Leveraging LinkedIn for Professional Growth

Becca Hellerman leans on her MMM education to help evolve the brand image of the professional networking site so its more than 1 billion users can find deeper value.

If the first thing that comes to mind when you think of LinkedIn is digital resumes, Becca Hellerman (MMM ‘17) wants to talk with you.

Hellerman is a senior brand strategy manager at LinkedIn. Her job centers on showcasing that the site is much more than an online version of their career journeys for the more than 1 billion people worldwide who have a LinkedIn account. 

Instead, Hellerman wants professionals to see the social networking site launched in 2003 as a place to get more value out of their current positions while actively managing the course of their careers.

To do that, Hellerman leans on the lessons she learned while a student in Northwestern's MBA + MS Design Innovation (MMM) program — a dual-degree program between Northwestern Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management.

“I am so excited about all of the untapped potential for people around the world to find either more satisfaction and more value out of the roles they're in today or find the one that is going to make their lives better,” said Hellerman, who has been with LinkedIn since shortly after graduating from MMM. “It's an infinitely untapped resource for so many people.”

Hellerman’s use of the word “untapped” is telling. She said she recognizes that, for a majority of LinkedIn users, the site still does serve as merely a digital resume. She and her team are trying to change that perception.

Her goal is to create heightened brand awareness about the site’s centerpiece role for professionals to unleash the power of networking and for the variety of learning opportunities and collective professional knowledge it offers.

That focus on providing value for the customers LinkedIn serves reflects a core tenet of the MMM program – human-centered design. Students in MMM learn the best way to create useful goods and services is to start with in-depth customer research to discover their pain points.

The program’s user-centered approach is what attracted Hellerman to MMM.

“I have always been motivated by what makes people tick,” she said. “MMM encompasses the nature of why people do what they do and how companies actually take that into account and build their products and their business models around it.”

The program also served as a place for Hellerman to actively explore future career options. She entered the program thinking she would leave as a design consultant. Her MMM internship experience showed her that while she enjoyed consulting, it wasn't the right path for her.

“MMM inherently attracts curious and empathetic people who aren’t afraid to try something a little bit different,” she said. “I very much found that to be the case while I was there.”

Hellerman pivoted to the technology industry and found a home at LinkedIn that gives her the same career fulfillment she is working to help the site’s users find in their own professions. 

Hellerman remains strongly connected to her alma mater and regularly interviews prospective MMM students. She isn’t shy about offering them advice based on her experience.

“Business school – and particularly MMM – is full of a lot of shiny objects and opportunities, and it is really easy to lose track of your time and get involved in everything,” she said. “Have the three things that you want coming out of the program in your head and focus on them.”