LinkedIn

Who is using it?

• 94% of recruiters
• 36% of job seekers

Why use LinkedIn?

• Extended CV
• Connections
• Recommendations
• Recruiters
• Jobs

Extended CV

Connections

Recommendations

Recruiters

Jobs: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/

We'll come back to this. LinkedIn has a powerful job search function. It might be worth having a play around just to see the kind of jobs being posted right now.

This week's activity

Get 100% completed profile

• Profile picture
• Location and industry
• Experience (a current position at Founders and Coders, with a brief description, plus two previous positions)
• Skills (at least three)
• Education (you can also include FAC here)
• At least 50 connections

Decide on relevant keywords and where to include them

• JavaScript, PostgreSQL, agile, developer
• Summary, experience, skills
• Minimise references to things you don't want recruiters to contact you about

A snappy summary

• Your story, your passion, your ambition
• Be specific
  • "I am passionate"
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  • "After discovering my passion for web development, I applied to one of Europe's leading tech bootcamps. I have since made a website for a local business and mentored other learners through Codebar."
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• Link to your GitHub

Quick interlude on 'truth'

It's fine to exaggerate on LinkedIn

Reframe previous experience

We've all done something before FAC. Therefore we have

Explain your previous experience as if it was a software environment:

• working in dynamic teams (agile)
• understanding the expectations of a non-expert (POs)
• communicating effectively to understand goals
• managing expectations (sprint planning)
• working to tight deadlines (sprint)

Get recommended

It can feel weird to officially ask people to write nice things about us, but it does have a real impact on strangers' opinions of you.

Think about someone you have worked with in the past five years who thinks you're great, or is at least prepared to say you are. Send them a message briefly outlining what you're now doing with your career and ask if they'd consider leaving you a recommendation on LinkedIn referring to what you're like to work with.

Hey Kwame hope you're well. Looking forward to catching up tomorrow. I was wondering if you would be happy writing a few lines/short paragraph on my LinkedIn about your experience working with me on the Criminal Appeals Fund? It will really help whilst I'm interviewing and talking about the role I played and how you found liaising with me on the process, documents etc. Let me know, I can send you a link if you'd be up for it. Thanks, Jack

Get connected

Connect to everyone. Start with each other and FAC alumni, speakers, people whose blogs you like, people in tech jobs you want or their managers. Become a shameless LinkedIn connector.

You can definitely do this without a message, I prefer something generic and copy-and-pasteable.

That being said, down the line you may want to reach out to someone for a particular reason, in which case it's worth coming up with a relevant message.

Remember to add to Projects

Privacy

Things to consider in your privacy settings:

• Viewers of this profile also viewed
• Profile viewing options
• Manage who can discover your profile from your email address
• Job seeking preferences

Resources

• LinkedIn checklist for techies