4.1 Building connections

You should now have a note of three people who you have worked or studied with, or people who have been influential in your career. The following steps are suggestions for how to develop your profile and build your connections.

1. Open the profile of one of your potential connections and read through their personal summary and tagline, and check out the additional sections of their profiles.
2. Make a comparison between the content of their profile and the content of your own. Use this opportunity to make notes of anything that is in their profile that you would like to add to your own. This could include information about any volunteer placements, details of professional affiliations and qualifications, organisations you support and maybe even some companies that they are following which you hadn’t thought of.
3. Once you have looked at this person’s profile, you can also see suggestions for who other people viewed, based both on this person’s profile and similar roles.

4. If you do want to connect with these individuals now, you can send a message via LinkedIn, but avoid using the generic message already provided by the site. Personalise the messag by drawing connections with work, study or interests. People are more likely to connect with you if they recognise they have something in common with you. Remember, at this stage you are not expected to contact your ex-colleagues/employers as your site is a ‘work in progress’, but you can use this opportunity to connect with people you know well, including your friends.