Use LinkedIn Effectively for Your Career

LinkedIn is a website for professional networking, job searching, and company recruiting. You probably already knew that, but are you using the site effectively to advance your career and open doors?

It might surprise you to learn that your LinkedIn profile is not just an online version of your resume. The site allows for a more engaged, dynamic approach to showing your industry who you are—your experience, your skills, your goals, and your interests. By taking certain steps, you can keep your interests, expertise, and availability in front of companies, recruiters, and peers.

Read on to learn some tactical tips on how to leverage LinkedIn to take your career where you want to go.

Set up an account

If you haven’t already done this, it’s your first step—and it’s free for a basic account! With a basic account, you can message other users, create a profile, research companies, read posted articles, and apply to job listings. If you want to use more advanced features, you can pay for a premium account.

Like your traditional resume, your LinkedIn profile should contain work experience, education, skills, certifications, and any professional organizations you belong to. However, unlike a printed resume, your online profile contains searchable keywords, which can help recruiters and hiring managers find you.

In addition, you can request recommendations and endorsements from current or previous employers, colleagues, and clients. Recommendations are positive comments a professional reference makes, and endorsements are a way for contacts to confirm your listed skills and expertise. You can ask a contact on LinkedIn for a recommendation or endorsement, or—even better—write recommendations and endorsements for colleagues who you feel deserve the praise, and they will often return the favor.

Finally, it’s a smart idea to customize your profile’s unique URL through the settings menu to make it easier for others to find your profile.

Tips for using LinkedIn

Send contact invitations — You can sync your email address book to LinkedIn for an instant list of who you know on the site. Or you can search for companies, organizations, and individuals manually using the search feature. But remember, the right connections are more important than the quantity of connections. You want your LinkedIn home page feed to be filled with updates and shared content that is relevant to your career and that you will interact with for greater visibility to potential future employers.

Research companies and salaries — Following company profiles on LinkedIn is a good way to learn more about them, see if you have any connections in common, and watch for any posted job openings. It’s also helpful to use LinkedIn’s salary search capability to see what other people with similar job titles are earning in your area. This can help with promotion or new job negotiations.

Take a skills assessment — Taking a LinkedIn skills assessment online demonstrates your level of competency by adding a Verified Skills badge to your profile. Data from LinkedIn shows that candidates with these badges are more likely to be hired for jobs they apply for.

Share content — You can share case studies, articles, white papers, videos, and other relevant professional content, much like you can on other social sites. These will show up in your contacts’ feeds and will demonstrate your interests, knowledge base, and passion for your career or industry.

Join LinkedIn Professional Groups — By doing an advanced search you can find professional groups in your area and get involved with them. This can expand and deepen your professional network, show commitment to growing in your career, and possibly connect you with your future employer.

Apply for jobs — Some people don’t know that you can search and apply for jobs directly on LinkedIn. Using the advanced people or company finders can sharpen your scope. You can filter the advanced search by location, industry, alumni status, or number of employees to get better search results.

Let people know you're available — You can use the summary at the top of your profile to announce you’re currently in the market for a new job. And, of course, you can reach out to your contacts directly to let them know you’re available and ask if they know of any openings in your field.