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Hello and welcome to another blog from your Student Trainers!
Today we will be discussing how to create a LinkedIn profile. We don’t want you to just “create” a profile, we want you to stand-out from the crowd. Just because you’re a student doesn’t mean you haven’t gotten experience yet: internships, volunteering, student group engagement and academic research all count. We’ll give you tips to market your experience to present yourself in the best light on LinkedIn.
There are 645 million users on LinkedIn per month. Why so many? There are several reasons:
1. To manage your professional brand.
With increasing competition in the job market and an influx of highly qualified candidates, it’s important to stand out as much as possible and maximise your chances of presenting yourself well even before you apply for an opportunity. Most employers nowadays tend to look for candidates with a strongly established professional presence as this is what sets candidates apart.
2. Track your professional milestones.
CVs can be quite constrictive sometimes when showing off all your achievements in detail over time, and when coupled with student time constraints and pdf requirements, they can also be especially difficult to update. LinkedIn offers an easy way to list your vast array of professional milestones with just the click of a few buttons and minimal editing and acts as an online diary for keeping track of achievements.
3. Create opportunities.
Gone are the days when the only way to secure a job was to walk into a recruiter’s office with a CV or scour online job portals. LinkedIn allows users to create their own opportunities. It also establishes a bidirectional relationship where you can research an employer’s professional curve and what they are likely to be looking for, therefore putting more power in the hands of the user. If you are part of a student group, you can also create a page to recruit members yourselves or do it via your own profile; a far more sustainable and appealing method than handing out pamphlets in the rain!
4. Build your network.
LinkedIn Users span more than 200 countries and like most social media, LinkedIn has a dedicated algorithm that recommends posts and profiles relevant to individuals’ interests. Take advantage of this algorithm by reaching out to and building relationships with people in your desired industry across the world, and who knows, you could end up landing an opportunity in your dream city! It also makes networking easy for people who might be intimidated to do so in-person in large groups and makes a great starting point for developing this key skill.
Convinced to join the 645 million? We thought so. Stick around to see our next blog where we give you some top tips on creating a top-quality LinkedIn profile. See you there!
References:
LinkedIn. (2020). How do I create a good LinkedIn profile. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/112133/how-do-i-create-a-good
Statistica Research Department. (2022). LinkedIn- statistics & facts. Social media & user-generated content. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/topics/951/linkedin/