This week’s seminar in business management course hosted by IBMBA must be a special one. Two speakers are invited to have a co-sharing about LinkedIn and career. It is the first time we have Mr. Alex Chao & Mr. John Ho here. They both worked for LinkedIn and have diverse working experience. In today’s speech, students will get to know more about how to use LinkedIn and gain advice for their future careers.

LinkedIn is the most used platform for students to appeal themselves to the company, the first step for their career plan. Alex, the first Taiwanese employee of LinkedIn, gives students more information about LinkedIn, to show the effectiveness of using LinkedIn for their future careers. It is more than finding a job or searching for an interesting industry. The overarching value proposition at LinkedIn is “connect to opportunity”. And this is connected to opportunity in whatever way that means to you. Some examples such as getting a job, building your professional identity, learning a skill, etc. While LinkedIn is not the end of all questions, it can be the stepping stone to connecting you to opportunities. Besides, Alex provides useful skills for students to improve their LinkedIn profiles. From personal photos to posts, students benefit from the skills. Other than LinkedIn, Alex shares some thoughts about career means to him. He believes that we do not need to work on the same thing for our whole life. It is fine to change your job and find the job that you want. The most important thing is to get yourself prepared for the future and work for yourself instead of others. Last but not the least, Alex uses his career experience as a case study. His background and career make him able to provide different advice to different people. Also, sharing some important skills for students’ future careers.

The second part is given by John to provide more overseas career experience. First of all, John shares about languages. He believes that the reason why he can get many working opportunities over the world is because of language. His parent forces him to speak Chinese at home while they live in the state. John shares that non of their relatives keep the practice of speaking Chinese but they do. It is not an easy journey, however, the result shows it is worth doing so. Next, John shares that the first step of his career is LinkedIn. For John, LinkedIn is his professional Facebook. He shows the students how he utilize LinkedIn from then til now. Let himself as an example, he shares some skills of using LinkedIn. The technique of showing your strength to the people who view your profile. Showing what means and matters to you, can help you to stand out from others. The recommendation section is also very useful on LinkedIn. John believes that words from others can help you to know yourself better. And those words are support material to your personality for a company that still does not know you. It is better to give your commendation before receiving it, people always appreciate any recommendation from others. When you are willing to give out recommendations, you are able to receive more. Those recommendations will help you to improve yourself, earn trust, and connect to different companies.

Questions by students

1. How to let my target company see me on LinkedIn?
   • First, follow the company you are interested in, there will be lots of news and connections. Try to interact with the company through connections or posts. The HR will see you and view you profile, than you can try to connect via message or email.
2. How to build connections in a new environment?
   • Have a meet and greet rather than work on the first day. It is better to build connections and get to know each other and their practices. Try not to ask for something and tell others to work for you at first. With this, colleagues are more willing to cooperate with you and less conflict will happen.