Instructor’s Guide: Welcome Talent Canada
Thank you for leading the “Welcome Talent Canada” workshop! This workshop is focused on educating refugee
job-seekers on how LinkedIn.com can be a powerful tool to source and connect to opportunities in Canada. Please
use this “Instructor’s Guide” in tandem with the “Welcome Talent Canada” PowerPoint presentation. The sections
of this “Guide” correspond with each slide in the presentation.
Today’s agenda
Hello everyone, and welcome! Today we’re going to answer the questions: What is LinkedIn?
How can LinkedIn help you in your job search? You’re going to learn how to create a LinkedIn
profile, build your professional network, and apply for jobs via LinkedIn.
Today’s objective
Our goal today is for you to:
● Understand how LinkedIn can help you build your network in Canada
● Create a LinkedIn profile
● Feel confident in your ability to leverage LinkedIn in your job search
LinkedIn is the social media platform for your professional self
Our mission is simple: To connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and
successful. When you join LinkedIn, you get access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights
that help you be great at what you do. LinkedIn is a social media platform – like Facebook or
Twitter – that connects you to your professional network. There are currently more than 450
million LinkedIn members, and the network is growing by 2 members per second. A professional
network differs from a social network in that you use it to represent your professional self and
career aspirations, rather than your social or personal life. I might not connect with my manager

on Facebook, but I would definitely connect with him or her on LinkedIn, because he or she is a
part of my professional network.
Our vision: create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce
With LinkedIn, you can connect to opportunities. In fact, LinkedIn’s vision as a company is to
connect each and every person in this room, as well as every member of the global workforce, to
opportunities. But what do we mean by that?
What is LinkedIn?
On LinkedIn, you create a personal profile that displays your work experience, education, skills,
and interests.
Once you’ve created a profile, you can connect with your friends, family, and professional
colleagues on LinkedIn. These connections build up your personal LinkedIn network.
Organizations, such as companies and nonprofits, use LinkedIn to post jobs and find qualified
candidates with the exact skills they need. With a LinkedIn profile, you can apply directly to jobs
posted on LinkedIn. Additionally, you can see if anyone in your network works at, or is
connected to someone who works at, the organizations you’re interested in working for. By
leveraging these connections, you can build relationships that can help connect you to job
opportunities.
The Economic Graph
LinkedIn’s long-term vision is to create a digital mapping of the global economy, called The
Economic Graph.
● It will include a profile for every one of the 3 billion members of the global workforce,
enabling them to represent their professional identity and subsequently find and realize
their most valuable opportunities.
● It will include a profile for every company in the world, who you know at those
companies up to three degrees to help you get your foot in the door, and the product and
services those companies offer to enable you to be more productive and successful.

● It will digitally represent every job offered by those companies, full-time, temporary and
volunteer, and every skill required to obtain those opportunities.
● It will include a digital presence for every school in the world that can help members
obtain those skills. And it will overlay the professionally relevant knowledge of every
one of those individuals, companies, and universities to the extent that they want to
publicly share it.
Already, LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool for you to find and connect with job
opportunities. You can search for and find companies in Toronto that are hiring, and see if you
know anyone who works there and can provide a warm recommendation for you. You can see
exactly what skills are needed for these jobs, and you can find resources to help you obtain the
skills you need.
The good news: you already have the tools you need to build a great career in Canada!
You may not even realize it yet, but you already have the ingredients for success. You have
specific skills you can bring to the table, you have a growing network of people you know who
can vouch for you and support you in finding a career, and you have interests that can be
translated into a job. There are jobs you may not even realize exist yet.
LinkedIn helps you translate these ingredients of a network, skills, and information into a
specific job and career to help you create the life you want to live. There are so many companies
and people in Canada who want to help you build a life here, and LinkedIn can help you find and
connect with them.
Let’s create a LinkedIn profile
Get started at www.linkedin.com
Let’s get started! I’m going to walk you through the registration process to create a LinkedIn
profile. Go to “www.linkedin.com” and start by entering your first and last name, your email
address, and creating a password.
Add your new country and postal code

Next, put in your location! The Toronto postal code is M4C 1B5.
Add your most recent job experience
Now, LinkedIn asks you to put in your current school if you’re a student, or your current job title
if you aren’t a student. For this section, just put your most recent job title and company name.
Don’t worry - you will be able to edit this later.
Choose your adventure: find a job!
Next, select the option that you’re using LinkedIn to find a job.
Import your email contacts to find people you know.
Finally, you have the option to import your email address book, which allows you to find any of
your email connections who are already on LinkedIn. If you don’t want to import your email
address book right now, you can just click the “Skip” button.
After this step, you will need to confirm your email address via a verification code sent to your
email address.
LinkedIn homepage {1/2}
You’ve create an account! You should now see the LinkedIn homepage.
LinkedIn homepage {2/2}
If you click on your name or the blank profile picture, you will be taken to your profile.
Step 1: Build your LinkedIn profile

