As the summer winds down I am pleased to report that my summer project of improving my digital career literacy has been going well. I decided to focus my attention on LinkedIn first. I’ve been learning a lot.
One of the first steps I took is following, and occasionally participating in [need to increase my participation rate!], various LinkedIn Career counselling group discussions on about ways to use LinkedIn. My favourite discussion topic so far was titled “Thanks for the endorsement. Have we met?”
Those of you who have a LinkedIn profile have probably had the experience of being “endorsed” by someone you have never worked with for a skill you didn’t have listed. The topic has generated a great deal of discussion and opinions are varied as to the usefulness of these endorsements. Not to mention discussions about whom we connect with and how well we ought to know them. Some have suggested endorsing is equivalent to clicking the ‘like’ button on Facebook and others have suggested that makes it meaningless. Have a read and see what you think.
In the end – I like this response on the part of someone I know – “Definitely feeling the LinkedIn “love” this week with all the endorsements coming in for my work. Thank you to everyone who has taken a second or two to do this for me!”
Another useful source of information for me this summer was the Career Counselor Technology Forum shared a presentation on “Leveraging LinkedIn” from the National Career Development Association Conference (USA).
The more I have learned the more I have been able to share with my clients. With positive results! I have also to set up a LinkedIn Lab, which is an opportunity for people to work on their profiles together. This will be happening in the next month.
I mentioned in my last blog post I would be asking some students I know if they would be willing to join me in this venture of improving digital career literacy. Three students I know agreed. All three of these students are due to graduate within a year. Though all three of them regularly use texting and Facebook and Facetime and Skype and Twitter and….[you get the picture] not one of them had considered using technology as means of building a professional reputation and network. Two of them even told me they were afraid of technology. Which struck me as very interesting!
We are still in the beginning stages of developing digital career literacy but all three can see just how useful it will be to them. One of them stated they feel more in control of their future now. Now that’s what I like to hear.
Dawn Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate of Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http://www.therapyonline.ca
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA