President Obama, Please Add Me to Your LinkedIn Network

President Obama recently joked about joining LinkedIn once he leaves the White House. He's already got a profile, but he needs to beef it up. We've got some suggestions.
By Emily Stewart ,

President Obama recently joked about joining LinkedIn (LNKD) once he leaves the White House. He's already got a profile, but he needs to beef it up. We've got some suggestions.

"In seven months or so, I'll be on the job market," the president said at a June economic summit in Washington, D.C., reported by The Hill. "And I'm glad I'm going to be here. I'm going to get on LinkedIn and see what comes up." (Obama and his wife, Michelle, plan to remain in the capitol until his youngest daughter finishes high school.)

LinkedIn, which is set to be acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report in a $26.2 billion deal, has plenty of opportunities for the president to peruse. But if he really wants to catch some eyes, he'll need to add to his current profile, because it's pretty light on detail.

Obama lists only one job under experience -- albeit a pretty important one, a seven-year stint as President of the United States. Still, he might want to elaborate a bit more on what he was up to pre-2009.

His government experience as a U.S. senator and state senator from Illinois would be a solid addition, as would mention of his time as a community organizer, law school professor and civil rights attorney. It'll be up to Obama himself to convince others his experience, largely in the public sector, has prepared him for private sector work as well. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Obama indicated he might be looking at landing in Silicon Valley and offered a preview of his pitch:

The skill set of starting my presidential campaigns -- and building the kinds of teams that we did and marketing ideas -- I think would be the same kinds of skills that I would enjoy exercising in the private sector... The conversations I have with Silicon Valley and with venture capital pull together my interests in science and organization in a way I find really satisfying.

With a little tweaking, that could be his LinkedIn summary. 

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Obama isn't the only President Barach Obama on LinkedIn. Check the top right of the graphic above. That's an actual LinkedIn profile.

They might also be able to help him expand his portfolio of LinkedIn writings. Obama, who penned 1995 book Dreams from My Father and 2006 book The Audacity of Hope, has only ever written one piece for LinkedIn: "Here's the Scoop: Why My First Job Mattered." It chronicles a summer stint at Dunkin' Brands' Baskin Robins in Honolulu. He has yet to put out a follow-up essay on subsequent work experience.

He might want to expand his skills section (he could add winningcampaigns, selfies) and endorsements section as well. Here are some endorsements he could add:

"A man of both tremendous heart and tremendous intellect." -- Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

"Very swagalicious." -- Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States

He's got a pretty impressive skill set -- national and international policymaking, counterterrorism strategy, economic crisis management, health care policy, mic dropping, slow jamming the news -- it wouldn't be too hard to add. And as for endorsements, he can send out some requests to former colleagues and acquaintances asking they input what they've already said about him:

"He knows exactly what he's doing." -- Marco Rubio, Republican U.S. Senator from Florida

"He gets it better than anybody understands." -- Donald Trump, Businessman and Republican Candidate for President of the United States

"President Obama trusted my judgment enough to ask me to be secretary of State for the United States." -- Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary of State and Democratic Candidate for President of the United States

"I know him personally. I think that what he stands for, what he has proven that he can stand for, what he's shown was worth me going out on a limb for him." -- Oprah Winfrey, Billionaire Media Magnate

"The common man deserves a chance, Barack's the one who'll take a stance." -- Stevie Wonder, Singer-Songwriter

"What is change? Change is Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi Shakespeare, Tupac Shakur, Barack Obama." -- Common, Recording Artist, Actor and Poet

If he really wants to impress future employers, he should start following the ones he's really targeting -- right now, he's just paying attention to the White House. Plenty of people follow him, though -- at the moment, 54,000-plus and counting.

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