WHY AM I WRITING THIS BLOG SERIES?
Available Resources. Great question! If you Google LinkedIn, you will find barrels of resources that provide tips and tricks for preparing your “profile” and how to do a job search. You can even go to LinkedIn and use their resources to learn how to do everything on the site, as you may already have tried. Having read most of this material to prepare myself for this blog series, I will tell you that those materials are excellent, especially the LinkedIn User Guides.
Why Moi? I have nothing vested in LinkedIn. They don’t know me. All of the Google sources are written by and for the business community, not professors. LinkedIn’s guide is probably prepared by an IT specialist.
Academic Spin. My purpose is not to replicate the available resources, because I couldn’t begin to do that, nor is there any need to reinvent the LinkedIn wheel. My intention is to address the needs of academicians and put an academic spin on certain critical aspects of the site. The profile headings have always been slanted toward business and industry. For example, one of my complaints has been “no place to list my publications” that are central to my credibility.
Guess what, academicians? Faculty crying and yelping paid off. LinkedIn just added sections on Publications, Patents, Certifications, Skills, Languages, and other areas you present in your CV. Do those headings address an academic gap in LinkedIn? You bet. How many of you knew that? Oh, you did. Sorry. I haven’t seen a pub listing by anyone in my network yet. I will be covering those sections in an upcoming blog.
Business Spin for Academicians. Further, I have dealt with the pain of starting a formal speaking business. Some of the wounds related to writing copy for business brochures and to developing and executing marketing strategies are healing, but they may be of value to you before they become infected.
We’re All Consultants. Since my first year at Johns Hopkins, I was told that one of the criteria to determine my value and worth as a professor is the number of requests I receive outside my institution to consult and speak. I was in business and didn’t even know it. Outsiders affirm your expertise; they build your credibility. The number and type of invitations to the White House and Capitol Hill to advise the President and testify before Congress really count when you come up for promotion.
Had I known then what I know now about running a business, my consulting life might have been more productive. If you’re a newbie, some of my tips may be helpful.
My next blog will begin with the Public Profile you display. How different is it from your CV and what you present on your institution’s Website? What professional information is critical for your colleagues, clients, and students to know about you? You have total control over what is presented and who sees it. We will work through the profile step-by-step with an occasional hop or 2.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
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