By: Peer Career Coach Dahun Mamora
During the first week of my summer internship at Dell, I saw something unique happen at orientation. I watched as two interns, Alicia and Steven excitedly greeted each other like they had known about each other before that day (these are fake names). This is the story of how they met! Alicia accepted her internship offer with Dell a few months prior and made a post on LinkedIn about how excited she was about it. That post went viral and Steven commented on it to wish her success in her upcoming internship (at that time, Steven had not received any internship offer and was still actively searching). To Steven’s surprise, a Dell recruiter saw his congratulatory comment on Alicia’s post, and eventually messaged him on LinkedIn to see if he was interested in an internship with Dell. The rest of the story is history.
So, can being active on LinkedIn position you for your dream job? My answer is yes!
LinkedIn is the leading professional networking platform. Just as job seekers are desperate to land a job, employers are desperate to find the right talent for job openings at their companies. Consequently, employers use LinkedIn as a tool to find the talents they desire to hire. There are over 90 million LinkedIn users, so it is very easy to be left behind in the employers’ talent pool. However, the more active you are on LinkedIn, the higher your chances are of being recognized; just the same way you become more popular the more you post on Twitter, Instagram and other social networking platforms.
It is recommended that you are known on LinkedIn for the right content. Here are a few tips to start that process!
- Do not hesitate to like, share or comment positive words on posts that resonate with you.
- Be bold and post about significant achievements you or any of your loved ones have obtained. Most people are recognized for the impact they make in the lives of others. So, if your posts are inspiring, others will be touched and will probably share your posts.
- Make sure you have a strong LinkedIn profile that sells your skills and competencies. That way, as you get recognized, and people begin checking out your profile, your profile will be one that actually stands out. I am confident that an up-to-date and strong profile also made Steven more attractive to the Dell recruiter.
I hope you continue to use LinkedIn as a tool to position yourselves for the next phase of your career and for success. Have an amazing week!