{"id":60461,"date":"2014-02-11T10:45:49","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T15:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=60461"},"modified":"2014-02-11T11:53:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T16:53:13","slug":"crafting-your-linkedin-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=60461","title":{"rendered":"Crafting your LinkedIn Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bradley Woodruff, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Crafting your LinkedIn Summary<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"bradleywoodruff\"<\/a>If you\u2019re a LinkedIn<\/a> user, you may have pondered over the summary portion of your profile. What IS the LinkedIn summary for? Your profile already summarizes your work history, education, experience, volunteer work, and every accomplishment you\u2019ve made. The Summary? That\u2019s what grabs whoever is visiting your page. It is, essentially, your elevator speech.<\/p>\n

*groan<\/i>*<\/p>\n

No, but really. That\u2019s what it is. Consider it a summary of who you are and what you do, which will help the person visiting your page understand what you have to offer.<\/p>\n

I struggled with this section on my own page until recently, when I had a conversation with Joshua Waldman from CareerEnlightenment.com<\/a>. Joshua is a marketing consultant who specializes in job searching with social media. He breaks the summary into the following four questions:<\/p>\n

Who are you?<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you do?<\/em><\/p>\n

Why are you the best?<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you want?<\/em><\/p>\n

The first two are simple to answer. I am so-and-so. I am a librarian. Maybe using computers sometimes. Or\u2026 something about books? The second two take more consideration, but these two are the most important pieces.<\/p>\n

Why are you the best? <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Think of a time you solved a problem. Think of an example that sets you apart or shows what you can do. This exercise is doubly good because you can use these same examples in an interview. Once you have a situation, try to describe it in just a sentence or two. We don\u2019t need to know all the details; just give enough information to make us want the rest of the details.<\/p>\n

What do you want? <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

A job, perhaps? What kind of job? What do you want to do? Who do you want to know? This is where you come out and ask for the thing you\u2019re looking for right now, because nobody is going to know what you want if you don\u2019t come out and say what it is. Be as specific or as vague as you\u2019re comfortable being, but tell the reader what you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

After I went through this process with my own summary, I went from this:<\/p>\n

Librarian specializing in information management, digital publishing, and digital repositories.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To this:<\/p>\n

Librarian specializing in information management, digital publishing, and digital repositories. I like to use technology to solve problems. When my library school needed a way for students to gain digital repository experience, I installed and configured an instance of DSpace that eventually housed the school\u2019s online archives. I\u2019m interested in networking with other information professionals who enjoy constructing and deconstructing tech. <\/i><\/i>
\nIt\u2019s not perfect yet, but it says a lot more about me than what I started with. Also, as I gain more experiences and change what I\u2019m looking for, it will evolve.
\nOn a final and related note, our library purchased Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies<\/a>, written by Joshua Waldman, and it has been pretty popular among our patrons (but I work in a career services library, so it kind of makes sense that it would be). If you\u2019re in on the job market, I would recommend finding it at a library near you. He does a nice job of laying out social media strategies and suggesting tactics and resources that you may not have considered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bradley Woodruff, Head Editor, INALJ Wisconsin Crafting your LinkedIn Summary If you\u2019re a LinkedIn user, you may have pondered over the summary portion of your profile. What IS the LinkedIn summary for? Your profile already summarizes your work history, education, experience, volunteer work, and every accomplishment you\u2019ve made. The Summary? That\u2019s what grabs whoever…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,5920,3597,41],"class_list":["post-60461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-bradley-woodruff","tag-inalj-wisconsin","tag-linkedin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bradleywoodruff.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-fJb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}