Your Guide to LinkedIn - SMS First Year's Guide #3

Written by SMS

SMS First Year's Guide Issue #3

What's LinkedIn? We are irrefutably in the age of social media, and undoubtedly you would have an account for at least one platform - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat... or even TikTok?! Fortunately for you, you now have another platform to add to your routine scroll through social media feeds - LinkedIn! If you are a Business student, having a LinkedIn account is a career essential.

LinkedIn brings the positive aspects of Networking (𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘔𝘚 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳’𝘴 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦) to a new level. Connecting you with potential employers or partners, colleagues, classmates and professionals or companies that inspire you. You can also use the platform to search for jobs, read industry news and connect with other profiles. Now, let’s see how you can set up an account as a uni student.

Your profile as a uni student Your profile is essentially a well organised, interactive resume, which can be a little difficult to set up. So here's some advice to get you started: ➤ Have a profile picture! Employers wanna connect and get to know you, so make sure you upload a recent and professional photo. CEO often hosts LinkedIn photoshoots for you to easily get a professional-looking profile picture for free. ➤ Add your interests! Reveal your personality and brand knowledge by adding your favourite companies or brands onto your profile. This lets others learn a bit more about you. ➤ Show off your Skills! Whether you are a master of Microsoft Office or an amazing public speaker, flex your talents for everyone to see. ➤ List all the experience you have in the appropriate sections.

What experience should I include? ➤ Put in jobs that can be linked to what you’re seeking for. If you don’t have this kind of experience yet, go back and edit later. ➤ Don’t have any related experience? Put in your part-time jobs. It actually impresses recruiters as it shows your dedication and work ethic. ➤ Volunteering!. ➤ Senior high school experiences if you’re freshly graduated, but avoid mentioning primary school, and definitely don’t focus on stuff from when you were super young.

Talking about your experience ➤ Include quantitative evidence and be specific with your desired career. ➤ List what makes you valuable to a potential employer. For example, “We marketed to an audience of over 3k members and saw a 20% increase in engagement in the past year.” ➤ Be clear and concise! Include approximately 3-5 dot points under each job title to expand on your past duties, responsibilities and achievements.

Who should I follow? ➤ Follow pages you are interested in, any companies or profiles you admire or find inspiration from. ➤ Follow pages that are useful to you, think about relevant industry companies or those you would like to work for. Sometimes pages will even post job opportunities onto their page. ➤ But most importantly you should follow SMS, for all your university marketing needs.

Connecting with others ➤ As touched on previously, for LinkedIn connections it’s best to include a personal note. For example, “We met at the networking event last Wednesday and you taught me about…” ➤ Or, “Hello, I am someone and I met you at this event, I am interested and want to keep in touch.” ➤ Try to only add people you actually know unless they’re recruiters and they inbox you directly (DM).

What do I post? As this platform is mainly used for business and employment connections, it is best to use formal and professional language for any post you create. ➤ Achievements! Placements in units, placements in case competitions. Possibly the only platform where it’s socially acceptable to post these kinds of things lol. ➤ When you participated at an event and learnt something from it, or met someone inspiring. Talk about your thoughts with your own voice, and reflect on your experience at that event. ➤ It’s subjective how you use LinkedIn, but if you are new to it, preferably don’t spam. Try to keep your posting to only important and relevant events or experiences. ➤ If you go to a company’s recruitment event, write a post to thank the recruiters. They appreciate it greatly!

Things to think about ➤ Set your account to private viewing if you don’t want people to know you’re creeping on their profiles. ➤ Stalk other people’s profiles to understand how it’s done 🕵. But try to use original wording when you are making your own. ➤ Include endorsements and reviews. ➤ Learn a new skill by taking one of the many classes offered through Linkedin Learning. Every USYD student gets free access to this normally paid-for subscription - just sign in with your university email address!

Finally, your LinkedIn profile doesn’t have to be perfect from the start, or exactly what you want it to be. It’s a work in progress, just like your career journey, so use the platform to inspire you on where you want to go in the future, not to get you down.

- SMS