Training & career development – Make the connection

Lydia Holder advises practitioners how to use business networking website LinkedIn to further their career.

As most health and safety managers know, when it’s time to move roles and broaden your skillset, there are generally very few management-level roles on offer in your local area. This is partly due to the fact that there are few organisations with a dedicated full-time in-house health and safety function, and those who do recruit often fill positions by sourcing candidates internally, or through professional contacts.

So, how do you ensure you are first in line for a new role when the rare opportunity arises? Networking is the tried and tested tool of many professionals, and a well-connected individual will be one of the first to know when a role does come up. For those who don’t have time to attend multiple business networking events, using professional social networks such as LinkedIn can prove a highly effective and targeted way to network your way into a new opportunity.

LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman in 2002. Ten years down the line, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, with 161 million members in more than 200 countries and territories (there are 9 million members in the UK alone).

Originally set up as a way for professionals to connect with like-minded individuals, the site quickly found a niche in the job market, with professionals signing up to find out about new opportunities (thanks to its jobs board) and employers signing up to headhunt suitable candidates. As a result, LinkedIn doubled its growth in 2011 and is still expanding at a rapid rate, making it a real force in the world of online networking.

What makes for a strong LinkedIn biography?

If your profile is to be seen online by employers and “connections” (i.e. people who will refer you to employers they know are recruiting), then you need a strong profile. Think of your LinkedIn biography as your ‘online CV’, which will be viewed by prospective employers who will make judgements on whether to approach you for an interview.

Your biography must contain details of your current location, work history and education, and there is an optional box for any special achievements you may wish to highlight. LinkedIn will not let you add job roles without adding the specific dates you were at the company, so ensure you have a clear idea of your employment dates before you start to prepare your profile.

The goal of your profile should be to encourage prospective employers to get in touch, request a formal CV, and find out more. The emphasis is on communicating a concise overview of your skills, experience and career highlights, without overwhelming the employer with too much information at this early stage.

What your profile picture says about you

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. No matter how snappy your new profile, a poorly presented picture will reduce your chances of being referred by a mutual contact, or being called for interview by a prospective employer.

Ensure that your profile picture represents what you want an employer to see. If you are interested in being recommended for a management-level role, ensure you look like a manager and add a professional head-and-shoulders shot of you in formal business attire to your profile.  

How to raise your profile

There are many different ways to network on LinkedIn, including via health and safety-related forums, where you can debate current issues and opportunities affecting the sector, post and answer questions relevant to your sector, and directly engage with the people who respond. All of these tools are ways of boosting your network/number of connections and generating referrals.

The most beneficial way of generating work-related opportunities on LinkedIn is by engaging online with the people you met offline. When you add a new profile to LinkedIn the site automatically trawls your email address book and generates a list of contacts you know who have a LinkedIn profile. At the click of a button you can send them a “request to connect”, with a personal message if you wish, and form a new connection online.

This is a great way of cementing your relations with offline contacts, as they can now find out more about you and will have increased confidence to refer you, or approach you, when they hear of a relevant opportunity.

For those of you who are quite happy in your current role and are not interested in actively networking but would like to be informed of any interesting opportunities, you can select an option to be contacted for “work-related enquiries”. Essentially, this is a way for recruiters and employers to headhunt you directly on the basis of what they have seen in your profile.

Lydia Holder is a qualified careers advisor.