Spotlight Online for Career Services Professionals, August 4, 2009
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, boasting more than 43 million members. As such, it can greatly assist your students as they search for internships and full-time jobs.
“In order for students to use LinkedIn to their greatest advantage, they need to know how to use it effectively and remain active,” explains Lindsey Pollak, campus spokesperson for LinkedIn and Gen Y career and workplace expert.
In collaboration with NACE, Pollak will lead LinkedIn on Campus: How LinkedIn Can Help Career Services and Your Students,” a series of webinars designed to share LinkedIn best practices with career services professionals.
Pollak offers the following quick tips for helping your students get the most out of LinkedIn:
- Encourage students to complete their LinkedIn profiles to 100 percent—The more robust students’ profiles are, the more likely they are to be found by employers. Their profiles should include keywords, recommendations from people they worked for, and details about their experience, including internships, extracurricular activities, and work-study assignments.
- Make sure students become active in the university’s career center and/or alumni LinkedIn group—One advantage of going to college is that students can connect to and tap into the school’s alumni community. LinkedIn career center and alumni groups can facilitate alumni-student relationships for informational interviews, internships, full-time jobs, and more.
- Teach networking etiquette through LinkedIn—Students need to understand that LinkedIn is not Facebook; it is a 100 percent professional community. As such, students should use correct grammar on their profiles and in their communications. Also, LinkedIn often gives options for members to use generic messages or to customize their messages. Students will have a much better chance for response from alumni or recruiters if they customize their messages and demonstrate solid communication skills.
For more information about “LinkedIn on Campus: How LinkedIn Can Help Career Services and Your Students,” including program details, date and times, and registration information, see http://careerservices.linkedin.com/webinar/.