Depending on your year in school, you either couldn't care less about LinkedIn or you devote your life to making sure that your profile is perfect. As a first-year student, it is safe to say that I do not need to be as invested as I am in perfecting my LinkedIn profile. I have, like, three connections, but it's like what they say about saving for retirement, right? Get started as soon as you can.
That being said, if you don't have a LinkedIn account, make one right now and keep the following in mind:
- Upload a picture that says, "I can be professional."
- Fill out as much as you can, without adding BS. Get someone older and wiser to help you if possible.
- "Connect" is the key word here. The more people you connect with, the more people who can endorse the skills that you claim to have. (For proof of how important skill endorsement is, check out this DTH at a Glance headline.)
Depending on how much you want to gain from LinkedIn, you might not need to upgrade from the basic version.
I went premium because I was tired of a brilliant yet cruel marketing strategy by LinkedIn, in which there is a limit imposed on how many InMail credits you have (i.e. how many messages you can send to people you don't know) with a free LinkedIn account. It seemed as though the website was denying me for being young and naive, while also taunting me by pointing out my insecurity about using LinkedIn and feeling like I didn't belong. I didn't like that feeling, so I paid to keep it away and send as much InMail as I want.
As a younger student, there are a few benefits to a premium subscription that stick out to me the most:
- I can reach out and connect with people that I have otherwise no connection with. This is particularly helpful in looking for a summer internship, which is what most of us are probably scrambling to do right now, or in trying to connect with UNC alumni internationally. You can search alumni through numerous filters, like where they live or what field they work in, which is crucial to expanding your network.
- In addition to the InMail feature, premium allows you to see all the people who have looked at your profile, as opposed to only being able to see the five most recent views with a free LinkedIn account. Why might this be useful? You can tell if your far-reaching message to a recruitment officer led them to look at your profile, and whether or not your profile was attractive enough for them to respond to you. If it wasn't, you might consider changes or additions accordingly.
- Arguably most important of all, LinkedIn Premium will let you see more and do more, which will make you feel productive and make you want to be more productive. I'm not suggesting that you compare yourself to other people, but by looking at profiles of people you look up to and admire, it's hard not to feel a surge in drive or determination. At least that's what happened to me, and I feel more like an adult now than ever.
At first I hated the idea of buying my way to networking, but I feel free now. LinkedIn is my world, and everyone else is just living in it. Plus, it's a lot more acceptable to waste time on LinkedIn than Instagram.
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