LinkedIn Career Explorer is a powerful new tool on LinkedIn that allows you to explore different career paths and gain insights into jobs that match your interests and skills. With Career Explorer, you can discover careers you may not have considered before and get a personalized analysis of your qualifications for thousands of roles. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to access and use LinkedIn Career Explorer to explore your career options.
Signing In to LinkedIn
To start using Career Explorer, you first need to sign in to your LinkedIn account. If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet, you’ll have to create one in order to access Career Explorer. Here are the steps to sign in to LinkedIn:
- Go to www.linkedin.com and click ‘Sign in’ at the top right corner of the homepage.
- Enter your email address and password.
- If you can’t remember your password, click ‘Forgot password?’ to reset it.
- Once signed in, you’ll be taken to your LinkedIn homepage.
Make sure you are signed into your account on either the desktop site or mobile app to access Career Explorer.
Finding the Career Explorer Tool
Once logged into your LinkedIn account, here is how to find the Career Explorer tool:
- On desktop: Click on the ‘Jobs’ link in the top navigation bar. In the dropdown, click ‘Career Explorer’.
- On mobile: Tap on the ‘My Network’ icon on the bottom navigation bar. Under the ‘My Items’ section, tap ‘Career Explorer’.
This will open up the Career Explorer dashboard. On desktop, it will appear in the middle column of your screen. On mobile, it will open up in the main screen.
Using Career Explorer
Now that you’ve found the Career Explorer tool, here are some key things you can do to start exploring careers:
Take the Career Quiz
This short quiz helps identify careers that may be a good match based on your interests and personality. To take it:
- Scroll down and click ‘Take the quiz’ on the Career Explorer dashboard.
- Answer questions about your interests, abilities, and preferences.
- At the end it will reveal your personality archetype and top career matches.
Browse Career Suggestions
Career Explorer provides tailored career suggestions based on your current job title, skills, education, and other profile information. To view recommendations:
- Scroll to the ‘Explore your recommendations’ section.
- Browse careers and click any title to see key details like salary ranges, required skills, and job openings.
Search for Careers
Use the search bar to find careers by keyword, job title, or company. For example:
- Search a job title like “product manager”
- Search by industry like “healthcare” or “technology”
- Search by company name like “Microsoft”
You’ll see a list of matching careers along with data like average salary, job growth, required skills, and more.
View Your Qualifications
For any career, scroll down and click ‘See your qualifications’. This shows how your LinkedIn profile aligns with the required skills and experience for that role. Green bars indicate strong alignment; gray bars indicate skills you may need to develop.
Take Free Learning Courses
If Career Explorer identifies skills you need to strengthen for a career path, it will recommend relevant LinkedIn Learning courses to take for free. This helps close skills gaps and makes you more competitive for your target roles.
Follow Careers
When viewing a career, click ‘Follow’ to save it to your favorites. This lets you easily refer back to insights and job openings.
Apply to Jobs
From any career page, scroll down to browse relevant job listings that you can apply to with just one click. This streamlines the application process.
Interpreting Career Explorer Data
Career Explorer provides various data points to help you evaluate careers. Here are some key types of information to pay attention to:
Salary Ranges
The blue salary bar shows the typical annual salary range for that career path. Make sure the earnings align with your financial goals.
Job Growth
This forecasts the expected growth in number of jobs over the next 10 years. Look for careers with strong, positive projected growth.
Skills Matches
These are the percent of required skills you already have according to your LinkedIn profile. Focus on careers with higher skills matches.
Company Size
The graph shows the predominant company sizes hiring for that role, such as the percentage of jobs at large vs. small firms.
Related Jobs
These suggest similar alternative careers to explore based on skill overlaps. Consider if any related roles seem like a better fit.
Following Up on Career Insights
Once you’ve used Career Explorer to identify some appealing career options, here are some next steps for following up:
- Research salaries, growth prospects, and requirements for the role.
- Take free learning courses to develop required skills.
- Join relevant LinkedIn Groups to connect with professionals in the field.
- Follow companies you may want to work for to see their job postings.
- Update your profile summary, skills, and experience to align with target careers.
- Apply to jobs suggested by Career Explorer that interest you.
Benefits of Using Career Explorer
Career Explorer provides many powerful benefits for exploring your career options and pivoting your trajectory. Some key advantages include:
- Identifying new career possibilities – Discover options you may not have previously considered.
- Receiving personalized recommendations – Get career suggestions tailored to your current background and interests.
- Gaining insight into requirements – Learn the concrete skills and experience needed to pursue a career path.
- Strengthening your qualifications – Use recommended learning to fill skills gaps.
- Expanding your professional network – Connect with others working in fields of interest.
- Streamlining your job search – Apply right from Career Explorer to matching openings.
Overall, Career Explorer helps unlock more focused career possibilities that genuinely align with what you want and are qualified to do. The tool keeps you on the cutting edge and empowers more strategic career management.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Career Explorer puts powerful career insights and planning resources right at your fingertips. By following the steps outlined above, anyone can tap into Career Explorer to explore more fulfilling career pivots, develop relevant skills, and land great job opportunities. The Career Quiz, personalized recommendations, and integrated job search make it easier than ever to find your next best career move.