5 LINKEDIN MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE
LinkedIn is the world’s number one professional networking online platform. It now over 250 million users worldwide, including executives of top corporations.
However, despite it being a professional network with users expected to be people with quality education, many users still make some mistakes in its use.
Below are the 5 top mistakes I note users make on LinkedIn.
1, OPEN JOB SEARCH: It is very wrong for an employee to openly and directly advertise himself for another job when still under a subsisting contract. I see people put in their profile something like: Looking for accounting positions; looking for banking opportunities etc.
If you’re not under a current employment, that is allowed, but if you’re currently under one, it is professionally wrong to be openly soliciting for another job. Such things are meant to be done in private.
A better, indirect way to go about it is making your profile solid enough for recruiters or headhunters to want to invite you even without directly telling them to call for you. For example, something like: A versatile account with experience in taxation and financial control, currently working in one Nigeria’s leading professional services firms.
Although you’re not directly advertising yourself for another job here, a savvy headhunter will want to reach you for taxation and financial control openings.
2, SELFIE PROFILE PICTURES: LinkedIn is not Facebook for crying out loud. It is a professional platform. Use a good, professional picture as your profile. Save that selfie for instagram. The profile picture has to be professional. I have seen the profile picture of someone that must have been taken at his dirty backyard.
3, PADDED JOB DESCRIPTIONS: There is nothing wrong in packaging your job descriptions by playing with words to make it more presentable. For example, rather than write, “answering phone calls and replying customer enquiry emails”, a more fanciful way to put that job description is, “Customer Relationship Management”. However, you begin to cross the line when you begin to pad your job descriptions to include what you’re not or what you have never done. If you’re the Treasury Officer, don’t put on LinkedIn that you’re the Treasury Supervisor. If you’re the Accounts Supervisor, don’t put on your LinkedIn profile that you’re the Accounts Manager, even if you don’t have an Accounts Manager in that company and what you do is what the Accounts Manager does in another company. I have read about the case of someone that was fired from a company for arrogating to himself on his LinkedIn profile what his boss does.
4, OUTDATED PROFILE: If you don’t want to be on LinkedIn, I don’t think it takes much away from you. But if one must be there, it is better to give your full public details. I have seen LinkedIn profiles of people that are far from being up to date. I know one particular person whose profile is still showing as latest the position he was occupying when he opened the account five years ago; meanwhile, he’d gotten promotions and moved to other functions over time. This can be misleading. Imagine if someone collects his business card at a meeting and the guy checks him out on LinkedIn only see the role on his card is not the role he’s showing on his profile. Update your LinkedIn profile anytime there is a change in your job function or job title or job movement.
5, NEEDLESS DUPLICATION: There is a profile summary section that is different from the experience section. The experience section is expected to be more detailed, showing organization your work or worked for, your role, and if you want, detailed job description. The Experience section is expected to be high level, to summarize your expertise and the industry you have experience. For example, the profile summary section should contain something like ” a versatile mechanical engineer with vast experience in Nigeria’s Oil & Gas industry”. You don’t need to list the companies on the profile summary section, the experience section will take care of that. Some people repeat the same details they have in their experience sections in their profile summary section. This is not right.
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