Do you have a LinkedIn account?

In today’s competitive market environment jobseekers need to embrace social media to stand out from the crowd. One of the most popular social media tools for jobseekers is LinkedIn. Employers are inundated with CV’s every time they advertise a job, it is for this reason that many are not displaying job advertisements in the traditional media i.e. radio and newspapers any more.   

If you are a jobseeker then you should definitely be on LinkedIn. To create a LinkedIn account go to www.linkedin.com and sign up. Once you have created your account fill in all the necessary details. Add the experience you have and provide a brief description of that job. What skills do you have add them for example you might have experience in or knowledge of SEO, HTML, computer networking.

What educational institutions did you attend and what award or certification did you receive, add them to your profile. If you specialise in a particular field you can add that to your profile. Search for companies that you worked for in the past and see if they are on LinkedIn, if they are ask them for a recommendation. Don’t forget to upload a photo of yourself and keep it clean and professional.

There are a wide variety of applications that you can use on LinkedIn. If you have a blog you can use the blog link application to integrate your blog into your LinkedIn account. You may have done presentations in the past in a business or college setting that you would like to display to potential employers, you can use the slideshare application to do this. To view a full list of the applications available log into your LinkedIn account and click on the more tab, scroll down to get more application and from here you will see a full list of applications to choose from.   

Once you have completed your profile don’t just leave it at that. Search for industry professionals and former colleagues and connect with them. Post status updates, comment on discussions and  vote on polls. LinkedIn is a network so engage with that network, you never know it could lead to that dream job.