What do you do on LinkedIn when you are pursuing or wanting to pursue a new career path? How do you portray yourself in your future forward position? This is a question I am asked a lot.
Your past experience is your past experience and you can’t change history. However, you CAN change how you market yourself in your future forward position (aka “what you want to be when you grow up!”).
Many people know they want to follow a new career path, but they may not know exactly what they want to do.
In this case, a career assessment might “be the first step to understanding yourself, which is the first step to pursuing your own happiness and satisfaction”, according to Marc Miller of Career Pivot.
In interviewing Sarah E. Brown Ph.D., she noted that “Good career assessments highlight some combination of interests, strengths, and needs. Different assessments place emphasis on different components. What gets us hired are the interests and strengths. What often gets us fired are the needs not getting met.
So, included in the profile should be a really good combination of what we love doing, our interests, and what we are really good at doing … our strengths.
We do not need to include our motivational needs in the profile, but we should keep that in mind as we are screening a prospective job opportunity” or the next career move.
In reading his book, Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, Marc Miller stated that “the most valuable [assessment] for gaining insight into … [his] own needs was the Birkman … [as it is] like a psychic tell[ing] you things that maybe you didn’t want to know but … already sort of knew them, deep down.” To learn more about the value of the Birkman, there is a great article in Fortune magazine called “Are You a Good Fit for Your Job?”
Once you have clarity with your future forward, think of LinkedIn like a newspaper. What sells top of the fold? The headline!
Think of LinkedIn like a website. What sells? The attraction of the page before you start scrolling. Again … the top of the fold.
So, above the fold holds true for LinkedIn also … your headline, About section, banner, and all your new keywords need to target your new career path. They need to describe your future forward position.
If you want to participate in a any assessments, become a Bronze or BENG member and you will have some discounts available. We offer some excellent choices that will provide you will some comprehensive data and analysis.
If you have further questions about who to contact about career assessments and providers, please email me!
AUTHOR BIO
Lynne Williams is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit with over 6300 members and alumni providing career education and networking. Lynne also writes for vista.today, montco.today, and delco.today.
