Is Your LinkedIn Profile Ready For B-School

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Ready For B-School As you embark on the next phase of your professional development and pursue your MBA, MS, PMBA, EMBA or IMBA, is your LinkedIn profile ready for B-School? A robust LinkedIn profile is the cornerstone of your career. It allows you to convey your aspirations, achievements, new skills, internships and experiential learning. Your LinkedIn profile provides you with the opportunity to address your motivation for attending business school, why you have chosen your area of study and show samples of work. Most importantly LinkedIn allows you to forge new relationships with classmates, professors and alumni. Here is a checklist to help you uplevel your LinkedIn profile so its ready for B-School. Your Headshot Makes The First Impression LinkedIn reports that members with a profile photo receive up to 21x more profile views and 9x more connection requests. In short, you must have a photo/headshot so keep these tips in mind: Smile and look at the camera The photos background shouldnt be distracting or too dark The photo should focus on your head and shoulders Dress professionally or mirror the industry/role you are pursuing You dont need to hire a professional photographer, but it shouldnt look like it is a selfie either.                         For extra branding, use the header image to highlight your interests, activities or school. Your Headline Should Convey Your Unique Value You have 120 characters- use them wisely. Your headline conveys a combination of your skills, experience and knowledge. This isnt the place to list the school you are attending. However, you can include youre an MBA or MS candidate. Here are headline examples: Finance and banking. Big 4 internship experience. 2020 MS Accountancy   Product Marketing | Brand Management | Pricing | Data Analytics | 2021 MBA Candidate Aspiring Data Scientist. Proactive, data analysis, retail industry experience. MS Marketing Analytics Candidate You can find more examples of MBA headlines here. Customize Your LinkedIn URL Every profile has a unique URL assigned by LinkedIn. To make it easier for people to find your profile and improve where is shows up in search results, you should edit your LinkedIn URL to only contain your first and last name as it appears on LinkedIn. If the URL is already taken, consider adding your middle initial. If neither of these are available, try adding your degree or profession after your name. You only have 29 characters (no spaces). To edit your URL, go to View Profile. You will find this option when you click on Contact Info Once youve edited your URL, add it to the contact section of your resume and to your email signature box. Your About/Summary Section Tells Your Story Your About section is like the answer to “tell me about yourself.” This is your chance to highlight your accomplishments, skills and personality! You have 2,000 characters. And can also embed media (video, photos, documents, presentations, links to online content). At first glance, people viewing your profile will only be able to see the first 2-3 lines of your About section. Make sure the first sentence summarizes the most important information first! Format your About section to be easily skimmable and make it easy to follow. Keep paragraphs short Include all relevant skills and industry knowledge Highlight your career progression Explain your motivation for business school, area of focus or career aspirations Add unique interests or activities that would be interesting for people to know about NOTE: If you want to make it easier for people to contact you, add your email address to your About section. Maximize Your Experience Section There are two parts to your experience. First the job title and second the description. Make sure they both describe what you want people to know you did! Job Title: List a universally meaningful and descriptive job title. You have 100 characters so dont just list internship include the type of role it was and the department you served in. Description: You have 2,000 characters to talk about your experience (including internships and class projects). Explain why the role was important, what you learned, and skills you developed Include quantitative accomplishments Embed photos, documents or links to emphasize your work Sure, you could just copy and paste the information from your resume, but is that really enough to sell yourself and stand apart from the other b-school students? Add Marketable Skills Your Skills Endorsement section is important. LinkedIn research found that profiles with more than 5 skills are 27x more likely to be discovered in searches by recruiters. The skills you choose to list should be the hard skills employers are looking for. Add technology, processes, and procedures youve learned and used. Then ask people to endorse these skills.  LinkedIn automatically categorizes your skills into these buckets: Industry Knowledge Interpersonal Skills Other Skills (ones that dont fit into either category) The skills that have the most endorsements are featured at the top, however, you can edit the 3 skills you want to be pinned. Make sure your most marketable skills are seen first! Ask For Recommendations Reach out to past colleagues and managers through email and ask if they would be willing to write a LinkedIn recommendation for you. In your email message, identify projects and skills you would like them to address. This makes it easier for someone to write a recommendation which means they are more likely to follow through. Be Active On LinkedIn It isnt enough to have a great profile. You will want to use the platform to engage with like-minded professionals and establish credibility. In order to do this, you must be active. Like, comment or share articles at least once a week Write a blog post on LinkedIn sharing industry insights, news or highlighting an achievement Congratulate contacts on work anniversaries, new jobs, or achievements IMPORTANT: Anyone looking at your profile can see your activity (what youve liked, your comments and what youve shared as a post or status update). Follow Target Companies Follow the company pages of companies you are interested in working for. This will send their posts to your newsfeed, making it easier to keep up with their news. Recruiters can also see when you are following their company page. Follow Hashtags LinkedIn uses hashtags to categorize content (articles). You can and should use hashtags to categorize your own status updates. Hashtags can be industries, occupations, trends, technology or even branded to an event. Join Groups LinkedIns groups are a great way to engage with alumni and industry professionals. Join groups where you know you can find like-minded people. Lurk before you jump into the conversation. Ask questions. Do not ask for a job. Grow Your Network Purposefully Politely Once you meet someone, follow up with a LinkedIn invitation to connect. It’s always easier to connect with people you know or have met. Have you connected with: Classmates and professors Co-workers and managers you interned with People you volunteered with When inviting anyone to connect, ALWAYS personalize your message by adding a note. Your message should explain why you would like to connect, what you have in common, or how you met.    Begin connecting with people TODAY! Monitor Your Profile Views Every good b-school student knows how important data is. Before you make any of these changes to your LinkedIn profile, take a look at your LinkedIn analytics. Then after youve made changes, monitor the number of people viewing your profile. You should see an increase in the number of people viewing your profile, posts and search appearances. Youve taken the preliminary steps to ensure your LinkedIn profile is ready for b-school. Update your information as you hit new milestones. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is ready for B-School What’s the Best LinkedIn Headline For An MBA Candidate? The Easiest Way to Research and Find Alumni on LinkedIn 25 Inspiring Ideas for What To Post On LinkedIn How To Respond When Someone Shares A Job On LinkedIn