Lesson 3 – LinkedIn Use & Setting Up a Cover Letter
In the previous lesson, we spoke about Cultural Differences, Resume Building, Resume Refinement. This was the first part of Personal Branding. Today we will deep-dive into the subjects LinkedIn use and How to set up a cover letter that gets you invites. Let’s start with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Use
In the previous lesson, I already mentioned something about the use of LinkedIn and for whom this social media platform is meant. If you decide you want to be present on LinkedIn and want to build your LinkedIn profile, I herewith offer you to make use of the LinkedIn checklist I designed. If you follow the points mentioned in the checklist, you have built yourself a LinkedIn checklist making use of the possibility the algorithm offers.
You can find the checklist here.
After building your profile, it is important to start building connections. LinkedIn really starts to work for you if you have 50 connections or more. For me, it really started to work once I spiced up my profile and gathered 150 connections.
A few important markers for LinkedIn use are mentioned in today’s video, let me briefly mention them over here.
The LinkedIn algorithm
LinkedIn continuously changes this algorithm so all information here is valid today, but can be different tomorrow. Currently, LinkedIn implements loads of changes, like Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram. LinkedIn contains a wonderful LinkedIn learning section, where you can follow courses on many topics, also about LinkedIn use.
The 5 most important mechanisms in the LinkedIn algorithm.
- The use of the headline
To increase your visibility, it helps to put in the position names you want to get hired for. - The importance of the summary
No summary means less visibility. - Current Work Experience
No current work experience means you don’t end up in the search results. This makes it important to put in the current work experience.
But what if you are currently unemployed? You can put in current employment, why not? Let me tell you how I would do it:
Add in a new work experience,
In the job title section, you put in the position names or job titles you would like to get hired for.
In the company section: you can mention “in-between jobs, looking for opportunities, maternity leave or relocation”. This way, you will still be visible in the search results. - The skills section
This section is important to fill if you want to end up in the search results. In the LinkedIn checklist and today’s recording, I mention how you can do this. - Recommendations
Recruiters, hiring managers and other people like to read how others perceive you. Often he recommendations are a good advertisement. The more recent the recommendation, the better. If you don’t have a recommendation yet, you could think about asking someone who worked with to write you a recommendation.
How to set up a cover letter that gets you a job interview invite?
I know this subject bugs loads of job seekers. Some never wrote a cover letter, some don’t see the added value, some are not good with words. But, if a cover letter or your motivation is asked, you should deliver it.
Especially hiring managers, they read cover letters and sometimes this is the decisive factor in inviting someone for an interview. Like one of the hiring managers in my network likes to state: “Put all your heart and soul in it and I will notice it.”
To find out more about the highlights and detailed instruction on how to write a cover letter, I now invite you to go over to the video section for lesson 3, watch the 2 movies and return here afterwards.
By now you have the tools to write a cover letter. Once you finished your cover letter and resume. This means you are now ready to send in your application. A few tips before you push the send button:
- if you send your application by email, please copy and paste the text of your cover letter directly in your email. In this case, you don’t have to use the address head. Reason for wanting to paste the text directly into the email is saving the reader the trouble to open 2 attachment. The second advantage is that doing it this way, the reader will immediately see your cover letter and will have to read it.
- If you have to upload your cover letter, please do use the full letter lay-out, and save this document as a pdf-file before you upload it.
- Sometimes you will only have the possibility to draft a short motivation of 500 words. This means you want to integrate your motivation for the job plus your motivation for the company into the 500 words and upload it into the systems.
To support you in the process, I set up a checklist for this subject. You can find it here.
Preparation for Lesson 4 – The Job Interview Process and Job Interview Techniques
To prepare yourself for the next lesson I would like you to think about your experiences and your expectations of the interview process. I invite you to:
- Send me your questions about the job interview process
- Send me 3 questions you could and would like to ask during a job interview
Please send your input to marielle@marielleobels.com