The Professional Development avenue kickstarted their year with the project “LinkedIn 101” in collaboration with the Unilever Sparks student ambassadors of the University on 26th August 2022. As an avenue that mainly focuses on individual development of the membership, this virtual, yet active learning session was organized with the intention of helping the audience understand the ABC’s of Linkedin and how to leverage it to strengthen their network as aspiring undergraduates, students, entrepreneurs or job seekers. The session was conducted by Ms. Aaqilah Haniffa – an experienced Talent Advisor and Learning Specialist at Unilever Sri Lanka. The event was open for all internal and external members of the Rotaract community and had a participation of 150+.
Professional Development avenue විසින් 2022 අගෝස්තු 26 වැනි දින විශ්වවිද්යාලයේ Unilever Sparks ශිෂ්ය තානාපතිවරුන් සමඟ ඒකාබද්ධව “LinkedIn 101” ව්යාපෘතිය සමඟින් ඔවුන්ගේ වසර ආරම්භ ඇරඹී ය . සාමාජිකත්වයේ පුද්ගල සංවර්ධනය කෙරෙහි ප්රධාන වශයෙන් අවධානය යොමු කරන හෙයින් මෙම මාර්ගගත ,නමුත් ක්රියාකාරී ඉගෙනුම් සැසිවාරය සහභාගීවන්නන්ට LinkedIn හි මූලික ක්රියාකාරීත්වයන් අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමට සහ උපාධි අපේක්ෂකයින්, සිසුන්, ව්යවසායකයින් හෝ රැකියා සොයන්නන් ලෙස ඔවුන්ගේ ජාලය ශක්තිමත් කිරීම සඳහා එය භාවිතා කරන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමේ අරමුණින් සංවිධානය කරන ලදී. මෙම සැසිය මෙහෙයවනු ලැබුවේ Unilever ශ්රි ලංකා හි පළපුරුදු කුසලතා උපදේශක සහ ඉගෙනුම් විශේෂඥවරියක වන ආකිලා හනිෆා මෙනවිය විසිනි. Rotaract හි සියලුම අභ්යන්තර සහ බාහිර සාමාජිකයින් සඳහා විවෘත වූ මෙම අවස්ථාවට 150+ ක සහභාගීත්වයක් තිබුණි.
தொழில்முறை மேம்பாட்டுக் குழுவினர், 26 ஆகஸ்ட் 2022 அன்று பல்கலைக்கழகத்தின் யுனிலீவர் ஸ்பார்க்ஸ் மாணவர் தூதுவர்களுடன் இணைந்து “LinkedIn 101” என்ற திட்டத்துடன் அவர்களின் ஆண்டை ஆரம்பித்தனர் . உறுப்பினர்களின் தனிப்பட்ட மேம்பாட்டில் முக்கியமாக கவனம் செலுத்தும் ஒரு அவென்யூவாக, இந்த மெய்நிகர், செயற்திறன் மிக்க கற்றல் அமர்வு லிங்க்ட்இனின் முக்கிய விடயங்களை புரிந்துகொள்வதற்கும், ஆர்வமுள்ள இளங்கலைப் பட்டதாரிகள், மாணவர்கள், தொழில்முனைவோர் அல்லது வேலை தேடுபவர்கள் என அவர்களின் வலையமைப்பை எவ்வாறு வலுப்படுத்துவது என்பதைப் புரிந்துகொள்வதற்கும் பார்வையாளர்களுக்கு உதவும் நோக்கத்துடன் ஏற்பாடு செய்யப்பட்டது. யுனிலீவர் ஸ்ரீலங்காவின் அனுபவமிக்க திறமை ஆலோசகரும் கற்றல் நிபுணருமான செல்வி ஆக்கிலா ஹனிஃபா அவர்கள் இந்த அமர்வை நடத்தினார். ரோட்ராக்ட் சமூகத்தின் அனைத்து உள் மற்றும் வெளி உறுப்பினர்களுக்கும் இந்த நிகழ்வு திறந்திருந்தது மற்றும் 150+ பேர் பங்கேற்று பயன் பெற்றிருந்தனர்.
Rtr. Melisha Gonaduwa and Rtr. Theeksha Gunasinghe, the Directors of the avenue chaired the project themselves. Following a short welcome address by Rtr. Theeksha, the spotlight was passed on to Miss Aaqilah to set the session in motion. She started off by elaborating the dynamic shift of the recruitment process from traditional methods to hiring over LinkedIn and how important it is for everyone to have an active digital presence in the platform to win an edge over the competition and be the first candidate of choice. She then went on to break it down in terms of numbers and facts like “830 million members, 58 million companies and 6 hires every second” which grabbed the tight attention of the audience.
After emphasizing the importance of LinkedIn, she then went on to explain how someone can start off their journey on the platform by touching upon the very basics from creating a profile and updating it accordingly. She highlighted how subtle things like having a profile picture, proper description and an industry specified in the profile could make a big difference when it comes to shortlisting candidates. She also explained the importance of having the profile duly updated since in today’s age, you never know at what time a recruiter will decide to go and look you up on LinkedIn long before making any move.
Since the audience had a 50/50 balance between people who were very new and who were already there but haven’t been active on the platform, after covering the basics she went on to explain more advanced tips and techniques one may use like including keywords in their description to help their profile attract more eyeballs over the rest. One unique feature of this workshop unlike usual LinkedIn learning sessions was that without stopping there, she took an extra step to show the real time dashboard from a recruiter’s point of view and explained how a recruiter will look up and shortlist candidates according to the specific job by taking various examples at the end.
The session ran for approximately an hour (5 – 6pm) and the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions and clear out any doubts at the end. There was so much positive feedback and comments following the session and on feedback forms circulated. The program was concluded by Rtr. Theeksha Gunasinghe by thanking Miss Aaqilah for her untiring efforts and going the extra mile to provide immense value to the audience and the wonderful set of 150+ participants for hanging in there from start to finish and engaging actively throughout.
