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You got the job! Congratulations! Once you’ve told your parents, friends, and significant other it’s time to brag a little where it really counts - LinkedIn.
Starting a new job is a major milestone and transition. You want your professional network to know how amazing you are, so LinkedIn is the perfect place to post a formal announcement about your new position. It’s nice to watch the comments fill up with stuff like, “Congratulations!” Etc. However, by posting a new job announcement on LinkedIn you can accomplish more than just a lot of justifiable kudos.
You’re not just starting a new job. You’re leaving an old one, and no matter how it played out it was and will always be an important part of your professional journey. Moving forward, it is advantageous to maintain relationships with your former coworkers so they will enthusiastic members of your professional network. Keep that in mind when you’re crafting your announcement.
The announcement may drive traffic to your profile, which you may find desirable. If you post on LinkedIn, people will periodically see your posts but that does not automatically mean more profile views. However, an announcement of this kind piques others’ interest so you want to make sure your profile is in its best form like making your house spotless before having company over.
Ready? Let’s run through a quick checklist that will make your announcement a breeze.
Important: Do not take any of the actions described in this checklist or post your announcement until you’ve started the new job. Put it on your Day 1 list, but not before. Life is unpredictable and the last thing you want to deal with is a retraction due to a change in business conditions or an unanticipated blip on your background check (oops).
LinkedIn has a function that allows your network or the general public to see any significant changes you make to your profile. For example, when you change the company name on your profile from Old Company to New Company, LinkedIn will automatically post in your feed that you’ve made that change. The same goes for other changes. It’s up to you if you wish for updates to trickle out in this fashion or if you would rather make all the updates first. You can enable or disable this function in your general settings.
Check the email address you have tied to the account. Is it a personal email address or the one from your old job? If it’s an old job email address you’ll want to update it with your new work email, which should be provided to you on your first day, or to a personal email if you would rather receive emails there.
If you have an old profile picture, now is the time for a new one. Keep it professional. A photo of you on a beach somewhere is for Instagram or TikTok, not LinkedIn (unless your job is managing that beach!).
Change the essential information in your LinkedIn profile header - new company name, new title, location (if applicable), and descriptors.
It’s your first day so there is no expectation that your new job section is going to be complete with job duties and accomplishments. It’s up to you, but just so it’s not blank you may consider a few lines describing the company itself and what your new role will be in it.
If there are any related LinkedIn groups or organizations related to your new position now is the time to join them. For example, let’s say your new job is working for a university. Search for alumni groups, education groups/organizations, or whatever is most aligned with your position and ask to join their community.
Even if you’re a LinkedIn super-user and post content every day (only a small percentage of LinkedIn’s billion users are content creators), you probably don’t spend a lot of time on your profile. When you’re going to announce a big transition, it’s time to review every section of your profile to see if everything is still the way you want it. You may find a typo you never noticed before, or perhaps a description you wrote a year ago isn’t up to your current standards. Maybe it’s all perfect. The only way you will know is if you read it top to bottom with a critical eye.
Now it’s time for the big announcement. As previously mentioned, your lead should be an acknowledgment of your previous job and gratitude to your former co-workers and mentors. This will go a long way. If you left on poor terms, or the experience was a nightmare, you can still muster a generic thank you for the experience, which taught you something – even if it was what not to do (just don’t use that phrase!).
In the second part of your announcement, say how excited you are to join your New Company and make it the best business that has ever existed on planet Earth. Be as humble as possible while you pat yourself on the back for landing what may be the best job ever created since the dawn of time.
You have one more step before you post your public announcement. Write a less formal “heads up” message to your LinkedIn network connections and send it just before posting the public announcement.
Post your public announcement and bask in the adulation that will certainly come your way. You deserve it. And make sure to respond kindly to the posts in which people congratulate you.
Philip Roufail contributed to this article.
Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.
