Recap: Optimizing Your Resume and Linkedin Workshop
On Tuesday, September 20, the LSCDS hosted its first workshop of the new academic year on optimizing your resume and Linkedin profile. This and future workshops and career seminars are hosted by the Career Seminars Team. Starting this year, the LSCDS is partnering with UofT Career Exploration & Education to increase the expertise and knowledge of our attendees on elements related to career exploration and development, such as resume optimization, interview practice and tips, and strategies for negotiating salaries and contracts. In this workshop, we had over 60 attendees learn practical tips on how to highlight their skills in their resumes, understand how to create a great Linkedin profile, and ask their questions in an interactive Q&A period with our Career Educator, Hannah Stevenson!
Creating your job-winning resume that translates your past experiences to resonate with your future employer is not easy. It can even be a greater challenge when you are striving to identify and share your relevant skills and accomplishments to stand out in a competitive market. In addition, with more than 20 million people registered on Linkedin in Canada [1], Linkedin has become a powerful platform to help you grow your network and attract opportunities. Thus, having a clear strategy to utilize your resume and Linkedin profile will make them your strongest marketing tools!
During this event, our career educator offered excellent advice for those looking for optimizing their resume:
Tailor your resume to the job posting. Hannah highly recommended transferring the job posting to a word document and highlighting the skills, competencies, and verbs mentioned in the job posting before you start writing your accomplishment statements in your resume.
Put your strongest selling point at the top. When writing your accomplishment statements, the order is important! Our guest encouraged attendees to ask themselves, “what do I want the hiring manager to notice about me?”
Include “Highlights of qualifications” at the top of your resume. In this section, Hannah recommended avoiding being too specific to one role, but instead using 3-5 bullet points about the things you are most proud of and your most important qualifications.
The event was rounded off by Hannah explaining how being strategic using Linkedin will jump-start and sustain your job search, in addition to helping you effectively use it to its fullest potential.
Individualize your profile. Hannah suggested completing all the sections and specifically working on a strong headline.
Build your Linkedin network. Start from the UofT alumni page. Explore different professional groups that align with your interests.
Update your status to present the most authentic and accurate version of you! Interacting with other people’s posts or even making your own can help you be active and maintain your professional network.
We cannot wait until our next workshop and our first Career Seminar on Pharma and R&D, taking place on Wednesday, October 19 (learn more here)! Be sure to check out the LSCDS events calendar to learn about and register for our future events. Do not forget to also follow us on our social media – LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter!
[1] Kepios analysis of data published in LinkedIn’s advertising tools in July 2022.
