Hannah Rogers
Staff Writer
Jonathan Javier, Association of Latino Professionals for America national ambassador, and Luis Rojas, director of academics at ALPFA Orange County, held a workshop on how to make the best connections on LinkedIn Tuesday in La Fetra Lecture Hall.
The workshop, hosted by ALPFA, was held to teach students how to network and create a personal brand with a four step program.
The first step to creating a good connection with someone is to first analyze their profile, Javier said.
Finding similarities, like being alumni of the same school, with a person can serve as conversation starters.
After analyzing the profile, request a connection and send a personalized message to the person, Javier said. Personalized messages demonstrate an effort to make that connection.
“There may be 300 people applying for that one position and if you make that connection on LinkedIn and send them a message so they remember you,” Rojas said. “When they are looking over the application, you stand out.”
When sending a message, it is important to make sure that the person is the right one to contact within the company in question, Javier said.
The next step is to ask them to talk on the phone to strengthen that connection.
It is important to make a connection on a personal level over the phone, rather than being up-front with what you want out of that person, Javier said.
Personal connections can lead to many opportunities with a person or company, Javier said.
Rojas used this method when he sent a message that led to a connection with Miguel Palomares, who works at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Rojas said that after making that connection, Palomares become a mentor to Rojas and helped him find a position within PwC.
The last tip suggested that students find their own personal brand and build an image on social media.
That is really important because a lot of people make an assumption about who you are based on what they read about you, Javier said.
First, identify how you want people to view you when seeing your LinkedIn or other social media. You also have to find the right people on LinkedIn and make yourself stand out from everyone else.
“I would just be going in blind not knowing what to talk about but going through this workshop,” said Lucas Benstead, junior economics major. “It gave me an idea how to relate and talk to someone. It gave me an overall idea of how to network better.”
Hannah Rogers can be reached at hannah.rogers@laverne.edu.
