February 25, 2019, by Noor Syuhada

NAA LinkedIn Profile Competition: Congratulations to the Winners!

In this digital era, LinkedIn is emerging as a platform for professionals in the country to establish their brand, gain insights, network, recruit talents or find career opportunities. With an aim to give exposure and provide guidance to the students about LinkedIn, Careers Advisory Service (CAS) took an initiative to conduct a Nottingham Advantage Award (NAA) career module named as ‘Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search Success’, where the students have been assigned to build their LinkedIn profile and compete to create the best outcome.

On February 20, Careers Advisory Service (CAS) held a prize-giving ceremony for the NAA LinkedIn Profile Competition, which took place at HB05. With the participation of 60 students, the top three have been selected by a respective judge, Ms. Geraldine from Johnson & Johnson. The winners were:

  1. Daryl Ng, Master of Engineering (MEng) in Civil Engineering – Year 4

  2. Ooi Ee Ting, Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology – Year 3

  3. Jean Ong Chee Yin, Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Accounting and Management – Year 3

Before the prize-giving, the Head of CAS, Ms. Alicia Ch’ng shared on the inspiring stories of successful graduates, followed by Ms. Geraldine who shared some useful tips on LinkedIn profile and provide feedback on the students’ profile such as:

  • write a compelling and unique short introduction

  • make extra effort to find a non-LinkedIn banner template, i.e. personalized banner

  • write a captivating brief summary of yourself and change/ customize LinkedIn URL

  • should not include any University experience in the Experience section, which should be for working experience instead

  • include extracurricular activities in Education section

  • include relevant awards and projects in the Accomplishment section

She also commented that it is important to stand out and always be prepared whenever it comes to job searching and networking.

In addition, she added, “LinkedIn is still growing in Malaysia, nonetheless it will be widely used in future since we are moving towards the era of digitalization. I think this is a great initiative done by CAS, where I hardly find in other career centres in Malaysia just yet. Talking about the hiring trend using LinkedIn in Malaysia, the recruiters may hire through this medium if they go for mass hiring. However, LinkedIn is not only for hiring; it becomes a professional social media, where people use it not only to recruit or find job, but also to network, exchange ideas and understand the industry. This will be good for students and fresh graduates to gain additional knowledge from the experienced professionals.”

Oh, and yes, let’s congratulate our winners! We managed to interview two of the winners, Daryl and Ee Ting – let’s hear from them.

Daryl: I had a LinkedIn account when I was doing my internship, however, I just included my basic information. That’s it. When I heard about this module, I was eager to join because I wanted to improve my account to reach perfection. ‘It would be nice to have a proper and presentable profile’, that was my thought. The content of the module was easy to understand and the most helpful part was the presentation part. I found it very beneficial and I am glad that CAS provided this kind of opportunity for the students. Thank you!

Ee Ting: I’ve heard about LinkedIn but I only created one after I joined this module. LinkedIn can be one of the channels that can be used for job searching, hence I took this chance to enhance my skills. The module was helpful, especially the free photography session. As a student, I think it is great that we can get the chance to have a professional photo for our profile. Since it was carried out in TCR (computer lab), we can get hands on experience and ask whenever we do not understand. As for now, I shall continue to use my LinkedIn profile to understand about industry so that I can be prepared to enter the workforce soon. This module is highly recommended and I hope CAS continue to do it in future!

Last but not least, we would like to thank Ms. Geraldine and everyone who had participated. We wish you all the best in your future endeavour and stay tuned to our upcoming events. Stay updated!

Posted in AwardCompetitionNottingham Advantage Award