Your digital profile
Tips for your appearance in digital career networks
If you're looking for a job or a new activity, you don't have to wait for offers - you can become active yourself. Digital networks offer a wide range of opportunities to draw attention to yourself. Career networks such as XING or LinkedIn offer the opportunity to network with potential new employers and employees from a wide range of industries. We will show you a few tips on how to design a convincing profile.
Your Business Card
- The photo: Use an authentic, friendly and professional photo. The first impression counts!
- On XING: list your current status, e.g. "Currently writing thesis".
- Name your course of study and current activities.
- You can also include your location and contact details here.
- Special feature of LinkedIn: The first thing people will see on your profile is your profile picture on the one hand and your profile slogan on the other. If you do not enter a slogan, the position of your current work experience will simply appear here. For example, you could tell people what you are currently studying.
Career Status
- If you are looking for a job, you can communicate this openly on your profile. You decide whether only recruiters or other members are allowed to see this.
- On XING, this is entered via the "Job wishes" field.
- On LinkedIn, you can enter your status under "Open for job offers".
About You
- On XING: A brief introduction of yourself is possible here: Who are you and what makes you special?
- On LinkedIn there is the summary. In this free textbox you can describe your goals, experiences and motivation.
Career
- Here you can list your professional experience that you have gained so far. You can omit occupations that are not relevant to your professional future in this case. Also, for each job, briefly describe what your duties were there.
- Any training or voluntary service should also be recorded here.
Skills and Knowledge
- The more specific you are about your skills, knowledge and education, the better LinkedIn and XING can assess who you might be of interest to.
- To do this, enter specific keywords, such as "project management, conflict management, Excel skills, ability to work in a team, etc."
- Be as specific as possible here because this is the only way recruiters can find you.
- On XING, you can use the "Campus" section to display skills that are specific to your field of study, which will help recruiters find you more easily.
- You can also create qualifications and awards in both networks to set yourself apart from others.
- A special feature of LinkedIn: Here you can have your skills and knowledge confirmed by your contacts. You can also confirm the skills of others.
Languages
- On XING, you can specify your languages with the respective skill level.
- Additionally, LinkedIn gives you the option to add your profile in another language. This could be relevant for you if you are also interested in companies abroad.
Interests
- On XING, you can indicate your professional interests on the one hand, but also interests outside of studies and work.
- On LinkedIn, your memberships in groups are displayed to other members.
Building your Network
- To build a network, you need contacts, because this way you make yourself visible with your profile and are also automatically suggested to other members as a contact.
- The best way is to start with fellow students, work colleagues, friends, and people you have met at events or meetings.
- Later, you can also ask people from a similar industry. If you do not yet know the person personally, it is useful to write a message explaining why you would like to network.
- Based on the data you provide new contacts will be suggested to you automatically.
- Keep in mind that it's not just about collecting a large mass of contacts. Select your contacts consciously with regard to your professional goals.
Networking in Groups
- LinkedIn has its own groups for many topics and professional fields, where members can find interesting links and job offers, among other things. For a recruiter, membership in a suitable group can signal specialist interest, for example.
- In these groups, you will be remembered especially if you also post and comment on contributions yourself.
Visibility and Privacy
- At the bottom of your XING profile, you have the option to edit the visibility settings. In addition, you can specify in the settings of your profile which data and information about you should be visible on XING.
- For example, you can determine here whether only logged-in members or all members can find you and who can send you a message. If you are looking for contacts and/or job offers, however, you should not hide too much information here and the message function should also be activated.
- The same applies to LinkedIn. Here, you can manage your visibility and privacy settings yourself as well. You can find these in the general settings under Privacy and Visibility.