text: By Patrick Whalen
  Asst. Perspectives Editor
  LinkedIn is not just another social media site. It is a gateway to future careers.
  Melissa Moravec, assistant director for the center for career and professional development, showed a group of students and adults the steps in which they need to perfect their LinkedIn accounts.
  Moravec started out her presentation by going through five simple steps to improve LinkedIn accounts so that future employers see the skills and experience users have.
  The first step was to write an informative profile headline. So what does that mean?
  “An informative profile headline is the information about yourself. Employers want to know who you are, what you are doing, who do you help, how do you make their life or their work better and finally you want to give proof that you are credible,” Moravec said.
  Employers are looking for specific skills or experience that individuals can exhibit through just including your grade point average, clubs or teams you are involved in can go a long way.
  The second step was to personalize your message.
  The main message that was sent across to the group for this step was to avoid sounding cliché and to really try to connect with the person. Avoid saying things like “Hey, my name is so-and-so and I would like to connect with you,” and instead say things like “Dear Mr. Employer, I am very interested in…” The key aspect of this step is to get personable and not sound like a robot.
  The third step was to connect with your weak ties.
  “A weak tie is someone that you know but are not close with. Your weak ties are probably the most important people when it comes to getting a job. The reason they are so important is because your strong ties like your family and your best friends overlap. So your best friend and you know a lot of the same people,” Moravec said.
  Expanding and adapting to new things or people help so much because it helps you get more and more connections that you never even knew existed.
  Step four was to update your status.
  By updating your status and tagging events or clubs or even people that you look up to or are close with helps show that you are serious about LinkedIn and that you have this account for a reason. It helps to get you noticed.
  The fifth and final step is to choose a good, but more importantly appropriate photo of yourself.
  If you choose a photo of you drinking or you with your fluffy poodle, not a single employer will take you seriously. Get professionally dressed, take a high-quality photo and make sure you are alone in the picture.
  By executing those five steps, you will put yourself in a much greater position to get a great position.