LinkedIn was one of the tools I stopped using whilst on my career break and in the early days of my return, the material uploaded was presented in a rather outdated way. Recently I’ve been updating my CV and my LinkedIn profile together and I have now achieved the coveted All Star Profile, comprising photo, employment, skills, summary, industry, location, education and connections.

The revamp has been a gradual process, allowing me a bit of time to assess what’s been required. I’ve also worked my way through quite a few:

• webinars (thank you to Women Returners Professional Network for their free resources care of Victoria McLean and City CV and likewise to CILIP for the free job strategy advice from Alistair Morris of CV and Interview Advisors)
• online articles
• blog posts
• books
• and a fair bit of messaging between myself and other fellow enthusiastic LinkedIn refreshers

Perhaps you will have many if not all of the key elements already in place, but just in case you are neglecting to use LinkedIn to its full potential, here’s what’s making up my renovated profile.

1.     A new photo

“It’s not OK to have a holiday snap”, say She’s Back authors Lisa Unwin and Deb Khan. But while I’ve not been able to book a professional photographer I’ve finally changed the somewhat hazy cropped selfie that’s been posted up since 2016. I’ve also adjusted the background banner image using the free image and photo service Unsplash, which has been my preferred choice since starting the libraryreturners blog due to the ease of use. Though I hear other library professionals like Pixabay!

2.     Building professional connections and networks

One of the key purposes of LinkedIn is to enable you to build up your connections and expand your network. If you are currently unemployed or are on a career break and have been away from a formal workplace for sometime using LinkedIn is a good way to reconnect with former colleagues. You may not have seen these people for many years but they will be able to catch up with what you have been doing quickly and see that you are open to new opportunities.

A possible dilemma or something you might want to consider further is whether the number of people in your network matters? Or is it the influence that you hold in your network of most interest to you? What I mean is that some people use their energy to grow a large network of connections, forging new relations with the people they know and the ones they’ve never laid their eyes on before. While others prefer to build relationships only with people they have met or worked with.

Building networks outside immediate connections involves getting your hands dirty a little:

• Liking posts
• Commenting on posts
• Writing information and library sector relevant posts and articles
• Joining information and library sector groups
• Following people
• Connecting with people you don’t necessarily know well – people that you meet at professional events and conferences and throughout the information industry
• Connecting with senior-level people in librarianship
• Building a number of relationships – not just relying on a few key connections
• Nurturing the relationships over time, by sharing posts, commenting and so on

3.     Skill endorsements and recommendations

Skill endorsements refer to the selection and listing of your key skills on LinkedIn which can later be approved by the people who have worked with you. The first time someone supported the key skills I had listed I got such enormous kick. Recently a set of endorsements appeared at a particularly low point when I felt nothing else I was doing seemed to be going well. Again these skill endorsements on LinkedIn were a tremendous boost.

It feels awkward to approach someone for a recommendation particularly if a good few years have passed since you both worked together. It is also difficult when not many staff work for your organisation. (Asking for a recommendation is not something I feel very comfortable doing and I have avoided doing this so far I admit.) Yet as Sherry Bevan from The Confident Mother notes ‘recommendations are social proof of your expertise and experience’. So it follows that recommendations on your personal site should be a priority.

LinkedIn attempts to overcome this through automating the process to a degree. You can ask your connections to write a recommendation of your work that you can display on your profile. See LinkedIn Help for details. One way to overcome the awkwardness of the situation, and repeatedly recommended by many career writers and experts, is to endorse and recommend first.

According to the LinkedIn website, ‘hiring managers and people searching for new customers and business partners prefer to work with people who come recommended by someone they know and trust.’ If it is true that employers prefer professionals who have been referred by someone they know, from their own professional network, then perhaps something is to be said about being in a much larger group of connections to begin with, even if it means accepting connections from people you don’t know. As growing that network gives you a greater likelihood of being in the ‘right network’ and therefore a greater chance of better job prospects or interesting social opportunities.

