Community & Non-Profit,  Professional

Paying it Forward in the Pandemic… Let’s Learn LinkedIn

We have just entered the 2nd half of 2020. The world is still in turmoil as the grip of the global COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of easing up. In South Africa, we are almost 100 days into lockdown. While restrictions have been eased here and in many other parts of the world, it is clear that the human and economic effects of the pandemic will be with us for a long time to come. Many people have been thrust into unemployment or major pay cuts in an instant. While we mostly do what we can to assist in private, I’ve been thinking of what I can offer on a larger scale to make an impact. And the culmination of that thought process is that I would like to teach those who are interested how to use LinkedIn to effectively market themselves. As the largest professional networking tool available, LinkedIn can be leveraged in countless ways, whether for professional networking, finding someone with skills that you need for services or collaboration, gaining more business as a freelancer or business owner, or finding a job as an employee.  

We hosted a live webinar last night entitled LinkedIn – PIMP your PROFILE. You can watch the recording here:

During October 2015 I was in Silicon Valley on the TechWomen programme, where we got to work with every amazing tech giant imaginable. Unfortunately I suffered a severe bout of flu while there, and experienced the difficulties of the failing US healthcare system first hand. While I was completely down and out for a few days, even though I was sick there was no way I was going to miss a full day at the LinkedIn global headquarters. So I dressed warmly, stacked my bag with tissues, got myself an empty 2 seats at the back of the TechWomen bus, and curled myself up for the drive to Sunnyvale. I felt really bad for possibly putting others at risk with my germs, but thankfully nobody else caught what I had. Clearly it was a time before 2020, things were more chilled.

The day at LinkedIn was fantastic to say the least, and we learned so many things about personal branding and presence, among others. But in addition to that, in the years that followed my journey continued as I learned more about the platform from mentors at LinkedIn, online resources, and sometimes in-person workshops. I wanted to pay it forward by sharing my knowledge with others who need it or want it.

Another amazing company that I visited often while at TechWomen was Mozilla. Their San Francisco office was like my second home. We were always welcome there, the snack corner was always available to raid, and they even made space for me to pray in one of the VC rooms when there was a workshop through evening prayer time one day. In 2017 I was accepted onto the Mozilla Tech Speakers programme and certified as a Tech speaker – a global group of volunteers who spread Mozilla’s mission and their vision for an open web. My workshop was hosted on Mozilla’s Zoom as a Tech Speaker event, and I am deeply thankful for it. 

The webinar took place on 14 July and we had people from 7 countries joining! Here’s the YouTube link to that recording again: 

I hope you find the content shared useful! 

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