54. LinkedIn Basics for Job Seekers: Profile Tips and Networking Strategies

In this episode, I explain why LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools for networking and job searching, whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or a mid-career professional who hasn’t actively networked in years. If you didn’t start networking years ago, the second-best time to begin is today! I share examples of how LinkedIn helped me find opportunities, research companies, get introductions, and reconnect with old colleagues and references. 

Many women from my recent job search challenge felt their networks were small, but I encouraged them and listeners to think bigger by including past colleagues, classmates, family, neighbors, and connections through kids or volunteering.

I also cover LinkedIn basics:
✅ Use a recent profile picture
✅ Add relevant job titles in your headline
✅ Tell your story in the About section
✅ Include volunteer work and career gaps in the Experience section

Once your profile is ready, start connecting—LinkedIn’s suggestions make it easier! If you need more convincing that LinkedIn is worth your time, listen in to hear how my daughter landed a job through LinkedIn just a couple of weeks after creating her profile.  

Let’s connect if you need help with your resume or LinkedIn profile!

Grab the Free Strengths-First Resume Template - it's perfect for anyone in career transitions, whether with a long career gap, a career pivot, or just ready for a change.
Want to chat about your career goals? Schedule a free call HERE.
Send me an email ---> christina@hernextchapters.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn ---> www.linkedin.com/in/kohlchristina

Chapters

• 0:04 LinkedIn Networking Tips for Job Search
• 9:26 LinkedIn Basics for Career Success

Transcript

Christina Kohl: 0:04

Hi and welcome to Her Next Chapter's podcast. I'm your host, c I'm a mom of three and soon to be an empty nester. I'm also a certified HR pro who restarted my career after being a stay-at-home mom for over a decade. I created this podcast to connect with moms who have an empty nest on the horizon and are wanting to redefine their identity outside of motherhood, which might include a job search. On this show, we'll have raw conversations about our ever-changing roles as moms. We'll hear from women who restarted their careers and share tips for a job search after a career break. So if that's you, you're in the right place. Friend, let's get started.

Christina Kohl: 0:48

Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Her Next Chapters. So glad to have you join me today and what I'd like to talk about this week, because I did a LinkedIn post today, actually when I'm recording this and the LinkedIn post was basically talking about stay-at-home moms who are on LinkedIn and really just the basics of how to set up your profile, and it made me realize I don't think we've talked about LinkedIn here in the podcast, at least not all by itself. Of course, I'm sure I've referenced it off and on, but I thought it'd be good to go ahead and spend a little time focusing on LinkedIn. And if you know the expression, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the second best time is today. Well, the same is true for our network. The best time to network is years ago, right, so you have that network built up, and the second best time is today, and a best way to network is through LinkedIn. So, whether you are getting ready for a job search you're in the middle of one right now or you're just, you're totally content and you don't even you know job search isn't even on your horizon it's still a really good idea to be building up your network and maintaining those connections, your professional connections, and having a presence on LinkedIn. So specific ways that LinkedIn helped me I used it to research opportunities and I researched the companies so I could learn more about them, to see if it was really somewhere that I wanted to work, and I was able to look for connections within my network to get introductions at those organizations, to learn more about them from the inside. I was also able to use LinkedIn to help me find past leaders and co-workers who could be references for me. It was a great and easy way to find them and even though it had been many years since we'd connected, they were on LinkedIn and just like I remembered them, they remembered me and just like I remembered them, they remembered me. So it's a great way to get in touch with people.

Christina Kohl: 2:50

And a couple of specific examples for me the one I had applied for a position at the local library, and the local library is pretty big. I think they've got about 10 branches. We have a big library system here where I live and I went and looked on LinkedIn just to see do I know anyone in my network who's connected to the library? And sure enough, one of the moms in scouting both my boys have become Eagle Scouts, so we've been very heavily involved in scouts One of the moms she works at the library. I had no idea, because when we're doing scouting stuff, we're not talking about our jobs, and so I was able to reach out to her and say hey, I see you working at the library. I just applied for a job there. Can I send you my resume so that you can forward it on for me? I became an internal referral because of that.

