’t miss any of it!