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How to Make Your LinkedIn Attractive

With over 400 million people on the network, LinkedIn is quickly gaining popularity to connect with people from the professional arena. More and more people are joining LinkedIn to connect with people in similar or new line of work, to share views, ideas, and best practices. As digitization takes over, companies are turning to the internet to search for suitable candidates. They no longer have to contend with local talent, as the internet allows them to search from a global, wider pool of talent with more skills suited for the job.

Incidentally, LinkedIn has also emerged as a new platform for hiring managers to scout for potential candidates. And it’s not just the smaller ones, the big guns are also all-out on their candidate hunt on LinkedIn. This is quickly becoming more and more attractive since LinkedIn has turned out to be quite an economical means to advertise jobs and search for candidates, while simultaneously creating a global footprint for the organization. There’s basically zero cost of global job advertising, and a much better chance of finding the right fit for the job.

Which is why there is an increasing emphasis among professionals to brush up, improve, and enhance their online presence on LinkedIn, to make them stand apart from the myriad of people looking to get a job. True, a good profile offers a much better chance of getting selected for an interview, or at the least, reviewed by a hiring manager rather than a nearly empty or irrelevant profile. This is not to say that filling up the profile with too much content would generate better responses, but yes, an adequately presented LinkedIn presents more opportunities than a non-existent profile.

As mentioned earlier, a LinkedIn profile does not need to be content-heavy to put the point across. A good LinkedIn profile is as much about representation, as it is about content. Through this article, we aim at decoding the factors that contribute in creating a LinkedIn presence that not only amplifies the interest in your profile, but also serves as a succinct online resume that you can readily use to apply for jobs.

Content Quality

First and foremost, a LinkedIn needs to be a career summary and not an autobiography. This means that you need to strictly filter the amount and type of content that goes into a LinkedIn, since this is a public profile, and many people can access it. Include highlights of your responsibilities and career for every section, rather than simply copy-pasting your resume on to LinkedIn. This gives the reader (in this case a potential recruiter) sufficient information to initiate contact with you, while at the same time leaving room for detailed queries for your role at an interview. Too much information simply puts off a reader into going further into your profile. Lastly, the content should be grammatically sound with no scope for errors.

Important Sections

This varies from individual to individual, but on a broader perspective, an ideal LinkedIn should have the following sections completed: Headline, Summary, Experience, Skills, and Education. A good headline should be an indicative of what your key skills are, rather than simply putting up your recent designation. That is way too lazy. Similarly, the Summary and Experience section need to be completed with qualitative content, and as stated above, should give away information sufficient for a recruiter to get in touch with you. The skills section need to have your core expertise areas in the form of relevant keywords, and not phrases or sentences. For experienced people, it is ideal to include more of job-related skills as opposed to soft skills, since the latter is implied. For freshers, it is recommended that more of soft skills be included to showcase their abilities to quickly adapt to surroundings.

Approach

An approach in creating content for LinkedIn is equally important as the representation and content quality. How you wish to portray yourself plays a key role in defining peoples’ view of you. A good LinkedIn profile would ideally represent you, instead of the organization you are working in, and do so in a slight story format. For this, you need to select your point of view – that is, the first or the third person. While a first-person account is deemed as more realistic, a third-person view is considered unbiased. It is recommended that freshers use the first-person stance, entrepreneurs use a third-person stance, while an experienced professional can choose between a first or a third-person approach. Another aspect to this is representation. Paragraph style, Bullet style, or a mix of both can be employed, depending upon the experience level, to maintain content coherency and information flow. Again, for a fresher, it is recommended to use paragraph style of writing, to make the profile appear to have some volume, while for an experienced professional, any of the three approaches can work.

Special Sections

These needs to be completed in case of special profiles. The sections under this include the other options on LinkedIn, such as Courses, Projects, Volunteer Causes, Organizations (for memberships), Publications, Posts, etc. These sections are mostly for enhancing a profile and adding value.

LinkedIn Recommendations

Recommendations serve like a virtual review of your performance to a potential recruiter. Remember how when you look up an e-commerce website to buy something, you always look for the reviews? That is identical to how LinkedIn Recommendations work. A good LinkedIn recommendation should ideally have specific information to depict your skill areas, while being human and realistic at the same time. Additionally, another aspect of recommendations is a healthy balance on the reviews you’re getting. Too many reviews as against the number of connections, or too less compared to your overall profile connections, both raise concern and are potential red flags. To avoid this, either restrict your connections to people you know, or have recommendations from people you have worked for or with. This contributes a lot in establishing the genuineness and honesty of the reviews, and is a win-win for you as well.

In the end, a good LinkedIn profile will go a long way in uncovering new and exciting opportunities and avenues for you.

