LinkedIn can be an indispensable tool not only at the beginning of your career, but throughout your working life. Professionals use LinkedIn to stay connected with other professionals, keep current on trends and happenings, meet other professionals and expand networks, and of course to source new career opportunities. There are over 530 million professionals in the LinkedIn community, all sharing their knowledge, skills and resources to help you reach your goals.

Get Started

There are an average of 1 million job postings on LinkedIn each month. Beyond posted positions, over 20 million professionals use LinkedIn every week. This includes hiring managers and recruiters. Having a profile on LinkedIn makes you visible to those looking for great talent.
 
  1. Start by creating or updating your LinkedIn profile, and adding your personal url to your
    resume.
  2. Get your free professional LinkedIn picture taken. Call 406.994.4353 for drop - in hours at SUB177.
  3. If you don’t already have a resume, check out Resume Assistant, a new integration from Microsoft and LinkedIn to help you craft a compelling resume directly within Microsoft Word. Remember, a Career Coach can help you put the final polish on your resume.

 

Explore Jobs

Once your profile is up to date, start searching for jobs.

  • By clicking on the Jobs icon, you will be taken to a page where specific organizations and positions are recommended based on your profile and your network connections.
  • Click on the Career Interests button to let recruiters know you are open, and to share your
    career interests with recruiters.
  • Update your Career Interests so you will appear in the search results recruiters look at. The information you list there also informs the daily job recommendations sent to you from LinkedIn.
  • Search for positions right from the search bar. You can modify your search by industry, employer size, job title, job type, location and more.
  • Check out the following helpful link: How to Use LinkedIn to Get a Job.
  • Use LinkedIn’s new career exploration pages to explore the professional landscape and browse job titles within various job functions across industries.

 

Engineering Jobs    Entreprenereurial Jobs    Human Resources Jobs    Education Jobs    Marketing Jobs 

Sales Jobs    Consulting Jobs    Accounting Jobs    Finance Jobs    Legal Jobs

 

Explore Earning Potential

Under the Jobs icon, you can explore salary and other compensation information for various positions based on geographic location. The salary insights tool includes information on salary, bonus, tips, and equity compensation data for positions based on industry, company size, education level, and years of experience. There is also the option to drill down into specific companies to give you in depth compensation information to help you be prepared to ask for what you are worth.
 

Connect with Alumni

LinkedIn also offers the LinkedIn Alumni tool to make it easy for you to connect with Montana State alum. Simply type in Montana State University–Bozeman and select See Alumni. Use the connections you find to expand your network and enhance your career search potential.
 
Linked In screen shot displaying See Alumni page
 

Seek a Mentor

LinkedIn offers a Career Advice feature to connect members who either want to be a mentor or who would like to be mentored. More than 80% of professionals on LinkedIn stated they would like to be in a mentor/mentee relationship. Use this feature to connect with someone for guidance on career paths, best practices, industry insights and more.

To activate this feature:

  1. click on your Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
  2. Select View profile.
  3. In the Your Dashboard section, click Career Advice hub.

 Linked In screen shot displaying the Your Dashboard page

Help for Entrepreneurs

In today’s economy, more and more professionals are turning to freelance work. To meet a growing need, LinkedIn launched ProFinder, a freelance market place being used by over 70,000 freelance professionals across the nation.  If you are a freelance or independent professional, consider applying to be a service provider on LinkedIn. 

If you are starting your own business, and need help with web design, marketing or legal matters, use ProFinder to receive a curated list of up to 5 highly qualified, local freelance professionals within 24 hours of your request submission. This service is available for specific categories within the US.