Christina Kohl: 3:38

So this other story. Actually, if you've been a long-time listener of the podcast. You've heard this before, but I'm going to share it again for those that maybe haven't heard all of the 50-something episodes that we're on now. So when I was applying for this job, I was super excited about it and I did my LinkedIn searching and found that my friend Adrienne. She is a mom of one of the kids that I coached on the Destination Imagination team, and I coached her son for probably three or four years at that point, so she knew me pretty well. So I reached out to her via text, because I know we're in real life and I know we're offline. I guess I should say I don't know. I reached out to her and said hey, I have a favor to ask there's someone in your LinkedIn network that works at the company that I'm applying for for a job. Would you be open to introducing me?

Christina Kohl: 4:31

So we got on a call together, we looked at LinkedIn together and we realized, oh shoot, he doesn't work there anymore, and so I was ready to give up, but not her. She was like you know what, let's just see. And so she reached out to her friend who she hadn't talked to for like 15 or more years. This is someone that she went to like junior high with and she so middle school, I think is what it's called around the country. We called it junior high back then. Anyway, she hadn't talked to this person for years, but she used it as an opportunity to reach out and got in touch with him, told him about me and my experience and within a half an hour no joke, within a half an hour she's texting me send your resume ASAP. He's going to forward it to the company president.

Christina Kohl: 5:21

Unfortunately, I wasn't home, so I'm like driving and I'm like, okay, okay, as soon as I get home I'm going to send that resume on. So I did and I wound up getting like but within another half an hour I wound up getting invited for an interview. Now, granted, I was a qualified applicant, otherwise they wouldn't have taken the time to interview me and bring me in. But it was because of that connection on LinkedIn that I was able to get high on their radar and be brought in that much sooner. So it works, those connections and this is a relatively weak connection, right, it's a second level connection, meaning that my first level connection was my friend Adrienne, who I knew, and within her network was a second level connection to me someone that she knew. So anyway, that's kind of how it works and how it can work for you.

Christina Kohl: 6:11

And if you have been a long time stay-at-home mom or even someone you know, you've been working for the last 10, 15, 20 years, whatever it is but you just haven't really invested in networking 20 years, whatever it is, but you just haven't really invested in networking. You might feel like you don't have a network at all, and I'm here to tell you that you do. When I hosted a three-day challenge for job seekers last month, so many of the women felt that their network was tiny maybe 15 to 20 people if they really thought about it. But I challenge them and I challenge you to think bigger. Your past colleagues, including other departments so not just the ones that were on your team, but other departments throughout the company, your customers, your clients, vendor, partners that you worked with all of those people are part of your network and again, if you remember them, they likely remember you.

Christina Kohl: 7:08

And then let's get even broader. Let's talk about your classmates your classmates from high school, from college, even your younger years like my friend Adrienne, she has her middle school friend in her LinkedIn network. And then don't forget your current friends. You have a social circle of friends, most likely, and you have neighbors, and those are people that are most likely working and they hang it out on LinkedIn also, so you can find them there. And then your extended family, talking like your cousins, your in-laws and your in-laws families. There's probably a large group of people.

Christina Kohl: 7:45

If you start thinking about it, who do you send Christmas cards to? If you send Christmas cards out, think about that list of people and how many of them might be on LinkedIn. And then, if you've got kids, you have a whole network of people through them. So the parents of your kids' classmates, the teachers of your kids, other teachers in the building at school If you volunteer, other parents that are on the volunteering committees, sports teams I know I've met tons of people over the years on the sidelines cheering our kids on together. All of them are part of your network and they would be more than happy to help you, just like you would be happy to help them. These are people to be connecting with. And then, finally, fellow volunteers. And if you're not volunteering and you want to grow your network and gain current experience, check out episode three strategic volunteering ways to get current, marketable experience that's going to talk about all the different ways that you can get that experience and be volunteering, and it's going to help you grow your network immensely.

Christina Kohl: 8:52

Almost all of these people that we just listed are on LinkedIn. So I ask you now how big does your network feel? Because just a few minutes ago you might've been thinking 15 to 20, but maybe now you're realizing it might be closer to a hundred, who knows, once you start growing it. And the next piece of it? Because, like, all right, all right, christina, I'm sold, I need to be on LinkedIn. Great, but I don't have a profile, or my profile hardly has anything on it. I created it years ago and I've ignored it. Well, I've got you here.

