Last month, there was an article in amednews titled, "10 tips to using LinkedIn." The author did a nice job writing 10 practical tips for physicians who may be relatively new to the world of social media and professional social networking online. Her suggestions are very practical for any physician who is thinking about the possibility that he/she may be looking for a new job somewhere in the future.
I use LinkedIn all the time and I invite people to connect with me all the time. You can get to my LinkedIn profile here. Don't forget to join the Non-Clinical Jobs Group.
The 10 tips in that article included:
1. Maintain a current profile even if you're not looking for a new job
2. Have a complete profile
3. Don't make the profile a cut-and-paste of your CV
4. Make your profile public
5. Recommend people for whom you would write a referral offline
6. Avoid "referral swapping"
7. Develop a strategy for soliciting recommendations
8. Get involved in discussion boards
9. Separate your LinkedIn page from nonprofessional social media activities
10. Keep an active reading list
These are very practical and I think they're good for the "novice" LinkedIn user. If you're a physician actively looking for a new job, then this list will change and you'll need to do several things to actively grow your social network so you can identify potential employment opportunities.
Here are my 5 tips for physicians interested in using LinkedIn professionally to find a new job:
1. Upload your email contact list to see who you can quickly and easily find on LinkedIn.
2. Intentionally reconnect with classmates and colleagues from your past. Even if you have not seen these folks in ages, it's worth reconnecting.
3. Set some time aside each week where you will deliberately find and connect/reconnect with people on LinkedIn. I generally spend 5-10 minutes approximately 3-4 days/week to connect or reconnect with people on LinkedIn.
4. Identify people who you may want to approach in the future for informational interviews. This is very important if you're trying to break into a new industry or a new field.
5. Join a new group each month. Once you've reached your maximum number of groups (which is 50), then leave groups that are not useful and join new groups. This will allow you to explore and find some interesting groups where you will be able to engage people in different types of industries.
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