Talking FACS
Host: Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky
Guests: Caroline Francis, Director of Alumni Career Services and Amanda Schagane, Associate Director of Alumni Career Services
Episode 7, Volume 2
0:00 Welcome to Talking FACS; what you need to know about family, food, finance and fitness. Hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program, our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families and communities to improve quality of life.
0:20 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
Today, I'm pleased to have joining us, Caroline Francis, Director of the University of Kentucky alumni career services center as well as Amanda Schagane, Associate Director of the University of Kentucky Alumni Career Services Center. Thank you both for joining us today.
0:44 Caroline Francis: Thank you.
0:45 Amanda Schagane: Thank you.
0:46 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I am excited to learn about today's topic. We're going to talk about Utilizing LinkedIn for Career Success. And I'm going to tell on myself a little bit here that I was already fairly well into my career of employment with the University of Kentucky when LinkedIn came on the scene and so, I have not really made the time or taken the effort and energy to truly developing LinkedIn profile.
And it's fairly recent history that I transferred into my current position. And as I started traveling to conferences in this position, people would ask for my LinkedIn information and so I thought, “Oh, goodness. This is something I need to learn more about and I need to learn how to build that professional profile.”
So, I am thrilled that you all are here today and that you're going to share more with us. But let's start at the very beginning. What is LinkedIn?
1:41 Amanda Schagane: Think about LinkedIn as Facebook with a briefcase.
1:44 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: That's a great great way to think about it.
1:46 Amanda Schagane: And so many career counseling clients ask us, “Well, how do you know whether to send someone an invite or friend them or connect with them on LinkedIn?” And the answer to that is, if they're a professional acquaintance, if you met them at a meeting or a work related networking event, add them on LinkedIn. That's perfectly fine. Sharing is caring on LinkedIn.
2:06 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, how can a professional really utilize LinkedIn?
2:10 Amanda Schagane: LinkedIn has 500 million users.
2:12 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Oh my goodness.
2:13 Amanda Schagane: And 61 million of them are senior level influencers. So, we're going to inspire you to make a profile today.
2:18 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I really am missing out; aren’t I?
2:20 Amanda Schagane: So, we're going to get you on there. And I'll tell you, the more modern companies are starting to use LinkedIn profiles in lieu of résumés for applications. And so, they'll set up on the Job Board on LinkedIn that you can apply directly with your profile.
2:34 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Oh wow.
2:16 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Yeah. And so, we want to make sure that the content that you have on your LinkedIn profile, when you work on it later today, is set up in a way that's very consistent with your résumé draft. We want to make sure that your brand platform is very consistent throughout your résumé, throughout LinkedIn, to what you're sharing with networking events.
And so, a few things you want to include on your draft; make sure you have all these details. We want to make sure that we include skill sets that people can endorse you for; like podcasting as for as an example for yours.
We want to make sure that we have a very detailed profile summary that's rich with good keywords that are related to your job function and/or your industry. Start looking at some other people's profiles on there and that'll help give you some ideas for that.
You can join groups, you can follow companies so you can get recommendations; lots of options on there.
3:25 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I loved a term that you just used you called it brand platform. Can you explain that idea a little bit more?
3:30 Amanda Schagane: The concept of branding is not a new one; it's been out. But the idea is that you showcase your professional persona across different platforms. And that might be at a networking event whenever you introduce yourself, it might be on LinkedIn, it might be in your cover letter; but all of these different platforms showcase elements of your professional brand and you want them to be really consistent and authentic to your skill set.
3:53 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, tell me how I would get started if I wanted to go back to my office later today and begin building my LinkedIn profile.
4:02 Caroline Francis: You could set up an account at linkedin.com. It's very user friendly. You would start out; you would upload a picture and you would just fill in the boxes.
It's very box-driven; name.
You would have a headliner under your name where you would have target professional job titles. You would have a summary section. You would cut and paste to form your résumé.
When working with clients, we always say the first step is to get your résumé in tip-top shape. Then you just cut and paste and drop it into the appropriate sections on LinkedIn.
Then you would also add skills to be endorsed for, join some groups that are industry-specific, follow some companies that you're targeting; that would get you started and you can do that rather quickly.
4:53 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Are there certain industries that use LinkedIn more than others?
4:57 Amanda Schagane: I haven't found that to be the case. I think it's being pretty widely used now at this stage.
5:01 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, I really am behind the times.
5:05 Caroline Francis: LinkedIn is your friend, Jennifer.
5:07 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Okay. So, how do recruiters actually use LinkedIn?
5:10 Amanda Schagane: So, you may have heard of Applicant Tracking Systems from the HR area. Applicant Tracking Systems or ATS or whenever we apply for a job on an online job board, those HR systems are scanning résumés for keywords, assigning point values to them and then giving our hiring officials the top candidates.
