This week, I took an academic approach to my blog post. I looked at studies and various journal articles that looked into what it truly means to have an authentic online professional profile. I then found it beneficial to read and comment on the blogs of my peers, and receive comments from my peers on my own post, whom took less of an academic approach.
Melina’s comment on my blog made me reconsider a study I had described, which explained that employers are indifferent to volunteer experience. She reminded me that volunteering experience is often gained in lieu of actual work experience, and that nobody should leave it out of their LinkedIn if they believe it is valuable. This helped me to see that a professional profile is not just about work experience and education, but also about what you do outside of this. It also helped me see that adding volunteer experience to one’s profile adds to the authenticity.
Kemi-Grace’s blog was very insightful. She helped me to understand that social media and its importance in recruitment spans beyond just my industry (marketing), but also to other sectors – e.g. legal. Until reading her blog, I did not grasp just how widespread the importance of an authentic online professional profile was. Another (more trivial) insight gained from her blog was the fact that many employers think a LinkedIn profile picture should be in ‘corporate attire’ – something I should probably think about (see Figure 1.1 below)!
Figure 1.1 – My LinkedIn.
Ellis’ post also helped me gain insight. I learnt from her post that blogging is one way to build your professional online profile outside of using traditional forms of social media, such as LinkedIn and Twitter. However, I question whether this can be applied to every profession or just certain professions where a blog may be useful – marketing, journalism or public relations for example.
Figure 1.2 below is a Piktochart infographic which shows the 3 key insights I have learnt throughout this topic.
Figure 1.2 – Key Insights from Topic 3.
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My comments:
SOTONSAM 