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Does LinkedIn give you the ick?

Tbh, it does for most of us. I believe it’s a little bit of a necessary evil, but like any other social media platform, you get to decide how you want to use it.

Here’s some of my thoughts on the best way to use the tool:

The main benefit is building a network and researching people. Because most professionals have some sort of LinkedIn presence, you can use to it to build a network of connections, follow people you admire, and learn about the career paths people have built. And of course, it’s an easy way to reach out to people directly*

*That being said, I do think there is so much spam coming through LinkedIn, that I’ve have noticed a significant drop in response rates from cold messages.

The job board is notoriously unreliable. Simple things like badly filtered keywords and years of experience are common complaints I hear. I also know a lot of recruiters don’t like LinkedIn because they get a flood of candidates, 99% of which aren’t the right fit. Feel free to use LinkedIn to find jobs, but I would recommend applying directly through the company site.

Creating content on LinkedIn is, unfortunately, a great way to stand out. Especially if you are early career, an easy way to demonstrate your knowledge or passion for a certain subject is to post your own thoughts, articles, etc. about it!

At the end of the day, I would create a LinkedIn profile. Populate it with the basic and up-to-date information so that when recruiters cross reference your resume online (which most of them do), you have a presence there!

Not sure how to answer “Tell me about yourself. Why this role? Why this company?” in interviews? Struggling with how to connect your past experience to the job you want next?

Learn how to tell your story in an authentic, high impact way.

Open to everyone, from career pivoters to recent graduates.

I’m having conversations with recruiters, hiring managers, and other talent decision-makers weekly, and want to share tidbits of what I’m learning with y’all here too! 

Have you ever read a job description and felt unclear on how many years of experience the job calls for? That isn’t necessarily surprising.

A lot of recruiters and hiring managers struggle to define entry-level jobs or candidates because often the qualities or skills that the role calls for can manifest in so many different ways.

For example, let’s say the job calls for someone who has strong verbal communication skills.

That could come from

All of those experiences translate to strong communication skills, but all those candidate profiles are super different!

What does this mean for you? Don’t fixate on years of experience on a job description. Ask yourself if you truly have the transferrable skills, and then articulate that clearly and confidently in your application!

Job searching is hard work. You deserve a break. Here’s how I took time to rest and recharge this week!

We’re blessed with the best food in Texas, and Chili’s is no exception. Sometimes you just need a good cheese pull to make it through the week!

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Thanks for showing up this week! We appreciate you. See y’all same time next week!