Author

Amrita Kolay

Job Loss – Why You Shouldn’t Blame The Employer, And Retrospect Instead

“You’re fired” these words spell dread for any working individual, and bring with them a flood of emotions. One of life’s most stressful experiences, losing a job brings an apprehensive feeling for an individual, with questions and anxiety regarding what the future holds for them. While most people stress out and start blaming the company/employer for the situations, only a few truly delve deeper and retrospect as to what went wrong, and why they were let go.

The stress associated with a job loss can be quite overwhelming, and has the power to knock off an individual’s self-esteem and sense of purpose. Instead of dusting off and rising to become a better version of oneself, most people often resort to the blame-game, finding faults in other people and situations, while failing to look inside of them and resolve the issues or shortcomings.

While it is perfectly okay to lament at the loss of the job, it is very important to remember that a job or a career doesn’t define a person’s identity. Differentiating between one’s self-worth from the job is equally important. Additionally, it is also to be noted that the employer is not always at fault for one’s job loss; perhaps there were errors on the individual’s end that led to their firing from the job. One needs to reconsider, if they knowingly or accidentally, committed those mistakes which led to their subsequent termination from the organization.

Although these reasons may vary from company to company, a few common, collective reasons why someone could get fired are listed below. One can check and see if their firing was due to any of these reasons, so that they do not commit these mistakes again:

Lying on a résumé or job application

The old proverb, “a half truth is a whole lie”, fits perfectly well in any given scenario. Some people resort to lying or telling half-truths to gain employment, such as inflating achievements, skills, or qualifications to appear better than the other candidates. While this may work for a while, it can come back to haunt a candidate in case the existing company decides to go for a thorough background check, and finds out that a candidate has majorly lied on their résumé. While a minor discrepancy in stating facts on a résumé might not be concerning, a major difference in facts might lead to termination of employment by the employer.

Posting on/leaking confidential company information on social media

While most of the companies are fine with a candidate’s presence on social media during office hours, some companies either forbid it completely or partially as part of company policy, which they ensure is well known to all current and prospective employees. Despite well-versed with this, if an employee knowingly uses social media during office hours or posts sensitive/confidential information without the company’s prior consent, then they might face termination from employment.

Using company assets/property for personal gains/consumption/work

In most companies, use of internal assets/property is strictly forbidden for personal usage. If a candidate is found using company assets/property for materializing their own gains, they might face severe punishment, including losing the job with immediate effect.

Stealing, Misconduct, or taking long/useless/unproductive breaks

Theft, misbehavior, cheating, and lying to the company, if discovered, are liable for warranting a job termination on the spot. Additionally, taking constant, longer breaks from work that are unproductive and serve as a useless expenditure for the company might also become a reason for an employer to let go of an employee. Small, well-timed breaks are not a cause of concern; in fact, most companies encourage taking small breaks in between work to allow employees to refresh and work at their peak productivity; but if one is taking regular, extended breaks for most of their office time, then they can be terminated.

Falsification/Misrepresentation of company records

Another reason why someone could be fired is prolonged or continuous misstatement of company records and reports. This involves painting an entirely different picture of the company than reality, and constitutes to fraud for stakeholders and general public. This includes inflating or deflating company profits/losses, hiding public information, misleading investors/stakeholders/public regarding the company’s core business or agenda, and more. If an employee is caught directly or indirectly participating in misrepresenting or falsifying company records for personal gains, then they can be terminated on spot.

Insubordination, Poor Performance, and Policy Violation

Continuous poor performance and the inability to follow allocated direction/work can also be a reason for employees to get fired, as no company wants to work with people who waste internal resources and negate productivity. Additionally, serious violations of key company policies can also result in employees being let go of their job.

Drug/Alcohol possession or consumption during working hours

This is a serious offense; while most companies allow light alcohol consumption during informal company events or parties, almost all of them prohibit consumption or possession of drugs and alcohol within the office premises, as it inhibits and hinders a person’s ability to work and concentrate properly. One can easily be fired on the grounds of alcohol or drug possession in office.

Rendering damage to company property

Inflicting serious damage to company assets and property intentionally can also be grounds for termination. While unintentional damage might be let go with a fine or salary deduction, an intentional damage to a company’s property will not only get a pink slip, but might also warrant a police case, if the company deems fit.

As mentioned previously, lamenting a job loss is fine, but before blaming anyone, one should think if the problem lies within, as opposed to outside. If one is guilty of any of the above reasons and has been fired from their respective job, then instead of blaming, they should focus on improving their skills and qualities, and consider not repeating the mistake in a new organization. A job termination is not the end of the world; the skills and qualities one possesses can get them far ahead in life, provided they work on shaping the best aspect of their personality. As such, it is best if one moves ahead with introspection and a promise of a better future for themselves.

Author

Amrita kolay

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