December 2, 2019, by Noor Syuhada
How to Stand Out on LinkedIn by PwC
On the 21st of November, Careers Advisory Service had organised a talk for participating students in the NAA module, “Optimising Your LinkedIn Profile”. The talk was aimed at highlighting the usefulness of having a LinkedIn account as well as to equip students with the necessary knowledge to optimise their LinkedIn profiles. The session was hosted by Kent Tan, HR Assistant Manager from PwC.
During the first half of the session, Kent shared with the crowd tips to optimise one’s LinkedIn profile as well as some industry insights as a recruiter. Kent’s advice was that one should articulate what they do or what they’ve done such as their course of study and any relevant work or volunteering experiences.
“What makes an individual stand out in a sea of applicants/ LinkedIn users are their experiences,” said Kent. Examples include, extra-curricular activities, part-time work, internships and even travelling activities because at the end of the day, recruiters are interested in the knowledge gained and skills learnt by the individual through their experiences.
Kent added that it’s recommended to publish your works (i.e., research papers), honours and awards as well as professional references on your LinkedIn profile. It should be noted that your references should not include endorsements by family members or friends as this would seem unprofessional. Instead, you can include a former employer, a former colleague/ supervisor or your personal tutor even, on your list of professional references. Bottom line is, your details that you publish on your LinkedIn profile has to be valid, do not fake your achievements.
“One should also always be mindful of their online etiquette,” Kent mentioned. He stressed that professional online etiquette should not only be practiced on LinkedIn but also on all other social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc, this is because what you post or share on your social accounts are a reflection of your personality. According to Kent, many recruiters actually screen through the social media accounts of applicants before deciding on hiring them. Therefore, it is important that you do not create a bad first impression online.
The following are a few guidelines to proper online etiquette. First and foremost, be careful of what you post online; refrain from posting or sharing anything that could be interpreted as racist, sexist and lewd. In addition to that, be wary of pictures of yourself that you post online. A recommended practice is to make sure your personal social accounts are set to private. On a related note, avoid setting “awkward or inappropriate profile pictures” as quoted by Kent, on your LinkedIn profile as profile pictures are usually the recruiters’ first impression of you.
LinkedIn Profile Awards
In the latter half of the session, Kent was invited to present awards to the participating students of the NAA module with the best LinkedIn profiles. We’d like to congratulate Ms Geralynne Goh once again for coming in first place, Ms Chong Jia Wei as first runner-up and Mr Minoru Dhanajaya Jayakody Arachige as second-runner up!
By: Angeline Choy, Career Ambassador of CAS – Director of Digital Marketing
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