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LinkedIn for Design Students

Dianne Hull, Associate Director, Career Services

Steps you can take to get

from this to this

50% of networking is gathering information you can use

to achieve your career goals

50% is sharing information about yourself with others

to achieve your career goals

RESEARCH

PERSONAL BRANDING

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500 million profiles = OVERWHELMING!

• Don’t think of LinkedIn as a “all or nothing” tool – think about the different approaches you can take:• Branding yourself and your abilities

• Researching employers/organizations

• Researching topics and career fields by joining in conversations and sharing your perspective

• Finding the right people to answer your questions

• Finding the right people to help you identify what your questions should be (people who have similar backgrounds)

• Developing a manageable networking strategy that helps you to achieve your pre-determined goals

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Networking…, it’s just talking

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Networking…, it’s just talking

• Talking with a clear goal in mind what do I want to share; what do I want to learn

• Talking as part of a broader strategy to connect with people Who do I want to talk to

• Talking to help people help you People can help if they know how

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Your LinkedIn URLA small part of your bigger brand…

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/woo-kim-bb4629

Edit your profile URL

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• Experiences in your profile should echo and illustrate themes from your summary

• Your descriptions should be skills focused

• Your descriptions should be about you, and your accomplishments = “I” and “my”, not just the “project”

• Help the reader picture what you do

• Your profile should be especially relevant to your primary audience

• Make your descriptions part of a narrative that connects your different sections together

• Be multi-modal (projects, presentations, recommendations, and more!)

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• Projects• Honors & Awards• Publications• Skills & Endorsements• Education• Organizations• Groups• Following• Companies

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The best form of branding is other people confirming your brand…

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The best way to get a recommendation…, perhaps giving one

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Researching employers

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1st degree/level connections

2nd degree/level connections

3rd degree/level connections

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Take a closer look at employers that interest you

• Follow employers• Absorb any information from their Careers page• Pay attention to their feed• Identify some possible connections at the organization

who might be able to offer you insights into:− their experience− the work− the culture− important skills/knowledge to have − the hiring process

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Comparison branding

• What career fields have people from my institutionpursued?

• What career fields have people with my academic background (degree type or discipline) pursued?

• What specific skills do they have?

• What do their profiles look like?

• What groups have they joined?

• Who are they following?36

Turning online into in-person• Grow your network to allow you to answer specific

questions about roles, departments, skills, employers…

• Grow your network to allow you to broaden your knowledge of the industry or career field

• Grow your network to allow you to demonstrate your interest and experience

• Grow your network to allow you to grow your network more effectively/efficiently

• Grow your network to allow you to identify specific job opportunities

• Grow your network to allow you to find advocates for you in different organizations

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Lowest hanging fruit

• 1st degree contacts you already have on LinkedIn• You may be surprised by who the people you know

know

• They may not be aware you are interested in people they know if you have not articulated your networking goals

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Ways to reach out to Kali to connect with her contacts…

Outcomes of direct contact networking• You now know who you are connected with

• Your 1st degree contacts

• You have identified some people you would like to be introduced to• Your contacts can help you expand your networks

significantly!!

• People can only help you if they know how

• People with 500+ contacts won’t remember half of them unless they have a reason to• People change jobs, LinkedIn ensures you are not relying

on your contacts to keep track of their contacts44

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Using the “Find Alumni” tool….

Penn Alumni LinkedIn group• ~40,000 members from all Penn backgrounds and

degrees who have actively decided to join this group• PennDesign has its own LinkedIn group for you to join

• Join it…

• See if there is additional information about members of this group on QuakerNet – and vice versa• QuakerNet and LinkedIn can be good companion tools, as

each contains information that the other may lack

• http://myquakernet.com

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Take advantage of online communities as part of your research and information gathering

• Groups contain people who share your interests, but aren’t necessarily from your academic institution

• The find alumni tool helps you to see what people in your program go on to do

• You can refine your search by keyword• You can see who works at different employers

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Use LinkedIn as one of your many job search engines

• You can reach out to HR or recruiter staff at employers with questions or to follow-up

• You can find similar jobs, and see what others have been looking at

• You can demonstrate interest in employers by “following”• You can see if you have connections with certain employers• Set up saved searches

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LinkedIn etiquette

• Don’t “connect” with people you don’t know, or who don’t know you– Perhaps wait until you have had >2 significant interactions

• You can ask people if it is OK to connect with them– This can be another excuse to get in contact – networking is about

building professional relationships over time

– Respect people’s time, expertise, and contacts

• Think about who you are connecting with – where are they in the work hierarchy– More junior staff members will likely be more helpful and more

willing to connect

• Don’t connect then forget – keep the conversation going

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Not as much as you can say in-person to your new connections, and

not as well as you can say it in-person to them

samples

guides

online resources

critiquesRESOURCES Walk-ins

30-min appointments

Call 215 898 753075

CV

resume

cover letter

academic

advising

consulting

Wetfeet

Vault

Handshake

InterviewStream

LinkedIn

Mock interviews

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dhull@upenn.edu