3 Ways LinkedIn Can Boost Your Career Change

At some point in your career change, you’ll need to reach out to people you already know, or to strangers, and ask for their help. When I look back over my own three main career changes, I know for a fact that they were successful in significant ways because of the same vital ingredient: people.

LinkedIn offers extraordinary benefits because it’s chock full of people across the world. This is not a random selection of people either – here are individuals who have built a profile on LinkedIn to interact with others in their profession, their sector, their location or across the globe. They are here to reach out to new connections or prospects and to share the latest knowledge, experience, opinions and yes, help each other!

And just in case you have so far dismissed LinkedIn as a stuffy platform for salespeople and desperate job-seekers, let me reassure you that LinkedIn is evolving into very much more. Over the ten years I’ve had a profile on LinkedIn, I’ve found it to be increasingly friendly, flexible, full of incredibly helpful people who are willing to share their expertise and experience, and it has amazing reach.

So how can LinkedIn help your career change? I’ve put together three important ways LinkedIn can open doors and provide valuable intelligence that will inform your career shift: career research; representing who you are; and reciprocation.  

A key proviso is that you follow the normal courtesies you’d show the people you meet face to face as those you connect with online! Beginning any interaction with a mindset of reciprocity will take you far. It’s not about taking, but sharing information and experience – and with that in mind, and a full profile up and running,* you’re ready to go!

(*If you need help with setting up an effective profile, contact me)

1. Research Your Target Direction

If you have a target role, sector or organization in mind, LinkedIn is a great source of the very latest information. Look for company pages, individuals who work for the organization you have in mind or groups associated with the profession you belong to or want to learn more about. 

Ask questions on the comment thread for relevant articles or posts and follow up with connection requests to the author and active responders. When you have got to know relevant individuals through reading and commenting on their posts, consider a question via LinkedIn messaging. Ask for recommended sources of information or about their own career path – but be careful you don’t jump straight in with a cold-calling request. I have more detailed advice on navigating this ‘ask’ in my Connections guide (details at the foot of this article).

Building up an online network for your new direction can be very beneficial – especially when you can develop this into face to face meet ups like LinkedIn Local events and other networking opportunities in your location. You’ll be able to connect with those in the know and gain a richer understanding of the new profession or sector you’re thinking about.

Follow target organisations or individuals and start to build up a picture of the main issues, challenges and opportunities they’re currently experiencing. LinkedIn Groups can offer a clear sense of what’s on topic right now. Don’t be afraid to join in and be active by offering your own perspectives as well as asking questions. For ideas about relevant groups, try looking at professionals in your target role to see which groups they belong to (scroll down their profile to Interests/groups).

Later, when you’re preparing for interview, you can also research the people on your interview panel and gain a better understanding of their background and any experiences you may have in common. This can be especially useful in the informal parts of the interview experience or when preparing your top stories to show why you’d be a great fit for the role.

So, for researching organisations, professions, sectors or locations, LinkedIn has a lot to offer.

2. Represent Yourself Well

When you’re changing career direction and applying for jobs in your new sector or profession, don’t forget potential employers will cast an eye over your LinkedIn profile. 

It’s important to show your credibility as a candidate. Even if you don’t have relevant role experience, you will have important transferable skills, evidence of impact and successes, and your activity on the platform can reveal your interest and enthusiasm for your target direction. 

Ask yourself these questions:

·     How can you emphasize relevant transferable skills in your profile?

·     Where is the evidence of your success in current and previous roles?

·     Which of your posts demonstrate interest, knowledge and involvement in your target role or organisation?

·     Which of your LinkedIn Groups exhibit relevant professional curiosity and involvement?

·     Which of your own articles or documents showcase relevant knowledge, skills or mindsets that your target organization will value?

By developing your LinkedIn profile and activity, you can position yourself as a credible candidate at the same time as you are following interests, gaining insight and building confidence that this new direction is right for you.

3. Reciprocate

Yes, it’s about give and take. Give first!

Share articles, write your own posts and comment on other people’s material to build a strong network and demonstrate your collaborative approach, professionalism and interest. By sharing and supporting, you are also gaining a lot – both in good will and in knowledge.

You can do this from your own feed, within comments on other people's posts and also behind the scenes as you build a relationship with new connections. Sending an article to a new connection you would like to set up a meeting with could be a good first step – but don’t Spam people or ask too early. My Connections Guide walks you through this minefield – just email me for more information.

Don’t forget that LinkedIn is a great place to find people you already know – they are already on your side! Think about university alumni, former colleagues, old school friends, friends of your parents, peers and sports connections. Building your LinkedIn network this way is a great way of also developing confidence and feeling less awkward in requesting a new connection. It’s nice to include a personal message with your request and you can follow up when the time is right to build the connection further.

I hope this has given you a few ideas for building an active LinkedIn network to inform your career change. You probably noticed I didn’t mention the job search function! My focus here has been on how people can help you make a change in your career – by all means use the jobs function to research possible opportunities, but don’t stop there. I firmly believe that people hold the key to a successful change of direction.

LinkedIn has been such a valuable platform for me to share ideas, gain insight and re-present myself throughout my long and varied career, and I’m sure that you’ll find it invaluable when you’re thinking of developing or changing career direction.

Useful resources:

Connections to Fuel Your Career Change: a guide for people who hate networking (£10). Read more on the resources page of my website

Unsure of what your new direction might be? Consider the Quickstep Career Change Programme

*You’d like some help refining your LinkedIn profile profile and developing a career change strategy? Contact me to see how I can help.