Well, LinkedIn works the same way. We have to make sure that our profiles are keyword rich, so that employers who are doing searches for us are able to find us.
HR is an example. We want to make sure that we HR as a keyword on there, but also Human Resources. So, we're easily found.
5:44 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, this really is much more techie then than I really understood or knew about. For an individual, how did they determine what their keywords should be?
5:54 Amanda Schagane: I think it depends on what the goal is. So, if there's a specific function that you're looking to bridge into or a certain area of expertise; those are your keywords.
If you know how to use certain softwares or if there's a specific skill set that you have, add those keywords to your profile.
6:08 Caroline Francis: We always encourage clients to look for jobs on LinkedIn and look for keywords. So, we have them create a file of maybe five jobs; dream jobs. For now, we don't really care where the job is. We're using it to get some common keywords that seemed to be in jobs that you're targeting. Then make sure those words, as Amanda said, are in your LinkedIn profile.
6:32 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I think that that's one reason that maybe I haven't jumped into LinkedIn is because I haven't necessarily been searching for a job or targeting a job. But really and truly, it's a help to connect professionals in other ways as well.
6:48 Caroline Francis: Absolutely, there are so many ways you can use LinkedIn. It takes some thinking so that you don't miss out on an opportunity. For instance, Jennifer, if you had a meeting next week with some colleagues you've not encountered before. Before the meeting, you can go look them up on LinkedIn and learn about their backgrounds so that you have some things to discuss in your meeting and find some areas of common interest.
Also, if you're having an interview, you definitely want to research people that will be on the interview team to learn more about their background and experience as you prep for that interview.
7:22 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: That's a great tip; when we interview folks, I can always tell those individuals that have done their homework. That they've gone in and maybe they've read the bios of the names that we share that were part of the interview committee, that they really know kind of who we are, what our backgrounds are, the work that it is that we do and how we fit into the picture. Those are always the best interviews.
7:46 Caroline Francis: Definitely.
7:47 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, for someone that's new to LinkedIn, how can they learn all of the kind of the tips and tricks to make their profile as professionals as possible?
8:00 Caroline Francis: LinkedIn has a wonderful help desk and there are so many free articles out there on the Internet, on blogs. If you just Google “LinkedIn; helpful tips” you will find a world of great information; very quick easy-to-read articles on “10 steps to get your LinkedIn profile in tip-top shape.” Lots of wonderful resources out there.
8:25 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Are there any kind of big no-no's or things that you definitely want to avoid on your LinkedIn profile?
8:32 Caroline Francis: Well, on your photo for one. It does need to be a professional photo; not one that has the family in it or your animals. So, your photo does need to be professional.
And just like a résumé, you want to make sure that there are no grammatical errors, that you are on brand, that you are using industry key words, that you have accurately showcased your background.
And sell yourself; brag on yourself a little bit here. What are you most proud of in each of your positions? What have you accomplished? Any awards or honors or how have you saved a company money or brought in new clients or made something more efficient? So, please this is an opportunity for people to brag.
9:16 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, I will admit to you all that I have seen, either come across my email or through other postings, through the Alumni Career Services Center of courses that you all offer on setting up a LinkedIn profile and I've often thought, “I should go do that so that I could learn more.”
But I would think that folks could reach out to a career counselor to have them at least help them through that process or to review their profile as well.
9:42 Caroline Francis: Definitely. And also, for your listeners that are in the Central Kentucky area, the Central Kentucky Job Club meets twice a month; the second and the fourth Tuesday morning. It’s free and open to the public and we do have speakers on LinkedIn three or four times a year.
9:57 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: That's typically where I see it advertised. I always think, “I should go. I should go.” Maybe I'll come the next time that I see it advertised.
10:03 Caroline Francis: We always get a big crowd on LinkedIn days.
10:06 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And I can understand because although I know LinkedIn has been around for quite some time now, it's probably still somewhat of a generational thing in terms of phasing it in; that I'm certain many of our younger and more recent graduates or job seekers, probably they gravitate to it very quickly and establish a profile very quickly.
But maybe for some of us that have a few more years on us that, you know, if it wasn't part of how we initially searched for a job, just it's the whole learning something new.
But you have encouraged me today and you've made it sound super easy. So, I will take some time and do it.
10:46 Caroline Francis: I'm sure your profile will be rock star quality quickly.
10:49 Amanda Schagane: Yeah, I'm excited to see it.
10:50 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Great. Thank you all so much for joining us and sharing these tips with us today.
10:54 Caroline Francis: Thank you for the invitation.
10:56 Caroline Francis: Thank you so much.
10:58 Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition, health, resource management, family development and civic engagement.
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Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu to learn more about the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension program or contact your local extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences. We build strong families. It starts with us.
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