Michael DeSafey | Executive Recruiter and HR Professional
LinkedIn for Environmental Professionals: Building Your Online Presence
In today’s digital age, establishing a strong online presence is crucial for career growth and networking. LinkedIn, as the leading professional networking platform, offers a valuable opportunity for environmentally conscious individuals to connect with like-minded professionals, showcase their passion for sustainability, and advance their green careers. This guide will take you through the process of building your online environmentally conscious presence on LinkedIn, from optimizing your profile to engaging with relevant content and networking effectively.
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile is your digital resume and the first impression you make on potential connections and employers. Here’s how to optimize it for an environmentally conscious presence:
- Professional Photo: Use a high-quality, professional photo that reflects your personal brand. Dress appropriately for your field while ensuring a friendly and approachable demeanor.
- Compelling Headline: Craft a headline that highlights your commitment to environmental causes and your area of expertise. For example, “Sustainability Advocate | Renewable Energy Enthusiast | Environmental Consultant.”
- Customized URL: Customize your LinkedIn URL to make it more memorable and professional. Ideally, it should be linkedin.com/in/yourname.
- Summary Section: Use the summary section to tell your story, emphasizing your passion for sustainability and your career journey. Include relevant keywords and showcase your unique perspective.
- Experience and Education: Detail your work experiences and educational background, emphasizing roles and accomplishments related to environmental initiatives.
- Skills and Endorsements: List skills relevant to your environmental interests, such as sustainability, renewable energy, conservation, or environmental policy. Encourage connections to endorse your skills.
- Recommendations: Request recommendations from colleagues or supervisors who can speak to your environmental expertise and dedication.
- Publications and Projects: Highlight any publications, research projects, or initiatives related to environmental issues that you’ve been involved in.
Connect with Environmental Professionals
Building a network of environmentally conscious professionals is a cornerstone of your LinkedIn presence. Here’s how to connect effectively:
- Connect Strategically: Send connection requests to professionals who share your passion for sustainability. Personalize your requests by mentioning common interests or experiences.
- Join Environmental Groups: LinkedIn offers a wide range of environmental groups and communities. Join these groups to connect with like-minded individuals, participate in discussions, and gain insights.
- Follow Environmental Influencers: Identify and follow influential individuals and thought leaders in the environmental field. Their posts and updates can provide valuable insights and networking opportunities.
- Engage in Conversations: Comment thoughtfully on posts, share relevant articles, and engage in conversations within your network and environmental groups. Active participation enhances your visibility.
Share Relevant Content
Sharing environmentally conscious content demonstrates your commitment to the cause and positions you as an informed professional. Here’s how to share content effectively:
- Share Articles and News: Post articles, news, and research related to sustainability, climate change, renewable energy, and other environmental topics.
- Highlight Achievements: Share your achievements, such as completing a sustainability certification or participating in a successful eco-friendly project.
- Participate in Challenges: Join LinkedIn challenges related to environmental awareness and sustainability. These challenges often involve sharing insights, statistics, or personal commitments.
- Create Original Content: If you have unique insights or experiences to share, consider writing original LinkedIn articles. This can help establish you as a thought leader in the environmental space.
- Use Hashtags: Incorporate relevant hashtags in your posts to increase their visibility and reach a broader audience interested in environmental topics.
Showcase Your Environmental Projects and Initiatives
LinkedIn offers features for highlighting your environmental projects and initiatives:
- Add Projects: In your profile’s “Projects” section, detail your involvement in environmental initiatives, from sustainability programs at your workplace to volunteer projects with environmental organizations.
- Document Achievements: Describe the goals, impact, and outcomes of your environmental projects. Include any awards, recognition, or certifications earned.
Follow Environmental Organizations and Companies
Stay updated on the latest news and opportunities by following environmental organizations, nonprofits, and environmentally conscious companies on LinkedIn. Many of these entities share valuable insights, job openings, and sustainability updates.
Engage in Meaningful Discussions
Engage in conversations that matter to you and the environmental community:
- Share Insights: Offer informed perspectives on environmental topics. Sharing your knowledge can establish you as a credible voice in the field.
- Ask Questions: Pose thoughtful questions to your network or in environmental groups to spark meaningful discussions and gather insights.
- Collaborate: Seek collaboration opportunities with professionals in your network who share your passion for sustainability. Collaborative efforts can lead to impactful projects.
Attend Virtual Environmental Events and Webinars
LinkedIn frequently hosts and promotes virtual events, including webinars and conferences related to environmental issues. Participate in these events to expand your knowledge, network with industry experts, and connect with fellow environmentally conscious professionals.
Use LinkedIn Premium for Enhanced Networking
Consider upgrading to LinkedIn Premium for additional networking benefits, such as increased access to profiles, advanced search filters, and InMail credits. This can be particularly useful for job seekers and those looking to connect with specific professionals.
Be Consistent and Active
Consistency is key to maintaining an active and impactful presence on LinkedIn. Regularly update your profile, share content, engage with your network, and participate in environmental discussions. Your commitment will be noticed by your connections.
