In today’s competitive job market, having a strong online presence is more important than ever for college students and recent graduates looking to launch their careers. LinkedIn, with over 722 million users worldwide, has become the go-to platform for creating a professional online profile and networking with employers and industry contacts. But should current college students take the time to create and optimize a LinkedIn profile? There are several key benefits that make having an early LinkedIn presence worthwhile for those still in school.
Networking Opportunities
One of the greatest advantages of LinkedIn for college students is the networking potential. With a complete, professional profile, students can connect with alumni from their university, professors, guest lecturers, professionals in their desired industry, recruiters, and more. By building out a network early on, students open themselves up to more job and internship opportunities, as recruiters often search LinkedIn for potential candidates. Informational interviews with connections can provide insider advice to help students prepare for and break into competitive fields. Joining relevant LinkedIn Groups and following influential companies also keeps students in the loop on industry news, upcoming events, and job openings. Overall, the networking capacity of LinkedIn gives students an essential head start in making the connections that can further their careers.
Showcasing Skills & Achievements
In addition to networking, LinkedIn gives students a platform to showcase academic, extracurricular, and work achievements to future employers. On their profiles, students can highlight courses, projects, research, internships, leadership positions, and skills that relate to their career goals. Displaying this well-rounded experience, backed up with recommendations from professors and supervisors, helps students stand out from the crowd as motivated, accomplished candidates. Especially for students with limited formal work experience, LinkedIn provides a place to demonstrate their capabilities beyond just listing their academic credentials. Recent graduates in 2021 with a completed LinkedIn profile were 40% more likely to receive opportunities from recruiters at top companies.
Building a Professional Presence
Creating a LinkedIn profile requires students to shift gears from typical social media presence to a professional mindset. With a profile tailored to career interests and goals, students establish a business-minded online persona for future employers to see. The experience of crafting a thoughtful profile summary, choosing the right profile photo, selecting relevant skills, customizing the URL, and engaging professionally prepares students for the expectations of networking in a business context. It also gives students a chance to practice promoting their own personal brand and qualifications in a career-focused setting.
Gaining Exposure to Job Listings
Through the Jobs section on LinkedIn, students can directly search and apply for thousands of internships, apprenticeships, and entry-level job openings at all kinds of companies. Tailoring job search alerts and settings enables matching opportunities to appear right in the LinkedIn feed. Compared to scattered job boards and career center listings, LinkedIn Jobs consolidates openings in one easily searchable hub. Students can even communicate directly with recruiters through Apply options. For those nervous about the looming job hunt after graduation, scoping out potential openings and employers well in advance is a major advantage.
Advantages of Starting a LinkedIn Profile Early
| Advantage | Explanation |
|---|---|
| More time to build connections | Students can gradually network with professionals over their entire college career instead of hastily reaching out right before graduation. |
| Showcasing growth | As students complete more internships, training, and academic projects, their skills and experience expand over time. |
| Chance to test different options | Students can experiment with profile layouts, descriptions, and other settings before career fair recruiters start searching profiles. |
| Applying to opportunities early | Instead of waiting until senior year, underclassmen can apply to jobs and internships as they appear on LinkedIn and other sites. |
Tips for an Impactful Student Profile
Here are some top tips for college students looking to create a stellar LinkedIn profile:
Professional Profile Photo
Use a high-quality, neatly dressed headshot against a plain background for the profile image. Avoid casual selfies, distracting backgrounds, or unprofessional attire. The photo creates a critical first impression.
Attention-Grabbing Student Headline
Summarize degree, university, graduation year, and professional aspirations in the headline that appears under the name. Ex: Economics Student at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Class of 2024 – Seeking Marketing Analyst Role
Detailed About Section
Use the About summary to provide an engaging overview of professional qualities, goals, achievements, and aspirations tailored to desired industry. Balance personality and hard skills.
List of Relevant Skills
Include a comprehensive list of industry-related abilities and technical skills, backed up by certifications if possible. Employers look for keywords from job descriptions.
