Ed Williamson
Alaina Levine
President, Quantum Success Solutions


When
you apply for a job or fellowship, or send a cold email to someone, one
of the first actions that the recipient may take is to Google you. The
second action he/she may take --which is increasingly becoming the norm
-- is to check your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have one, the
perception might be that you are not a contributing member of your
community. In fact, some recruiters have told me that they envision that
the LinkedIn profile will soon supplant the resume and the curriculum
vitae as the standard for finding qualified applicants for job openings.
In some industries, it probably already has. With this in mind, below
is some advice to consider as you move forward in your career and
simultaneously cultivate an online profile.


Your activity on
LinkedIn will serve as the cornerstone of articulating your value to the
public, and in fact, many of the principles associated with leveraging
LinkedIn for networking and career success are universal and can be
applied to other sites. You will probably utilize other platforms to
communicate with your communities, such as Facebook,Twitter, and blogs.
There are even more specialized channels such as ResearchGate or
Frontiers, both of which are becoming more popular in the STEM
community. But before you post anything anywhere, consider these 7 Principles of Social Media Networking:

7-principles-social-media-networkingv.2.jpg

The above post is adapted from Networking for Nerds (Wiley, 2015) and “No Cats Allowed: How to use social media to advance your career” (Physics Today, May 2013).