Webuild Staffing Agency is a leading executive search and staffing agency dedicated to the construction, engineering and environmental industries. To learn more please visit: www.webuildstaffing.com
How LinkedIn Can Contribute to your Career Success
How LinkedIn Can Contribute to your Career Success
How LinkedIn Can Contribute to your Career Success in the Construction, Engineering and Environmental Industries
LinkedIn is one of the oldest social media sites still in operation today. Founded in December of 2002 the platform has grown considerably over the years – unlike the numerous ones which have ultimately disappeared in that amount of time.
According to Top Dog Social Media, over 84 million people use LinkedIn in the United States alone. To put this in proper perspective, this is around 27% of the entire population. But LinkedIn is not your average social media platform.
Instead of catering towards typical social interactions, LinkedIn was developed to help
business professionals network and build profiles which are essentially online, living resumes.
Being on LinkedIn is an important step for individuals hoping to continue growing and nurturing their career paths in the construction, engineering, and environmental industries. Here we discuss why.
Building Your Network
With so many professionals on LinkedIn, the site is the perfect medium for building your network of industry professionals. Other users even have the ability to endorse the skills you’ve listed on your profile, which is essentially verification you can actually perform the way you state.
A good network can open up a world of opportunities for those serious about their careers. It can assist in getting new jobs or promotions and allow you to keep up to date on the latest industry trends, such as:
- What does the future cost projections on materials look like?
- What are the newest technologies or trends to hit these industries?
- What environmental issues are currently occurring throughout the world?
Living Resume
The term “living resume” means the information on your LinkedIn profile can be constantly updated or added to so everything is as current as possible.
It is for this reason that so many hiring managers have taken to using these profiles in their process. A person who submitted their resume for consideration three months ago may have new skills or education relevant to that position.
To properly leverage this, however, you must keep the profile as current as possible. When you receive a new certification, get a degree, or complete a related project you should list it on your LinkedIn profile within 48 hours of completion.
Allowing your profile to grow stale will hamper your career growth. This is especially true in all careers in the construction, engineering, and environmental industries where staying current is vital to both safety and efficiency.
Promote Yourself
LinkedIn is the perfect catalyst for professional promotion efforts. You can share your profile to other social sites, including blogs or websites. Your profile will also show up in search engine results, which can then be seen by employers searching for professionals in your industry.
All your professional information is at the fingertips of everyone – which is a solid asset in building a solid career. Your achievements, certifications, education, previous projects, cover letter, and links proving what you’ve stated are all featured on your page. Providing this information publicly allows you to appear transparent, trustworthy, and confident.
Get Hired
LinkedIn is one of the best ways for industry professionals to get hired. Your profile gives the option of stating you are open to offers, actively seeking a new job, or not open to any offers currently. Employers or hiring managers can search for professionals seeking employment by industry and desired skills.
While anyone can submit their resumes to specific jobs, using LinkedIn as a method of getting hired is a step above the rest. This is thanks to the fact that limited work is necessary on your own behalf. Simply keep your profile updated and continue advancing your qualifications to have job offers start coming to you.
Michael DeSafey is a leading executive recruiter for professionals in the construction, engineering and environmental industries. He is currently the President of Webuild Staffing www.webuildstaffing.com . To learn more about Michael or to follow his blog please visit www.michaeldesafey.com
Is Your LinkedIn Profile, Recruiter Friendly?
Is Your LinkedIn Profile, Recruiter Friendly?
1. Endorse, Endorse, Endorse…
Endorsing other LinkedIn members who are attempting to build their business or find a job is a great altruistic endeavor. Additionally, supporting others is a great way to make your name more visible to prospective employers. Finally, consistently endorsing other people on LinkedIn is an effective way to ensure that they will do the same for you. Once this happens, your profile will gain credibility.
2. Optimize Your Profile..
Profile optimization is key to enhancing your likelihood of finding a job. With this idea in mind, be sure that the profile is complete. Oftentimes people will rush through the process and omit key information. LinkedIn will show you how much of the profile you’ve completed, so be sure you hit the “100% complete” target. Also make sure that you are using an attractive, professional photo to bring personality and aesthetic appeal to the profile. Avoid blurry shots and questionable images at all costs. Finally, make sure that your profile lists results that you have attained as opposed to creating a laundry list of responsibilities you held. For example, listing an impressive construction site that you built is more effective than outlining the daily tasks you completed.
3. Make Yourself Searchable…
To ensure that you are found by the prospective employer, you must be “searchable.” This means that your profile must be easy to find when someone does a keyword search. To make your profile as searchable as possible, be sure that you are using the ideal keywords, skill sets, and job titles in the profile. There are specific job titles and skill sets that are prevalent within the engineering, environmental and construction communities, so just be sure that you’re using the most contemporary, applicable language possible.
4. Build A Strong Network…
Just as networking is important in the “real world,” it’s important that you network via social media channels like LinkedIn. When you start connecting with people in the construction and engineering sectors, you can build a substantive network. This will increase your chances of connecting with leaders and employers in your field.