4.     Groups

While I have joined a number of LIS-career focused LinkedIn groups my role has been more ‘the lurker’ than ‘the useful contributor’. Join groups that interest you. Of possible appeal to library returners due to their regular practical articles are:

• Library Workers Job Search and Careers
• INALJ
• CILIP: Library, Information and Knowledge Professionals
• What’s Next- Midlife Career Change & Transformation

Please add to the comments section any suggestions you may have of LinkedIn groups that you have found useful or you think may be useful to career break librarians.

5.     Job search function

Can you be hired via LinkedIn alone? Well if you believe the hype employers are said to approach job seekers directly through the service. While this practice may occur more in the private than the public sector, any career breakers not on LinkedIn could be missing out on future employment opportunities. Traditional methods of recruitment are being bypassed – recruiters are certainly viewing applicants skill endorsements and recommendations – and this could be serious for anyone wanting to re-enter the workplace or change employment. Each year (if the statistics are to be understood) more and more private companies use social media for recruitment and LinkedIn is leading the way.

• Finding out about library opportunities

It is possible to sign up to LinkedIn Job Alerts to receive emails of new jobs direct to your inbox or you can view job opportunities under the Jobs category on the site itself. Like searching for jobs using other online tools the usefulness of the alert depends upon the search terms used, for example, in the email alert there were 30 jobs matching “Librarian” on 6 March 2019 but online just one job matching the broad geographic location I had entered to narrow the search. Recruiters seek you out too and can let you know of potential library job opportunities. They can use advanced search to look for the ‘passive candidate’, someone who uses the service but is not actively looking for work and make contact directly. (I did post a question up on social media about this to see if it has actually happened in LIS but have not yet received any replies!)

• Finding out about library organisations

I have found the site relatively useful to research organisations (and to a lesser degree the people potentially interviewing) prior to interview. You need to bear in mind though if you’re using the free service individuals will know you’ve looked them up – this can range from irritating to embarrassing if you have clicked by mistake or without intention!

But to sum, as all the above sections should now show, LinkedIn aims to be more than its job search function.  As Sherry Bevan states, LinkedIn is “designed to help members connect, stay informed and get hired. It’s not just a recruitment site.”

To conclude, why is it important to use LinkedIn to its full potential?

The more complete the profile, the more likely it is to be found, so it really does pay to fill in all the sections. Why do I want to be found? Like everyone else on LinkedIn I’m hopeful that this will help build connections and in turn assist with job searching or future prospects and opportunities.

“Once you have an online presence, or a brand, you need to use it, share it, and let people know about it. Link to it from places such as your email signature and your staff directory page. Tell your colleagues about it, and share it with your supervisor or director. Join online groups and discussions, and make yourself visible and findable online. Remember that your online presence is your brand. You need to pay attention to it, update it, and nurture it.”

(Markgren and Eatman Allen 46)

Writing a few articles on LinkedIn, like this one, which discuss your own experiences, perhaps ask a few questions, are hopefully helpful, add value and the odd bit of new information and knowledge and can be very effective at enhancing your online presence. However you can assess how really successful you are getting at all of this by visiting the Social Selling Index. The SSI lets you know how good you’ve become at selling yourself on the site and lets you get a better understanding of your particular areas of strengths and weakness.

With hindsight LinkedIn was one of the tools I should’ve prioritised on my career break. As a returner, I have certainly tried to readdress this by using LinkedIn in a number of ways as I seek professional library work.

Good luck building your brand!

 

Did you find out anything new here today? Please let me know in the comments. Let’s connect!

 

Works cited:

Bevan, Sherry. “How to Ask for Recommendations with Confidence on Linkedin.” The Confident Mother. 9 March 2019 http://theconfidentmother.co.uk/

Markgren, Susanne and Tiffany Eatman Allen. Career Q & A: a Librarian’s Real-Life, Practical Guide to Managing a Successful Career. Information Today, Inc., 2013.

Unwin, Lisa and Deb Khan. She’s Back: Your Guide to Returning to Work. Urbane Publications, 2018.