LinkedIn often gets overlooked by students’ as it can be seen as a resource for people already working in their chosen industry or profession. LinkedIn is a great resource for students, and can help you gain a keener insight into the industry or profession you are aiming for a career in. Below are some tips to help you get started.
Use the right profile picture
We all know the benefits and importance of having a profile picture for our social media accounts, and LinkedIn is no different. However, it is important to remember that LinkedIn is a network for professionals, so choosing the right profile picture can be tricky.
Here are some helpful tips for choosing the right picture:
- Choose a recent photograph that is easily recognizable as you.
- Make sure your face takes up around 60% of the frame – long distance shots don’t work well as profile pictures on LinkedIn
- Make sure the picture quality is good – you don’t necessarily need a professional headshot but the picture should be of good quality.
Use your headline
When you sign up for LinkedIn as a student, your headline automatically defaults to student. What many students don’t realise, is that it can be edited. Your headline is important as you can use it to reflect your area of study. Don’t be afraid to edit your headline to include your college and course. For example if you are studying a BA in Early Childhood Care & Education, you could use the following as your headline:
BA in Early Childhood Care & Education student at Mary Immaculate College
If you are particularly interested in a certain area of study you can always include this too, for example:
BA in Early Childhood Care & Education student at Mary Immaculate College, with a keen interest in Educational Psychology
Your summary is your story
A LinkedIn summary is the most effective piece of content marketing on your profile, as it gives you a chance to tell your story. Don’t just list your work experience and skills, use your summary to explain why these skills matter and try to use real world examples of how you developed them.
Try to avoid overusing LinkedIn buzzwords
LinkedIn buzzwords are words that appear so often on LinkedIn profiles, that prospective employers lose interest quickly. Words like ‘specialised’ ‘leadership’ ‘focused’ ‘passionate’ ‘creative’ etc. are overused so much that they begin to lose meaning. While it’s perfectly ok to use these words, try to lend meaning to them by linking back to your experience. For example if you have stated that you are passionate about film, try to give an example of how you are passionate about film. Maybe you have made a short film, or written an article for a publication. Just using the words isn’t enough, demonstrate them as well.
List your relevant core skills
LinkedIn provides a pre-made list of skills that members can scroll through. Use this list to identify the skills that are relevant to you. This helps to confirm the description in your headline and summary. You can also take a skills assessment to demonstrate the level of your skills with a verified skills badge on your profile. Displaying proof of your abilities strengthens your profile, but displaying the results of skills assessments is entirely voluntary.
Follow companies that interest you
Many companies use LinkedIn, and will have a company page. Here you can find out more information about the company, if they currently have any positions available, connect with people who work here and view any video content the company may have.
Research people in positions that interest you
Make use of the LinkedIn search function, and search for people in positions that interest you. For example if you are studying a BA in Liberal Arts and majoring in media, you may have a particular interest in film, and be considering a career in film production. You can begin your journey by researching people who are already in these positions. This will give you an indication of the skills required for the position. To search for people in positions that interest you, follow the below steps:
- Search for the position that interests you
- People results for the position are the second results that appear
- Select see all at the top right of the listings
- Select a profile for the results that you would like to view
Create Job alerts
While you may not be ready to start applying for jobs, job alerts are a great way to keep up to date with the positions that are available in your chosen industry. Research these positions, and see what qualifications and skills are required by employers for these positions. To create a job alert, follow the below steps:
- Search for a position that interests you
- Job results for the position are the first results that appear
- Select see all at the top right of the listings
- All results will then appear in a column on the left side of the screen
- Above the first result, in the top right corner you will find the job alert button. It is automatically sent to off.
- Set the Job alert button to on, and select whether you would like to receive alerts daily or weekly, and whether you would like to receive your alerts by email, notification or email and notification
Connect with people
Connect with people in the industry or profession that you are interested in. Most people are open to growing their network in LinkedIn and are happy to connect with people, at any professional level. Connecting with people in the industry or profession that you are interested in, is a great way to keep up to date with industry and professional trends.
Engage with your connections
While LinkedIn is a network for professionals, it is still a network and the best way to stay involved is to engage with your connections. Engagement can take the form of sharing relevant content to your LinkedIn network, adding comments to articles or using the publications section to share content you have created.