“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”– Benjamin Franklin

As a young professional, you have more years ahead of you than behind you, and as they say … the world is your oyster.

As a former K-12 teacher and proud mother of two millennial girls, Sara and Christina, I love interacting with younger generations. It’s exciting to see what my former students and friends of my daughters are now doing in their lives. It’s also great to have the opportunity to meet new young professionals.

For me, this last week of January seems to include interacting with a lot of younger folks with the online summit focused on tips for budding entrepreneurs, local speakers I have lined up, and my invitation to present Maximizing the Power of LinkedIn with the Young Professional Suburban Network at the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

Younger generations have grown up as digital natives, while my boomer generation is considered to be digital immigrants. Personally, I love using and teaching tech to anyone of any age and I also love learning new tech from anyone of any age.

There is something called Reverse Mentoring, which is where a professional friendship is established between a younger and older person who exchange ideas, skills, knowledge, and understanding. You don’t know what you don’t know, so start a new friendship and learn from someone in another generation.

I have no doubt that young people can easily figure out how to navigate LinkedIn, but they probably do not know strategies, best practices, tips, and tricks about the platform unless they have been taught.

In the world of K-12 and higher education, although environments for teaching and learning, so many students are graduating without LinkedIn profiles or sparse LinkedIn profiles, as noted in a previous article about College Grads and LinkedIn.

So many teachers have not learned the importance of the platform and the necessity of networking to build careers and therefore, the students are ill prepared upon graduation. For any student who does not yet have a LinkedIn profile, they should see a previous deck packed with great resources.

LinkedIn is so incredibly important for one’s career not to mention essential for jobseekers. You need to build your profile so that you can gather recommendations as well as skills and endorsements even if you are considering a career in the nonprofit world.

Young professionals also need to know how important networking is to their career. It should be a habit. You have to make the time no matter how busy you are and LinkedIn provides that online networking opportunity in addition to the in person networking.

If you are a young professional or young at heart and want to meet the same, make sure you come to Montgomery County on Thursday night with the LinkedIn app downloaded on your phone so you can connect one on one or with everyone at the event using Find Nearby. You never know who you will meet! They could be the link to your next opportunity.

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Do not neglect managing your career and your career documents, including your LinkedIn profile, from the beginning of your career onward and make networking a habit. A simple start would be with a Bronze membership.

If you want to engage in career management in a group setting, save the date of Saturday February 1st for an all day accelerator in King of Prussia. We will walk with you along your career management journey!

Also register for the upcoming LinkedIn workshop listed below.

Don’t miss our upcoming featured events. If you are a working adult, come learn and network with us. Visit the events tab on our website.

• 1/26 [Interactive Webinar] Value Proposition Letter – Lynne Williams
• 1/26 to 2/8 Awaken Your Wealth: Reprogram Your Mindset to Turn Your Passions into Profit Summit – Lynne Williams + 20 speakers http://bitly/AYWSummit
• 1/27 Left at the Altar: Why Candidates Come in Second – Charley Timmins
• 1/27 nonprofit conference (over 600 attending and walk ins welcome)
• 1/27 How to Have Fun in the Interview and Resume Process – Jessica Saragovi
• 1/27 Virtual Jobseeker Support Meeting – Dr. Dominique Kliger
• 1/28 Alternate Ways to Reduce Your Stress: One Size Does Not Fit All – Carlee Myers
• 1/29 PowerThinking: Resiliency Building Call – Stanley Greene
• 1/29 What’s Your Shtick? Personal Branding Online & Off – Lynne Williams
• 1/30 Maximizing the Power of LinkedIn – Lynne Williams
• 2/1 All Day Hands-on Job Search Accelerator
• 2/2 [Interactive Webinar] The Art of Networking In Person and Online

Missed the previous LinkedIn article on MLKs LinkedIn profile? Click here!

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Lynne Williams is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit of over 4,300 members providing career education and networking.

Contact Lynne by phone at 484-393-2951, email at director@greatcareersphl.org, on social media @GreatCareersPHL and #GreatCareersPHL and connect on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/lynnewilliams Visit the website!