LinkedIn Levels

If you don’t already have a LinkedIn profile, visit linkedin.com and follow the set-up steps. All shoreside colleagues should select ‘Carnival UK (Cunard and P&O Cruises)’ as their employer. The Cunard and P&O Cruises LinkedIn profiles are for fleet colleagues. 

• Add a photo. Ask someone to take a head and shoulders shot, ideally against a plain background – phone photos are perfect. If there’s no one to help, a selfie works just as well.  

Go to your profile page > Click on the round person above your name to add your profile photo

• Check to make sure your profile is public and that your photo is visible to all LinkedIn members, and others who find you via search engines and other services.  

Go to your profile page > Click on your profile photo > Click on the button bottom left (above ‘Edit’ and ‘Add Photo’) 

• Edit your professional headline (the bit below your name) so that it describes what you do. ‘Recruitment Manager finding new talent for our P&O Cruises and Cunard fleet’ is much better than ‘Manager, Feet Recruitment.’ Don’t use acronyms or jargon that are unique to Carnival UK.

Go to your profile page > Click the pencil to the right of your personal details > Edit the ‘Headline’ box

• Add a Profile Summary to outline what you do. Try to keep it short – your LinkedIn summary should include a few sentences that describe your years of experience in your industry, your area of expertise, the types of organizations you’ve worked with, your skills, and what you’re most known for professionally. You can include links or documents in your summary, e.g. an article you’ve written. 

Go to your profile page > Scroll down and click the pencil in the ‘About’’ section 

• List your current and previous job titles to show your experience and expertise. Include a short description for each one to show your role responsibilities. Make sure your job titles and descriptions include the keywords you want to be found with. This way you’ll be found more quickly when someone’s searching for your particular expertise. Make sure you’re working for ‘Carnival UK (Cunard and P&O Cruises)’. The Cunard and P&O Cruises LinkedIn profiles are for fleet colleagues. 

Go to your profile page > Scroll down and click the pencil in the ‘Experience’ section

• Customise your public profile URL so you’re found more quickly on Google and it looks neater whenever you share it. Why not add it to your email signature?

Go to your profile page > Click ‘Edit public profile and URL’ on the top right > Click on the pencil in the ‘Edit your custom URL’ section on the top right. 

• Connect with as many relevant people as you can, including your colleagues. Connecting with new people after a meeting is an easy way to grow your network – you never know who somebody else may know! 

• Follow key companies, interesting influencers and topic, and relevant industry bodies to see their content in your home feed. Remember to follow linkedin.com/company/carnivaluk

• Comment on the posts of colleagues; congratulate them on their achievements or milestones. If they’ve posted about a project you were part of, share your thoughts about what you achieved together.

• Share posts and job vacancies published by Carnival UK. If you were at the event or work in the department Carnival UK have featured, add a sentence about your personal perspective EG “This role is in my department and is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a project that will transform technology on our ships.” or “What a fun day at work this was!” 

• Post on your page (but nothing that’s business confidential). Share photos of professional achievements, events, team away days, conferences, ship visits, personal milestones and awards/achievements etc. When you post remember to tag @Carnival UK (P&O Cruises & Cunard) and use our hashtags – #cuk #gooddayatcuk #carnivalukcareers – to feature on our Life pages.  

• Review your home page regularly. The home page shows what your network and those you follow are saying. It gives you an opportunity to like, share or reply where appropriate. Stories can be ordered by ‘top’ or ‘recent’. 

• Keep an eye on who has been looking at your profile. People you have met or have upcoming meetings with will be looking at you online. See every new connection as an opportunity. 

• Use your status update to share something useful to your network at least once a week. Sharing valuable links and information reinforces your position as an expert in your field. When posting, tag relevant people, trade bodies or companies to increase engagement. To tag or mention somebody start to type their name, e.g. @Anna to bring up the list of people or businesses with that name and select the right one.

• Add skills to your profile to to highlight your abilities, strengths, and expertise, and to build your credibility among peers, colleagues and managers. Once you add a skill to your profile, that skill can be endorsed by your professional community (first-degree connections only.) When a connection endorses you for a skill it strengthens your profile and increases the likelihood that you’ll be discovered for opportunities related to your skills, which all contribute to showcasing Carnival UK’s great opportunities and work. LinkedIn automatically pulls the top three skills you’ve received the most endorsements for and displays them within your profile. 

• Use personal recommendations to build credibility.  A recommendation is someone validating your experience and expertise by providing specific examples of the great work you’ve done and how you used your skills, strengths, and experience.  Seek out people in your professional community like colleagues, managers, executives, senior leaders, partners. Those who have worked closely with you and can speak to your skills, strengths, impact, and experience

• Add volunteering experience to round out your professional story and showcase what you’re passionate about outside of work. LinkedIn data shows that members who’ve added volunteer experience receive up to six times more profile views than those without.  Your volunteer experience doesn’t have to be as robust as your work experience.  Simply add the organization where you volunteer and create a one to two-sentence description of how you contribute.