Standing Out Online: YSMOU’s LinkedIn Workshop for Youth Members - SeaVoices - Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union (SMOU) Publication

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31 Jan 2023

3 mins

Standing Out Online: YSMOU’s LinkedIn Workshop for Youth Members

LinkedIn is commonly known as a powerful networking tool that offers plenty of opportunities for those in the job market. However, with more than 450 million members worldwide, it is essential that one be able to create a profile that stands out from the rest in order to open up more career opportunities.

To help boost the youths’ LinkedIn profiles in order to leave a stronger impression on their prospects and connections, Young SMOU (YSMOU), supported by the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), organised an “Optimising Your LinkedIn Profile” workshop on 14 December. More than 15 youth members arrived at the Lifelong Learning Institute to learn the tips from trainer Brother Ramesh Muthusamy, Change Management Consultant at Alvigor Organisational Development.

Kickstarting the workshop, Brother Ramesh spoke about the importance of building a personal brand on the platform in order to help youths distinguish their profiles from others. He also highlighted some important profile aspects that companies look at before hiring—track record, attitude, skills, and knowledge—hence advising them to include this information in their LinkedIn profile. Thereafter, Brother Ramesh went around the room to further guide the youths as they worked on writing their profile summary while also answering some of the queries they had. To better facilitate the session, he also shared some real-life profiles with the participants so that they had a better picture of what he was speaking about and understood the dos and don’ts on LinkedIn.

To help the youths further enhance their profile, YSMOU conducted a professional corporate shoot for the participants. The corporate photos taken may be used by participants to boost their profile and even in their employment resume. A makeup artist was also engaged in order for the participants to look professional before the photoshoot. During the photoshoot session, Brother Ramesh and the photographer guided the youths by suggesting certain professional poses to them.

At the same time, while waiting for their turn, the youth chatted and caught up with one another over dinner.

It was a productive workshop; aside from the networking, the youths also took away essential knowledge of how to boost their LinkedIn presence and even had the opportunity to have their corporate photos taken to better establish their personal branding as they network for better employment opportunities.

“LinkedIn is a new social platform to me prior to this workshop. However, after attending this session, I discovered the importance of creating a LinkedIn profile and learned how to do up my profile with the help of the trainer. Thank you, YSMOU, for going the extra mile to even hire a professional photographer for us to ensure that we have a professional profile photo to use while we look out for job opportunities.”

– Felix Foo, SMOU member of 7 years

“Attending this workshop has not only allowed me to learn more about boosting my personal branding on the LinkedIn platform to attract potential recruiters; it also gave me an opportunity to reconnect with my friends in the industry.”

– Neo Beng Kiong, SMOU member of 2 years