With the COVID-19 pandemic happening and everything being organized virtually, there’s no better time than now to start building your professional identity online. Here are a few tips to help you get started on your online professional journey.
Make a LinkedIn profile
Connect with friends, family, and professors to build your professional network. Share posts you are interested in, join groups, and expand your network to other like-minded individuals in the field you would like to enter.
Have a portfolio? Make it a website
Use free website builders like WordPress, Wix, and Weebly to make a dedicated website for your work. You can also utilize social media as your portfolio. Video uploading sites like YouTube and Vimeo, and photo sharing websites like Instagram allow you to quickly and easily upload your content and share it with the world. These sites allow you to receive questions, comments, and concerns directly on the material itself.
Make connections
Connections are everything. Talking to the right person at the right time could result in you getting your next job; LinkedIn is great for this! Also, use your family and friends to your advantage. They may know a specialist in the field you’re interested in and be able to put you in contact with them and who knows what could happen from there!
Present yourself in a professional manner
Presentation is a huge factor when it comes to getting a job. If you come to an interview in your Sunday’s best with confidence in yourself, you are more likely to get the job. While many jobs are not doing in-person interviews at this time, you can present yourself in this light through your LinkedIn profile. If you have a profile picture of you in business formal or business casual with facts about you and your goals neatly presented, you will definitely make a better impression than someone whose photo is them sitting on the couch eating popcorn, with a messy about section.
Be mindful of your online persona
In this day and age, everyone has an online persona. It’s imperative to remember that anything posted online will be there forever, and can come up when a future employer Google’s your name. By all means, post what you want, but be mindful of what a future employer may think if that post can be seen as inappropriate in any way.
Those were just a few tips to get ahead of the game when it comes to life post-graduation. Get proactive and claim your future!