Why You Need to Join LinkedIn (If You Haven't Already)

Creating a LinkedIn profile is an important step in the career-changing process. You probably have some valid concerns about alerting your colleagues to your plans, whether it’s in person or through social media. But it’s possible to create a profile and begin researching new fields without feeling like you’ve rented a billboard to advertise your intentions.

LinkedIn has grown substantially in recent years; the majority of people on the site are not necessarily looking for jobs. They join because it gives them a place to showcase their professional expertise and share that expertise with other people in their field. You may find several current colleagues are already on the site.

I must confess that I’m not making the most of LinkedIn, but I’m trying to incorporate more visits into my routine.  Joining groups and following companies in careers fields of interest to you can provide you with helpful information and contacts. You should pay close attention to privacy settings, since those will allow you to use the site freely. When you create your profile, you should keep in mind that you can edit it at any time, so if you aren’t ready to fully execute your career change, it can reflect your current skills and responsibilities.

I’ll be sharing additional tips from my own experience as I go along. In the meantime, here are some additional resources that I found useful:

• This Huffington Post article has great information about using LinkedIn discreetly, describing how you can use the site to research new fields, and later network and find a new position.

• Here’s a great post on using LinkedIn to find volunteer opportunities. If you’re planning to go from teaching to the non-profit world, gaining volunteer experience can help you learn about the field while building new skills.

• There are some good tips in this article, though visually it’s not very well organized and the writing is choppy. But if you can overlook those elements, you will find basic information on setting up your profile. The article also suggests a professional photo, which I don’t think is absolutely necessary.  A good photo of you (not you and your cat, or your dog, or your hamster) should suffice.

• Here’s a checklist from the HarvardExtensionHub. It’s organized based on the profile section, and links to additional information if you need it.

• Finally, LinkedIn has its own blog, which is also a great resource, especially once you’ve completed your profile and have gained some proficiency with the site.

I do have one tip to share in closing. Write the sections of your Background profile (which will include the Summary, Experience and Projects) in a word processing document. Having a backup copy will be useful. Also, always think of your profile as a draft, and be looking for ways to improve it. Though I don’t go on the site as often as I should, I almost always make a small improvement or two to my profile when I’m there.