Students are different from typical LinkedIn professionals – with less work experience to add to their profiles. Starting today, we’re helping our members showcase a wider variety of accomplishments on LinkedIn profiles.
This capability is particularly important for students and recent graduates – and here’s why:
The LinkedIn profile is a powerful tool for working professionals. By capturing accomplishments in real time and publishing them on the LinkedIn network, members catch the eyes of other professionals – colleagues, recruiters, and hiring managers – and find one another for networking opportunities. These are benefits that no resume on a hard drive can ever deliver.
But what about students just starting out who may not have extensive work history? To help students showcase the skills and experience they’ve achieved during their school years, we’re pleased to announce the launch of new LinkedIn profile sections.
Showcase your college accomplishments.
LinkedIn’s new profile sections give you the opportunity to highlight achievements to potential employers and industry experts who can help shape your career. Here are some sections you may want to add to your profile:
- Projects: Participating in projects shows that you can apply classroom learning to real-world challenges and work effectively in a team. Add compelling research or class projects to your profile – especially those that demonstrate experience relevant to your professional goals.
- Honors & Awards: Did you make the Dean’s List or earn a merit-based scholarship? Add it to your profile. While much of your profile is a subjective characterization of your abilities, Honors & Awards provide objective validation for your accomplishments.
- Organizations: Participation in on-campus or external organizations shows your contributions outside the classroom. Leadership abilities, and making a positive impact within an organization, are talents widely sought by employers and recruiters.
- Test Scores: Employers often view strong test scores as indicators of good problem solving skills. If you have excelled at standardized tests, or have a stellar G.P.A., include these scores on your profile.
- Courses: Do you consistently push the envelope by enrolling in rigorous coursework? List select courses on your profile – especially those that qualify you for positions you are seeking, or demonstrate your commitment to expanding your academic horizons. Many employers know your school’s course catalogs as well as you do, so include the strongest courses of your college experience.
How-to: Add new student sections to your profile.
- Go to your LinkedIn profile page in edit mode, and click the blue “Add sections” bar under your profile summary.
- Then, browse the available sections and select a section to add to your profile.
- When editing the section, include examples and specifics about your contributions, and how the experience added to your skills and abilities.
- The new section will appear on your profile – and you can adjust your profile settings to control who can see these sections.
Quick Tip: You can rearrange the sections of the profile to highlight your strongest sections. Simply click on the section header, and drag and drop it to the best location on the page.
There are more than 100 million professionals on the LinkedIn network. Sharing your scholastic achievements can help guide relevant people to your profile, and may even help you land that dream summer internship or job opportunity right out of college.
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