How You Can Attract Great Jobs, Grow a Relevant Network and Achieve Career Success

Why take this course?

You’re holding down a great job but you’re not sure how long this will last. You also want to keep your options open and ensure that when great roles do come up, you will be noticed and then headhunted. You understand that key to being approached is to be visible professionally, to have a network of relevant people who can support you when you need it and to have others understand the value you can bring in your area of expertise.

But how and where do you start?

You may be unsure what you need to do or where to even begin. You may be hesitant about all this content people seem to be posting on social media sites like LinkedIn – you don’t really want to sell yourself like that. You may think you’re not that much of an expert – why should others listen to you?

Stop right there.

Chances are high you’ve been working for a number of years and built up a range of skillsets. You’ve probably already completed a diploma or degree programme of sorts. But even if you haven’t studied, your years of work experience will be relevant. So right off the starting block, you’ve got some value to bring with you. But in order to get professional success and career growth, you need a plan that can take you from here to there, in the direction you choose.

This course will help you do just that.

What you will learn

In this course, you will learn the basics of:

Why building influence is critical to your success;
What happens when you start to build influence;
Making the case for digital influence;
How to build digital influence through a professional network like LinkedIn by focusing on three specific areas – your profile, your network and your body of work;
A LinkedIn profile – why you need one and the baselines necessary for your profile;
Taking the first step: building a kickass digital profile or if you have one already, refining it.

What is a body of work?

This is, in effect, a digital portfolio which captures the essence of all your effort and ideas, across multiple repositories. What you're working to do is bring your ideas to life by creating tangible representations of it. Artists, designers and musicians - they all create a body of work. This does not and should not be limited to artists - the internet provides such a breadth of experience and opportunity you can explore and leverage to your advantage. Let me help you with that.

Along the way, you will become more familiar with LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 530 million users across more than 200 countries. While this first step involves and concentrates on your LinkedIn profile, the ideas shared transcend LinkedIn and can be applied to other social media platforms you choose to use.

This course is great for professionals of all ages but especially those:

who have a LinkedIn account but have not done much on the platform and looking to kick start their efforts;
who do not have a LinkedIn account but are curious about its benefits and then how to begin setting a profile up;
with very little social media experience but are interested to get started using it to support their goals;
who are on the lookout for new opportunities – a different company, different location or different industry to work in and want to be considered, board directorships or interesting high profile projects to be part of;
who want to gain more professional visibility, be invited to speak at conferences or workshops or are looking to see how they can better support their industry.

The first of a series of three courses

My goal for you is to build more influence and you will do so by focusing on three specific areas – your profile, your network and your body of work. In this course, you will learn about the first part – developing or refining your profile.

Separately, in my second course, you will learn about growing a relevant network. You will learn why you need a network, who should be part of it and how you can build one from scratch. In the third and final course, you will learn about building a body of work. You will learn what it means to have one, why you need it and how to build it.

Individually, these courses will strengthen you professionally but together, they will enable you to become a powerhouse, helping you achieve the professional success you’re after. While each course is separate, they build upon each other and it is best to take the courses in the order presented.

Do you need prior knowledge or experience?

While it will be easier if you have a passing familiarity with LinkedIn and other social media platforms, it is not necessary to have this to join this course. This course just assumes that you are already part of the workforce, even if you are taking a career break or between jobs.

What this course is not about

an in-depth how-to on the LinkedIn platform;
an in-depth review on social media mastery.

What will you need to do the course?

A LinkedIn account – a free subscription is available.
Your resume. At the very least, some notes on your work history and goals in terms of roles you are keen on.
If you currently don’t have a LinkedIn profile, please let me know in the project description.
If you do have a profile already:
- take screenshots of the profile and save this in a word document. This will help you capture what you had at the start and then compare it with what you’ve developed at the end of the project;
- make a note of how many connections you currently have and keep this record handy, reviewing this after a month, three months, half a year and annually. Keep notes on when you started down this journey, what changes you are making and when, recording what you have at present so you can compare with developments later.

Project Description

Your project will be to create a LinkedIn profile and if you’ve already got one, to then conduct an audit to check whether you’ve got the baselines in place and see what other things you can do to produce a kick-ass profile that stands out for all the right reasons. I will take you through a workflow for brainstorming ideas, refining your goals and then capturing this well in your profile.

What you will need:

A LinkedIn account (free memberships are available);
Your resume.

Resources

Getting started on LinkedIn – baselines necessary for a kick ass profile;
LinkedIn ROI checklist.

Optional

If you’d like to be featured on my website, please join my newsletter or email me your LinkedIn profile (before and after screenshots). I will do LinkedIn profile reviews from time to time.

Step 1: Gather materials > brainstorm career goals > outline ideas briefly.
Step 2: Log into your LinkedIn account > develop various sections of your profile > publish the changes.
Step 3: Discover and clean up your LinkedIn profile URL and share this link in your class project.

Lesson plan at https://www.dropbox.com/s/k8l2edw0c9w8ent/Skillshare_BuildingInfluenceThroughLinkedIn_ClassOutlineV01.docx?dl=0

Rowena Morais

Writer | Editor | 2x TEDx Speaker

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