Experience Highlights
Emphasize transferable skills gained through coursework, group projects, internships, research, part-time jobs, extracurriculars, volunteering, and shadowing. Quantify results when possible.
Academic Projects Section
Detailing relevant academic projects, presentations, papers, and portfolios provides concrete examples of abilities and knowledge.
Recommendations
Ask professors, internship managers, coaches, or organizational advisors for recommendations highlighting qualifications and contributions.
Expanded Education Section
Include awards, honors, relevant courses, study abroad programs, workshops, conferences, and scholarships. Focus on details tied to career field.
Choosing the Right LinkedIn URL
A customized LinkedIn URL serves as an easily shareable, professional online address. Here are tips for creating a strategic customized URL:
– Use real name in URL if possible rather than abbreviations or nicknames. Ex: linkedin.com/in/noahrubin versus linkedin.com/in/nrubin
– Shorter URLs are better, but avoid unrelated or cryptic phrases. Ex: linkedin.com/in/noahcrubin is clearer than linkedin.com/in/socialmediaexpert345
– If name is already taken, modify with middle initial, graduation year, degree, or city. Ex: linkedin.com/in/noah-c-rubin
– Don’t change URL multiple times once established – this affects search visibility and breaks existing links.
– Double check spelling – typed URLs are not case sensitive but remaining consistent looks better.
– Set up customized URL once profile is relatively complete – URL appears on profile.
Engaging With Content to Stand Out
Posting, liking, commenting, and sharing strategic, industry-related content adds value for connections while showcasing interests and expertise. Students should:
– Comment thoughtfully on colleagues’ content when possible. This widens visibility.
– Like and share articles, videos, and posts relatable to target field and role.
– Follow leading companies, thought leaders, influencers, and news sources in chosen industry.
– Post own content sparingly – focus on insights and advice versus promotion.
– Join relevant LinkedIn Groups to share advice and best practices.
– Check notifications and respond to messages to cultivate relationships.
Growing Network Strategically
Connecting broadly with those in target function, industry, or university community expands opportunities. But focus on quality, not quantity, of connections. Students should:
– Connect with classmates, professors, alumni in professional roles or companies of interest.
– Avoid mass connection requests – focus on currently beneficial ties.
– Personalize invitation messages to increase acceptance rates.
– Connect with 2nd degree contacts through introductions or by mentioning mutual connections.
– Follow up after connecting – don’t let new contacts languish.
– Connect with recruiters and talent acquisition from desirable employers.
– Join alumni and student groups on LinkedIn to broaden contacts.
Following Companies and Showing Interest
Following target employers, their executives, alumni, and company pages signals interest and teaches about their priorities. Students should:
– Follow pages of dream companies and roles to see insights and news.
– Turn on notifications fromfollowed company pages to keep updated.
– Follow executives like founders, directors, and team leaders to learn from their posts.
– Follow alumni working in desired jobs or companies to learn about their progression.
– Like and share company updates to stay on their radar. Comment when possible.
– Follow company and role-related LinkedIn Groups and Hashtags.
Researching Jobs and Internships
The Jobs section of LinkedIn is a centralized hub of open positions and internships searchable by factors like role, industry, location and company. Students should:
– Look beyond job/intern title to read full descriptions – duties can vary.
– Filter by entry-level or internship when searching.
– Search by skills or keywords related to qualifying credentials.
– Look for openings at target, desirable, and even dream companies. Sign up for alerts.
– Focus on new postings – these may get fewer applications initially.
– Leverage university alumni connections at organizations of interest to inquire about openings.
