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LinkedIn has quickly become one of the most important websites in your job search process. Recruiters, employers, and other professionals are using LinkedIn and other social media websites to find and make the connections that will help them grow their careers or businesses. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of applicants get hired by employers within their network, or within their co-workers’ networks. Considering that your professional network is critical to helping you land your next opportunity, your LinkedIn profile is as important to your future success as your resume. If you’re not actively growing your network on LinkedIn – here’s how you can start.

Keep Your Profile Up to Date

First of all, your LinkedIn profile is structured similarly to your resume in how it presents your work history and achievements. Make sure that you keep it up to date, with recent projects and roles added as they occur. When growing your network, you don’t want to lose connections because they think your experience is not relevant to their interests.

Highlight Your Achievements

One of the advantages of LinkedIn, when compared to your resume, is that your profile is not restricted to 1 or 2 pages. This leaves more space to feature your education and extracurricular achievements. This is especially true if you are a recent graduate. Take the time to list your courses, your interests, your volunteer projects, and societies you are a member of. Show off your achievements by linking out to your digital portfolio, or highlighting unique skills and recommendations.

Ask for Recommendations

Another interesting aspect of LinkedIn from a job seeker’s perspective is the element of recognition and recommendation from co-workers and employers. Your connections on LinkedIn have the option of recommending you for your various skills and abilities as listed in your profile. They can also leave comment style reviews of their experience working with you. These recommendations are important because just like employers will check your references before hiring you in person, viewers will take LinkedIn recommendations into consideration when reviewing your profile.

Engage with Groups

You can further your networking strategy by joining professional and interest groups and participating in conversations with other engineers. Showcase your expertise by answering questions and offering help to more junior professionals to help make a name for yourself within the circle. Share relevant news articles or interesting developments in your field. You never know how or when a professional connection will prove to be valuable, so do what you can to cast a wide net and engage with your network regularly.

Connect with Employers

Similarly, employers will often interact with candidates who they know are interested in working for them online before the application process even officially begins. Hiring managers will often review applicants’ social media profiles (particularly LinkedIn for insight into previous work history and professional accomplishments). By engaging with an employer online, you are essentially drawing additional attention to your application and setting yourself apart from the talent pool. Of course, any chance to get your toe in the door is a definite advantage in a hot job market.

Partner with ESGI to Advance Your Power Generation Career

Are you looking to take the next step in your power generation career? Contact the recruiters at ESGI today to get started!

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