Christina Kohl: 9:26

The main thing to think about your initial goal is connection, not perfection. So you don't have to wait until your profile is pretty perfect and absolutely like the bow tied and the ribbon and whatever. You just need to get the basics in place and you can change your profile as often as your heart desires. Your initial goal with LinkedIn is connection, not perfection. So if it's been a long time ago that you created a profile, you don't even know what it looks like. You're not even sure how to log in, or maybe you've got all the basics in there but it's just been kind of neglected, or maybe you're one of those that you know you've never even created an account. Okay, we're going to start with the basics. You need a profile picture. So profiles that have a picture are 14 times more likely to be viewed, and a recent photo makes it much more likely that people who know you will recognize you and accept your connection request. So you want it to be something that looks professional but don't get too hung up on this Just something head and shoulders, something that you like the way you look, and try to have it be centered where you're the focus of the picture.

Christina Kohl: 10:42

And then the next thing is your headline. You want to include job titles that you're aiming for. So you don't necessarily want to say, like, if you're a current stay-at-home mom, you don't necessarily want to put stay-at-home mom as your title. You want to put more of the title of a type of job that you'd be interested in doing. So if that's a marketing representative or an accountant or whatever is for you, you'd want to put those job titles that you're aiming for in your headline. A lot of people make what I think is a mistake and they list whatever their current job title is. That's LinkedIn's default when you enter in your experience section. So, for me, if I listed HR manager as my most recent job title, that's going to pop into my headline, and you can change your headline to whatever you want it to be. So, again, I would encourage you to put in job titles of the type of roles that you'd be interested in.

Christina Kohl: 11:34

So the next section is your about section. This is your opportunity to tell your story, and you can do it in a way that's a little more casual and allow more personality to show through than you can in a resume. It's one of the things I love about LinkedIn, and you want to tell your story here. If you've had a career gap, talk about how your gap has prepared you for what you want to do next, and then tie everything into your past experience and your transferable skills and have a hint your elevator pitch makes a great about section. And if you haven't heard it already, check out episode 40 of the podcast. It's called Job Search Magic, networking and Elevator Pitches for Stay-at-Home Moms, and if you're not a stay-at-home mom, this episode is still really helpful and offers a lot of really good tips about your elevator pitch and then moving on. We've got the profile picture done, the headline, the about section.

Christina Kohl: 12:33

The next thing is your career gap. If you have a career gap, you want to list that in the experience section, which is a very brief description. And for employers, there's a couple of things that are available now on LinkedIn for people that have had a career gap. You can just select career break as your employer of record. I mean, it's just a way that a little, it's a little icon and it just kind of like is becoming more commonplace. When people have that career break, it's just kind of recognized like okay, you're on a career break. Another option is called the pregnancy pause and that is it's set up again as an employer. It's not an employer, it's actually just a placeholder for you to like flag that I was on a pause. So you can use those options if you'd like for your career gap, but you don't have to.

Christina Kohl: 13:26

And then your experience you want to keep adding you know the things that you've done in your job history. You're going to add all of that there and include any accomplishments that connect to the role that you want to do and if you have a career gap from the paid workforce. I would encourage you to include your volunteer experience up in this section with work history. It's okay that it was unpaid. Unpaid experience is still experience. That is my mantra. Unpaid experience is experience and it's okay to list it in your experience section, your work history section, if it's relevant to the type of job that you want to get next.

Christina Kohl: 14:03

Okay, so keep that in mind and then that's kind of those are the basics. Obviously, you're going to add your education. Don't put the years if it's old. If there's any certifications, you want to add those. You can certainly add volunteer experience as well. Select a bunch of your skills that are relevant and that's it.

Christina Kohl: 14:22

Your profile is done and ready. It's ready and you might want to, like I said, you can perfect it over time. It's very easy to go in and make changes, but once you have the basics, start connecting with people you know, and the beauty is that LinkedIn will even offer suggestions. And this is how my daughter got her job. She just started two days ago, if you're listening, in real time. So this is October 23rd. This is going live. She just started her job on the 21st and she joined LinkedIn in October, just like a few weeks ago, and so if you aren't convinced that LinkedIn is where to connect with people, let me show you this story. So I think it was probably a class assignment.