Following Up After Connecting
Simply connecting on LinkedIn is not enough – students should engage meaningfully with new connections.
| Follow Up Tactic | Example |
|---|---|
| Thank them for connecting | “Hi [name], appreciate you accepting my invitation to connect here on LinkedIn.” |
| Mention common ground | “Great to connect with a fellow [university] graduate here!” |
| Congratulate on work milestones | “I noticed from your post that [company] just launched a new product line. Congratulations!” |
| Comment on their content | “Thank you for sharing this advice on the common mistakes interns make. I will definitely keep these tips in mind.” |
| Ask for informational interview | “I would love to learn more about your career journey in [field]. Would you have 20 minutes in the next month for a quick informational interview over the phone?” |
| Request to connect them with classmate for opportunity | “My friend Jane is interning this summer with [your company] and is really interested in learning more about your [job title] role. Could I connect you two via email or LinkedIn?” |
Joining Relevant LinkedIn Groups
Joining Groups related to university, field of study, industry, profession, interests or affiliations expands reach. Students should:
– Search Groups Directory by keyword for related Groups
– Review Group about pages, members, and discussions to evaluate fit
– Join larger established Groups to connect with more members
– Follow discussions and chime in thoughtfully when able to
– Be judicious about participating – focus on quality over quantity
– Join university, alumni, student, and professional organization Groups
– Search Groups for members working in target companies or roles
– Connect directly with Group members that could be beneficial contacts
Building Skills Through LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning provides over 15,000 expert-led video courses covering business, creative, and technology topics. Students can:
– Add Skills learned on Learning to LinkedIn Profile using simple interface
– Take recommended courses and assessments to evaluate skill level
– Focus on hard and soft skills sought for intended career and roles
– Complete courses related to resume building, job searching, networking, interviewing, etc.
– Earn certifications to validate proficiency in programs, software, or practices
– List certifications in Education or Certifications section, supported by Skills
– Showcase motivation to keep learning and improving skillset
Finding Alumni Working at Target Companies
Alumni networks can provide insider tips and referral opportunities. Students can:
– Search alumni from your university using LinkedIn filters
– Look for those working in desired industries, companies, or roles
– Reach out to request informational interview and career advice
– Ask alumni about their career progression after graduating
– Inquire about internship and job openings or referral contacts
– Connect with alumni associations from university through Groups
– Attend alumni networking events to broaden contact base
– Join university alumni mentoring programs through LinkedIn Programs
Optimizing LinkedIn Settings
Adjusting account settings optimizes LinkedIn experience and control. Students should:
– Turn on student indication under education section
– Select industry and role interests under preferences for targeting
– Show “open to opportunities” to signal openness to recruiters
– Turn on notifications for messages, content, and news involving connections
– Enable 2-step verification for added security
– Customize targeted ads to prefer professional content
– Download full profile data to save progress in case of issues
– Adjust default post visibility depending on intended audience
Privacy Settings
Manage visibility of profile details to desired audience:
– Profile photo visibility (Public, Connections only, Private)
– Viewer information visibility (Profile Views, Who’s Viewed Your Updates, Visitors)
– Activity broadcasts visibility (Profile Edits, New Connections, Posts Liked)
Communications Settings
Manage frequency and types of messages received:
– Email notifications frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly)
– Notifications for new messages (Email, Push, SMS)
– Mentions notifications – who can mention in posts and comments
– Unsubscribe from unwanted notifications and messages
Using Premium Subscriptions
For students actively networking and job searching, premium subscriptions provide added features.
LinkedIn Premium Career
Unlocks profile branding tools, expanded InMail messages, candidate insights, interview preparation tools.
LinkedIn Premium Hiring
Provides Recruiter Lite, expanded LinkedIn Learning, salary data, and hiring/placement tools.
LinkedIn Premium Business
Combines unlocked courses, audio meetings, business messaging tools, talent and lead matching.
LinkedIn Premium Learning
Focused on expanding access to 15,000+ expert led video courses and certifications.
LinkedIn Premium Sales
Provides sales focused search filters, auto-targeted leads, CRM integration, messaging tools.
Conclusion
Creating a strong LinkedIn presence offers substantial advantages for college students preparing to graduate and break into the workforce. By thoughtfully optimizing their profiles, proactively networking, engaging with industry contacts, exploring openings, and supplementing skills, students can leverage LinkedIn to launch rewarding careers. While it does require dedication and active maintenance, a polished LinkedIn profile serves as a valuable professional asset before and after graduation.
