When you start to look for a job to kick off your career, one of the first steps is to set up your LinkedIn. Once you have your profile created and polished, you’re probably wondering what to do next. There are a few key actions you can take on the professional social media network that will really help in setting you up for long-term success. Here is our new grad’s guide to LinkedIn.
Connect With Fellow Alumnus on LinkedIn
LinkedIn makes it very easy to find and connect with people who went to your school. When they notice you have something in common, they are significantly more likely to connect! Before you send a connection request, however, be sure to write a personalized message to include as well. Here’s an example:
“Hi {NAME},
I am reaching out to connect with fellow graduates of [UNIVERSITY] in hopes of learning more about your career path and how you like working in the [INDUSTRY}.
I look forward to connecting with you!”
Reach Out To Professionals In Your Industry
It can be extremely beneficial to establish relationships and even mentorships with people across your industry. Don’t be afraid to send LinkedIn connection requests, or to simply follow industry leaders to discover insights from their LinkedIn feed posts.
Browse Jobs on LinkedIn
You can subscribe to job alert emails that will trigger based on your LinkedIn profile. Make sure you have completed your profile to the max in order to collect the most job listings. Browse the daily emails in addition to doing active searches. You never know what you might find!
Follow Your Favorite Companies
Here’s an insider tip for you: Companies share exclusive job postings on their profiles. Job spots on LinkedIn are expensive, so not all available jobs are posted to the site. Most companies will, however, share links to their website with endless job listings no matter what!
Additionally, you can glean a lot from what companies share on LinkedIn. You can get an inside glimpse into their company culture, learn more about their mission and values, and even discover tidbits about the history of how they got where they are today. These things will come in handy when you land an interview!
Hopefully, this new grad guide to LinkedIn helps kickstart your professional networking. We wish you all the luck, and if you’re looking to begin your job search, check out our job board!
