Setting Up a LinkedIn Profile: The First Step in Building Your Personal Brand
In 2024, networking and personal branding have never been easier. A quick Google search of your name can showcase your education, experience, and employment history. Therefore, it's crucial to build a strong online presence to highlight your best skills and connect with influential people. LinkedIn is the primary platform for this purpose. In this post, we’ll explore why personal branding is vital for law students and provide straightforward steps to enhance your credibility, personal brand, and network.
Why Personal Branding is Important for Law Students
As technology and automation become increasingly integrated into the workplace, companies are focusing more on 'cultural fit' as opposed to focusing on only technical skills. In this environment, personality and authenticity can set you apart. While companies can teach many skills, your ability to adapt, learn, and collaborate effectively with colleagues is often a better indicator of success than specific legal knowledge. Therefore, LinkedIn and personal branding are essential for differentiating yourself. Show your potential employers why you would be a valuable addition to the team!
Tangible Steps to Enhance Your LinkedIn Network
1. Choose a Professional Photo and Background
The first thing classmates, colleagues, and potential employers see on your LinkedIn profile is your photo and background image. These elements create immediate impressions of your personal brand, making it important that you select a background that aligns with the image you want to project. For example, if you aim to present yourself as a creative thinker, consider a bookshelf background with a professional photo. Conversely, if you want to convey a commercially driven persona, a cityscape background would optimise this image.
2. Add Your Experience
On your profile you should also add relevant job experiences. All experiences is good experiences so make sure you include your old Woolies job as well as any more recent internships. Link each job to specific skills, such as ‘teamwork’ or ‘punctuality,’ and provide a brief description of each role. If you’ve never had a part-time job, you can always list academic projects under the ‘Projects’ tab. This is a great way of demonstrating your academic achievements and teamwork skills when you are still in your early professional career.
3. Highlight Awards and Honors
This section allows you to showcase your achievements. Include awards from high school, such as leadership awards or speech contests, and highlight any co-curricular activities.This is also the primary section where you can highlight your interests and demonstrate your uniqueness and creativity. For example, if you have a passion for music or writing, try to include your involvement in relevant activities or competitions. These details enhance both your personal brand as well as your online resume.
4. Utilise the Skills and Volunteer Sections
Include any volunteer work you’ve done, such as community service hours and unpaid programs. Finally, in the ‘Skills’ section, avoid generic buzzwords like ‘communication’ and ‘teamwork.’ Instead, link each ‘skill’ to a specific experience to evidence that skill set. For example, linking empathy as a skill to your volunteering and dedication to an academic achievement.
5. Build Your Network
With a well-crafted profile and personal brand, start building your network by connecting with friends, family, and classmates. LinkedIn’s algorithm will then start to recommend people to connect with, so stay active in expanding your network and try to connect with people with similar interests. For professional connections, follow major firms, organisations and universities to stay updated on recent engagement and be sure to like their posts too! Engaging with firm blog posts and activities can also provide valuable insights for clerkship applications and job opportunities as you will have a direct and authentic link to the activities of a firm.
6. Turn Connections into Opportunities
Now that you have created a profile and established a few followers you can slowly expand your network professionally. You can start by attending law or networking events (often posted on law gazettes or student society pages), and write down the names of people you met or found interesting. After the event, send them a LinkedIn connection request with a personalised note referencing the event and something you learned from the conversation. For example:
"Hi [Name], I enjoyed meeting you at the Women In Law event yesterday. I appreciated your insights on the importance of embracing support from female colleagues. Thank you for sharing your experiences—I’m looking forward to staying connected!"
Make sure you include the place you met them, something specific about your interaction, and a question, follow up or thank you. Try to stay consistent with your networking, stay engaged with company posts, and update and check on your online activity regularly. Remember, your authenticity is your greatest asset!