Dos and Don'ts of a Successful Student LinkedIn Profile
Date Published: June 10, 2016
About 80 percent of today’s jobs are landed through networking. But how, exactly,
do you go about finding opportunities to network? Robert Yale, Ph.D., assistant professor
in the Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business, spoke to Director of Career Services
& QEP Julie Janik’s career development class about making professional connections
and building your personal brand through LinkedIn. “LinkedIn is not Facebook for the
over-40 crowd,” said Yale. “It’s a social network for professionals with over 450
million users. It can be the bridge between you and potential employers if you work
diligently to create a profile that sets you apart.”
Here are the dos and don’ts that make for a successful student LinkedIn profile:
Do get a professional photo
Eye tracking studies show that recruiters spend 20 percent of their time focused on
the photo in a LinkedIn profile. Because of this, Yale says you must use a professional
image: “Use a tightly cropped photo. Wear business attire and make sure you’re recognizable.”
And make sure you’re the only person/animal/object in the photo: “Don’t use an image
of you with a dolphin unless you’re a dolphin trainer.” And beware: if you don’t upload
a photo, LinkedIn will choose one from another of your social media accounts. What
first impression do you want to make?
Don’t list your class year
According to Yale, listing your class year (freshman, sophomore, etc.) can exclude
you from a recruiter’s searches. If, for instance, you forget to update your status
from sophomore to junior, any keyword searches looking for juniors will bypass your
profile. Another note about searches: list your degree by its acronym (BA, MBA). That’s
what automatic searches are programmed to look for.
Do complete the experience section with future employers in mind
This means don’t list your title as “student” in the experience section. “College
is about more than being a student,” said Yale. “So in the experience section, list
all of your volunteer and extracurricular activities, as well as your internships
and summer jobs.” Think hard about what you learned and how those experiences translate
into transferable skills. List those skills in your profile.
Don’t sell yourself short
When writing about your experience, don’t minimize the work you did by over-clarifying
the position. If you were a student worker, list your job title only — do not list
it as “student worker for XYZ Department.” Don’t describe your work at a day camp
as a “short summer job.” Instead, focus on how you met your employer’s expectations
and what skills you gained as a result of the experience.
Do be definitive and declarative in all your profile entries
Don’t say you are “planning to go to graduate school” or “hoping to land an internship
with a large accounting firm.” Instead, show the steps you are taking to reach that
goal. Statements like “preparing for medical school” or “completing course work required
to secure internship” are straightforward and goal oriented. As Yoda says, “Do or
do not. There is no try.”
Do make connections
Yale hears many students say they don’t have connections beyond school. “So get creative,”
he said. “Start thinking about your parents and their friends, aunts, uncles, and
your friends’ parents. Once you make your first layer of connections, the doors are
open for you to connect with their connections, and so on.” This is also where networking
comes in. When you go to a job fair, pick up cards from employers that interest you
and add them to your network. If you notice that one of your connections is linked
to a person that could help you or a company you’d like to work for, ask your connection
if they will introduce you. “Be diligent, and your network will grow exponentially,”
said Yale.