Time to build your profile!
Time to build your profile! This blank profile is what you should see now. We’re going to walk
through each of these steps, to help you create a great profile that is reflective of your
experiences, skills, education, interests, and aspirations.
Add a professional photo
Adding a profile photo is key – profiles with a photo get 14x more views than a profile without a
photo. Adding a photo helps humanize your profile and makes you more approachable. Make
sure you are smiling in your picture! A smiling face on your profile goes a long way toward
making a great first impression with potential Canadian employers.
You don’t have to enlist the help of a professional photographer – just ensure you’re dressed
professionally and alone in the shot and you can even take a photo with the help of a colleague.
But today, we’re lucky enough to have a photographer onsite! I strongly encourage you to stop
by her station to get your picture taken after the session, if you haven’t already.
Write an attention-grabbing headline
Your headline is the phrase that appears next to your name throughout LinkedIn. If you have a
job, it’s common to use your job title and company as your headline. However, it’s even more
effective to use the headline to show your value and passion in one quick line. What do you do,
or what do you want to do? How do you characterize yourself professionally? The examples here
are all different, but are each strong examples of how LinkedIn members can indicate their
passions and interests to their extended networks.
Your LinkedIn profile is not a resume
As we move into the experience sections, I want to be sure and explain how LinkedIn differs
from a traditional resume or CV. It’s much more holistic, and allows you to tell your personal
story. It’s not just a series of bullet points!

Add relevant sections to display your experiences
You will see a variety of different sections you can add to your profile. Some of the most
important sections are Summary, Experience, and Education. However, you can go beyond that
to add your Language skills, Projects you’ve worked on, your Volunteering experience, any
Organizations you’re a member of, and much more.
Companies find qualified candidates for their open jobs by searching for keywords on LinkedIn.
For that reason, it’s important to add descriptions to each section. If you don’t have a relevant
keyword on your profile, you won’t come up in a search for that keyword. You can maximize
your odds of finding a job on LinkedIn by including as much detail as possible.
Write a compelling summary
Next, take a minute to think about your Summary. Your Summary sits at the top of your
LinkedIn profile, and is your chance to briefly tell your story. A good formula is to reference
what you’ve done in the past and what you’re doing now, but ultimately to focus on your future
potential and aspirations.
See this example: “I am passionate about hospitality and making others feel welcome. In Syria, I
ran a successful hotel that welcomed in visitors from all over the globe. Today, I am pursuing
opportunities in the Toronto area that will allow me to leverage my extensive experience in the
hotel and hospitality industry. Please reach out if you know of any opportunities!”
Again, adding a summary of 40 words or more makes your profile more likely to turn up in a
future employer’s search. A good tip is to ensure your summary includes keywords featured in
desirable job descriptions for your field. Describe your experience and tell the world why you
work in your chosen career.
Avoid buzzwords (examples: strategic, team player, creative) and focus on your career
accomplishments. If you feel uncomfortable sharing your accomplishments so directly, know
that in Canada this is completely normal and, indeed, important in order to demonstrate your
qualifications.
Detail your experience
Here’s the meat of your LinkedIn profile: your past work experience.

Click the “Add Position” button to add additional roles. Be sure to include all past jobs,
including part-time jobs and professional work experience. Include the Company name, your Job
Title, and the location of the role. Add the time period that you worked there. Finally add a
description of what you did in that role. What did you accomplish in each role? What did you
learn?
Remember, this is beyond a simple resume: this is an opportunity to tell your story of career
growth.
Detail your education
If you attended high school or university, you can add that in the Education section. Adding your
education is a great way not only to show your qualifications, but also gives you an opportunity
to connect with other alumni from your school who may in the Toronto area.
There are multiple fields here, but the key ones to fill out are the School name, the dates
attended, and the degree or field of study if relevant.
Add skills and get endorsed
Finally, add skills! What are your areas of expertise? Skills can include anything from public
speaking, to customer service, to childcare, to business development. Take some time to think
about what kinds of skills you have. Just click “edit” and start adding!
Adding skills and expertise makes it easy for your connections to endorse you for your
knowledge and strengths, and helps you show up in relevant searches for companies looking for
someone with your skills. Be sure to endorse the skills and expertise of your connections as well
– it will encourage them to do the same for you.
Ask for recommendations that add credibility and flavor
And last but certainly not least in this section: Ask for recommendations.

