Tips to Keeping Your LinkedIn Profile Professional

In the professional world since 2002, CEO Jeff Weiner and founders of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Allen Blue and Eric Ly took resume building to an all new level to becoming the World’s largest professional network. The headquarters are located in Mountain View, California, but have offices everywhere across the world now. There are over 400 million users and the site is available in 24 languages.

It is also a place where employers can submit job postings for those who are seeking it, getting in contact with managers, supervisors, CEO’s, presidents, founders and so on and so forth.

Now, there are some people who think of LinkedIn as another social media outlet. So, people begin to share all kinds of information such as being married, sharing a profile picture that is meant for other social media outlets, not keeping that to a professional manner. Well, here are tips to keep your LinkedIn Professional. If you have an account that is.

— Always choose a professionally done profile photo or allow someone to take a photo with your camera. Make sure it is clear and not dark. do not have photos of you and your other half, a picture of you and your pet, a picture of you at a party, a drink in your hand, do not post ones of you with your others friends or family members. The whole purpose is just about you.

— Never share your relationship status, if you are married, single, divorced, widowed or whatever the case maybe. Employers and other professionals should not know that information.

— Do not share your full birthdate. If you like to add just the month and the day you can. Never reveal your year of birth.

— Do not add everyone as friends and think this is Facebook, Twitter or whatever else in Social Media. This is meant to be a professional network of potential employers, people you have worked with, and those that know you in that manner. Be very careful on adding spam and fake accounts.

— If you go and look up other people’s profiles, there is a way to track people who are looking at your profile. vice versa. there is an icon that you can do that.

— LinkedIn is supposed to be Social Media free, but they implement that. Do not post status messages and hashtags things not related to business, school and at a professional level.

— Do not go overboard with endorsements. That makes you look over -qualified. Also telling people to give testimonials. That should be automatic from other people if they enjoyed working with you, doing business with you, then they will come forward to write something about you. Do not request it from others.

— Refrain from joining way too many groups for the sake of joining them. Join the ones that are in relative to you and ones that you will contribute to.

— Always keep professional, always update your profile, engage with other people who share similarities with you and those who are at your level.

— They say to pay for LinkedIn Services to get more out of it, and to see the full list of people looking at your profile, you don’t really need that. A regular profile is just good enough.

Best wishes in your professions, careers and whoever is looking for employment.

Time is Valuable – Courtesy and Punctuality Matter

In life, whether were invited to a restaurant gathering, parties, get togethers, catching a flight out,  even for school, work, a job interview, or anything that it could be, even a date, meeting up for coffee, punctuality and being early is very important. I know sometimes due to unforeseen circumstances it happens where people are late, or get caught up on something, the best thing to do is let others know who you will be meeting that you are running late. It is common courtesy and respectful. Your time is as valuable as the other peoples time. So it goes both ways.

Tips and Advice on how to manage time, to be early and punctual.

— Say you get invited to a restaurant for dinner at 7:30 and reservations have been made and you are there at 7 7:15, which is good to be early to respect other peoples time, then you see other arriving at 7:30 right on the dot, then you see late people arriving an hour later at 8:30. People are munching on Appetizers already because they waited long enough. — Respecting time is important and especially respecting other people in the process.

— Say you go to the airport and you arrive there at 3pm and your flight is at 6:30pm, which is great to be there 3 and a half hours before, but some people decide to show up at 4:30 or 5pm and flight is at 6:30, they think that they can be allowed boarding and they think that their luggage will make it to the plane. I do not think so. Respect the time given to be at the airport prior to departure and make it to your plane on time so others do not have to wait for that one or two people who decide to play around and not get to the gate on time.

— Never leave things to the last minute to get ready, to shower, to allow time to get ready after the shower. do it in advanced and start getting ready an hour or two before a party and also take into factor how long it will take to get to the venue from your place and get ready accordingly. You do not want to be one of those people who arrive to a party at 10 at night, when a party starts at 7. No matter what it is, its important to value time, manage time well, and do important things first then allocate enough time to do what is necessary. Be courteous no matter what it is.

— Job interviews, going to school and work on time is very important. Especially when you are going for a job interview. Be there about half an hour before or an hour before. get yourself prepared, and gather your thoughts. Always look at the time and get to places on time. It is very crucial to be punctual in everything in life.

— When you are invited to someones place at say 4pm on a Saturday, and agree to go, be there right at 4pm or about 10 minutes before. Every minute counts and they count on you to be on time. It is not nice to not show up at someones house at 6pm, without letting them know you will be late or something is going on that you cannot make it right at 4.

— A simple I cannot be there on time, or I have some things to take care of, or got pre-occupied with things should be mentioned to those waiting for you, they have every right to know. Time is of the essence. Calling, texting, e-mailing and always communicating is so imperative.

— Do not be a last minute RSVP person — If you get an invitation to a party, wedding, engagement, shower or other events 2-3 or 4 months in advanced, or just 2 months in advanced, and say the Card says shower is on July 31st, but your RSVP Reservation with the amount of persons in attendance must be due by July 10 or July 15th — but then have someone say they are attending on July 27th or 28th, just couple of days before is so wrong. You had all that time to decide. Do not just leave it as last minute. RESPOND as soon as possible —- It is money, and time were talking here. These people need to prepare and get numbers into the banquet halls or create the tables and how many plates to add… Be respectful. They did a great thing by including you, Help them in the process.
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Some Quotes Found online in relative to this post:

“Arriving late is a way of saying that your own time is valuable than the time of the person who waited for you” — Karen Joy Fowler

“If you CANNOT be on time, Then be EARLY” — Unknown

“punctuality is the Art of Waiting for the careless people: – Unknown

“Punctuality – Be there an hour early, then a minute too late – Time is valuable” — unknown

“Punctuality is the soul of Business” — Thomas Chandler Haliburton

“Punctuality is the politeness of kings & the duty of gentle people EVERYWHERE” — Unknown

“Life is getting up early in the morning to live a couple of hours more” — Unknown

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Have you been a victim of a person who has stood you up? Have you been someone who is the one to always wait for others to be on time? Have people contacted you to say they will be late? Are you always the early one to arrive well in advanced because you have been taught to respect time and ones who have proper etiquette? It is always good to be like that.

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Do you have bad habits when it comes to procrastination? Do you have bad habits of being late because you had to do your hair and make-up? Do you have the bad habit to show up to a party 2-3 hours later knowing that everyone has already eaten, so you get the cold food after or they are going to have to make an extra batch for you to heat your food up, or have missed the beginning speeches or whatever it is? Change your bad habits, work on being courteous and on time. It saves a lot of problems with people depending on you.

Also do not say you will be there, and then not show up..

Punctuality is key to success in business, relationships, friendships which then builds trust and common decency. Best wishes and to better time management!