Not to sound like I’m marketing LinkedIn, it has become a focal point of late given I am transitioning as a full time entrepreneur back into the labor pool. As such many recruiters have turned to the internet in search of their next employees. While there is Indeed, Monster and many other websites where potential employee/employer relations are sought out on, LinkedIn connects along the lines of multiple interpersonal business relationships. Having a completely filled out profile is understandably important for acquiring the employment objectives you desire, whether job seeker or recruiter. My current objective is as a job seeker, and while the profile is pretty much an extension of a persons resume, the LinkedIn “summary” section is often ignored and/or left blank.
If you leave your summary blank, LinkedIn will sometimes write a summary for you. Here is what LinkedIn pulled from my profile and generated for me:
“Experienced Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the Internet connectivity, chemical, industrial sales, aviation and aerospace industries. Skilled in IT Strategy, Management, Leadership, Microsoft Excel/Office, and Customer Service. Strong consulting professional with a Bachelor of Science focused in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from UNC Asheville. “
Not bad, but not entirely me.
A Jobscan blog by Jon Shields notes the summary’s importance, being the first thing a reader sees when they land on your LinkedIn page makes for a compelling argument to take advantage of the space. By default approximately the first 300 characters of the summary appear in your profile. My goal is to make this an informative summary that captivates a prospective employer’s attention and desire to know more and create a desire for them to consider me in their organization.
Naturally when something like this comes up, a Google search is the go to resource. I seriously like how those before me have put in so much thought on the subject and have some excellent suggestions. A blog I came across on hubspot.com by Aja Frost titled “7 Creative LinkedIn Summary Examples to Help You Craft Your Own” caught my eye simply because it focused on sales people – we are after all, in the end, selling ourselves to the market place. Aja points out the summary gives the job seeker the opportunity to offer some additional sentiments you wish to convey and your profile to portray. So I thought I’d take a spin at marketing (selling) myself along the lines as a science-technology geek.
Lucky for me I stumbled on some motivation to “fix” my LinkedIn profile in an unexpected resource. FirstSourceTeam, a recruiting and employment site, found my profile on LinkedIn and in good marketing fashion not only emailed me regarding their services but phoned me as well. Being in the job market it is easy to become inundated with spam. The FirstSourceTeam has so far proved to first rate, reaching out to schedule an appointment to describe their process and services. Michael Biggs, with Core 4 Retirement and Insurance Services, the contracted presenter was excellent at pointing out the challenges in today’s’ job market. The FirstSourceTeam website is an excellent starting place with lots of free resources for your career journey.
To keep this simple, I’m merely going to state who I want to portray myself as to my future employer:
I enjoy solving problems. Job titles are personally meaningless, knowing your limitations and integrity are more important. Being adventurous and having a passion as a life long learner, I am a problem solver multi-faceted in the sciences and technology. Whether in the board room, office setting, lab, manufacturing facility or in the field, in understanding an organizations needs, as an educator, scientist and technologist I have worked to give functionality, optimization and/or leadership (whether it be educational, sales or technically related) to a given objective or solvable problem.
A task oriented military bearing along with a broad educational experience is the core and context of my career story. Learning on analog based laboratory equipment such as the atomic absorption spectrometer, graphite furnace atomic spectrometer, FTIR, ion selective electrodes and various gas chromatography detectors (PID, ECD, FID), and eventually converting these same devices to digital – collecting, compiling and analyzing data with custom databases and rudimentary programming using basic, COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, C+; eventually networking instruments using computer and embedded interfaces using software packages like Empower. These early laboratory skill sets of sampling, solvency extractions, titrations, quantitative and qualitative measurements and analysis, and instrumentation were eventually expanded upon with UV-Vis, LC, HPLC, Mass Spec, ICP and custom instruments like the Apollo 4000.
As the data sets grew so did the need to store, centralize and share data and results. The early means was via BBS which eventually grew into the www. From thin-thick nets, token rings into the eventual Cat 5/6 twisted pair and fiber optics. This produced a need for the additional skills of configuration, installation and administration of systems (current OSs of 7, 8.x, 10, Windows Server 2K3, 2K8, 2012, Solaris, BSD, Red Hat, Ubuntu, CentOS and the various other Linux distributions). Distributed computing and clusters to process data faster and more efficiently led to virtual machines (Proxmox, Citrix and VMWare) and NAS/SAN storage. This has led to directly supporting not only the maintenance (repair, backups, disaster recovery and testing) and domain administration of network hardware, software and connectivity, but the troubleshooting, security and upgrading as well. Compliance, standardization and coordination of complex system interoperability of voice (VOIP) and data in roles that include gateway, router, switch, network and access administration at the operational and C-levels.
Technology, as much as science, is key in defining my professional life and my personal drive of curiosity. Sharing and change is apart of the pathway of my personal growth. I look forward to crossing paths in some mutual gratifying way. Thanks for taking the time to read this far.
-Ralph.
Sooo … there you have it. Please comment as your feedback is important to how understandable my career summary is, or is not, as the case may be. Understanding is key. Opportunity (personal and professional) is definitely lost in the absence of communication, and maligned in the case of incomplete communication and understanding. Let the adventure begin!
Follow-up … doh! There was a character limit (I knew that). So be prepared to consolidate and condense your expose’. Here is the end result:
Skilled in strategy, management, leadership, analysis and customer service.
I enjoy solving problems. Job titles are personally meaningless, knowing your limitations and integrity are more important. Being adventurous and having a passion as a life long learner, I am a problem solver multi-faceted in the sciences and technology. Whether in the board room, office setting, lab, manufacturing facility or in the field, in understanding an organizations needs, as an educator, scientist and technologist I have worked to give functionality, optimization and/or leadership (whether it be educational, sales or technically related) to a given objective or solvable problem.
A task oriented military bearing along with a broad educational experience is the core and context of my career story. Learning on analog based laboratory equipment and eventually converting these same devices to digital – collecting, compiling and analyzing data with custom databases, coding and scripting; eventually networking lab instruments using computers and embedded interfaces.
As the data sets grew so did the need to store, centralize and share data and results. This produced a need for the additional skills of configuration, installation and administration of Windows and Linux Desktop, Server, systems, networks, virtual machines (Proxmox, Citrix and VMWare) and NAS/SAN storage. Directly supporting the maintenance (repair, backups, disaster recovery and testing) and domain administration of network hardware, software and connectivity, the troubleshooting, security and upgrading as part of the journey meeting compliance, standardization and interoperability of complex voice (VOIP) and data systems.
Technology and science are key in defining my professional life and my personal drive of curiosity. Sharing and change is apart of the pathway of my personal growth. I look forward to crossing paths in some mutual gratifying way. Thanks for taking the time to read this far.
-Ralph.
Not exactly what I wanted, but you can link it back to a webpage. Mine links back to this article. Again – feedback is king.