Apiring LinkedIn gurus packed Wilden Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The Scholars for Business Achievement (SBA) and the Center for Career and Calling (CCC) invited certified LinkedIn recruiter and APU alumna Christie McGuire to speak about the ins and outs of the social network.

LinkedIn is the largest social professional networking site today, with more than 332 million users. LinkedIn helps people find jobs and employers search for employees; 67 percent of LinkedIn users are located outside of the U.S.

McGuire spoke on branding, building profiles and engaging LinkedIn. According to McGuire, branding oneself is the key to finding a potential career and being found by a recruiter.

“Consider a newspaper when creating your profile,” McGuire said. “A photo brings me in, then the headline. The headline should be engaging, which [draws me in] to read your summary and so on.”

According to statistics, recruiters spend a fifth of their time looking at the profile picture of a potential candidate, and don’t spend nearly as much time checking candidates’ actual experiences or professional lives.

McGuire spoke on the importance of having a professional picture and one that suits one’s intended brand. For instance, if a person is an aspiring photographer, he or she may have a profile picture with a camera around his or her neck.

However, instead of creating a profile with a certain image in mind, many students simply include every academic achievement, every award and every extracurricular—anything that they can think of.

“I threw up what I thought I needed to [have on my LinkedIn profile],” junior marketing major Brian Dillon said. “I am really looking to specifically enter the job market soon, so beefing up my profile will help [me] market [myself].”

McGuire mentions not only the importance of branding oneself, but also providing information on a need-to-know basis. She said people live in a ‘bullet-point society,’ and recruiters enjoy seeing a list of skills, facts and statistics that show experience.

“Everything you are doing in school relates to that job,” McGuire said. “Experience doesn’t have to be just a job you’ve had.”

McGuire said supplying a list of skills is more efficient than using buzz words. Many times, buzz words, such as ‘motivated,’ ‘responsible’ and ‘creative,’ are included in profiles to shed light on personality traits, but McGuire said that fancy words do not help recruiters know what type of worker a person is.

Whether with peers, professors, potential collaborators or companies, McGuire said that she encourages LinkedIn users to make connections.

McGuire shared about the advanced search button, referred to as the ‘bench warmer’ tab, where LinkedIn members can find companies. On every company’s profile, there is a list of employees available to talk about their position.

The CCC offers LinkedIn profile reviews, résumé reviews and mock interviews. According to Director of the CCC Phil Brazell, the department hopes to have McGuire come back to APU for one-on-one consultation appointments to look over student profiles.