As a Newly Qualifying ACA it is essential that you upgrade your personal profile on LinkedIn and ensure its reflective of the next steps you want to see in your Career Pathway. (www.charteredaccountants.ie/Career-Pathway)
Your LinkedIn profile is regarded as your Business Card or an appendix to your CV nowadays. It is also highly reflective of your ‘Personal Brand’ and therefore needs constant maintenance.
Here are a few tips that might be useful as you tackle this mini project in the months ahead :
- Invest in a professional photo – Its your ‘online handshake’ – make sure it is good.
- Get familiar with the ‘My Account’ settings to safeguard your privacy and public interactivity.
- Highlight your qualification – Make sure your ACA membership is prominent.
- Showcase your key achievements – This is your value-add / Selling points for a prospective employer.
- Use “keywords” in your text to position yourself and that reflect what you are looking for in a next career step.
- Join groups – Get interactive / Comment, Like – you can join circa 40 groups.
- Follow companies in a sector you are keen on monitoring. Follow your top 10 favourites.
- Share and post – Keep your daily feed active and you will be more visible to your community.
- Use it for Interview preparation by scrutinising companies and also key team members’ and interviewer profiles.
- Use it as a research tool to understand a sector of interest better - Monitor industry updates and posts
- Set up your Job alerts using filters
- The “Learning section” has presentations webinars and mini courses that may interest you.
- Win friends and influence by ‘Endorsing’ people or writing a ‘Recommendation’ for them.
- Pay Monthly for a premium account – costs vary from €60 upwards but often initial period free and may be worth a short term job search period – It offers you an InMail facility to email most people.
- Update your skills in the Skills section for extra visibility and prominence.
- Publish an article you wrote and tag it to your account to enhance your brand.
- Ensure you Complete your profile and get it to to 100% level.
- View the profiles of alumni predecessors from your training firm and the logical career moves they made.
- Have a look at the Interview preparation section in LI
- Post infographs or pictures to make your updates look more interesting/professional
- LinkedIn has a ‘FIND NEARBY’ facility that relates to events.
- Use #HASHTAGSlike #charteredaccountantsireland or #ACA to get your updates more noticed
- Make sure your phone number and email are visible in your details if you are ‘overtly job hunting and available’
- Add your LI profile link to your CV!
- Networking - Ask your 1st connections for intro’s to 2nd Connections they are linked to that are of interest to you.
- Get mobile – Get the app & use it on your phone.
If you want to understand any of these points in greater detail and how they work to benefit your brand, profile and job search just get in touch with Dave Riordan (ACA)
Recruitment Specialist & Career Coach | Careers Team – Chartered Accountants Ireland
Phone: +353 1 637 7251 | Mobile: +353 87 9674285
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