Ahoy, Voyagers. In this article, we want to make you understand the importance of this incredible social media platform called LinkedIn in your life as an international student or immigrant in Canada. Also, we want to emphasize how it can help your education, career, and life even before leaving for Canada or after living in Canada.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn has the largest professional network on the internet out of all the social media platforms. You can use LinkedIn to find the right job, volunteering opportunity, or internship, connect and strengthen your professional connections, learn the skills you need to succeed in your career, and build your personal brand. With a well-built, optimized, and complete LinkedIn profile you can connect with opportunities by showcasing your unique professional story through experience, skills, education, and much more. You can also build your professional network, and personal brand and make a difference in your industry on LinkedIn by joining groups, writing articles, posting industry-related content of photos and videos, and more.
Who should join LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is your platform if you are someone who is looking to
- move to Canada for your education
- find volunteer and internship opportunities during your study in Canada
- land a full-time or part-time job while studying and after graduating in Canada
- Advance your career and expand your professional network
- Build your personal brand to showcase your uniqueness in your field
That includes people from diverse professional backgrounds, such as students, job seekers, entrepreneurs, etc.
You, as a LinkedIn member, have the opportunity to tap into a network of professionals, companies, and groups within and beyond your industry.
Why should I use LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is the largest and most dominant social network in the professional arena. Totally different from the likes of Facebook and other social media platforms, it is used for maintaining a professional persona and brand. Other uses for LinkedIn include finding a job, networking, keeping yourself updated with industry news/trends, and even getting to know about your education providers and recruiting companies along with its recruiters.
How can I join and use LinkedIn?
In order to join this platform and connect with the world’s professionals. Here are a few steps to get started on LinkedIn:
- Creating your profile: Signing up and creating your profile is the best way to begin using LinkedIn. A complete profile will summarize your professional experience with your connections, current, and future employers, and recruiters. Through your profile, you can showcase your professional life, milestones, skills, and interests.
- Building your network: Your network plays a crucial part in unlocking the power of LinkedIn. It’ll help you understand what is happening in your industry and professional circle. You can begin by adding your family, friends, past or current classmates, and coworkers to your network. You can also follow people, companies, or topics. You can use the multitude of LinkedIn features to create, share, engage, learn, and do much more.
- Finding a job: If you’re looking for any professional opportunity, you can get started on your job search on LinkedIn. You can use LinkedIn to research companies and reach out to the hiring community. You can also apply directly for jobs, save a particular job opportunity, and notify your connections and recruiters that you’re open for job opportunities.
- Engaging in conversations: You can easily participate in conversations on LinkedIn. Participating in conversations can allow you to share your perspective on relevant issues and topics with others. You can like and comment on posts and articles on LinkedIn. You can create or join LinkedIn Groups to connect and grow with members who share your interests, experiences, or aspirations. You can also express yourself to other members’ content using LinkedIn reactions, to easily communicate with your network.
- Posting content: Millions of members come to LinkedIn every day to connect, learn, and share. You can empower and educate your professional circle with the content you post on LinkedIn. You can also share your thoughts and ideas with LinkedIn members using the share box.
What can I do on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn enables you to network with people and professional organizations in your industry. This is a great tool to stay up-to-date with the latest developments and to share information with others in your field.
- Connect with your university and college professors
- Know more about your school, college, or university
- Get to know your new Home Away From Home, Canada
- Understand the Canadian job marketplace
- Find a job
- Connect with professionals, recruiters, and industry leaders
- Stay updated with company news
- Grow your professional network
- Build your personal brand
Why and how should I use LinkedIn before leaving for Canada?
You might feel no need for LinkedIn in your current situation. Before you lose this precious time getting yourself into this hotspot for professionals and industry leaders, here are a bunch of scenarios on how you can get help using LinkedIn even before leaving for Canada.
You are planning your study in Canada
When planning your study in Canada there are a lot of unknown factors like information on the curriculum, confusion on what school or major to choose from, what’s the city or province or university like, etc., you wish you were able to address.
