If you think you are the only one who fantasizes about quitting your current crummy job and finding a great new one, you obviously aren’t. According to Inc., over 70% of workers who already have a job frequently find themselves at least thinking about switching vocations. The number that goes through with it isn’t low either, according to a Randstad survey 60% of employees will actually go through with it and quit their job to look for a new one.
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Thus, it should come as no surprise that the job market is always fierce. If you’re looking for a job, you’ll want any edge on your competition, but just as important is not wasting any time on efforts that don’t work. So, which is LinkedIn Learning, a learning platform that will help you land a job? Or is it something that wastes time and little else? Below we will endeavor to answer that question, and more, in our Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Learning for the Job Seeker. If you enjoy this guide be sure to check out our other MOOC content here, and if you can’t wait till the end and need to know the answer now, check out our quick take below.
Question: Can using LinkedIn Learning get you a job?
Quick Take: While not a whole substitute for traditional training or experience, LinkedIn Learning is a great tool for any job seeker to utilize during their search. Not only will they get a chance to learn new skills or build on existing ones, but also to leverage their newfound education on LinkedIn’s own professional social network. There is little downside in giving the platform a try as many learning pathways have been made free, especially for job seekers, and anyone can get a one-month free trial.
What is LinkedIn Learning?
If you have been following LinkedIn Learning for a while, then you know that we already think it is well worth the money. Not up to speed? In brief, LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform that offers courses students can take to learn new skills. LinkedIn Learning is unique among online learning platforms thanks to its integration with the LinkedIn platform itself, the only truly professional social network with over 722 million users(!).
With that sort of professional networking juggernaut attached to it, it is surprising that more people don’t take advantage of LinkedIn Learning and properly utilize it during their job search.
This is especially true when LinkedIn Learning makes it easy to sample its product by providing a free one-month trial to everyone. There is no charge, and no questions asked, as long as you cancel before the second month. For this reason alone, everyone who is serious about their job search should at least give LinkedIn Learning a try.
If you are interested and would like to know all of the potential benefits of LinkedIn Learning, we have a full article on the platform here. And if you want to learn more about certificates and how they can help anyone undergoing a job search, check out this review.
But the following are a few other aspects of LinkedIn Learning worth mentioning:
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- Flexible learning environment, learn at your own pace and on your own schedule with the video-based lecture-on-demand system.
- Over 16,000+ courses available on the platform, so you can start to study almost anything you want.
- Follow “Learning Pathways” to earn certificates which you can use to boost your LinkedIn Profile. This is great for networking.
- Utilization of data from your LinkedIn profile to recommend courses that should aid your job competitiveness and outlook.
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Will LinkedIn Learning help me get a job?
According to LinkedIn, the number one reason most people seek a change in jobs is to further career opportunities, sometimes you need to leave your current company to rise up the ladder. Finding a new job is easier said than done of course. In today’s world, competition for jobs can be fierce, some openings will receive thousands of applications. In this reality it can be hard to stand out, this is where LinkedIn Learning can help. LinkedIn’s community leads to millions of new jobs a year worldwide, and most openings are filled through networking.
So how could LinkedIn Learning help you get a job? The answer is quite simple actually, by utilizing LinkedIn’s networking abilities. You’ll do this by dedicating yourself to learning new skills that you’ll have the ability to earn certificates for. You can post these certificates to your LinkedIn Profile, (if you need tips on how to create a great LinkedIn profile click here) this is a useful tool to utilize in networking. LinkedIn Learning has a much smaller user base than LinkedIn at large, so these certificates are actually quite noticeable when posted on your profile. This may draw interest and possible job leads from inside your network, but at the very least anyone using LinkedIn can see independent confirmation of your skills.
In short, using LinkedIn Learning can help in the following areas, many are interrelated:
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- Re-tooling your professional skills for a new level of responsibility or vocation.
- Generating leads on new job tips, especially from within your own network.
- Helping to differentiate your LinkedIn Profile from the millions of others.
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How to best utilize LinkedIn Learning to get a job
Before getting started on LinkedIn Learning it is best to plan how using it will fit into any greater career path you may be planning. If you aren’t sure what you want to do, or even what career would be suitable for the skills that you already have, LinkedIn has a great career exploration tool that can be a big help. This tool will use data from your LinkedIn profile to find potential careers you may be suitable for; these are great areas to focus on if you’re just starting with LinkedIn Learning.
Implementing LinkedIn Learning into any job transition can be simple as long as it is taken care of first. This is because it will take time to build new skills on the platform and also to practice enough in GitHub to make a suitable portfolio. If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry, we’ll break it down into three easy steps below.
- Choose a learning path and begin to take courses on LinkedIn Learning. Be sure to take all assignments and lectures seriously, these topics may be returned to when building a portfolio of your own work. Practice the skills you’ve learned through your courses. If you are a software developer a good place to do this is the GitHub Learning Lab. Continue to earn certifications and build a portfolio of what you have learned.
- Update your LinkedIn profile with your new certifications, any exemplary work you have completed or a portfolio. This can make a huge difference, profiles that are more filled out on LinkedIn are almost twice as likely to receive a reply for a job vacancy than a barebones profile. Lean on the support of your community during this stage and be sure to connect with others about opportunities through LinkedIn, this can lead to a lot of job tip creation.
- Prepare for the interviews that will inevitably come. The interview is the most crucial part of the job landing process; hence it is no wonder why it causes such great anxiety. Many people don’t know how to effectively prepare themselves for an interview. For those people LinkedIn has compiled a page full of the best practices when preparing for a job interview, you can find it here.
Lastly, LinkedIn has started a partnership with workforce agencies across the country to provide valuable skills and training for free, you can check out the details here. LinkedIn Learning has also come together to partner with Microsoft and GitHub to help job seekers looking to transition to in-demand careers. These are the jobs that are predicted to have the most openings in the next ten years. This could mean a career as an IT administrator, software developer, digital marketer or graphic designer. As a part of the program, LinkedIn Learning is free learning paths and Microsoft is discounting the cost of its own certifications, if you are interested you can find out more here.
It should also be mentioned that another free option anyone can use to get started on LinkedIn Learning is by utilizing the above-mentioned 1-month free trial, which can be canceled at any time before charged, no questions asked.
Conclusion
Hopefully, as you can see from the above, LinkedIn Learning will be able to help almost anyone land a job. This isn’t just because it is a quality learning platform, which it is, but also because of the many benefits, it provides users of the LinkedIn platform. Anyone searching for a job is doing themselves a disservice if they aren’t perfecting their LinkedIn profile, and LinkedIn Learning is an essential part of that. The ability to present a more professional face to recruiters and your network alone is worth it and just one illustration of how LinkedIn Learning is able to help you get a job.
We hope you enjoyed reading this Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Learning for Job Seekers and that you learned something new. Remember to check out the rest of our content on IQ Unlock for all things to do with online education and technology. Thank you for reading!
