LinkedIn has become one of the most important tools for your professional growth today. Aside from assisting with a job search, LinkedIn provides resources for recruitment, education and connection. As a student, professional or entrepreneur, your profile should provide enough information about you in order to facilitate authentic connections with others.
There are 6 questions your profile should answer:
1. What is your story?
What makes you unique? What experiences have you had that has contributed to who and where you are today? Did your career begin in an unusual way? Did you study something specific in college and today you are doing something completely different? Have you had experiences in different industries?
2. What talent do you possess?
What do you do really well? Do not limit yourself to talents associated with your career. You should include all of your skills as they could be useful in a future career opportunity.
3. What are you passionate about?
What general topics, ideas or activities interest you? These are things you find yourself participating in on a regular basis, consuming or researching. This is important as it can open up opportunities for you in fields you might not have thought about before or peak a future employer or business partner’s interest enough to connect with you.
4. What activities do you enjoy doing?
Be specific. What tasks associated with your current or past positions did you enjoy doing? What tasks outside of your professional world do you enjoy doing? These are guidelines you can use when evaluating future opportunities.
5. Would someone recommend working with you and why?
Request recommendations from anyone who has worked with you and have them specifically indicate why they enjoyed the experience. This should be looked at in the same way you look at product reviews when you are thinking of purchasing a product or service. It serves the same purpose.
6. Are you actively connecting with others?
Are you engaging with or sharing relevant content that could be useful? Are you reaching out to others to share ideas or ask questions? An important ingredient to success is your ability to authentically connect with the intent to learn or assist others.
The goal of your LinkedIn profile is to authentically tell your story as it will provide you with opportunities to grow. If you have a question or are interested in learning more, connect with me.