The Power of LinkedIn for Career and Business Development
By Olusola Leighe, Lecturer in Business, LSST Elephant and Castle campus.
LinkedIn is a vital platform for LSST students, providing numerous benefits in their journey towards successful career development. With its emphasis on professional networking, job opportunities, personal branding, and access to industry insights, LinkedIn serves as a powerful tool to build perfect connections, showcase skills, and stay updated in your respective fields. 67% of recruiters say people recruited from this site are of a higher quality and also 72% of recruiters use LinkedIn when hiring new talent more than other sites. LinkedIn is also available in 26 languages including Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, simplified Chinese and more. LSST students can benefit early in their studies and start pinpointing potential employers from the outset.
LinkedIn, established in 2003, has emerged as the leading global platform for professionals, encompassing jobseekers, recruiters, and employers (see Dixon, 2022). Boasting an impressive membership base of over 930 million individuals (LinkedIn, 2023), it is on the close verge of reaching the remarkable milestone of nearly one billion users. Notably, LinkedIn achieved its highest revenue to date, amounting to a substantial 13.8 million USD in 2022 (Dixon, 2022). These statistics alone should be enough to persuade any student to start using the platform.
Here are some important areas and ways LinkedIn can assist you during your student journey:
Professional Development
LinkedIn offers a variety of learning services, including LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com), where you may access lessons and courses to advance your abilities. It provides a comfortable setting for enhancing existing skills and developing new ones.
Table 1: Advantages
Recruitment
The platform features a large database of job seekers, 40 million people seek jobs on LinkedIn every week (Bhagwat, 2021), which can and has led to the share of expertise and has boosted the number of members within the groups.
58.4 million companies are listed on LinkedIn and are active in the recruitment drive (Aslam, 2023) and 15 million open job listings are featured regularly (Aslam, 2023). As LinkedIn continues to grow, so does the number of users who rely on it to find new jobs. Many job seekers are successful, as confirmed hires have increased by 88% year-over-year in 2022.
How many students have a LinkedIn profile?
Did you know that 85% of jobs are filled via some form of networking? But just 1 in 4 students have a LinkedIn profile. With so many face-to-face and social events taking place this year, it’s more important than ever to start building your digital network.
Educational training
There are a number of online training courses – commencing at different levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced some are certificated. LSST students can benefit from the different software programs and learning events that happen on a regular basis, including enhancing their CV skills and techniques. See: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/
LinkedIn is a cutting-edge platform for professional working, career development, knowledge sharing and business growth. It offers numerous advantages that can help LSST students expand their reach, establish their credibility and achieve their career goals. Further, it will facilitate additional international recruitment as it is used by members in 200 countries and regions (Shepherd, 2023).
Next steps
A robust LinkedIn profile that highlights your transferable skills will position you favourably and enhance your prospects in the evolving job market. To ensure the longevity and relevance of your LinkedIn profile, it is crucial to prioritise your transferable skills that hold value across diverse industries. By focusing on these adaptable skills, you can gain a competitive advantage over other candidates and effectively demonstrate your abilities to prospective employers.
For more information please contact your tutors or careers officer to discuss how they may be able to support to develop, market and promote your LinkedIn profile as you progress throughout your course.
Further Reading
References
Aslam, O. (2023) ‘LinkedIn Statistics & Facts’, Omnicore Agency, Available at: https://www.omnicoreagency.com/linkedin-statistics/ (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
Bhagwat, H. (2021) ‘5 Mind-blowing LinkedIn Statistics for Job Search’, LinkedIn Pulse, Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-mindblowing-linkedin-statistics-job-search-harshad-bhagwat-1e (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
Dixon, S. (2022) ‘LinkedIn was launched in 2003 and then became the leading worldwide platform for professionals such as jobseekers, recruiters, and employers’, Statista, Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/951/linkedin/#topicOverview (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
Dixon, S. (2022) ‘Annual revenue of LinkedIn from 2017 to 2022’ Statista, Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/976194/annual-revenue-of-linkedin/ (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
Dixon, S. (2023) ‘Countries with the highest LinkedIn audience reach as of January 2023’, Statista, Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/214707/global-online-populations-with-highest-linkedin-penetration/ (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
LinkedIn (2023) ‘About LinkedIn’, Available at: https://about.linkedin.com/ (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
LinkedIn (2023) ‘LinkedIn Logo’ LinkedIn Newsroom, Available at: https://news.linkedin.com/about-us (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
Shepherd, T. (2023) ‘LinkedIn Statistics: Usage, Demographics & Fun Facts for 2023’, The Social Shepherd, Available at: https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/linkedin-statistics#:~:text=LinkedIn%20is%20the%20top%20professional,200%20countries%20and%20regions%20worldwide. (Accessed: 16 May 2023).
Very informative!