How to get noticed on LinkedIn ?

Having an account on LinkedIn is more than easy these days, specially when we are now familiar with the social media sites these days. But HEY ! LinkedIn is totally different than Facebook and what-so-ever familiar sites. You don't have to go premium or spend money to get noticed on LinkedIn, you can follow some simple steps, stated below, from my humble point of view, those info were gathered by listening to really professional managers in my space, some friends, and some of my points that I noticed since i had my LinkedIn account a year ago.

The below points are so simple to follow and were written in order to help others and share the humble knowledge i gained the last couple of month.

LinkedIn is not your Facebook account:

LinkedIn is totally different from Facebook, the latter one is purely a site designed for social media, sharing pictures, knowledge, random info, your status, sickness, getting married or divorced, LinkedIn is designed to be social also but in your professional and career life.

So, what to share ?

you need to be available on LinkedIn as powerful as you are on Facebook, you don't just share some random content, think for a moment, for example you were in Finance major in your college years, why not sharing some topics related to finance and the monetary funds policies ? the Financial crisis in Greece ? and remember, you don't just share those topics just to be available, you have to read, to discuss, to study, and what is most important is to have a point-of-view, as for example, your manager might comment on this topic, and not just your manager, you colleague, a well known business man in your circle, you must be ready to answer the question and be able to go through the discussion, this will show how powerful or at least how you're acting and doing your best to be available in your field, how you have interests other than work and your career, a different culture.

You might share some quotes for some professional leaders, some well knows businessmen, as a kind of motivation and some info and knowledge that might really help your colleagues.

Don't Randomly add people:

you are always doing your best to keep your Facebook account clean from spammers and random people, why not having the same criterion in your LinkedIn account ? Simply, don't just accept random connection requests from people you don't know, on LinkedIn specially, you are more powerful when your circle of connections is small but powerful, having a number of well known or your co-workers is so much better than having 1000 connections from people you don't even know, this will make your account even weaker, keep it professional and only accept the connections that you know,

who else to add ?

you might some day go through a conversation with a manager in another company on a certain post on your page or related to a certain event that took place in the financial world like Greece case for example, in that case, you may through private messages and then add this person to your connections, what i mean is, never run after well known people and famous ones and just adding them, in most cases they won't accept your connection request or you will be just an ordinary person like 10,000 other connections on their profile, unnoticed and unnecessary that will be sooner or later deleted or removed when this person decides to clean out his profile or account. Work hard to be noticed with a different and good point of view, to take a good place on somebody else's account or profile.

Get connected to your work place and co-workers:

one of the most important points you should take into consideration when working on your profile, is writing clearly your position, for example "Senior Accountant at X Accounting Office", or whatever position at a certain company, your company name should capitalized, and don't write abbreviations in your title, keep it simple but yet clear for other people to have an idea about your role.

You should also add the people in your workplace, like your manager, your colleagues, your team mates, and always connect your positions and previous experience to your company group or site, as this will make it powerful and noticed rather than just writing that you were an X-accountant and that's it.

Your group of connections and your company name will gave your the strength, as when somebody checks your profile, those points will be eye-catching and not just titles.

LinkedIn is not your Curriculum Vitae:

You should always write briefly and in order your past experiences whatever they were, but what the most important is to write in points what were your main roles and responsibilities, and remember, don't just write points or tasks to fill down the gaps as this might put you in a weaker position when going through an interview, write honestly your roles and main tasks with simple and easy words, as you can notice, most positions posted on LinkedIn, have a number of statements and points threading down the main task-list of the offered roles, this how the recruiters will also read your profile, in terms of simple and short points that are really clear and straight to the point.

Put some sugar:

one of the good things and steps you might take, is adding briefly your hobbies and activities that you were doing in your college times, like hiking or scouting for example, don't write to much in this section, just small short hints that you are  a person that has other activities other than studying and your work time, as a lot of companies worldwide are not talking about work-life-balance and how people should work and also spend times their families, other companies are looking for funny or adventures people, don't only show yourself in that workaholic suite or that miserable person that has nothing to do but working and collecting money

A good picture is required:

The recruiters will really like to know the shape and face of the profile owner, a good picture with your suite or vest will do the work, don't put a picture with your friend or brother, it's your profile ! Don't also put  a picture on the beach or one with your dog, remember that this picture will draw the first impression the HR in any company will get, so don't mess it up and keep it professional

Watch your language !

Don't ever write what you don't know, and also, keep your phrases short and simple and also, to the point. Revise your posts and comments before posting them, specially the ones you post in another language than your mother tongue. This point is so critical as it will show how fluent you are in the languages you speak, so watch your language and write your words carefully.

Your projects and courses:

This what will add a cool taste to your profile, writing your projects in a separate section on your LinkedIn profile. For example, you created a tool to calculate the ROI in a very quick way, a macro file on the excel using visual basic for example. those powerful projects will show how innovative and creative person you are, another thing is adding the courses your attended like CMA/MBA and that kind of things, not just to show the titles, but show you are still taking care of your studies and how are you actually taking a step ahead of other people.

Share your blog or your website:

you might having  a blog where you write your thoughts, or a certain website where you create some cool things or share some trips or your garage on the internet, it will be so perfect if you share the link of those sites to the public so people can know more about your hobbies and activities.

How to contact you ?

After this large amount of info about you on your profile, you can never forget writing your telephone number or your email, else wise, your profile on linkedIn is useless, keep on your profile your available telephone number with your country code, also check your inbox frequently to have the chance to reply quickly on any offers you might get.

Those are some important points, from my point of view, to have in any LinkedIn account to keep it simple and professional, and I would be delighted if you, as a reader, add other points to the above ones by commenting on this post, this will keep the other readers posted with the latest information on how being professional,

Thank you for your time and interest in reading,

Mohamed Shohayeb

How to sell yourself ?