5. Share Content With Your Network..
Sharing relevant content is one of the best ways to boost your visibility amongst all the right people online. With this idea in mind, make sure that you’re liking, commenting, and sharing content related to the fields of construction, engineering, or the environment. In addition to demonstrating that you are remaining current regarding information that pertains to your field, it also demonstrates that you maintain an active account. If you’re looking for a place through which to find and share content, try LinkedIn pulse.
6. Enhance Your Profiles Headline…
One final strategy you should implement to attract a recruiter’s attention is to enhance your headline. The headline presents you with the opportunity to catch and keep a prospective employer’s attention. For this reason, optimizing the headline for clarity and uniqueness is important. There are numerous ways to accomplish this objective, but using a clear, concise, catchy phrase to cultivate a personality for yourself is typically the most effective approach to adopt.
In Conclusion…
Pursuing a career in construction, engineering, or the environment can prove both personally and professionally advantageous. To ensure that you optimize your chances of attaining a job, make sure that you are appropriating LinkedIn to connect with recruiters. By employing some or all of the tips and tricks outlined above, you’ll likely find yourself attaining the job you want with lightning speed! For additional assistance please view www.webuildresumes.com for LinkedIn profile services to optimize your LinkedIn Profile Professionally.
Michael DeSafey is a leading executive recruiter for professionals in the construction, engineering and environmental industries. He is currently the President of Webuild Staffing www.webuildstaffing.com . To learn more about Michael or to follow his Blog please visit www.michaeldesafey.com
How to Write a Great LinkedIn Profile for Construction, Engineering and Environmental Professionals
LinkedIn Profile Tips For Construction, Engineering And Environmental Professionals
How to Write a Great LinkedIn Profile for Construction, Engineering and Environmental Professionals
Over the past decade, the construction, engineering and environmental industries have seen tremendous shifts in employment demands and competition for jobs. Now more than ever, it is important for those who work in these industries to diversify their marketing efforts and present the best possible professional image to the industry to be considered for emerging, exceptional job opportunities.
One of the most effective ways to be noticed within the industry and diversify your job-seeking efforts is to use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the leading social media site to network with potential employers who are searching for associates like you. However, just opening a LinkedIn account and listing bits and pieces of your experience in your specialized field will probably not produce the results you are looking for.
It is important to understand how to create an amazing LinkedIn profile that makes you stand out from all the rest and get noticed by potential employers.
Understanding that the most important step in creating a LinkedIn profile that will get noticed is to make sure your profile is complete, has relevant information and presents the best possible image of yourself to the industry.
Following these basic tips will greatly enhance your presence on LinkedIn:
LinkedIn Profile Summary
The profile summary section is one of the most important parts of the profile on LinkedIn. This is the area of your profile that you can really show off your skills, qualifications / accomplishments and present to the viewers what makes you different from every other person within the construction, engineering and environmental industry.
When you read most profiles on LinkedIn, they almost seem a little generic. So spending a little time to draft a compelling narrative and utilizing all the creative tools available on linkedin will greatly enhance the visibility of your overall profile.
Picture and Tag Lines
Be sure to upload a picture of yourself; Profiles with pictures are much more highly viewed by users. You should additionally pay a lot of attention to your tagline. This offers you an opportunity to be a little creative and showcase your business mission statement; who you are, what you do and your skills in a short and brief statement.
Add Attachments
A great way to build an exceptional LinkedIn profile that is effective is adding videos and pictures that are relevant to your field. For example, if your industry is residential building, you could upload pictures and videos of houses that you have built or other projects you have worked on. Seeing video of a project or of a beautiful home that you created is much more interesting to a potential employer than simply reading about your experience and expertise in engineering.
In addition to videos, LinkedIn allows you to incorporate beautiful and eye-catching presentations and graphics. If you have a PowerPoint presentation that you use when applying for positions in-person or along with emailed resumes, you should certainly include those presentations within your LinkedIn profile. Great presentations demonstrate your knowledge in the area of construction, engineering and environmental work while substantiating a level of professionalism in your field.
Keywords
If you have a specialize skills in your field that you want to market, consider using specific keywords to drive traffic to your LinkedIn profile. For example, if you specialize in green construction, you can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to search for terms that relate to your specialty and can help people searching for that particular type of specialty or trade find your LinkedIn profile. When done correctly, this can be very powerful in bringing viewers to your LinkedIn profile from outside search engines.
Recommendations / Endorsements
You should also take the time to get endorsements from associates in your field and past clients. By doing this, people you have done work for in the past can vouch for certain skill sets you have mastered, thereby making recommendations for you. Endorsements, especially from past clients who are happy with your work, are one of the best ways to encourage potential employers to hire you.
Utilizing LinkedIn for professional networking will greatly assist you in finding a job. When you incorporate all of the items discussed here you will harness the power of social media, create a networking tool that will evolve over the years and continue to benefit you throughout your career.
Michael DeSafey is a leading executive recruiter for professionals in the construction, engineering and environmental industries. He is currently the President of Webuild Staffing (www.webuildstaffing.com ). To learn more about Michael or Follow his Blog please visit www.michaeldesafey.com