Leaving the Classroom: A Transitioning Teacher Podcast

Leaving the Classroom Podcast: LinkedIn Optimization - Quick Hacks to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile | 54

In this episode, Kristi Oliva discusses how to optimize your LinkedIn profile to improve your chances of landing a new job, especially for teachers looking to transition to a new career. 

Tune in to find out:

• How to create a professional and compelling profile picture and headline to make a strong first impression
  
  
• Tips for crafting an engaging summary section and highlighting your transferable skills and experience
  
  
• Strategies for requesting recommendations, posting regularly, and using LinkedIn's job search features to boost your visibility and attract the right opportunities

 Listen to the episode here:

Connect with Kristi on LinkedIn

This podcast is sponsored by IDOL Courses and is the only authorized vocational school and implementation program of its kind that not only shows you exactly how to create your job application assets and build a portfolio from scratch but also includes credentials, mentorship, expert coaching, and paid experience opportunities in corporate instructional design and online learning for life! Learn more about the program here. 

Enjoy the podcast transcription:

Kristi Oliva  

Welcome to Leaving the Classroom. This is a podcast for teachers who are ready to transition out of the classroom and into a new career. Each week, I'll share stories about what I've learned moving from education to the corporate world. I'll answer the most common questions and share my best tips to help you get started. If you are considering leaving the classroom, this show is for you. 

Kristi Oliva  

Welcome to Leaving the Classroom. I'm Kristi Oliva, and I'm so glad you're here. Today. we're talking about LinkedIn and how to improve your LinkedIn profile for optimal results. If you're looking to make a career transition, having a strong LinkedIn profile is crucial. But where do you start? As a transitioning teacher, it can be very overwhelming. How can you make your profile stand out to recruiters and potential employers? What do you do on LinkedIn? Well, today, I'm going to dive into some quick hacks to optimize your LinkedIn profile. Whether you're new to LinkedIn or just need a refresh, I'm going to show you how to help showcase your skills and experience effectively. So get your LinkedIn profile in top shape and boost your chances of landing your dream job. 

Kristi Oliva  

Let's start with your profile picture and headline. Use a high-quality professional headshot with a plain background. I see so many people with selfies or other photos that aren't the most professional. And if you're a transitioning teacher, don't branch out into the creative; just a nice, simple, plain, professional photo with a plain background. Your profile picture is your first impression, so make sure that it's polished. 

Kristi Oliva  

Then, your headline. You need a compelling headline. Craft a headline that highlights your career goals and key skills. For example, experienced educator transitioning to instructional design, curriculum development or training specialist. A great photo and headline will make your profile stand out and attract the right attention. Now, I- even though that example talks about an educator transitioning to instructional design, this isn't really the most optimal language, so let's make that even better by just talking about what you have to offer. So, experienced designer or curriculum developer looking to make an impact on a diverse audience or something like that. Make sure, though, that you are not highlighting that you are a transitioning teacher. Why do I say that? Simply because the field is flooded right now with this hashtag, transitioning teacher. And unfortunately, there is kind of a stigma that goes along with the word teacher. It can be really polarizing, so I encourage you to stay away from that as much as possible and really focus on what you have to offer instead of what you're trying to get away from, which is teaching. 

Kristi Oliva  

Next. Let's talk about your summary section. So, you need an engaging summary. Write a summary that tells your professional story and focuses on your achievements and goals. Now if you haven't already listened to the episode about elevator pitches, I would go back and find that episode and use what you wrote for your elevator pitch in your summary section. They should be very, very similar. Start with a strong opening statement and include keywords related to your target industry without being jargon. Then, end with a call to action, such as inviting people to connect or discuss opportunities with you. So, for example, you could say, “I'm passionate about creating engaging learning experiences. I'm excited to connect with professionals in the instructional design field.” If you have a well-crafted summary, it's going to make your profile engaging and attractive to potential connections, which includes hiring managers and recruiters. 

Kristi Oliva  

Now, let's talk about your experience and skills. You need to be detailed here. So, list your teaching experience in a way that highlights your transferable skills to the new role you're looking for. For example, you might say, “Designed and implemented innovative lesson plans, enhanced student engagement and learning outcomes.” Now go back to my resume episodes for more on this, and this is really the same kind of stuff you're going to want to put in your experience section is you're going to detail these just like you would your bullet points in your resume. In the skills section, you want to add relevant skills and seek endorsements from colleagues. Now, do not put those teaching skills at the top. Put the transferable skills at the top. You can decide which skills show up first and then ask your peers and people who know you to endorse you for those skills to give you more credibility in the field. So focus on the skills that are actually relevant to your new career path, like project management, training, or curriculum development. Not things like teaching. Okay, showcase those experiences and skills effectively, and it's going to make your profile more appealing to the potential employers that you are trying to attract. 

Kristi Oliva  

Next is the recommendation section. You need to be requesting recommendations, and I know I need to be better at this as well. I'm not very good at asking for this, but you need to ask former colleagues, supervisors or students, parents, for well-thought-out recommendations. A strong recommendation can validate your skills and experience to potential employers. This is kind of like a review written on a website about a company, and so this, these are your personal reviews about your professional skills. So one of the rules of thumb, though, is to give to get. So if you want are wanting more recommendations and you're asking for them, then start writing recommendations for others, so that you can encourage that reciprocity and make sure that you're providing thoughtful, specific recommendations, set a good example for what you want back. Gathering and giving recommendations is another way to boost your credibility and enhance your LinkedIn profile. 

Kristi Oliva  

Next, post regularly. Now, LinkedIn is a social media site, so it is going to reward those that are active and engaged on the site. So you need to be sharing articles, insights, updates related to your career interests, post regularly, so that it keeps you visible in your network and positions you as a thought leader. You also should be commenting and liking, engaging with others posts that will help you build relationships and increase your visibility. So comment on industry related posts with insightful comments or questions to start conversations and make sure that your posts are not complaining about teaching or your past role. These really need to be forward looking. Don't be talking about their old life. You really need to be focused on what is going to make you relevant in the new field. So by actively engaging with the content, you're going to build this really strong presence and begin to connect with more professionals in your field, which is ultimately the goal. 

Kristi Oliva  

Now a little bit of a hot topic. Here is your open to work badge, should you or should you not use the open to work badge? Well, there are a couple of ways to do this. You can make it where it's visible to only recruiters if you're nervous about having it up there. Or you can make it visible to all. I'm gonna leave that up to you, but it really does help to have the open-to-work badge visible to the recruiters to signal that you're job hunting. So make sure that your job preferences are set up accurately so that you're attracting the right opportunities and the right people into your inbox. Then, you can set up job alerts to receive notifications about relevant job postings. So go ahead and use keywords to search for whatever job, role, location, or things like that that you're looking for, and then set up notifications so that it will continue to send you new roles because, really, you want to be the first to apply when those roles come out, you don't want to wait. And by using those, you're going to increase your chances of finding the perfect job match. You want to be on top of that. 

Kristi Oliva  

So today, I've quickly run through some quick hacks to optimize your LinkedIn profile all the way from your profile picture and your headline to engaging with content and using job search features. But I promise you, if you use these tips, you are going to make your LinkedIn profile stand out and start attracting the right opportunities. Thanks for listening. Happy networking. See you next time. 

Kristi Oliva  

That's all for this episode, but you can find more at idolcourses.com or subscribe to the podcast. And if you are ready to leave the classroom, use my code classroom100 and get $100 off enrollment to IDOL courses Academy.

Send your stories or questions to [email protected] or share them with me on Instagram @leavingtheclassroom.