W03 Learning Activity: Professional Presence
In this activity you will learn ways to improve your professional presence, including your resume, LinkedIn and GitHub profiles.
Progress on your Informational Interviews
Remember that during this course, you need to conduct at least three informational interviews. If you have not already completed these three interviews, you should contact at least five additional people this week.
Instructions
Watch each of the following videos:
Resumes
Your resume is an important part of your professional presence. You have likely created a great resume previously, in courses such as GS 170. Since that time, you have had additional experiences in Software Development, so it is time for you to update and polish it. Updating your resume is something you will do throughout your career.
The following videos have tips about how to organize and present your resume.
Resume Formatting
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Organizing Sections on a Resume
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Tailoring Your Resume
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Writing Resume Bullets
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Resume Summary
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
What to Include in Your Resume if You Don't Have Work Experience?
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Other Important Resume Points
- Your resume is a main way that a potential employer will see and remember you. It should be clear, concise and easy to read.
- Your resume should be one page (not longer) and should not contain any fonts smaller than 10pt. It should have a consistent look through including fonts, colors, and sizes. If you have inconsistencies it will make you look less professional.
- Use a .pdf format for your resume rather than .doc or .docx files. Often people will view your resume in an electronic system that may not render it the way you expect. Using a .pdf file will ensure that it appears the way you expect.
LinkedIn is an important part of your professional presence. Throughout your career, you should maintain an accurate and professional presence there. It is a great place to connect with other professionals and for them to learn more about you when you are seeking new opportunities.
If you do not already have an account at LinkedIn, you should create one now. If you already have one, you should take this opportunity to update your profile. The following suggestions will give you guidance.
Optimizing your LinkedIn Profile
Learn how to optimize your LinkedIn Profile.
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Creating and Posting Content on LinkedIn
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Other Important LinkedIn Points
- The About Me section in LinkedIn is an important place where a potential employer can learn more about you as a person to see if you fit the thing there company needs. Take time to consider how you will present yourself there.
- When you copy and paste the link for your LinkedIn page, make sure you get the actual link to your page. If you copy and paste the URL from your browser you might get
https://www.linkedin.com/in/me/(notice the "me" in the URL). This will link to the page of whichever user is signed in, so a recruiter will see their own page instead of yours. Instead, you can click the "Contact info" link at the top of your profile to get the actual URL that will contain your user name.
GitHub Profile
In previous courses, you have likely used GitHub as a place share code. Did you know that GitHub is also a rich ecosystem for collaborating with others and building your professional presence?
A good place to start is to develop a professional README page for a repository (repo) that matches your username. These steps will walk you through the process and best practices around setting up this page.
Create a GitHub Account
You should have already created a GitHub account in previous courses. If you have not, you should create one now.
- Go to GitHub.com
- Select Sign Up and follow the steps to create your account.
- Choose an account name that you will feel comfortable sharing with employers. (For example, a variation of your name or initials may be better than "dino-lover-2001".)
Create a Personal Repository
You likely have several GitHub repositories for the various projects you have been working on. In addition to those project repositories, it is a good practice to create a repo that matches your username and let that serve as your main landing page.
Once this personal repository is in place, you will use it as a place to host a profile README document. Which automatically shows in your profile.
Complete the following steps:
- Log in to GitHub.
- Create a new repository.
- Select a name that matches your github username. (For example, if your GitHub username was "brighamyoung" you would create a new repo named "brighamyoung".)
- Select the option to add a README file.
- Select the option to make your repo public so that others can find it.
- You can now edit the README.md file directly using the GitHub file editor. (You can also clone this repo and edit it with VS Code or another editor if you prefer)
Update your README.md file
Use the following information to help construct a README.md file that highlights who you are and the work you have done. (You do not have to complete this step as a part of this learning activity, but you need to finish it for your assignment at the end of the week.)
The key features of a GitHub profile are:
- Personal Introduction: A brief section about who you are, what you do, and your interests. This can include your professional role, educational background, or areas of expertise.
- Skills and Technologies: Highlight the programming languages, tools, and technologies you are proficient in. This can be done through text, badges, or icons.
- Projects and Work: Showcase your significant or favorite projects. You can include links to repositories, descriptions of what each project entails, and any notable achievements.
- GitHub Statistics: Some users include dynamic GitHub stats like their number of contributions, most used languages, or streaks. This can be done using GitHub widgets and badges.
You could use something like the following as a starting template for your README.md file:
# <Your Name Here>
Hello, GitHub! 👋
I'm <Your Name Here>, a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho interested in <Your Profession/Interests such as: computer science, data science, web development, machine learning, ...>. Welcome to my GitHub profile!
## About Me
- I'm currently learning ...
- My goals are to ...
- Ask me about ...
## Technologies and Tools
- Proficient in: <List of Programming Languages or Technologies>
- Skills: <Any Other Skills or Tools You Want to Highlight>
## Let's Connect!
- Here is my [LinkedIn](Your LinkedIn Profile Link) profile
- Here is my [Twitter](Your Twitter Profile Link) profile
Feel free to explore my repositories and don't hesitate to reach out. Happy coding! 🚀
Other Profile Enhancements
In addition to the basic structure, you can add free logos from the various languages and platforms you use in the DevIcons GitHub Repository. Look in the icons folder for technologies you would like to include. Once you have identified some, you can use the HTML img tag to include them in your profile such as:
<div>
<img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/react/react-original-wordmark.svg" title="React" alt="React" width="40" height="40"/>
<img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/css3/css3-plain-wordmark.svg" title="CSS3" alt="CSS" width="40" height="40"/>
<img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/html5/html5-original.svg" title="HTML5" alt="HTML" width="40" height="40"/>
<img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/javascript/javascript-original.svg" title="JavaScript" alt="JavaScript" width="40" height="40"/>
<img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/git/git-original-wordmark.svg" title="Git" **alt="Git" width="40" height="40"/>
</div>
You can also add the LinkedIn and Twitter icons for your links:
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You can add many other components such as gifs or images. Just remember to keep this profile professional.
Other Important GitHub Profile Points
- If you have created the personal repository with the repository name that matches your username, then it will generate a special website for you that renders this information. The link for this site is
https://github.com/your-name(whereyour-nameis your own user name). If you use a URL like this:https://github.com/your-name/your-name(notice that your username is included twice) it will show you the information for this repository, but it will not be rendered nicely.
Posting Content on other forms of Social Media
Should you post professional content on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok?
Maybe not. But did you realize that your potential company will very likely review your social media profile on sites like these?
For this reason, you should make sure that anything you are sharing on these platforms is something you are comfortable with future employers seeing. For example, you should certainly not share anything illegal, but even more than that, you should be careful not to post things that are derogatory, divisive, or mean toward any other person. These things will reflect on you and your character. If needed, review your social media profiles and remove content that may reflect negatively on you.
Consider your Character
Consider the advice given by President Russell M. Nelson in his talk, Peacemakers Needed. These principles will help you in your professional pursuits and will also strengthen your relationships with others around you and help you become a better disciple of Jesus Christ.
Submission
After you have finished this learning activity, return to Canvas and submit the associated quiz there.
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