Tips to extend your creative brand on LinkedIn

[Ed. note: This belongs to our series of posts featuring tips for recent grads from LinkedIn users. Susan Tooley has been in the position of Director of Alumni Relations and Career Resources at the Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts for almost 2 years, but at the university for 18 years as a basketball fan, a student, a parent and now as one enthusiastic ambassador planning alumni events, writing newsletters, and trying to connect to the VPA (Visual and Performing Arts) family!]

VPA is the creative heart and soul of Syracuse University. Collaboration within music, art, design, film, drama, and rhetoric makes you a unique candidate for your employer. Our alumni have said “extend that creativity” through LinkedIn by:

Seeking an inventive portfolio and download a digital one in your LinkedIn Profile. Highlight your best projects and show your diverse alliances with other disciplines. Read guidelines on company sites so they fit into a majority of their requirements. Use clean typography but create a style that says “you”!

Seeking perspective employers for an informational interview, mentoring conversation or an internship without pay. Interest in a company and expressing how you can “fit” before they know they need you can lead to permanent positions down the line. Write about an idea you have that could fit into that company.

Seeking and joining professional organizations in your field, add them to your group members
. Attend their conferences and donate time or presentations to their meetings.

Seeking and posting recommendations from speakers who visited on campus or faculty who loved your performance/project!

Seeking events that alumni attend and careers services offer in different cities. Reach out to regional clubs. Once a day, online, say one new thing about yourself!

Seeking perfection. Show gratitude for any amount of conversation. Consistent branding to even your online profile, resume, portfolio, and correspondence markets your attention to detail. Thank them with something to remember you by: a business card in any form but a business card!