Have you ever thought about how LinkedIn can help college students land internships?

When a college student’s LinkedIn profile aligns more closely with the position description for the kind of internship they are seeking, they are more apt to land that internship. Too often college students have a very limited amount of information in their LinkedIn profile. When they add more information about their background and aspirations, they paint a more robust picture of themselves.

In November 2020, a college student from Spain reached out to me after finding me online. She wanted to know if I could help her to spruce up her LinkedIn profile to help her land an internship.

Her finances were limited and she wasn’t able to pay me. Yet, after visiting with her over Zoom, I felt called to provide her a LinkedIn session at no charge. It was her mission to get more involved with environmental sustainability that especially spoke to me. At the time we worked together, she had her eye on a couple of different internships. Sure enough, within two months of our session, she landed one of them.

Since I worked with the student from Spain, I’ve helped three other college students to improve their LinkedIn profiles. These experiences have gotten me thinking about reaching out more proactively to this age group.

Even though most of my clients are 55 or older, I find that I resonate with this younger generation, too. The students resonate with me as well. Here’s the recommendation that my student from Spain wrote for me on LinkedIn:

“I am very grateful for Joyce’s great advice during our session together. She was fun, effective, and very knowledgeable. I highly recommend Joyce if you are looking to understand LinkedIn better. She makes the whole experience fun and interesting.”

 

Ways That College Students Can Enhance Their LinkedIn Profile

  • Have a professional-looking photo as your profile photo. It doesn’t need to be a formal photo like a high school graduation photo. Instead, a current photo that’s a simple headshot works best.
  • Incorporate a photo or image related to your professional field as the background photo. Or use a scenery type of photo that’s representative of the area where you are from or go to school.
  • Include key words in your profile headline that reflect the kind of job you hope to get after college.
  • Use the About section to tell the reader about you and your field. Tell the reader why you selected your field of study and about the kinds of projects you have already done. Also, share a bit about your personal interests, as appropriate.
  • Use the Featured section to highlight an image, video or post that relates to your field. A recent client of mine is a college student who is studying landscape architecture. She used an image from a class project in this section.
  • Be sure to include other internships or jobs you’ve had in your field in the Experience section. For example, one of the students I helped last summer is majoring in international studies. So, he included his internship with the US Department of State in his Experience section.
  • You can also include leadership roles you had in college or high school organizations in the Experience section. For example, a student I helped last summer lists his position as Vice President of his fraternity in this section. By listing these volunteer leadership roles in the Experience section, you give great PR to the organization. Plus, a LinkedIn connection can write you a recommendation for your contributions in that role.

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 55 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.