There are few things that can help your job search as much as someone vouching for who you
are and why you should be hired.
Ask some of your connections – like former coworkers and clients – to write recommendations
of your work. Getting a strong recommendation usually requires asking for one, so don’t be
afraid to make a delicate request. Reassure someone that these can be short paragraphs, and can
take less than 10 or 15 minutes.
Complete as many sections as you can!
We covered some of the most important sections today, but be sure to go back and see if there’s
anything else you can add! The more information you have on your LinkedIn profile, the more
accurate your suggested jobs will be.
Step 2: Build your network on LinkedIn
You’ve created your LinkedIn profile. Now we’re going to talk about how to use it to build your
network. There are many different types of people on LinkedIn, which means that you can get
connected to many different types of opportunities on the site.
Your LinkedIn “network”
Opportunities don’t appear out of nowhere – they are connected to people. The best way to meet
new people is via the people you already know. Think back to when you got your very first job.
Did you get it via someone who was a family member or friend? It’s always easier to get a job
somewhere when you know someone who works there and can help you prepare. All kinds of
people are on LinkedIn, from all different ages and backgrounds. Even if you don’t think of your
current network as being able to help you professionally in Canada, I promise it’s easy to build it
and leverage it to connect to job opportunities!
Build your network on LinkedIn
Your network is basically the people you know in life; in order for them to be helpful on
LinkedIn, you need to connect with them! Start off by searching for the people you already know

in real life, under the My Network tab.
If you click “Connections” it will show you all your current connections.
“Add Contacts” will allow you to import your address book from your email address.
“People You May Know” will make suggestions based on your current connections and work
experience.
“Find Alumni” will help you find other graduates of your university.
How to connect with someone you’ve just met
The easiest way to add someone to your network is from their LinkedIn profile. Click the
“Connect” button, and you’ll be taken the invitation page. Always include a personal note
instead of the default text! If you’re adding someone who you’ve just met once, it may be helpful
to include where you met them.
Generally, it’s best to only connect with people who you actually know. However, an exception
might be if you are reaching out to someone with something in common with you, such as if they
went to the same university or are also new to Canada and have recently found a job in an
industry you’re interested in.
When reaching out to someone who you don’t already know, be sure to write a note explaining
why you’d like to connect.
Join Groups to build your network
Groups are communities within LinkedIn that allow you to find and connect with people and
build your network. You can find and join LinkedIn groups by searching for groups from the
Search field at the top of your homepage. There are multiple groups on LinkedIn for each
interest, organization, or affiliation. Find groups based on your industry or the industries you are
interested in getting into.

Join the Welcome Talent Canada Group
We’ve created a group for everyone here today, so that we can all stay in touch! Please search
for “Welcome Talent Canada” and ask to join the Group. This makes it easier for us all to find
and connect with each other.
Step 3: Apply for jobs using LinkedIn
Alright, so you’ve made your LinkedIn profile and added connections. Now you’re ready to start
finding and applying to jobs on LinkedIn.
Finding jobs on LinkedIn
LinkedIn aggregates jobs from all over the internet, so it’s a very comprehensive database of
open jobs. Click on the “Jobs” tab (circled) to find your personalized Jobs portal, showing
suggestions of jobs based on the experiences you’ve listed on your profile.
Then click on “Set up your jobs preferences” or the “Preferences” tab to set preferences for the
kinds of jobs you’re interested in.
Setting up your job preferences
Under the “Preferences” tab, select your ideal location (Toronto!), the range of your experience,
and the industries you’re interested in working in. Feel free to a variety of different industries!
Once you save your preferences, they will be factored into what jobs are suggested to you.
See jobs based on your experience and your preferences

If you click back to the “Discover” tab, you will now see a variety of different jobs in the
Toronto area that might be a good fit. Click on them to see more information.
Apply to jobs with your LinkedIn profile
If you find a job you’re interested in, it’s easy to apply! Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to
date, and then just click the “Apply” button. Add your contact information. If you want to attach
your resume, you can also do that here. Then hit “Send application” and you’re all set!
If you click back to the “My jobs” tab, you will be able to track the jobs you’ve applied to.
You’re ready to use LinkedIn!
And don’t worry, we will be sending out a checklist of all the items we covered here today!
Profile and job search checklist here:
https://content.linkedin.com/content/dam/premium/jobsearch/PDFAssets/Job_Search_Checklist.pdf
Checking in
Let’s review our objectives for today!
Do you…
Understand how LinkedIn can help you build your network in Canada?
Know how to create your LinkedIn profile?
Feel confident in your ability to leverage LinkedIn in your job search?
Please let me know if you have any questions now – I’m happy to help, and want to make sure
you have the knowledge and skills you need to get started using LinkedIn for your job search.