If you’re not familiar with LinkedIn, now’s the time. If you are familiar with LinkedIn and you think it’s only for old businessmen, well, you’re wrong. LinkedIn is now a huge professional networking opportunity for high school and college students.
It’s never too early to begin developing your professional brand and LinkedIn is one of the best tools you can use to do it. The opportunity for high school students to professionally network through social media was cracked open September 2013 when LinkedIn allowed students, as young as 14, to begin adding their profiles.
Keep in mind — your LinkedIn profile is like a public resumé you can keep up-to-date. It’s a chance to develop your personal brand—how you want to be seen in the professional world. Some college recruiters and hiring companies may very well view your profile to see what kind of person you are, before ever meeting you.
Show the world who you are: crafting your LinkedIn profile
When you’re filling out your LinkedIn profile, always keep it professional. Make sure you proofread everything, because even a few typos can tarnish your budding professional brand. Seriously consider having someone experienced in professional writing proofread it for you.
Here’s a checklist of the sections of a LinkedIn profile and a few things to consider when you’re working on each:
• Photo: Your photo should be simple and professional. This isn’t the place for Facebook party pics or pets. Have someone good with a camera snap your head shot against a plain background. Dress professionally. Smile.
• Headline: This is the most important part of your profile. It’s the first thing someone will read. Write a clear, concise, confident headline that reflects your personality. If you’re not certain what to write, explore other student profiles for inspiration.
• Profile Summary: This is an opportunity to show recruiters in a snap shot who you are and what makes you unique. Approach this section like you would a cover letter you’d send with your resume. Include things like what motivates you, extracurricular activities, your skills, any volunteer or job experience, and your current career aspirations, which indicates the college majors you’re considering to get there. Finish with your ultimate goals. Don’t forget, this is a summary, not a book. It will be easier if you write it last so you know what you’re summarizing.
• Experience: In this section you can include more than just paid job experience. You can include courses you’ve taken, languages you speak, projects of which you’re proud, and other accomplishments. When listing job experience, include what you accomplished at each. If you have volunteer experience, you’ll include that in the Volunteer section. This section will likely be short. That’s okay. You’re a high school student.
• Organizations: This is where to list any school clubs or outside organizations you belong to, extracurricular activities, and what you did in each. This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your interests outside of academics.
• Education: This section is fairly straightforward. Blow your own horn here and include your GPA, and ACT or SAT scores, if you’ve taken either test. This section is going to crossover into the Courses section for high school students.
• Volunteer Experience & Causes: If you volunteer for any nonprofit organizations list them here and include what you did with each. College recruiters are particularly interested in your outside activities, because it demonstrates your community involvement and the skills you’ve learned outside of paid jobs. They want to know the positive contributions you can make at their school.
• Skills & Expertise: The general advice for this section is to list your top five skills. You’re going to have to be creative here, because terms like “creative,” “team player,” and others are so commonly used you’ll blend in with the crowd. This is another chance for you to stand out.
• Honors & Awards: List how you’ve been recognized by your school or outside organizations for your successes.
Courses: List any academic programs you may be in, such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, or a concentration of classes that are leading you to your college major.
• Projects: You can build this section like you would a portfolio of work—examples of your better work. Here you can include cool projects you’ve done, writing samples, and other examples that demonstrate your skills and interests. Describe what you did for each project and how you did it. They can demonstrate what you can do, as well as how you went about doing it.
• Recommendations: It’s valuable when others talk about you, rather than you always talking about yourself. This is the section where your contacts can talk about how great you are. Ask teachers, managers, volunteer coordinators, and anyone else who has worked with you for a recommendation and ask them to highlight your skills—the same ones you listed in the Skills & Expertise section.
Developing your LinkedIn profile demonstrates to college recruiters and your growing list of contacts that you’re serious about advancing your academic and future career. It’s going to take time to write your profile, you may struggle through a few of the sections, and that’s normal. The good thing is, you can update your profile regularly and change anything you don’t like.
In the next article, I’ll address how to use LinkedIn to drastically expand your network, and opportunities.
So, what do you want someone to know about you from reading your LinkedIn profile?
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