Career 101: How To Create The Best LinkedIn Profile Ever (Part 1)

Did you know that 89% of all recruiters have hired someone through LinkedIn? (source).

And an even bigger 94% plan on using social media to recruit new talent (source).

Fewer and fewer companies are spending their time looking on job boards. They’re scouring LinkedIn, searching for keywords and reading thousands of profiles in order to find the right match. The ones that get the interview are the ones that have a great profile. But how do you make your profile stand out? Is it worth taking the time to fill everything in?

That’s what we’re going to explore here.

Originally, this was going to be one piece of content. But as I was researching and writing down the points needed to make a great profile, I came up with twenty things to do. So to make it easier for you, I thought I’d split it into two parts instead.

Today, we’re going to go through part one of what you can do to create the best LinkedIn profile ever.

Holly SuttonApril 16, 2015career 101, career, linkedin, social mediaComment

Career 101: Why You Need Career Goals & A Mentor

Where do you see yourself in five years?

It’s a question we’re bound to be asked in nearly every interview. Employers like to see that people have a strong outlook on their future. They want to know you have the drive to look ahead and the determination to achieve big things. The strength of that success can be decided by two factors – setting career goals and having a mentor.

Holly SuttonApril 2, 2015career 101, career goals, career, mentorsComment

Career 101: Do Strong Women Intimidate Men?

When it comes to our career, there are many disturbing statistics for women. In America, women only earn 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns. Australia has one of the highest educated female populations in the world (source). But the gender wage gap has hardly moved for the past two decades. This means that some women return to work after having children for just $3.44 an hour (source).

I know this has started off as a depressing blog post. But that isn't my aim. These statistics don't describe the amazing things that women do. They don’t describe how many women work damn hard to make the best career possible.

Holly SuttonMarch 12, 2015career 101, career advice, careerComment

Career 101: How To Change Someone's Impression

“You can’t judge a book by its cover”. It’s a saying we all probably first heard when we were little, and one we’ve all grown up to abide by. I know I have. I’ve always had pride in giving people chances. This includes having an open mind when it comes to first impressions, because they really count. Whether it’s a date with someone or your first proper interaction with your boss. In all these situations we want to give the best impression. But what happens when somebody already has a certain perception of you?

Holly SuttonMarch 5, 2015career 101, career advice, career, work, workplaceComment

Career 101: How To Set Realistic Career Goals

What do you want from your career? Creative adrenaline? A nice bank balance? An authoritative role? A relaxed lifestyle? We wouldn’t embark on a journey without a real idea of our destination. So why wouldn’t we do the same when it comes to our career?

Something I’ve noticed around the blogosphere lately and on Twitter is how people are getting really fed up of hearing the words ‘dream job’. I recently spoke about how we’re made to think that we’ll all get our dream job, no problem – but it just doesn’t work that way.

When I was job hunting I became so discouraged. I hadn’t set any goals, so I had nothing to work towards. Now I think differently.

Holly SuttonFebruary 19, 2015career 101, career advice, career goals, career, goals, realistic career goals, realistic goals, setting goalsComment

Career 101: What If I Can't Find The Job I Love?

Do you ever wake up and ask yourself if you’re in the right job? Do you ever think to yourself, is this it? Is there not something better for me? If you do, you might feel like you’re the only one. But trust me – you are not on your own.

Holly SuttonFebruary 12, 2015career 101, career advice, career, dream job, job i love, job, jobs, motivation, what if i can't find the job i loveComment

Career 101: Why It's Important To Think Big

So this piece of writing has turned out a lot differently to what I had planned originally.

You see, I tried to formulate this into a long textbook post. My aim when planning this piece of content was to talk with you and explain why thinking big is so important. Instead, I found that a few of the phrases I was conjuring up were much more poignant than endless paragraphs. These days, we’re being told that the longer our content is the better. But the truth is, sometimes a simple post works just as well. So I’m not here to give you the magic formula of how to reach your dreams. I’m not here to talk to you endlessly about what’s important and why. I think you already know. But here are a few words and phrases just to remind you that it is okay to think big.

Holly SuttonJanuary 22, 2015big picture, career 101, career advice, career, dreams, goals, think bigComment

Career 101: What If I Don't Know What I Want To Do?

Picture the scene. You’re on the job hunt. You’re desperate to start work so you can start earning some money. You’ve got a degree in a certain field, but you’re not sure if you want a job based on that. Basically, you’ve got lots of great interests and a whole bunch of awesome skills but you’ve no idea what to do with them.

Welcome to the scenario for, probably, more than half of young people across the globe.

Holly SuttonJanuary 15, 2015career 101, career advice, career, jobsComment

Career 101: Basic Career Advice

Isn't it odd to think just how much of your life is made up by your career? Eight or more hours of one day may not seem like a lot, but when you think about doing that five times a week for a big chunk of the year, the feeling might start to change.

My career officially started in September so I'm still in the very early stages. But I've learnt so much about such a variety of things in just a short space of time. Which is where Career 101 comes in. This is a new series I'm introducing for A Branch of Holly. Our career is so important to us and because of this, there's no harm in having a helping hand along the way. So for the first instalment, I thought it would be good to go over some basic career advice. After all, it's always better to start at the beginning isn't it?

Holly SuttonJanuary 8, 2015CV, basic career advice, career 101, career advice, career, contacts, cover letterComment

Welcome to the Productivity Blog

Did you know that 89% of all recruiters have hired someone through LinkedIn? (source).

Today, we’re going to go through part one of what you can do to create the best LinkedIn profile ever.