We all know that social networks have taken over the globe and our lives in so many ways and thanks to them, we are more and more connected both personally and professionally. LinkedIn provides a space for those who want to share their career profile, get hired for a job, and details about their professional life in particular.
One of the jobs that is projected to increase by 22% in the next decade is machine learning engineer and as it grows, it’s important that those interested in landing a machine learning job know how to stand out to be hired for the position that’s right for them.
LinkedIn: Why Does it Matter?
Finding the right job isn’t always easy; however, LinkedIn highly facilitates the process and cuts down the time that it takes to track down and speak to the right people. Let’s take a look at how LinkedIn assists their users:
Contacts and networking: the amount of profiles for both job candidates and companies is staggering and since everything is so interconnected, it’s simple to shoot off a message to a hiring manager, recruiter, or the company itself. Plus, there are an unlimited number of peers and mentors in your field waiting to meet you.
Research: any questions you may have about a company, a potential career path, or professional contact can most certainly be found and answered on LinkedIn. It’s a true wealth of knowledge for anything professional.
Employment: the most obvious of the reasons behind the importance of Linkedin is that it is your entryway to a new job since an unlimited number of companies are searching for the next employee to hire. They may reach out to you or you can always apply for a position they have available. You never know when a hiring manager may send you a message.
Personal branding: designing a profile with so many customizable options, LinkedIn users have the opportunity to create their own statement and personal brand for others to see. You have the opportunity to show yourself off to everyone and there’s a lot of power behind that, especially when you take into account that LinkedIn profiles are almost always the first page that appears on Google searches for people’s names.
It’s crucial to remember that your LinkedIn profile has a huge impact on your career path overall and in the next section, you’ll learn how to curate and enhance your profile for companies that want to hire new employees in general.
Tips and Tricks for All LinkedIn Profiles
All LinkedIn profiles have a variety of customizable fields that allow you to design your personal brand and whether you’re a project manager or a machine learning engineer, your pictures, position, and headline on your profile are crucial to being discovered and respected.
First impressions
Prior to clicking onto your profile and learning more about you, users will immediately see your name, your headline, and a small picture and this is the first impression that they will have of you. When making that first impression, there are a few items to keep in mind:
Bubble/profile picture
This picture is an essential part of your profile because it shows so much about you to the hiring manager and recruiter. You want to appear as professional as possible in this picture; how can you project professionalism in just a small picture? Try these tips:
Show your face: your profile presents your personal brand, so you and your face in particular need to be in the picture as the main character. Show an expression that you think best represents you.
Make them high quality: hiring managers and recruiters want to see that you care about your job and what better way to show that than with a high quality picture? A high quality camera or camera phone make for great devices to capture the right shot.
Hire a photographer or a friend: it may seem like a waste of money, but hiring a professional photographer can make a big difference in the overall quality of the shot. They know how to direct their subjects and capture the perfect picture. If the price is a barrier, you can always ask a friend with a nice camera.
Keep the background simple: if you are using a picture that has a background, make sure that it doesn’t distract from the main event: you. The environment should also be either neutral or related to your job in some way.
Headline
With 220 characters at your disposal, you have a brief sentence or two to show who you are and what you do. Keep the following in mind when writing your brief headline description:
Make them direct and concise: there’s no need to expand more than a combination of four or five of the following details: your job title, expertise, hard skills, certifications, affiliations, location, accomplishments, and/or personal values. Don’t overload your headline with too many details.
Project confidence: hiring managers and recruiters want their employees to believe in themselves and their abilities, so add a line that shows your conviction.
Share your why: your purpose is a big part of your professional life and connecting your motivation with your career boasts your values and beliefs.
The objective here is to lure them in with your headline and profile picture and make them click and read more about you in your profile.
LinkedIn Profiles for Machine Learning Professionals
They’re here and wanting to discover more about you, so now that you have unlimited space, brag and boast about yourself and all your experiences.
Summary
The summary is the meat and potatoes of your LinkedIn profile and it is where you develop more of your values, identity, and worth. The questions that you should answer include the following:
What is your machine learning engineer journey?
What do you want to accomplish in your career?
What is your ‘why’ for machine learning?
What makes you wake up to go to work in the morning?
What machine learning passion projects do you want to work on?
Where does your machine learning expertise lie?
You have 2600 characters to ensure that hiring managers and recruiters know your goals and what you truly want, so make them count!
Educational experience
Although there are many ways to create a strong foundation to become a machine learning engineer, taking a machine learning course is now essential for those who want to break into the field. No matter what your career looks like, your educational experience can show so much of what you can bring to a company and in the case of machine learning jobs, professionals need to beef up their expertise and skills with certifications and bootcamps that prove the drive and passion they have for machine learning.
Work experience
Machine learning engineer jobs are a recent career option, so many won’t have work experience in the field. And we understand; it can feel scary to start applying for jobs in a position you may not have had before. Nevertheless, your work experience is valuable for hiring managers and recruiters because it shows them all the valuable skills and abilities in your tool belt. You can still land the job you want without having the experience thanks to those hard and soft transferable skills you’ve accumulated over the years as well as reskilling.
Accomplishments and projects
With all your experience and effort, you must have reached great heights and achieved some great feats and as we previously mentioned, this is the time to strut your stuff. List the achievements of which you are truly proud and don’t forget to mention the projects on which you’ve collaborated. Those projects make for further insight into your interests, work ethic, and grit for hiring managers and recruiters.
Extra tips
Skills
LinkedIn allows their users to list hard and soft skills that they have garnered from their experiences and for machine learning professionals, the following hard skills stand out:
Programming languages such as Python
Machine learning frameworks and libraries
Deep learning
Data analysis and visualization
Cloud platforms
Model deployment
In addition to the hard skills, include these soft skills:
Adaptability
Creative thinking
Project management
Organization
Continuous learning
Analytical thinking
Endorsements and recommendations
You boasting your feats is one thing, but hearing it from your coworkers, mentors, and bosses is another. Leaving endorsements and recommendations on your page is a fantastic feature on LinkedIn and although it may feel uncomfortable, asking your professional peers to leave one is 100% worth it. Have them tailor it to machine learning by referring to some of the skills listed above.
Share posts
Just like on other social networking sites, you can share and upload posts to your page and on LinkedIn it can be beneficial to your profile to keep contacts updated on your current projects and career movement. It also shows people what you support and believe in as a professional.
Social networking in a professional way may feel new and different, but LinkedIn is exciting and fun once you get the hang of it. With its focus on networking and professions, you have access to so many features; the world is your oyster. Because machine learning engineering is going to grow, you have the opportunity to make the change now and try one of our newest bootcamps: Data Science and Machine Learning. This bootcamp will set you up for success in becoming a machine learning engineer. Check it out below.
