Articles

LinkedIn for Young Professionals

Career development has turned a number of corners in the past decade or two.  Young professionals seeking a career change or newly qualified graduates entering the workplace face endless obstacles to achieving that all-important interview.  There are just too many competitors, with hundreds of perfectly qualified candidates applying for the same

position.

It has never been harder to enter the job market: there has never been so wide a choice when searching for someone to fill a role within your organisation.

Many out-of-work young professionals are turning to job roles for which they are ridiculously over-qualified in a harsh employment climate.  Once ‘locked in’ on a career path in which they are underpaid and under-challenged, they neglect their career development either due to being too busy to job hunt or an understandable lack of motivation.

The Solution

There are a number of basics that job hunters at professional level require that are imperative to success, such as:

• A college diploma or university degree
• Experience
• Ideal cultural background and personal qualities
• Successful networking
• Linked-In profile

What was that?  Linked-In profile? 

www.linkedin.com is the most effective professional networking tool available today.  With its ‘cast of thousands’ of professionals, its reach is impressive, enabling job hunters and prospective employers to ‘find each other’. 

Knowing how effective Linked-In has become in recent years, recruitment agencies and Human Resources managers now consider a well-written Linked-In profile as important as an informative CV.  More importantly, the lack of a Linked-In presence can seriously reduce one’s chances of securing an interview.

Linked-In has been around for a while.  Its appeal to the professional community is well established and its advantages have been obvious from the outset – a mutually beneficial facility that enables professionals to ‘link in’ to other professionals.  Nowadays, however, recruitment specialists consider that Linked-In information provides a valuable insight into a professional’s career and personal interests and a revealing profile on the level of interest that each person is able to generate within their specialist field. 

A stagnant profile tells the story at a glance; one that is vibrant and an active part of the Linked-In community is testimony to that person’s ability to network professionally and effectively.

Getting It Together

For many, putting credentials together is the hardest part of the job hunting experience - highly intelligent, motivated and capable individuals often have great difficulty compiling a CV that is interesting, informative and compelling.  A Linked-In profile often poses the same problem and the solution is the same – ask a professional to write a comprehensive, targeted profile you can be proud of.

Linked-In is not just a networking site for swapping ideas: it is all that and more.  The first impression created on Linked-In is lasting and often recruiters will not pay a second visit so it is important to get it right first time around. 

By having your profile professionally tailored it is possible to prioritise information correctly and attract interest in all the right places to find a new job or change direction in your existing role.

A Perfect Career is a careers advice website for jobseekers at every level and from all career categories and market sectors.  The site covers: Changing Career ∙ Top Careers ∙  Career Helpline ∙ Changiing Jobs ∙ Banking Career ∙  Legal Career ∙ Training Career ∙ IT Project Manager∙ Job Market News ∙ CV Writing ∙ Resume Writing ∙ CV Help ∙ CV Resume Tips ∙ Sample CVs ∙ Interview Advice ∙ Interview Preparation ∙ Interview Questions ∙ Interview Answers ∙ Interview Tips ∙ Recruiter Viewpoints ∙ Job Hunting ∙ Executive Search ∙ Interim Careers ∙ Cover Letter ∙ Job Application Letter  ∙ Thank-you Letter ∙ Follow-up Letter ∙ Job Applications ∙ Statement in Support ∙ Students & Graduates∙ Top Consulting firms ∙ Top Accounting firms∙ Work Problems ∙ Networking ∙ Managing Redundancy ∙ UK Outplacement Service and Job Search Links to leading recruitment agencies, executive search agencies, and education and training sites in the UK, Europe, USA, UAE and Asia