One of the key and major problems candidates have when applying to a new a job, is that they really don't know what they want. Do they need a higher salary ? Being a manager and a senior ? A prestige from the new post ? Being part of a well-known company and that's it ?

The idea about this article is to list a number of humble advises collected from discussions with professional managers and also a number of cases I witness in real life. Each one will be presented with a title and small example to picture the idea we are talking about.

** The College part: 

When you're still a student, studying is not the full equation you must solve, there a large number of other things you must do to start having a good career when you graduate. One of the most important steps you must take when being in college is having a number of internships at well-known or good places, I know you will always feel frustrated and upset, you won't totally enjoy your summer vacation and time with your friends, but believe it or not, this is how you will perfectly enjoy all the upcoming summers in the future. When applying a new post at a company or a bank for example, the interviewer would pick up the bright shinny candidate in front of him (Will talk about it in a separate point), one of the key criteria the interviewer will focus on, is that time the candidate will take as a training period, induction and introduction to work, being through internships before will help being different in that point, you won't start from scratch like the others, you might have from 5-10% knowledge about the field of your studies or at least about corporate or banking life for example, and that means, shorter training and induction time which would make you ready to get the job early. From other side, your side we mean, is that you won't have the normal shock every fresh graduate has when going through the transition period from being a student to being an employee, you will be somehow familiar with the environment, how people talk, think and act, the desks, computers and programs they might used, for sure you won't be 100% cool and ready, but at least you have an idea about how life will go from now on. In short, having internships will help you a lot to make you ready for the transition period and also it will be a very good mark on your C.V

** The Interview: 

A lot of candidates think about how they look in the interview, and the large bulk of paper they will print as data about themselves, and totally forget about what they will say and face from the interviewer. This part will be split into a number of sub-points 

1. First of all, your look, if you're a fresh graduate, the interviewer won't ever expect you to wear a Gucci suite for example and perfumed with the most expensive fragrances, hey !!  You're still a fresh graduate !! All you must care about is looking good in a humble suite, and most importantly, comfortable and cool with what you are wearing. The look will matter in the future, for example if you were a director in X company and applying to a CEO position in Y company, your look will be questionable a lot in the interview, the board will check every single detail in your suite to be sure they chose the right person for the image of their company, but as a fresh graduate, it's very known you still get your pocket money from your parents, and you don't have to wear those expensive suites to attract the interviewer

2. Second, as we mentioned, stay cool, there's nothing to be afraid of and keep the idea of being accepted or not aside, just deal with the interviewer as one of your uncles, a good conversation about yourself, your past experiences and your dreams, and the most important thing, just smile, don't turn into that desperate kid that needs a job, a good humble smile will deliver your comfort feeling to the interviewer and he or she might be pleased to go to a good conversation with you.

3. Don't be a smart A**, never show that you are the irresistible candidate that the company would die to have, or the most handsome kid on earth or the son of Einstein, as we mentioned above stay humble and cool. You must stay calm when going through the conversation and be careful what you say, the interviewers and companies don't like that kind of candidates, at the end, you're just an ordinary fresh graduate to them and believe me they have a number of analysts inside that would convince you never existed before or ever went to college

4.Don't be so desperate for the salary, some people all they care about is the package they will receive, believe me that's not the most important criteria to die to know, it's a combination of number of things. For example, aside the package, what's the experience you will gain from such a position ? The working environment in X company ? Your career progression ? The Company's Goodwill and reputation ? You won't only measure the company's welfare by how much they pay you, and never show that the salary is the only thing you care about, for example, a good engineer or a line supervisor won't be experienced (or get the higher salary) without getting his hands dirty on the machines in a factory or a workshop, for instance, how will you be a supervisor on a production line when you don't know how this line operates ?! So think smart, and imagine the whole picture from above so you can decide whether to apply or take the job or not.

5. Let them want you ! Contradiction comes here, how to make company X want you and at the same time, not being the smart a**, that's simple, follow all the above steps. Stay cool and comfortable, smile every now and then and show how you're proud of sitting on your chair, share your thoughts and imaginations about the bright and sustainable future for example, a couple of ideas about improvements won't hurt, and of course, a well prepared CV.

* The C.V:

The larger it is, the most attractive it is - Said by .. we don't know. Don't believe in those words anyway, because they are totally wrong, the recruiters receive tons of CVs by mail and e-mail every single day, what will make them leave the big package and jump to your CV ? Simple ! A good looking picture or yours, your past experiences list in clear short points, and your hobbies and education. Never write about the big fish you caught in Africa when you were travelling with your daddy, just .. Fishing ! Never mention company X that died when you left them after the last internship and how you reformulated their P&L with the simple excel sheet you created, because it simply didn't. Just give hints about what you've done in last couple of years, and believe me they will question you the rest on the interview.

* Your footprint:

That's a good point for you, and it's quite simple, don't be an ordinary employee going everyday at 7 am to work with eyes closed, your coffee in your right hand and the laptop in the left one, the routine kills, believe me. Always think differently, how will you finish your job early so you can develop a certain program ? what about sending a file in a different easier format ? reformulation of the job description of your post ? that's sounds interesting. Never turn your job into routine and always try to leave a footprint, enhance and improve in the tasks you're handling, that's what will really help you in the near future regarding your career progression. And as a fresh graduate, always show how you are willing to improve the job you will get, and be a fresh eye in your place that's seeking to make things better.

Those were a number of points that I believe will help in the start of the career timeline as a fresh graduate, another one will be wrote to cover the same topic but as an employee already,

Thank you,

Mohamed Shohayeb