Graduate Assistant Dan Ambrosio is currently pursuing his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree at Walden University. In Dan’s Take, he shares his perspective on career management from a student’s eye view. Dan lives in Germany where he teaches business English. He enjoys traveling, studying, riding motorcycles, and working out.
LinkedIn is an excellent social networking website to connect with business professionals around the world. In terms of job seeking and career decisions, LinkedIn is an ideal platform to promote a professional profile. Whether individuals are looking for a new job or advancement in their careers, LinkedIn will help to achieve those goals. First and foremost, it is imperative that your LinkedIn profile is current and up-to-date. The more detailed you are in your profile, the greater the appeal will be to potential employers. I, for example, was struggling with ways to improve my LinkedIn profile, so I decided to set up an appointment with a Walden Career Services Advisor.
A Career Services Advisor will definitely help you revamp your LinkedIn profile. I received excellent tips on how to go about revamping my LinkedIn profile. There are, of course, many career related topics you may discuss during your appointment, but during my appointment, we focused on LinkedIn. For example, we decided to include an in-depth summary that would promote my skills and experience that correlate to my career goals.
It can be quite difficult to know the best ways to promote yourself on LinkedIn. Since social media websites are easily accessible, potential employers tend to view your profiles long before they see you in person. Due to this, it is important that you make yourself stand out from others. It is also important to tailor your profile according to the industry and job you would like to pursue. You not only have to promote your strengths, but you must also discover your purpose. While this may be challenging, a Walden Career Services Advisor can help make it easier to figure out the best ways to meet your goals.
Before my appointment, I had not thought much about the importance of creating an effective brand. Whether someone is looking for a job or not, an updated LinkedIn profile can be very beneficial. My profile picture (which was from 2010 when I was an undergraduate student), was very outdated. My new profile picture was taken a couple of months ago. I also created a headline and wrote a short summary about myself. Since this is one of the first things that potential employers will see, it is important that you mention things that illustrate your value as a professional. I also updated my current employment status and included work descriptions for all of my previous jobs. This information allows potential employers to understand my skill set. Endorsements are also a great way to highlight your skills and strengths. In addition, since I have spent some time abroad, I included a language proficiency in German. Since my focus is on marketing, I also included a marketing plan that I developed for a group project in one of my marketing courses. Depending on your area of expertise, it is beneficial to include projects and accomplishments that are related to your skills and career goals.
I am very pleased with the way my LinkedIn profile turned out, and I will continue making improvements and adjustments as needed. I highly recommend scheduling an appointment with a Walden Career Services Advisor for questions you may have regarding job searches, social media, career advancement, and other career management topics. I greatly improved my LinkedIn profile as a result of the appointment, and I believe my improvements add value to my professional profile and network.
Written by Dan Ambrosio, Walden DBA Student, Career Services Graduate Assistant
