It’s a platform where you can create your portfolio from scratch and endorse your personal branding, your achievements, and your capabilities all for FREE! It’s the perfect place for a prospective job candidate to catch the eye of recruiters (irrespective of any industry out there).

But most Bangladeshis think of this platform as a notice board. They create an account because most job profiles demand a LinkedIn URL, upload two/three generic posts, and simply wait for recruiters to magically appear and offer them a job on a silver platter.

That’s not what happens 90% of the time, and we Bangladeshis feel that LinkedIn is not serving its purpose – landing me a job in the first place.

Here is what we should be doing to ensure that we get that call for the interview:

Create your profile in the correct manner

Yes, as cliché as it sounds, your profile picture matters. It does not have to be your passport-sized formal picture; instead, a casual and smart-looking picture with clear lighting and a professional background from your smartphone is simply enough.

Similarly, a well-defined headline also matters. It creates the hook for the viewers, which compels them to give your profile a read. While most of us keep the default headline as “Undergraduate Student at XYZ student”, it doesn’t tell much about you. The headline should be concrete, impactful and precisely tell the viewer what he/she will see while scrolling down the profile.

Hence, instead, set the headline as “Final-year BBA Student | Aspiring AI and Tech Enthusiast” (if you are a part of any university club, add its name and position in 2 words also); it immediately gives the viewer a vision regarding how you are as a person.

Add your About Section in a very brief manner. Most people just copy-paste their CV/Resume, which is something you absolutely should not be doing. Nobody reads it. Instead, write about what you studied, what is your passion, what you are currently doing, and what you want to achieve in small paragraphs. Make it a short and well-rounded story for the viewers.

Add relevant Experience sections with clear and precise explanations about what you did. Now, most of the students face obstacles here regarding what to write, especially for those who have zero working experience. But what if I say you can still create a standard profile? If you have been a part of any undergraduate student club, add that. Write about your role, what you used to do, preferably in specific bullet points.

Remember the event that your club hosted where you have done XYZ activities? Write those down too and correlate it with skills such as communication, management, coordination, etc. Remember, skills cannot be quantified, but you can always create a backend story, such as “I have good communication and leadership skills because I have led a team of 10 people to execute the XYZ event of my university club”.

Similarly, once you have added your Education, Volunteering, and other sections perfectly, your Profile is all set to go!

Send connection requests in the right manner

This is where most freshers make mistakes. They send bulky connection requests to CEOs/MDs/CHROs who probably have around hundreds of such requests pending in their respective notification boxes. While you should send them connection requests, it is wiser to send requests to people who are two-to-five years ahead of you. They are most likely to accept your request and view your profile at a glance. And always try to send a polite and professional two-liner text as a gratitude for accepting your request, such as “Hello, thank you so much for accepting my request, it’s great connecting with you”. This serves as a great ice-breaking message from where you can take up your next string of messages.

Do not ask for any job right away after he/she accepts your connection request; that will be putting you off in their radar. Try to familiarise yourself with their work and career, and engage with their content first. Build a good and warm connection first, then ask when a certain opportunity or situation arises.

What and what not to post

This is where we always spend the most amount of time wondering. What should we be posting? And should we comment on his/her post or not? What will people say?

Let’s keep what people will think in the back of our head, because those hypothetical judgements are not going to help build your career. Comment meaningfully on posts of professionals in your targeted industry, instead of “Amazing!” because that adds absolutely nothing to your value. Meaningful comments will most likely ensure a reply back from them, which can again create a string of messages for your benefit in future.

And regarding posting, post about what you are learning currently, which can be a project that you have been assigned by your university faculty. Try to post keeping in mind what it was about and what its outcome is going to be, and the steps you have taken in order to attain your outcome. Try to add a picture with relevant hashtags, because it creates an extra amount of traffic to your post. Try to avoid motivational posts. It generally creates no value and loses the visibility that your post usually generates.

LinkedIn is not just simply a platform or an URL that is to be added in your resume or CV; it is an abundant and active hub of professionals through which you can network and create your own community. If you start early and give it a dedicated amount of time, instead of just logging in and out once in a blue moon, it will reward you in due time. So use this platform properly and consistently.

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Khatun A Jannat Chowdhury is a young professional and researcher. She is a strong advocate of digital equity and tech inclusion in Bangladesh.