The LinkedIn professional network is a powerful tool! You can connect with trusted contacts and exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a larger network of professionals. LinkedIn hosts 500 million plus professional profiles, companies, and job opportunities. It is estimated that 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to source talent and candidates.
LinkedIn is your key tool for staying up to date on industry trends or opportunities and building and showcasing your brand, all while cultivating your dynamic professional community!
Below you will find resources and examples on how to create your very own LinkedIn profile and how to optimize it!
Getting Started
You’ll want to start by building out an effective profile. LinkedIn has great tips on how to set one up. Remember, your profile is an introduction of all the unique skills, interests, and experiences that make you — you.
Here is an overview of profile basics plus some bonus tips for optimizing your page. Remember that you can add images and links to almost every section of your LinkedIn profile.
Profile Basics
Profile Photo
Share a professional headshot. Aim for something professional but approachable. Have a neutral background.
BONUS: Add a background photo - This adds a little more interest to your profile and provides a place where you can show some of your work or sketches.
Experience
List jobs, internships, and freelance or contract work you’ve held. Provide a description of the tasks you performed. Include relevant keywords in your descriptions.
TIPS: Photos, videos, and links are eye-catching and showcase examples of your work.
Link to company accounts in your experience. This makes your profile visually appealing and helps recruiters learn about the companies you’ve connected with as well.
Contact Information
Include your email and website portfolio link in the contact drop-down.
Personalize your LinkedIn profile URL. Keep it simple and professional.
Education
List your educational experiences and certificates or degrees.
TIP: Include snapshots or links to final project work.
Headline
Think of this as a personal tagline where you share your role(s) and cool things you specialize in.
Integrate relevant keywords into your headline.
Skills & Expertise
Include your key skills. Aim for a top 10.
TIPS: Think about what top skills are desired in your industry and work to develop and showcase them.
Pick 3 top skills to highlight and work towards giving and receiving endorsements with your connections.
About
Describe yourself as an artist or designer. Share your philosophy, values, and skill sets. Think, “What is my creative brand?”
TIP: Include snapshots of projects or links to your work and portfolio website.
Interests
Connect to and follow companies, groups, influencers, and schools of interest.
TIP: Follow companies and influencers of interest to stay up to date on industry trends and so that recruiters can see that you are being proactive
TIPS
Stay active on your LinkedIn account. You don’t need to be online all the time, but aim for 1-2x a week.
Like your connections’ posts, share articles, and post content that you are interested in — demonstrate that you are an active thought leader in your digital community.
RELATED RESOURCES
13 Sneaky Tips to Hack Your LinkedIn Profile Today
How to Build the Perfect LinkedIn Profile, According to Recruiters
Grow Your Network
Expanding your network can seem like a daunting task. But the good news is that you can ease your way into building your network with small steps.
Immediate network
Start with your immediate network: your classmates, professors, faculty, staff, coworkers, etc.
TIP: Once you’ve built your immediate network, reach out to them and see if they can connect you to others.
Follow-up
Make sure to follow up with people you meet at networking events, school, workshops, etc..
Shared Connections
You can also find shared connections or groups. Utilize mutual connections to your benefit.
Personalize Requests
Reach out to people of interest and personalize your message. Ask to connect for an informational interview or portfolio review.
RELATED RESOURCE
Connect with Alumni
One of the easiest ways to find ArtCenter alumni and make connections is through the LinkedIn Alumni tool. It’s an easy way to explore people who graduated before you, and learn where they work now and in what cities. Simply search for ArtCenter College of Design and select “Alumni” in the left-hand menu to get started.
Search for Jobs on Linkedin
LinkedIn is also a great place to search for job positions. Search alerts let you get notifications and updates to a saved search via email or shared with you on LinkedIn. Use advanced search filters to narrow down opportunities by industry, location, experience level and more. Once your filtered search is set, simply create the alert.
PRO TIP
Let recruiters know you’re open to new opportunities by simply flipping a switch on your LinkedIn profile. It’s called Open Candidates. Open Candidates is accessible from the “Preferences” tab on the LinkedIn Jobs home page.
By flipping the switch, you privately signal to recruiters that you’re interested in new opportunities. Don’t forget to update your career interests. This helps you appear in the search results that recruiters are regularly scouring. Additionally, this helps inform the daily job recommendations LinkedIn sends you and surfaces on the jobs homepage.
RELATED RESOURCE
LinkedIn 101: How to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job or Get Promoted
Other Ways to Use LinkedIn
Freelance Opportunity Matcher
LinkedIn ProFinder started as an idea that has grown into a vibrant freelance marketplace being used by more than 70,000 freelance professionals across the nation. LinkedIn has seen client demand surge with weekly requests for proposals growing more than fivefold in one year.
LinkedIn Learning
ArtCenter students have free access to paid content on LinkedIn Learning through Inside ArtCenter.
With LinkedIn Learning, you can now access a gigantic database of online courses on topics from coding and graphic design to public speaking. And here’s the best part: each course is typically sliced up into very manageable 5-10 minute learning chunks. Learning a new skill over the course of a week quickly becomes very achievable.