How to effectively use LinkedIn

Industry and employer research can support your job search and career planning. You can use LinkedIn to both identify and research potential employers to support your job applications.

To determine potential employers and locate company profiles:

• Use the general search bar and strategic keywords and filter by ‘Companies’. From there you can sub-filter by location, company size, and more.

On company/organization pages:

• Use the Jobs section to note opportunities, including those that might not be cross posted on an organization’s website  
• Use the Posts, About and Life sections to build your knowledge/research for job applications and interviews
• Use the People section to search employees in positions of interest and build familiarity with position titles at that organization
  • View their educational and work experience to learn what prior experience may have supported their employability or entry into their current position
  • Reach out to employees for informational interviews to learn more about their work, the organization and experiences with the hiring process.
  • Contact individuals with public-facing roles whenever possible to learn more about their opportunities, roles and/or for insights into hiring or recommendations for your job applications (see Connecting and Networking section for more information). 

Watch for social media posts:
You may wish to follow employers on additional social media platforms (e.g. Instagram). Watch for posts about job opportunities and those that speak to organizational culture.

Professional or individual ‘People’ profiles on LinkedIn can provide a wealth of information to support your career planning, job search and industry research.

• When viewing the profile for in a position or organization of interest, note their educational background and work history. Their career trajectory can provide insights into employment requirements and the desired experience for different roles.
• A professional’s experience or work history may help you learn about additional employers to consider and/or new types of positions or job titles. This can support your job search.
• Note additional training, mutual connections, skills highlighted and interests (what organizations they are following and groups they are a part of). You may wish to consider similar training/skill building, follow similar organizations, or join the same industry groups. 

You can use university/school profiles to search for ‘People’ with a shared education background and/or working in jobs and organizations of interest.

• Select the Alumni tab or section and use the keyword search to see what jobs are held by graduates of different programs. Or to see alumni working in specific position types. Filter by region, workplace/employer, skills, connection level, etc.  
• When using the alumni search tool, consider keywords such as your program title/major, desired job title, or preferred employer. 

When viewing People profiles you might note groups listed within the Organizations or Interests section of their profile. You can also use the main search tool on the platform to type a keyword and filter by ‘Groups’.  Since this is a global platform, you may wish to include the region in your keyword search – e.g. ‘wildlife’ and ‘Canada’

• Join groups related to your industry to network and connect to news within the industry  
• Message individuals in the group even if you are not already connected to them  
• Comment and participate in discussions with potential employers and colleagues  

Profile and background images

Your profile and background images are part of your virtual introduction and first impression. They should be professional and reflect who you are. A custom URL can be used in the letterhead of your resumé and job application materials.

Select a profile photo – Minimum of 400 (w) x 400 (h) pixels

• Head and shoulders should compose the majority of the image  
• The picture should be of you alone, not one where others have been obviously cropped out  
• Keep it professional; an image that’s suitable to your work and future industries.

Select a background image -1584 (w) x 396 (h) pixels

There are a range of options to consider for your background image:

• Use a photo that captures a memorable moment at work, your work setting or work in action.
• Utilize a general image/graphic that represents your work or field (perhaps from creative commons source like pixabay.com)
• You may consider an image that contains a meaningful quote or shows support towards a cause.

Customizing your URL

• Customize your URL through the Public Profile & URL section which will present (often on the right side of your screen) when viewing or editing your profile.  
• Adapt from the current default URL. A shorter URL that captures your first and last name or initials will be easy to present at the top of your resumé.

Did you know you can get a professional photo taken for free at on campus events? LinkedIn Photoshoot Booths are often set up during UM Career Fairs, and may be a part of other events on campus. 

Your Headline section is often what is first noted when your profile is viewed. This serves as a brief introduction. It may include your current job title and generally should reflect who you are and/or specializations within your field. 

