LinkedIn

Where can you gain access to over 930 million professionals, network with UMBC alumni and highlight your skills and ability – all from the comfort of your smartphone or computer? LinkedIn is a professional networking site where you create and tailor a FREE professional profile with relevant education, skills, projects, and experience. Through your profile, you connect with friends, advisors, faculty, coworkers, alumni, and other important contacts as you start to search for a job or internship or begin to network online.

Getting Started

To start networking and connecting, develop a profile. While it may start out looking more like an in-depth resume, LinkedIn offers some unique tools.

Step 1:  Log into LinkedIn.com and create a profile with your name, an active email and password.

Step 2:  Incorporate information from your resume to complete the Education, Headline, About, Coursework, and Extracurricular Activities sections. Focus on results and outcomes and use keywords when possible.

Step 3:  Upload a headshot photo of you alone.

While you may be slightly uncomfortable with your photo on your profile, it is considered unprofessional and incomplete without one. Profiles with photos are more likely to receive views.

Step 4:  Include examples of projects from courses, internships or extracurricular activities. In the Projects section, you can also add group members.

Step 5:  LinkedIn created a Skills section where you can highlight particular skills in which you excel. Additionally, connections can endorse you for particular skills. Get endorsements, by giving endorsements.

Step 6:  Don’t neglect the Headline and About sections. These are short overviews of your entire profile that often attract recruiters.

Now that you have developed your profile, learn more about Connecting with Others on LinkedIn and Using LinkedIn for Your Job Search.

The Career Center can review your LinkedIn profile and provide feedback. There are more advanced tools and uses for LinkedIn. We encourage you to explore them, or schedule an appointment to meet with a career advisor for more tips.

LinkedIn provides great training on how to use the site.

Connecting with Others and Using LinkedIn in Your Job Search

Your LinkedIn profile is your gateway to the world of online networking. Now that you have built your profile, be sure to build your network too! Networking is critical to your career success!

Be Active: Connect

  • Start connecting to professors, advisors, family and friends. You will be astonished to see how many people you know are already on LinkedIn. It is important to send a personalized message to a user that you want to connect to rather than using the default, “I’d like to add you to my LinkedIn network.” See examples of personalized LinkedIn invitation requests.
  • Use the Find Alumni tool to search for UMBC alumni by location, industry and major or just explore career paths.
  • Join alumni and industry groups that match your interest. Be sure to engage in discussions to make yourself stand out.
  • Create a unique profile link and include it in your resume and other professional documents to help colleagues connect to you.
  • Connect with new contacts as soon as you meet them. Send them a customized note to remind them how you met.
  • Send messages to alumni and prospective employers to inquire about the industry .
  • Leverage your LinkedIn connections for informational interviews, job leads, mentoring opportunities, or just general job advice.

LinkedIn for Internship/Job Searching

If you plan to use LinkedIn for internship/job searches, take it to the next level by using our All-Star Profile Tips:

  • Include a professional headshot photo of you alone. Even your smartphone can take a great photo. Just ask a friend to help you take the photo.
  • Create a headline with your area of study and/or career ambitions – consider keywords that appeal to recruiters.
  • Construct a keyword-rich summary that includes type of positions you are seeking.
  • Be sure to Include volunteer activities, relevant hobbies, internships and extracurricular activities.
  • Ask for recommendations from professors, advisors, internship colleagues and supervisors.
  • Don’t forget this is a professional document. Be sure to use proper grammar and punctuation throughout.
  • Follow pages of companies in which you are interested to gain insight into your career field and learn new industry trends.
  • Research current employees, company groups and pages to better prepare for informational and company interviews
  • Be active in industry groups that interest you. Your profile will stand out.
  • Ask for introductions via your first degree connections to managers that are hiring in your industry; by using introductions, you gain access to the hidden job market where many jobs are found.
  • Explore the LinkedIn job portal; entry-level jobs and internships can be filtered by industry and location.

The Career Center can review your LinkedIn profile and provide feedback. There are more advanced tools and uses for LinkedIn. We encourage you to explore them, or schedule an appointment to meet with a career advisor for more tips.

LinkedIn provides great training on how to use the site.

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