LinkedIn profile
Introduction
LinkedIn is an online platform that is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job seekers to post their CVs and employers to post jobs. In other words, LinkedIn is THE place to be to connect to basically anyone that could help you, either directly or indirectly, to your first job.
Creating a LinkedIn profile
Starting with LinkedIn is easy: just go over here and follow the steps to create your personal profile. There are some important things to keep in mind:
Use your full name, correctly written, and with proper capitalisation (like John Lewis Scott, and not jon lewy scot for instance)
Be honest from the start: a lack of experience or education is not so bad as people think it is (more information about this later on)
Add a good profile picture from the start, you can also ask someone to make it for you
Profile picture: please use a proper profile picture; it's the first thing recruiters will see! So no holiday or bar pictures, but one taken in a professional setting. Moreover, make sure that:
The picture shows mainly your face
Is taken from the front with proper lighting
That you either smile or look neutral (but definitely not angry)
You were appropriate clothing (so no beach pictures)
It's always best to ask someone to just take a picture of you in front of a white wall, that also makes it easier later on to change the background, if needed. This person can also give you feedback on the picture.
Filling your profile
Now that you have setup the base of your LinkedIn profile, you can start filling all the different sections that LinkedIn allows you to fill, such as your Education, Work Experience and more. From MigraCode, we recommend you to at least fill the following sections:
Current position
This is super important! Your current position, or the title that shows under your name, is the thing that many people will see when you popup in search results. Apart from a title, you can also add some of your main coding skills or from your previous experience. We recommend you something like:
Web Development student @ MigraCode Barcelona | HTML/CSS/JS/React/NodeJS/Databases
Junior Web Developer | Student @ MigraCode | Front-End focus
Senior Student @ MigraCode Barcelona | Available to work in Software Development
Marketing & Software Development | Agile/React/JavaScript | Student @ MigraCode
Tech Support Specialist | Skilled, social & and ready to work
About section
This is the first thing people will see once they visit your profile, so make sure the English and/or Spanish is correct and that you have a good description of yourself here, shortly including:
Your current work situation (student, working, etc.)
What you are looking for (what kind of job etc.)
What makes you great (awesome skills in JavaScript for example)
Quick overview of previous experience (worked in Marketing before learning how to code for example)
An example from one of our MigraCode graduates, Joana Smerea:
'Featured' section
The featured section is where you can highlight projects or other website where you or your teams have been mentioned, like interviews or accomplishments. We definitely recommend you to at least put the following links there:
Your GitHub Profile
Other relevant portfolio pages such as Codepen
The MigraCode website
Links to LinkedIn posts where you are mentioned
Articles you wrote
Work experience
Obviously, previous and current work experiences are an important part as well of your LinkedIn profile. This is where you show where you have worked in the past, and what you have done there, including any responsibilities you had there. Some general tips:
Keep it short, write either a short paragraph per position or put 2-3 bullet points
Make sure to tag the company you worked for (if they are on LinkedIn), so their logo pops up as well
Feel free to add links here as well with either more information or any public accomplishments of what you did in this position
Make sure the dates are correct: time periods that don't match are a huge problem for recruiters
Avoid gaps in your CV: if you didn't have a job for a while, add volunteering or other experience that you kept yourself busy with (you can for instance put 'self-employed')
IMPORTANT: Do NOT worry if you don't have a lot of work experience, either in tech or in general. For instance, if you weren't able to work for a long time because you were moving between countries, try to either explain this in the 'About' section or just put any activities you did in that time period. For instance, some of our students added 'Activity Manager' or 'Translation Advisor' for volunteering work they did when they were stuck in refugee camps.
Also, keep in mind that non-tech work experience can STILL be relevant to the tech sector: if you worked in a restaurant for example, you learned how to multitask and work in teams, which is EXACTLY what you need working in tech! So mention these 'soft' skills for these specific jobs.
Education section
As the title says it already, in this section, you need to put any previous or current education you have. Like the work experience section, don't worry too much if you don't have a lot of education, or if you have not completed high school etc. You are learning Software Development, so let's start with putting that there! In other words, examples you can put here:
A MUST: 'Web Development student', at MigraCode Barcelona! Make sure to describe what you are learning, how many hours you spend with the course, the duration, that you are also learning soft skills such as project management, and that you will be a Junior Web Developer at graduation.
Other university education (if any): if you completed previous university degrees, make sure to add them. Also, if you only have unfinished degrees, feel free to add them, with a note that you stopped earlier (with the reason if you feel comfortable to share it).
If you don't have university education, don't worry: add your high school education here with some details of the courses you followed - volunteers can help you to still make this educational experience relevant to your current technical education at MigraCode!
Last but not least: if you don't have education apart from MigraCode, also don't worry. In this case, focus on MigraCode and ask your contacts at MigraCode to see if they can offer you more free courses!
In this section, you can also add online courses you have done or may still be doing, like from FreeCodeCamp or KhanAcademy. Especially if you lack other education, it's highly recommended to these courses so you can add them to your profile. Khanacademy for instance also offers mathematical courses and other kind of courses!
Skills section
Many people underestimate this section: why add specific skills if you have already described all your work experience and education? Well, it's simple: apart from the fact to let recruiters see an overview of your main hard and soft skills, this summary of skills is also used by recruiters in the LinkedIn Job Search platform to find you!
For example, a recruiter may search ONLY for profiles that have added JavaScript & React as skills to their profile - so even if you are the best JavaScript developer in the world, you won't show up in the search results! Below you can find some skills examples.
Tech/hard skills:
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
React
NodeJS
Spanish/English or any other language you speak
Git
Web Development
Software Engineering
Office
Excel
Soft/personal skills:
Teamwork
Communication
Leadership
Public speaking
People management
IMPORTANT: You can fill up to 50 skills - make sure to reach 50 indeed! The more skills somehow relevant to you, the more chance recruiters will end up on your profile. If you think you don't have 50 skills, you are wrong :) Already after working as a ticket sales person on the streets of Barcelona, you will have already gained at least 30 skills, such as Sales, Communication, Teamwork, Convincing, Public speaking, etc.
Languages
A must as well: add the languages that you speak, either just a little bit or fluently! LinkedIn will allow you to add your level, so if you just speak A2 Spanish, add it, and select 'Elementary proficiency'.
Recommendations
So what's this last important thing? In this section, you are able to let others confirm you are indeed the best person to hire! In other words, here you can ask people to recommend you by writing how happy they were with you in other job or educational experiences you have had in the past.
So, for example, you can ask your old manager to write a few lines about how good you were at managing orders, or how amazing you were with handling conflict. Don't be shy: reach out to those old bosses and ask them to write something! If they suddenly write something negative, you can always just hide the recommendation from your profile.
TIP 1: Ask your colleagues, fellow-students and the volunteers you work with at MigraCode to write something! You can for example ask your CodeBuddy to write about your coding skills, or your final project team to write about your teamworking skills.
TIP 2: Also make sure to write 1 or 2 recommendation to other people; this will show you are engaged with others and you also care about others. Recruiters like this!
Check out the awesome recommendations our previous student Rahaf has received from MigraCode volunteers (and the great one she has written about her fellow MigraCode student):
What's next?
If you followed all the above steps, there's still much to improve! There are more sections available (like Volunteering or Certificates) that we recommend you to fill if they apply to you, to make your profile as complete as possible. More information can be found over here.
After that, you can start building an online professional network!
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