Here are some quick tips:

• Character limit for a Profile Headline may differ between devices: Desktop 220 characters.
• Avoid the LinkedIn default of just listing your current job
• Avoid being generic (i.e “seeking new opportunities”, “science student”) or repetitive, articulate something more specific about you!
• Front-load your headline as people browsing will only see the first characters.
• Use industry lingo and keywords that recruiters may be using but be mindful of overusing technical/specialized terms – speak your audience’s language.
• If you are not yet in the field you plan to transition to: Use “aspiring,” “passionate about”, “___ student/candidate” or similar language to remain truthful while still adding keywords.
• Include accomplishments, skills, and calls to action if appropriate.
• Try separating ideas with a vertical bar (pipe or glyph) to break up ideas.

Example 1

Format: 

Aspiring [job you want to have] OR [Program or degree or area of study] Student | Passionate about [topic you are excited about] | (optional) Skilled [specific skills or fields of work]

Sample headline: 

Aspiring Environmental Engineer | Passionate about Water Management | Skilled in soil & groundwater characterization, environmental compliance

Example 2

Format:

I [3-5 (key)words describing your work] through [specific skills or practices] | [Job Title] passionate about [topic you are excited about] | [Award or accomplishments] (optional)

Sample headline: 

Helping youth with mental health crises through Trauma-informed counselling | Youth Intake Counsellor | Psychology Student with a passion for social justice | Community Service Award Winner

Example 3

Format: 

[Job Title] and [award, accomplishment] | [Activity using keywords] | [Activity using keywords] 

Sample headline:

Award-winning Children’s Author | Music Educator | TEDx Speaker | Education Graduate Student 

This section allows you to elaborate on professional identity more than any other section. Look to the profiles of others in your field for inspiration.  

Some key things to note

• The first lines are most important as viewers have approximately 300 characters (50 words) before they have to press “see more” (total amount is 2600 characters)
• Include keywords used by recruiters (also in headline and education)
• Consider speaking to your accomplishments, what you do and why you do it, a story about yourself
• Avoid generic statements, long sentences, or many special characters
• Write in a conversational tone and towards your audience in the first person
• You can use bullet points, but avoid copying and pasting sections of your resumé

Examples/Suggestions

• 5-7 Bullet points highlighting your qualifications and concisely describing what you do (similar to what you might share in a Highlight of Qualifications section on a resumé)
• What you do; how you do it; proof; testimonial; call to action/contact information  
• Why-How-What: Why you do what you do? How you do it? What you do?  
• Your Story: Character (you), Challenge, Choice, Consequence  

Within your Education section

• Highlight your program focus and relevant courses  
• You may also speak to relevant post-secondary clubs and other campus activities, or choose to highlight this with the Volunteer or Organizations section of your profile  
• Skills can be listed and media updated for this section which could connect to course projects or other experiences. 

Within your Experience section

• Adapt demonstration statements from your resumé being mindful of your future employment goals.
• Don’t simply copy and paste job descriptions or job duties
• Within an experience you may choose to highlight measurable results and/or upload media to highlight accomplishments (articles, publications, video, etc.)
• Use the Volunteer experience and Projects sections to further demonstrate your skills and highlight skills from school projects and volunteering. This is particularly useful if you do not have extensive or relevant work experience.

Skills section

• Choose up to 20 skills that you possess that are relevant to your career goals.
• Invite others to endorse your skills and in return, endorse their skills. Do not ask for endorsement from relatives/family members.

As with any social media platform, you will want to be mindful of your privacy and visibility settings. This includes how public you want your profile to be and what information others can see about you based on how connected they are to you.

Be mindful generally of what you’d like to share and only include what you are comfortable with others knowing about you in a professional capacity

Within your Settings (Select ‘Me’ from the top menu and then ‘Settings & Privacy’) you can:

• Manage both the Visibility of your profile and network – how discoverable and public you want you profile to be, the visibility of each of your profile sections, etc.
• Manage the Visibility of your LinkedIn activity – this includes management of your active status, ability to be tagged by others and profile update notifications
• Manage your Data Privacy – how LinkedIn uses your data, who can reach out to you and job seeking preferences
• Check or change your Sign in and Security selections – including e-mail addresses connected to your profile. 

Managing your visibility:
As you enhance or develop your profile you may want to turn off your “Share Profile Updates” for that window of time. This is so that those currently in your network aren’t alerted to each new piece of information being added.