Christina Kohl: 15:05

She is finishing up her interior design degree in the next few months and she went on LinkedIn, created her profile, started connecting with professors and fellow students and just people that she knows, and LinkedIn suggested this connection and I don't remember the man's name, but he's a home builder who also does remodels and, again, she's studying interior design. Linkedin recommended him as a connection. They have 23 connections in common, so she just sent a simple connect. She just clicked on that. It was very simple, no note or anything. And the next day he accepted her connection, sent her a direct message that said hey, I'd like to talk to you, give me a call tomorrow afternoon. And he gave her his phone number and it's like okay, this is interesting, not really sure what's going on, you know, checked him out, checked him out online, checked out his website. Like, okay, this is interesting, not really sure what's going on, you know, checked him out, checked him out online, checked out his website. Like, okay, we know who he is. So she called him the next day. They had about a 20-minute conversation. He has a job opportunity. It's part-time and, again, he's a home builder and does remodels and he needs some back office support and anyway. So she had that conversation and he said why don't you come in next week and meet the rest of the team? So she did, and that was just on Thursday, a few days ago. She met the rest of the team and it was a good fit. They offered her the job. She started on Monday.

Christina Kohl: 16:34

This is someone she did not know a week and a half ago and she now has a job and she is loving it. She's getting to have her hands on, getting hands on experience in her field while she's completing her degree. And this is again the beauty of LinkedIn, and this doesn't happen all the time. Let me just put that disclaimer out there. It is pretty unusual for people to go out to create an account and, within two or three weeks, land a job in their field that they love. But that was my daughter's experience and so, anyway, I hope that that is testament to the power of LinkedIn. And then she also. It doesn't end there. So she got the job. Now we're going to switch stories Because I'm connected with him on LinkedIn.

Christina Kohl: 17:26

Her gymnastics coach she's been a gymnast all throughout her childhood and obviously she's grown up, now young adult, but her gymnastics coach from 10 years ago. He and I are connected on LinkedIn and now that she and I are connected he saw that and she became a recommended for him. So he reached out to her and they went out and had lunch together this past week and that was a LinkedIn connection of someone she hadn't seen for a decade. That was important in her life and we just kind of lost touch with. And so you know there's a social component to it as well and he is a realtor so he can certainly maybe make some introductions for her as well on the interior design things. So you just never know where the connections are going to lead to and it's certainly not going to hurt.

Christina Kohl: 18:16

So if you're not on LinkedIn, this is my, my pitch to get out there, um to to get on on the platform and start using it. And you know, if you want help with your LinkedIn profile, let's connect. For a quick introductory call, I will put a link to my calendar in the show notes. Be more than happy to talk to you about it. And if you're gearing up for a job search, grab my free resource.

Christina Kohl: 18:43

It's a downloadable resume template for returners and there's a link in the show notes for that as well. And not only is the template ATS friendly, it's formatted in a way that highlights all your best skills and accomplishments on page one, with page two providing the context and your employment history. And, guys, this is the format that I used as a career returner, and even five years later, when I landed my next job, the template is filled with advice as well. So it's not just the format, but it's also advice of like what to put where and why. And it's a great starting point, too, for when you sit down at the computer to complete your LinkedIn profile. So, again, it's in the show notes, so grab that and let me know if you have any questions.

Christina Kohl: 19:28

All right, well, that's my story about LinkedIn and how it's helped me, how it's helped my daughter, and I can't wait to hear how it helps you. And if you are on LinkedIn, connect with me. If we're not connected already, it's Christina Cole, k-o-h-l, and my link to LinkedIn is in the show notes as well, so connect with me there. I'd be happy to connect with you and if you're creating a profile for the first time, same thing. I'll be happy to be your first connection. All right, well, I will see you on LinkedIn and I'll talk to you next week. Have a great week, guys. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope this episode hit home for you and, if you haven't already, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and say hello so I can personally thank you for listening. Until next time, remember, your story is uniquely your own, and your next chapters are ready to begin.