Yogyakarta, October 26th 2020—The Center for Digital Society held the 37th Digital Discussion on Monday night (26/10). The event held through Whatsapp Group raised the topic of “Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out”. Yacinta Shafira, The Most Outstanding Student of UGM the Faculty of Engineering, is the speaker in the session. This event was held from 19.00-21.00 WIB and moderated by Devia Putri Maharani, CfDS’s event assistant.
As a university student, we are familiar with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social media used to build professional career. According to the data from LinkedIn Economic Graph 2020, LinkedIn has 706M+ professional members, 50M+ companies, and 11M+ Job Listing. The LinkedIn profile is great in Google, and it can be beneficial for recruiters who wants to know more about our profile. Additionally, this year’s LinkedIn algorithm makes it easier for us to be noticed by people and for our post to get plenty likes or comments. “Of course, the benefits of LinkedIn is abundant, such as the vast professional network, recruiters that are active in talent-sourcing in LinkedIn, and the plenty business partners,” Yacinta said.
The aforementioned data shows us that LinkedIn is the biggest professional social media in the world that gives job seekers and recruiters the platform to interact with each other. In this digital age, especially during the pandemic, LinkedIn is very helpful in finding career and self development information quickly and self. LinkedIn is also called a place to advertise ourselves to companies and other professionals out there. That is why, it is important to optimize our presence in this social media. The first thing we need to pay attention to is LinkedIn profile checklist. The profile includes a clear photo of yourself, keyword-rich headline, a unique cover photo, and 2-3 paragraphs about yourself. Then we need to use the S-T-A-R framework in the experience and achievement part. S (situation) includes our general achievement, T (task) includes task that we need to do, (A) action includes the task we have done, and R (result) includes the things we have achieved, including in a quantifiable data.
The example of S-T-A-R Framework is as follows:
Title : Founder and President of Women Beyond
[Situation] Women Beyond is a national-scale non-profit organization that aims to empower women to be young leaders in their communities by fostering a supportive environment through.
[Task] networking opportunities, workshops, and mentorships.
[Action] As a President, I am responsible for handling 5 teams (Operations, Marketing, Knowledge Management, External Affairs, and Human Resource), approving all partners and projects, ensuring all operations of Women Beyond aligns with the vision and all goals are being met.
[Result] Over 4 months, Women Beyond has gained 900+ followers on Instagram, collaborated with 9 partners including Schneider Electric and Periplus.
Additionally, we can also ask for endorsements or recommendations from our friends’ accounts. Endorsement is very important because this is where profile readers can get real opinions from the people that have worked with us about our work ethic, skill, and other things we possess. Endorsements can be in the form of likes, comments, or messages. Related to cybersecurity, just like with other social media, there are plenty things that we need not share in LinkedIn such as our house address, finance information, ID card, etc. This is to avoid identity theft from irresponsible people. “The bottom line is, stay safe smart people. Even though LinkedIn is professional, there are people that misuse the platform by using it to invite us to illegal business, or by using it as a dating website.” Yacinta said. Giving our email address in our LinkedIn profile suffices.
Next, to network in LinkedIn, we can do four things: connect with people, comment on other people’s post, message someone, and post our own contents.