Career Development

In today’s highly digitalized world, many people are forgoing personal meetings; they are instead focusing on connecting with others through social media and other forms of digital communication. But you should always keep in mind that strong personal connections are best formed in person. There are many things that you can discover in a face-to-face meeting that you do not experience in a Skype call or even a teleconference.
Nothing can compare with face-to-face interaction. Social media such as LinkedIn, however, has made it easier for your first meeting to go smoothly, since you typically discover the other person through their pages and accounts.
LinkedIn is a great way to connect with an individual prior to that first vital meeting. So utilize your LinkedIn wisely, and enjoy forming deeper bonds with the people you meet.

Always remember that Linkedin is not Facebook. You should not post personal photos, nor engage in unprofessional conversations. Remember, no one wants to know what you ate for breakfast, or what you did on Saturday night. They are interested if you are looking for a new position, recently found a new one, or acquired an important competency. Business people are busy, and will disconnect you if you send out too many or too frivolous status updates.

Though you may be able to connect with someone meaningfully through LInkedIn, nothing beats connecting with someone in person. Face-to-face meetings continue to be invaluable in helping you form strong personal connections.

Now step away from the computer. There’s a perception that young people are only comfortable communicating online, so be sure to support your online networking with real human contact. Set up phone calls and attend live events.

Remember that LinkedIn should supplement, not replace, in-person relationship building.

When you update your LinkedIn profile or experiences, your network is automatically informed about these changes. You don’t have to send out individual e-mails to everybody. A nice side benefit is that this automatic notification brings you to their attention and awareness. Then, you will be on their mind when they learn about job possibilities that fit your qualifications.

Consider updating your status weekly-

• Share links (using a URL shortener) to interesting articles, websites or video you have found that some individuals in your network might appreciate. Don’t worry about whether all of your connections will find the information equally valuable. Also, try to use words that grab the readers and encourage them to click the link.
• Talk about an event you are attending or have attended to encourage involvement and/or questions about what you learned there.
• If you are a job seeker, don’t use this to say, “Hey, I’m still looking for a job.” Rather, mention job fairs you are attending, people you are interviewing with, networking events you are going to, etc.
• Use the “Like” feature when you see a helpful update from one of your connections. Doing this shares that update with your entire network. This is a great way to give the writer of the helpful update exposure to your network that he/she wouldn’t normally have.

Always keep your e-mail and phone number current. Remember to change these after graduation.

Tomorrow-Now step away from the computer and really link!

Focus on asking for meaningful recommendations from your supervisors and colleagues who work closest to you. Before sending out a request on LinkedIn, approach each contact in person to explain the importance of his or her recommendation. Adding a personal touch to your request will probably result in a better response rate, as impersonal, default requests can sometimes fall on deaf ears.

As a college student you can request recommendations from professors, supervisors, colleagues at internships, classmates, and virtually anyone with whom you’ve shared professional or academic experiences.

You can only be recommended by someone who is a direct connection to you.   You will need to invite your professors or supervisor to connect with you before they can provide a recommendation. The person who recommends  you writes the recommendation, and then sends it to you through LI for your approval.

Be sure to thank each of your colleagues who recommends you on LinkedIn, and consider returning the favor with a follow-up recommendation.

Tomorrow-Actively participate on LinkedIn

Companies and employers with LinkedIn accounts usually post job openings and internship opportunities on their LinkedIn accounts. LinkedIn has a robust search feature.
To help students during this intense time, LinkedIn has built a Job Portal for Students and Recent Graduates providing easy access to entry-level jobs and internships at some of the best companies worldwide.

LinkedIn also has a unique feature that is not available on other job websites. LinkedIn tells you how many people in your network or group who works at the company. Those people can help you get the job that you are interested in!

We develope ad Tutorial video which will show you how to navigate the process.

Tomorrow-Request recommendations on LinkedIn

* Remember to attend the Maximizing LinkedIn workshop on Friday at noon. 350 MHC

When you use the LinkedIn’s company search feature, you can quickly find who you’re connected with at a company, identify new hires, discover former employees, and even find information on all employees at a company who also have a LinkedIn account. In addition, you can get quick snapshots of company job responsibilities, colleges attended by employees, years spent in the workforce, and more as compared with other similar companies.

This tutorial video will walk provide you with information needed to get you started.

When you have identified a company in which you have an interest in, Linkedin gives you the opportunity to receive notifications of any changes to that company’s profile pages. This can be done by clicking “Follow” (Company name) located next to the star on the right side of the page. You will then receive notifications on changes to the page as part of your network updates. This is a great way to  keep track of companies you are interested in.

Tomorrow-Searching for jobs and internships on LinkedIn

Get referrals. Networking is all about who you know and who those people know. If there is someone in LinkedIn that you would like to meet, ask a mutual acquaintance for an introduction.

Gain connections from conference attendees. When you meet new acquaintances at a conference that you attend as a student, chances are you do not have a business card to share. Nor do other students. LinkedIn is the perfect place to maintain a connection to those people once you have returned back to school.

Remember personalize your invitation request (Read Challenge Day 9)

As people start accepting your connection requests, you can then look at their contacts to find even more people with whom to connect. Also see what groups your LinkedIn Connections belong to. If any of them are interesting and relevant, go ahead and join! Your connections are a great way to find out about groups, and continue to grow your network.

LinkedIn just lunged a brand new feature http://www.linkedin.com/people/pymk  This is a new great way to help you expand your network.

Coming up Day 11- Maximizing LinkedIn -Researching companies

If you’re going to reach out to someone that you don’t know, make sure to include a personalized message with the invitation to connect. Whenever I get an invitation from a student with the generic language, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn,” I cringe. If you send this to an alumni, or to someone working at your dream company, it indicates that you’re not putting a whole lot of effort into building a relationship. He/she may think you’re just trying to connect with mass numbers of people and may not even be genuinely interested in talking with him/her as an individual.
It takes two minutes to come up with a customized message. Aim to answer the questions of what you have in common with the other person and why you’d like to connect. It can be as simple as, “I’m a current senior at UST, your alma mater. I’m interested in pursuing a career in retail management and, given your career path, I’d love the opportunity to connect.” By crafting this brief message, you’re showing yourself to be a thoughtful individual with a real reason behind connecting.
Even with someone you already know – maybe an internship supervisor or classmate – the invitation can be a great way to show that you value the person and also to remind him/her of your career goals. An example: “Lilly, how are you? I miss Marketing 509 with Professor Smith! Anyway, I wanted to connect on here so that we can help each other in our respective job searches. I am looking to pursue brand management positions in Chicago. Let me know if I can be of any help to you.”

Tomorrow- “LinkedIn Thinking Outside The Box”

Remember to attend our workshop on Friday at 12 noon- LinkedIn Making Connections  CDC- MHC 350

Build your professional network. It’s never too early to start building a network with people in your career area. Start by linking to classmates who are in your major. While they are friends and classmates now, in the future they become business referrals. Ask professors who are in LinkedIn to write a recommendation for you. Linking to professors ensure that you will stay connected to them after you graduate. This could be beneficial.
Take a look at our quick tutorial video, which will help you get started.
Don’t forget to pop in to the CDC tomorrow from 11-12 to have your LinkedIn profile critiqued.
Tomorrow- Joining groups on LinkedIn