Solution: You can connect with that university professor, student recruiters, college lecturers, passed-out alumni, your major/niche-related professors or students, and other current students of a particular university to find answers to all your questions. You can also check out and follow that particular university or college’s LinkedIn Page to get more information, and updates and access the current situation of the institution through analyzing their post engagements.
You are planning your move to Canada
When planning your move to Canada, information and familiarization are key. In this situation, it will be great for you to know more about the organization you want to work for, what’s the work culture and that particular industry like, what’s it like to stay in that city, etc.
Solution: You can address work-related concerns by connecting with the company or industry-related professionals from Canada to communicate and get answers. You can also talk to a particular company’s recruiting manager to understand the work situation and follow the company page to get updates. To know more about a city or province, there is a whole bunch of non-profit organizations you could follow and connect with their people by addressing your concerns.
Why and how should I use LinkedIn after coming to Canada?
LinkedIn plays a major role in the lives of professionals, especially in Canada. Knowing its importance can change your life for the good in Canada. As an international student or immigrant, you must value the importance of building your network in a foreign country and the kind of opportunity it might bring along. LinkedIn is the ultimate tool for you to strategically increase your chances of succeeding in Canada. Here are some examples of scenarios and solutions for using this platform effectively after coming to Canada.
You are studying in Canada
Higher studies in general needs a lot of time, effort, and planning let alone doing it in another country. To make sure all your efforts are recorded and rewarded, it is essential to showcase them properly.
Solution: You can do that with the help of LinkedIn to show your potential recruiters/employers and other professionals the kind of PRO you are.
You are looking for a job, internship, or volunteer opportunity in Canada
While studying or after graduating in Canada, finding the right opportunity is very crucial for your career development whether it may be volunteering, internship, or job opportunity.
Solution: You can find your ultimate job opportunity using LinkedIn. On this platform, recruiters and employers from all over Canada post their vacancies. You will be able to find volunteer, internship, and job opportunities and apply for them easily in just a few steps. You can find anything and everything about companies you want to apply to by following them to research the company and stay updated with the company news. You can also connect with recruiters and current employees to learn more about the company culture and much more.
You want to build your personal brand on LinkedIn to elevate your online presence.
Personal branding means everything to a professional in their industry or niche. Strategically building and maintaining your online presence is crucial for your personal brand. LinkedIn is a great platform to showcase the professional you are and build your personal brand.
Solution: You can do personal branding on this platform by having a well-built optimized profile showcasing your skills and expertise, sharing industry knowledge, advising and providing feedback to other LinkedIn members, and engaging with your like-minded professionals and on niche-oriented LinkedIn groups. You can execute this by meticulously planning your personal branding strategy for growing your network and engaging with your target audience.
Here’s our favorite quote by Germany Kent, an American award-winning TV personality
If you are on social media, and you are not learning, not laughing, not being inspired, or not networking, then you are using it wrong.
Germany Kent
As important as it is to join Linkedin, it is of much significance the kind of impact and engagement your LinkedIn profile creates. Please understand that just signing up on this platform is not enough. Results can be driven and goals can be achieved only for properly built, fully optimized, and completed LinkedIn profiles. It might seem a lot to take in but fret not. Your captains at HY Voyagers got you covered. We offer a range of goal-oriented LinkedIn services that can help with…
- Auditing your already existing LinkedIn profile – The Audit Package
- Building you a profile to become an official LinkedIn member among the pool of professionals – The Build Package
- Optimizing your existing LinkedIn profile to showcase your uniqueness in order to stand out in the crowd – The Optimize Package
- Managing your current profile to post custom content and facilitate engagement with your network thereby increasing your personal brand awareness – The Manage Package
- We also offer a special add-on package to help curate your queries, doubts, and doubts as such regarding the usage of this platform – The LinkedIn Care Package
Please remember Voyagers, we are here for you. Happy LinkedIn-ing ♡
