So many people, so many skills.
Job hunting, networking, and managing a professional image are all part of pro-active diligence that all students should take advantage of. That said, every individual should manage a professional image online, where everything is tracked, cached, or viewed in a persistent manner. Just as it's easy to mar your credit history, having unethical, illegal, or immature web posts or other content may end up haunting you down the line. There are exceptions, yet in the scope of Software Engineering, competence, maturity, logical clarity, and responsibility are favored. One way to mitigate and allow yourself to breathe a bit and 'be yourself' without worrying about scarring professionalism is to segregate your professional image from your private one. Differentiating emails, nicknames, and group on networking sites help make a statement whether the content you create is work related, or on your own time. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and myriad other websites are places where people communicate and share with each other. These and others will be a good place to begin separating professional from casual accounts.
LinkedIn is a place to take a stand and promote yourself in a professional manner. It is recommended you only include professional assets and skills, other than supportive secondary skills which inspire or help to show who you are in a positive light for employers. Being transparent and simple are keys to unlock opportunities. Many people 'try too hard' and add in a bunch of people that aren't really active or supportive to their careers on LinkedIn. Use less to say more, and go with quality over quantity. There are many important things to consider when adding a profile besides skills and active people you've networked with, however. Job history, or timelines are also extremely important. What do you do in your spare time? Does it say that you are passionate about your chosen field? Are you committed and serious? It matters!
See what I did there? ;)
Soooo... click the image link above and check out some ways to present yourself without sounding like a zombie. It may just help you look at yourself in a different light! Then take a look below and get some insight into how endorsements can work for you.. or against you. It may not be as straightforward and intuitive as it seems. You are your own company, brand yourself as such, and shine.
I definitely agree with you on separating your personal self and your professional self. I am glad that I have not had a whole lot of an online footprint up until recently, so as a result I do not have a whole lot I need to separate. I do disagree that the secondary skills should not be included in your linkedin profile. I believe that as long as the secondary skills do not dominate the profile, those smaller skills provide a more rounded look at you as a professional. I do have one tiny bug-bear about this post: the image you used. It does not scale very well with the white background and it moves over to the gray background. please resize it to fit the white background.
ReplyDeleteYou seemed to have missed the comment underneath the over-scaled image. I was exemplifying thinking outside and smashing the box. Intentional rule-breaking. :)
Delete