TECC 229: Tips and Tricks on How to Leverage LinkedIn for Engineers

In this episode, I talk to Justin Nguyen, the founder of GetChoGrindUp, a movement to help students navigate their way through college. We talk about LinkedIn for engineers, how to get started on it, and how to grow your network. Justin also shares some pretty amazing tips with us that will definitely help you to use LinkedIn as a tool that can help you succeed as a professional. Engineering Quotes: Here Are Some of the Key Points Discussed About Getting a 5-Star LinkedIn Profile: The original premise of GetChoGrindUp was student advice by students. This had to change after Justin graduated, so he changed it to be more of a platform that crowdsourced college information. It is not easy to get internships through the traditional ways. You need to meet people that you know can offer internships, and then try to turn the conversations toward internships. This is a more effective way to get internships. To find keywords to use on your profile, find five different job descriptions for the job that you want and upload them to Jobscan. Jobscan will rank how many times a specific keyword pops up on those job descriptions. Pick the top five keywords and find ways to implement them in your headline and your summary. If you are new to LinkedIn and you are trying to build up your profile, you can go to the “My Network” tab and enter your email address. LinkedIn will send a connection invitation to everyone in your contacts. You should link your profile to the profile of the company you work for. It is a great way to help with LinkedIn search and will help people to find your profile easier. For anyone who is coming from a technical background, coming up with content on LinkedIn can seem daunting. Try documenting the journey of something being developed, or maybe post about what is happening in the industry. This will showcase your expertise in a specific niche. 7 Things You Need to Do Get an All-Star Rated Profile on LinkedIn: 1. Profile Picture and Background Photo Your profile picture needs to be in line with your occupation or the company you work for. Your background image needs to be more of your personal brand, e.g., a cityscape if you want to work in a city. These are the first aesthetic things that a recruiter will see when they land on your LinkedIn profile, and they will give the recruiter an indication as to who they will be dealing with. 2. Headline This is important because it is on your profile and it will be displayed next to your profile picture on the content that you have posted. Keep the beginning interesting and load it with what you do to help a company out. You need to have more search engine optimization (SEO)-specific words at the end to help out with LinkedIn search. There are 120 characters available in your LinkedIn header, but if you need some extra space, use your mobile to set up your profile and the number of characters available will go up to 160. 3. A Complete Summary or About Section Add some accomplishments that showcase the skills you have and make sure that your summary has the SEO properties in it. This is the place where you want the recruiter to “fall in love” with you. Showcase your story and it will let the recruiters find a common ground with you, e.g., the recruiter and you share an interest or have the same hometown. 4. Current Position and Any Previous Work Experience Copy and paste your resume here. If you have any links to personal websites, projects, or pictures of projects, this is a great place to feature them on your LinkedIn profile. 5. Add 10 to 20 Skills Go back to Jobscan and look at the keywords. Most of the keywords are more likely skills that you can add into this section on your profile. It is a huge SEO boost if you can get to 99 or more skill endorsements from multiple people.