If Maria Can Do It Without LinkedIn . . . Imagine What You Can Accomplish in the New Year With It?

Virginia Franco — January 6, 2017 Follow @VAFrancoResumes

Imagine what Fraulein Maria (the ultimate career changer in my opinion!) could have accomplished if she’d had the guidance of LinkedIn professional services during her career transition from nun-in-waiting to professional singer to freedom fighter? Rather than Raindrops on Roses– here’s what I think she might have sung about when it comes to today’s ultimate professional online networking site:

Whose Viewed Your Profile

Think of this as LinkedIn’s Caller-ID, where you can see who has checked out your profile (providing they have made their profile public or partially public).

With this information, users are armed with the perfect segue into a conversation that begins with “Thanks for visiting my profile!”

Recommendations

Struggling to describe yourself? LinkedIn recommendations let the words of others corroborate OR strengthen your achievement and description. LinkedIn makes it easy for you to request a recommendation, and to repay the favor.

Pulse

I always recommend that my clients become active on LinkedIn by liking, sharing and commenting on the articles of others. Not only does this help to position you as a thought leader, it helps to keep your profile at the top of the feeds of your connections – helping to keep you at the top of their list should an opportunity arise.

LinkedIn Pulse, accessible on desktop and mobile, offers a treasure trove of articles written by influencers (some well-known, others not)

Search

As a professional executive resume writer, I can say without hesitation that LinkedIn’s search capability is the ultimate tool for Interview Prep and a bit of cyber sleuthing.

The more you know about a person, the better prepared you’ll be to answer questions and maybe even break the ice. LinkedIn searching, in my opinion, should be standard operating procedure for EVERYONE and ANYONE looking for a job. Get the best scoop by looking for:

• How You Are Connected?
  
• Do you Share Connections?
  
• Where Have They Worked?
  
• Where and What did they Study?
  
• What are their Interests?

If Fraulein Maria jumped careers 3x in a matter of months on The Sound of Music without LinkedIn – imagine what you can do come the New Year with access to all this information at your fingertips?

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