LinkedIn to the Rescue! How One Tool Can Lead You to Your Dream Job
By Chukwuemeka Agada, M.A., CTU Faculty
One of the biggest things that can impact your career is your educational choices, such as where you went to school and what you studied. Whether you’re a recent graduate, prospective student or current college student, LinkedIn can help you leverage these choices in landing your dream job.
LinkedIn’s Alumni tool can help you explore the career paths of alumni from more than 22,000 universities and colleges worldwide. The information is gathered from the profiles of more than 200 million members, and you can build relationships with the alumni you come into contact with.
The Alumni tool also lets you explore your own school by clicking on the “Change Schools” button to see where graduates work and live as well as the types of jobs that they hold. Also, the dates can be adjusted to track the careers of specific graduating classes.
Another feature that is extremely helpful is the ability to identify alumni by their top skills, what they studied and how you’re connected to them on LinkedIn. Just click on the interactive bars to drill down to the careers you find most interesting.
Trying to Decide on a Major?
Trying to decide which major you want to pursue can be daunting. Should you go into marketing? Finance? Information Technology? All are great choices with good career outcomes, but which one is right for you? The LinkedIn Alumni tool can help you compare the career choices of graduates by what they majored in. You do this by clicking on the “What They Studied” option. From there you can view the career outcomes that appeal to you.
Or maybe you see something that you would be very interested in studying but do not think it would land you a good job. Here again the Alumni tool can help: You just might be surprised by the creative ways graduates have used their degrees to land great careers.
Start Your Job Hunt
Let’s say that your dream job is to work at Microsoft. You can use the Alumni tool to search for graduates who currently work for Microsoft and who majored in a field that interests you. You can then compare your skills with theirs to see which skill sets you have in common and where you may need to ramp up. LinkedIn has discovered that many people want to help fellow students, and alumni and are often open to informational interviews. So reach out to them to get a perspective on the company for which you’re interested in working. For example, as you can see by the image below, 42 people work at Microsoft who graduated from Colorado Technical University. These 42 people can now be viewed as potential leads that can help you get your foot in the door at Microsoft.
The fundamental building blocks of your career are education, work experience and internships. LinkedIn has robust data that can help you make decisions at each milestone of your career journey. The Alumni tool can give you personalized insights about the career opportunities you are interested in pursuing. In addition, everyone should grow his/her network and reach out to relevant connections that will help him/her along the way.
Chuks Agada, M.A., serves as an adjunct professor for Colorado Technical University where he teaches Human Resources courses. In addition to this, Chuks works as a Talent Solutions Consultant for LinkedIn Corporation where he educates clients on the value of LinkedIn Corporate Recruitment Solutions. His background is in staffing and recruitment, human resources, and talent acquisition strategies. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Image Credit: Flickr/Sheila Scarborough