Importance of LinkedIn for Students and Job Seekers
LinkedIn is a professional network social media platform designed to help students and employees make business connections, connect with industry experts, share their skills & work experiences, and showcase their resumes to find and apply for jobs globally. College students can use LinkedIn to establish a professional online presence, which is more important for getting jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with more than 830 million users and is used in 200+ countries. So as a college student, you should have a solid professional LinkedIn account and resume to display your skills, post-academic updates, technical area of interest, certification details, and interact with industry experts and potential employers.
LinkedIn’s basic account access is free, but premium subscriptions offer extra features and tools to help you land a job, grow a business, follow leads, and hire talents. LinkedIn offers a one-month free trial of premium subscriptions with different and you can cancel your LinkedIn subscription at any time if you’re not interested to access it anymore.
Here are the top seven reasons why every college student should be on LinkedIn.
- Stay Connected and Get Hired
- Apply For Jobs
- Join Professional Groups
- Connecting with Professionals
- Ease of Company Research
- Recommendations
- Let the Companies Find Your Profile
Top 7 Benefits of LinkedIn for Students
1. Stay Connected and Get Hired
LinkedIn’s primary aim is to connect employers with potential employees. So obviously it’s the right platform for students, and graduates to post their resumes and find good employers. It has excellent search features that can help you find people in your industry, and keep you up to date with things happening around you.
2. Apply For Jobs
LinkedIn every day millions of job listings are published by companies. Here you can search for jobs based on your skills and location and apply within a seconds using LinkedIn’s Easy Apply feature, which lets you add your resume. Employers will receive a copy of your profile, along with the option to access additional details — which leads to the importance of a strong LinkedIn profile. Make sure your photo, summary, qualifications, and credentials reflect your professionalism and strengths.
LinkedIn is a global networking platform. So if you’re interested in overseas jobs, you can connect with all the major international employers and find employment in foreign countries.
Once you create your account on LinkedIn, you can set email alerts to receive notifications of recommended jobs based on your skills and selected region. You will be able to see the notification as soon as you log into your LinkedIn accounts.
3. Join Professional Groups
LinkedIn as a social networking platform has tons of relevant groups which act as forums where you can connect with like-minded people and share knowledge. You can join any of these groups and discuss relevant topics. Find groups by using the site’s recommendation and search functions. Check who in your network belongs to a given group, and use current connections to build future ones.
4. Connecting with Professionals
If you have a look at LinkedIn, you’ll find out the large number of professionals who choose to connect here. You can find your friends, co-workers, classmates, and family members on this platform. Connect with business decision-makers in your field, interact with them and share ideas. Observe your industry’s new trends and how professional leaders handle and execute things. LinkedIn is a great network to learn from industry professionals which helps you to level up. To connect and interact with the right people, tell them your story and you might get more opportunities in your professional career life, business, and the entrepreneur mindset.
5. Ease of Company Research
One of the best benefits LinkedIn offers to college students and job seekers is that they can check out the complete LinkedIn company pages of their targeted employers. By visiting company pages, you can get lot more details about the company services, employees list, location, jobs, hiring practices, current projects, and daily updates about the company. This kind of company research on LinkedIn will always stay ahead of your competition in the industry and increases your employability.
The company’s information can help you prepare for interviews, also you can connect with the employees and get a referral for work. So follow your favorite companies and get updates regularly.
6. Recommendations
LinkedIn also offers a feature called Recommendations, through this you can get a recommendation note from your college professors, co-workers, and industry experts. People with several recommendations have a good chance of attracting employers’ attention and they can approach new job openings based on their skillset.
7. Let the Companies Find Your Profile
Today, every companies HR recruiters, looking for talented candidates on social networking platforms to fill their company’s job openings. If you have a good, detailed professional linked profile with the required technical skills then your chances are high to they contact for an interview process.
When you apply for a job, your prospective employer will check your LinkedIn profile to get to know more about you. Students often get a bad rap over their social media presence, so having a LinkedIn account as a student or a job seeker, gives a brand value and increases your visibility over others.
Conclusion
Considering the excellent benefits that connecting with professionals on LinkedIn brings, college students and fresh job seekers can never ignore this social networking platform. If you prepare yourself as early as possible, you can easily land a dream job of your interest.
