LinkedIn is a great tool to help you with your career change.
Here are some suggestions for using LinkedIn to help you to make a career change. Pick and choose the points you find most helpful for you and your current career situation
An important task is to revise your LinkedIn profile so that it supports your career change goals. However, this will depend on how secretive/ open you can be about your career change.
1. Profile: Headline and Summary
Photo: Professional headshot
Headline: Clear, simple and impressive. Write in the first person. LinkedIn auto-populates the Headline field with your current position, but don’t let it. Instead, use the 120 characters to write your own eye-catching headline. If you can, use your headline to promote the transition you want to make. If your desire to change career is not public, then try a generic headline.
Summary: 2000 characters. Your summary needs to tell a compelling story about you and your top achievements. Write a strong summary statement that briefly explains what you are doing now and the fact that you are changing careers. Keep your explanation concise and positive. Then focus on transferable skills. Some examples: people management, sales, communication, project management, presenting, negotiation, leadership, general administration, training. As much as possible, focus on skills that you know are important in the industry/ job that you want. If you are not sure on those skills then check out some LinkedIn job profiles.
Experience: Highlight your accomplishments that are most relevant to the work you are looking for. Note the accomplishment, the problem you solved, how you solved it and the end result, all geared towards your new career.
Recommendations: Invite one or two people to recommend you and don’t hesitate to guide them in what to say, you will make it easier and quicker for them and it will work better for you. Tell them the type of positions you are now targeting and the skills you would like them to point out.
Feedback: Once you have updated your profile, ask a few people who have a background in this field to check it out and give you some feedback and additional tips.
2. Companies
Follow: Follow companies that you are interested in, they should have a profile you can follow.
Read: Read and comment on articles they publish.
CEO Information: Check out the CEO (and other staff members) and take note of the news they are commenting on and sharing.
Interaction: Like and comment on posts. See if you already know anyone who works in companies you are interested in. Send them a message and ask to meet for a coffee, or if they wouldn’t mind if you emailed them a few questions.
Events: Attend events that are being held by companies you are interested in. Make connections at the events. Connect with the people you meet the next day and send a message saying that it was lovely to meet them etc.
3. Community/ Groups
Join LinkedIn groups in your desired field/ industry. Use the search function to find groups relevant to you and what you are interested in e.g Marketing Professionals, Finance Professionals etc
This is a great way to build up your knowledge and network in new fields. Read articles shared in the groups. Comment on posts and ask questions. Connect with people in the groups.
Find which groups to join by using the Groups Directory feature and by looking up the profiles of people you admire in your desired career and seeing what groups they belong to. Try observing group discussions for a while to see what people are talking about, and then join in the conversation. Once you feel comfortable and confident, start to interact in discussions, post and answer questions and respond to polls. Groups are a great way to get noticed and start to build relationships.
4. People/ Connections
Networking is really important for a career change, particularly if you are currently employed and you are not able to publicly announce that you want to change careers. Start by reaching out to people you already know and ask them directly for their support. Connect with the following people:
- Friends
- Family
- Former Colleagues
- School/ University/ College
Send individual messages explaining that you are looking to change careers and ask for their support, including connecting you with anyone that may be able to help you with the next step in your transition journey. It will obviously take time to do this, but can be much more beneficial than sending out a generic message. Make sure you are specific about what you are looking for, as most people will connect you with what you use to do. Be willing to set aside time to connect on a one to one basis with anyone who can help you or connect you with others.
Talk to anyone who is doing what you want to do, has done what you want to do or works for a company that you are interested in finding out more about. You can also ask your existing network if they know anyone to connect you with.
“Networking is simply starting a conversation with no destination in mind”
LinkedIn advanced search: You can use this function to search for people in your desired industry with whom you have something or someone in common e.g. same university. You can then reach out and message them to request a brief/ informal chat.
Increase your connections: A good starting point is to go through your Facebook friends and make sure you are connected to those people on LinkedIn. Go through your career history and connect with old colleagues, university and school friends, friends, family etc
Insider Tips: When you are connecting with people always remember to ask for recommendations for insider tips, must read articles/ publications/ journals and advice for the transition into that field.
Thank you: Always remember to thank everyone who helps you along this journey, you never know when you will connect again and how helpful they could continue to be in future.
5. LinkedIn Job Alerts
Sign up for email alerts from LinkedIn jobs in the career fields that you are interested in. Look at the job postings and the profiles of people in your desired career. Build up your knowledge of the various jobs you are interested in. Look at the job adverts and see what skills are required. If you are lacking in certain skills then do something to upskill yourself e.g. training courses, volunteering, job shadowing.
By signing up for LinkedIn job listings in your new field you will ensure that you get early notification of opportunities that come up.
6. Privacy Settings
Depending on your current employment situation, you might not want to share publicly that you want to change careers.
Remember that group memberships appear on your LinkedIn profile so they indicate to people that you are serious about your new career (if you are job hunting secretly, you can adjust your profile settings so these group memberships do not appear).
7. LinkedIn Additional Tools
LinkedIn Today is a free tool that customises your news experience by getting content from your network and lets you follow what you are interested in. You can set up a LinkedIn Today personalised news dashboard to keep up to date with all the news you want to follow. You can also use LinkedIn Signal which is easy to start: just search for specific keyword, topics or products you would like to track and find the trending topics in your desired industry.
8. Information Gathering
LinkedIn is a great tool to help you to gather as much information as possible about all the careers and companies you are interested in. This includes reading about what is going on in industries. Also, it is really helpful for finding out about companies. Read job descriptions and identify your gaps. Find people who are doing what you want to do. Read about them. Find out what their skills and key responsibilities are. What skills do you need to gain. Take action on gaining additional skills and experience.
Become an expert on the career you want to pursue. Read as much as you can about the industry or function you want to join. Know which companies are in the news, what the products or services are and when key events are taking place. Being in the know will help you discover companies that might be hiring and will help you make a good impression as you begin networking and eventually interviewing for positions in your new industry.
Summary
LinkedIn can be a great tool to help you to change careers. Go through all the ideas above and come up with your LinkedIn action plan detailing all the steps that you are going to take to use LinkedIn to help you with the next stage of your career.
Remember that LinkedIn is only part of the bigger picture around making a career change. Make sure you connect with people and companies in real life. Also keep building up your skill set by signing up for courses, volunteering, internships, job shadowing, secondments. Doing these things show that you are really serious about moving into a new career.
About the author: Caroline Wellingham is a Career Change Coach (connect on LinkedIn). She helps and supports ladies who want to make a career change, even if they have no idea what they want to do. If you want to find out more about working with Caroline, here are the details of the Career Change Coaching Programs she offers>>> Project Career Change
If you want to book in for a free career change coaching session to discuss your current career situation, please book in for a call>>> Coaching Call