Using online resources, such as making a professional profile on LinkedIn, can lead to unexpected opportunities. “It’s a fabulous resource for students,” Career Services Programming Coordinator Carole Moore said.
Aryn Sanderson
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Andrew Woloz, a Cal Poly alumnus, makes music playlists for a living.
“It’s an awesome job,” he said, “about as awesome as it sounds.”
Woloz, who graduated in 2012 with a degree in business administration, works at Beats Music, a company under the Beats by Dre umbrella.
While his days are spent making playlists and focusing on artist relations, his nights are spent rubbing elbows with the likes of Macklemore, Childish Gambino and Zed.
So how did Woloz land a job doing what he loves? LinkedIn.
“I was working at a job straight out of college, and it was not fun,” he said. “It was hard going from working in music to doing the same, boring thing every day, but then a recruiter from Beats messaged me on LinkedIn.”
A Beats employee recognized Woloz as a music industry tastemaker based on the experience listed on his LinkedIn profile.
“I don’t know exactly how she found me still, but it was probably because I worked at Apple in the iTunes department and had that on my profile, along with a ton of other music industry experience,” he said.
Woloz is not the only Cal Poly alumnus to get a job offer through LinkedIn, said Carole Moore, career counselor for Career Services.
“LinkedIn is the way to go,” she said. “It’s a fabulous resource for students. LinkedIn is really about developing a professional brand and presenting yourself as best you can for networking.”
To do this, Moore tells students to communicate their skill sets clearly and specifically.
“When you speak generally, like, ‘I’m great at customer service,’ we only half-believe it,” she said. “But if you say ‘I have had experience working in a high-demand, fast-paced restaurant as a host and server,’ it becomes more believable, descriptive and interesting.”
She also stressed the importance of having a LinkedIn profile that is direct and relevant to the student’s desired industry.
“Nothing random, nothing general should be on your profile,” Moore said. “Your online presence should make employers want to get to know you, and everything on there should be for a purpose.”
And although LinkedIn is a “great opportunity to present yourself professionally,” Moore said, many other social media platforms lead to oversharing.
“With the growth of social media, employers have so much more access to who you are, not just professionally and not just the things you may want them to know,” Moore said. “They have access to your personal life, your family life, anything and everything that’s on your Facebook, any kind of Twitter opinions you’ve shared online. It’s all so transparent now; students need to be aware of every little thing they post.”
Moore recommends students check their privacy settings if they haven’t yet.
Cuesta College child development sophomore Darby Debnarski says she and most of her friends from Cuesta and Cal Poly are very aware of their privacy settings.
“We have all gone out of our way to put all of our social media stuff on private,” she said. “But, most importantly, we make it where you can’t search our names, especially before interviews.”
Moore also says students should think before they post.
“Employers have the liberty to look and make whatever judgements they want,” Moore said.
Career Services is available to help students outline résumés and online portfolios, Moore said. If networking goes well, there are computers available for Skype interviews in Career Services. And at the career fair, Career Services will have a LinkedIn photo shoot stop so students get their pictures taken while dressed in business attire.