Summary for Career Center Workshop.

Benjamin J. Badger
Workshop Name: Linkedin Basics for Job Searching
Date and ime of !ttendance: "ay #$ %&'( (:&& )"
*aci+itator Name: Sarah ,ighstone.
-n this particu+ar .orkshop both - and my fe++o. students .ere gi/en the opportunity to
.ork first hand .ith the Linkedin .ebsite in order to gain a better understanding of it for
the purpose of using it to make jobs. - found this .orkshop to be /ery engaging and
informati/e. "y e0perience .ith Linkedin has not been the best and though -1/e used it
in the past my profi+e .as not at a++ .e++ constructed. he .orkshop sho.ed us ho. to
take ad/antage of the myriad of features a/ai+ab+e on the site .hen putting together a
profi+e that cou+d be usefu+ to potentia+ emp+oyers.
he first thing that - think - remember best .as that they sho.ed us ho. Linkedin
a++o.ed us to +ist our interests and ski++s prominent+y on our profi+es. his .as of
particu+ar interest to me because in the areas of e0perience$ both .ork and academic$ -
fee+ -1m rea++y +acking in regards to ho. a prospecti/e emp+oyer .ou+d /ie. me. "y
resume doesn1t shine the .ay others do. ,o.e/er one of the things that .e .ere taught
about Linkedin is that .e can use it to emphasi2e persona+ traits that are not seen on a
resume$ such as being ab+e to p+ay the trumpet or ha/ing specific kno.+edge of ho. a
particu+ar computer system .orks.
3nce you1/e put these ski++s on your profi+e you can use your connections .ith other
peop+e to get endorsements for these ski++s. hese endorsements a++o. peop+e and
prospecti/e emp+oyers see .hether you1re just embe++ishing you1re profi+e rather than
stating a fact.
!nother usefu+ thing .e +earned about Linkedin .as the idea of ho. many degrees of
separation there are bet.een you and any prospecti/e emp+oyer and ho. you can use the
.ebsite to find out ne. .ays of +inking yourse+f to those emp+oyers /ia peop+e you are
c+ose+y associated .ith +ike friends and fami+y. 4sing this concept e0pands the possib+e
job opportunities e0ponentia++y.
3ne other thing .e +earned a great dea+ about is the simp+e notion of creating an effecti/e
summary for our page5profi+e. ! .e++ .ritten summary can do .onders for making the
page much more appea+ing to emp+oyers$ as it is essentia++y the head+ine for e/erything
that is contained inside your profi+e. -f an emp+oyer sees that summary the impression it
makes on them .i++ inform their reaction to .hate/er e+se they see in the rest of the
profi+e and .hether or not they find interest in the person .ho that profi+e be+ongs to.
4+timate+y a good summary can entice or repe+ and it .ou+d be foo+ish not to address it
.ith the importance it deser/es.
hese are three of se/era+ things .e +earned about in this .orkshop. here are a +ot of
things that - can think of to do .ith the kno.+edge gained here. *irst$ - can use this
kno.+edge to continua++y bui+d up my profi+e here on Linkedin to make myse+f much
more marketab+e to emp+oyers of /arious kinds in order to more easi+y find a job. Doing
this comp+ements those features .hich appea+ to emp+oyers that are a+ready /isib+e on the
resume.
he key though is to make sure that -1m a+.ays acti/e .ith this page and using it to
connect .ith other peop+e and then bui+ding on those connections$ gathering
recommendations and endorsements of my ski++s and ta+ents .hich .i++ +end them
credibi+ity$ and a+so making sure that peop+e kno. -1m sti++ interested and +ooking for a
potentia+ p+ace of emp+oyment and .hat -1m interested in doing. Bui+ding those
re+ationships .ith peop+e and making friends of friends +ea/es me the opportunity to
e0pand the number of chances - ha/e to find a job that - can tru+y enjoy.