Once you begin building your network, and taking advantage of opportunities to expand your network, you will want to create a LinkedIn account, so you have a convenient place to professionally interact with your connections.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a social media website for professional networking. Users create professional profiles, post and share content, follow connections and organizations, receive job leads, house a professional portfolio, send and receive messages, and much more. You can find LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com.

LinkedIn has many valuable resources on their website to help you get started creating a profile and to help guide you as a LinkedIn user.

Why should I use LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the number one professional networking site, but beyond that LinkedIn users report results in building large, expansive professional networks, finding jobs and professional opportunities, getting promoted, and more. Employers also utilize LinkedIn to find qualified job candidates, post job openings, and to create beneficial partnerships with other organizations with shared goals.

Creating a LinkedIn Account

If you don’t already have a LinkedIn account you will need to create one. I suggest you use a personal email as school emails and work emails will come and go throughout your career. Best practice is to create your account using an email address that contains your first and last name and a well-respected email provider, such as yourname@gmail.com or yourname@icloud.com.

In the chapter on resumes discussed creating a professional email. Use the professional email you included on your resume to create your LinkedIn account.

Developing your LinkedIn profile

When you sit down to develop your LinkedIn profile be sure you have your resume handy, and your resume worksheets from the previous chapter, as most of the work you will do is simply expanding upon your resume. LinkedIn will prompt you for all the necessary information and format your profile for you. In a short amount of time, you will have a professional social media profile that your connections and potential employers can view to learn more about you.

While all of your professional experiences and skills may not have made it on to a resume you used for a specific employment opportunity, LinkedIn lets you provide more information about you so that potential employers and connections get a fuller picture of who you are as a professional.

A LinkedIn profile contains the following sections/items:

• Professional photo
• Banner
• Headline
• About
• Experience
• Education
• Licenses and Certifications
• Projects
• Volunteering
• Skills
• Recommendations
• Honors and Awards
• Interests