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Editor's Notes

• #3: LinkedIn is the world¡¯s largest professional network. The operative word here being professional. There may be larger and more prominent social networks but they pale in comparison to the versatility and usability of LinkedIn for advancing your career in the field of Organizational Psychology.
• #5: LinkedIn allows you to comprehensively list your past work experiences and it can display professional references from colleagues; which is a great opportunity to highlight your previous skills. You can also list the tangible skills that you posses which can also be confirmed by your peers. This serves to paint a richer picture of who you as an Organizational Psychologist. This is a great benefit for prospective employers as it allows them to see the professional image that you project to your colleagues. As a former recruiter and finance analyst, it is important that I have recommendations displayed from my former colleagues and that my top skills (Data entry, data analysis and management) is an accurate reflection of my past work history. Having karaoke listed as your top skill might be good for teambuilding but it doesn¡¯t give a good representation if it doesn¡¯t fit what opportunities you¡¯re looking for.
• #6: Do you have something you want to share? Of course you do, we¡¯re William James OLP alumni and there¡¯s so much we have to share with the world. I know a lot of people in this room have interesting ideas, unique perspectives and useful links about current events and developments but might not sure how to share them. LinkedIn makes it easier to share all of this with your professional network. Simply go to your home page and you can post an update about yourself or your company, you can upload any professional images and most importantly you can publish a post which can be seen across the world. Publishing a post is a good way to generate interest on your research findings, tying in a current event to your consulting, coaching company or writing about your thoughts on an Organizational Development issue that has long piqued your interest.
• #7: Online groups on LinkedIn is an incredible free resource in which you can get instant feedback, help, insight or recommendations from other members in your community. Every LinkedIn member should join a variety of groups that reflect your interests. There are traditional OD groups such as employee engagement, SIOP, eLearning, Adult learning theory as well as other networking groups such as Boston young professionals, technical groups such as Microsoft Excel and recreational groups such as photography and golf
• #8: If you have questions, LinkedIn is a reputable website to find answers. How long has a company been in business? Who is their CEO? How many locations do they have? How many companies are using a particular software? Can I get feedback about this software before I purchase it for my company? How many people are attending a particular conference? Are people talking about this industry trend? What are the previous work experience for people who currently have the position I desire? What were their education? Where are the most popular location for certain jobs? I¡¯m looking to move to South Africa, do they have OD jobs and communities there?
• #9: If you are seeking to increase your skills through online courses, LinkedIn has a sister website called LYNDA under their online learning section. I personally have not used it before and there¡¯s a separate fee for using it but it may be a great resource for people who are interested in learning specific skills. If you are interested in a particular topic or interested in giving a presentation. There is a section called ºÝºÝߣShare where you can view PowerPoint presentations by people who have uploaded them. It¡¯s a good source to view other peoples presentation styles on similar topics or to gain some inspiration for your own presentations.
• #10: Keeping in contact with William James and your cohorts is incredibly simple through LinkedIn. A simple search of William James College in the search bar allows you to follow William James and any updates they post. You can also see how many people in your network are also following WJC and can use that tool to reconnect with former class members and teachers. Most OLP cohorts have a separate group for each year. As you can see on the right Michael Collela created the our years¡¯ OLP cohort group for MSPP before we changed to WJC.
• #11: One for most visible tools of LinkedIn is its job search agent. Similar to other websites such as monster, indeed.com and careerbuilder you can search using job title, industry, career level, pay and location just to name a few. An underutilized feature of linkedin is visiting Company websites and seeing what openings they have available as well as stating on your profile exactly what sort of opportunities you are looking for. Passive job searches are also great on LinkedIn, where you can set up a job agent to e-mail you opportunities at desired intervals. Having an active LinkedIn profile gives recruiters and sourcers the ability to contact you directly and quickly.
• #12: There are several ways to add contacts on LinkedIn and nearly everyone has been prompted at some point to import contacts from gmail, yahoo or outlook. That may be the fastest way to build your network. You can also search by name, job, skills, location, company and industry if you have a little difficulty remembering someone you want to add. For example say you meet someone at a conference and you can¡¯t remember their name and you also forgot to get a business card, but, you remember that they work in HR for the Federal Reserve. You can search for federal reserve and HR and it will populate people who match those criteria.
• #13: Make yourself visible on LinkedIn How do I do that?
• #14: Update your profile to fill in the missing work, education, professional associations. Feel free to add any media that you have produced or any other websites that you¡¯re a part of. Represent your current company and let people know exactly how you are contributing to it¡¯s success.
• #15: There are many people that you¡¯ve met who have made a difference in your career and personal development. It¡¯s time to let LinkedIn know. You can recommend any member by choosing that option on the drop down menu for work that you have collaborated on. You can endorse their skills that they have previously listed. I hope at the end of today some people in my network will endorse me for my presentation and public speaking skills. Alternatively you can request recommendations for yourself. This can be done by scrolling down to the bottom of your profile page and choosing the ask to be recommended option and this allows you to select the individual and exactly what your want to be recommended for. I would be wary if I¡¯m hiring for a position and there¡¯s no recommendations on a candidates page
• #16: With these few changes everyone in this room should be able to create a personal brand on LinkedIn that makes you highly visible throughout the world which is becoming more important as we transition to a global economy.