developing an online professional profile: a reflection.

Passing the halfway point of this course has made me realise how much I’ve learnt so far from it; in Topic 2 we covered the idea of having multiple online identities, whether they be for professional or personal purposes. Topic 3 has taken this one step further and we have looked into developing an authentic and professional profile. This week I used a case study in my blog post to highlight an individual who I believe has successfully managed to develop his own authentic profile on the web, using some rather unorthodox methods!

Catherine and I held a discussion on my blog post, as she believed that James’ methods were “limiting” but we did agree that James was using these out of the ordinary online tools as a way to spread his resume. Catherine mentioned that he wasn’t using the speed-dating app as “a platform to develop his professional profile” whereas I felt that he was, his presence on the app is no different to the way he portrays himself on other more conventional networks, thus giving him an authentic and consistent online identity.

What did I learn from the others’ blog posts? Quite a lot actually! Lucy’s blog post was great in that she had embedded a video from LinkedIn which highlighted the fact you didn’t need to be old “with a heavy briefcase” to put yourself on there! Her top tips showed that LinkedIn and Twitter aren’t all that different when it comes to having an authentic professional profile and I’ve taken her tips on board and started to follow a few companies that I’d love to work for.

After reading Aumar’s blog post, I reflected on what I’m really using LinkedIn for. Aumar and I have both left out things on our LinkedIn that we find aren’t really relevant to the field of work we want to go into, but I wondered if putting all my retail positions up would highlight transferrable skills I’ve gained from those jobs. However, as Aumar quite rightly pointed out, LinkedIn is “a professional platform to network with people who are interested in your field of expertise”, so maybe we should spend more time tailoring our profiles on the site to our area of interest.

photo credit: greyweed via photopin cc