Importance Of LinkedIn For Tech Students
The What, Why, Who, When, How & Some Tips
When I first enrolled in college, the word LinkedIn was buzzing around. Out of curiosity, I tried looking into it. Watched several tech-related YouTubers that stated LinkedIn is crucial, so I dove into it, and the rest was history.
Article Outline
- What is LinkedIn?
- Why Do You need LinkedIn?
- Who You Should Connect With?
- Why You Should Connect?
- General Tips for Tech Students
- Conclusion
- Further Reading
What is LinkedIn?
I am a constant believer that those who are entitled "lucky/ successful" are those whose hard work met with opportunities! LinkedIn is one of the platforms that open the doors for opportunities to reach out to you.
LinkedIn is hands down the world's largest professional network on the internet. You can find individuals from students to prime ministers. You can build your own unique profile there and start to create your personal brand. Treat is as an extended CV.
- Your profile first starts with your profile picture and headline. Ensure that the profile picture is formal and your headline resonates with what you do now and who you are or wish to be. Others could understand you on the most basic level and connect with you if you share the same interests.
A student? State: student at xxx university. An aspiring web developer? State: Aspiring web developer. Simple and straightforward.
- If applicable, a unique profile should include a more in-depth explanation of who you are (about section), education, work experience, technical & soft skills, volunteer work, Licenses & Certifications, and projects that you have done. This will showcase your unique professional story.
Voila! You are basically set. This will let profile viewers understand you better and might approach you in the future for jobs or internships!
- You can also join groups, write articles, share photos, videos or documents too!
As time goes by, especially if you are a tech student, you will be seeing posts after posts about certificates for completing a course/exam. You can do the same to mark your journey of continuous and self-learning as a student! Note that certifications are basically useless if you don't retain the knowledge learned.
Why do you need LinkedIn?
Build a professional network🕸
The only non-tangible thing that you have in common with your competitors is time. How do you stand out from the crowd? How do you compete with your peers or other experienced developers to get that same job? Well, if you know the recruiter, you can probably cut the line and get shortlisted. If you are informed that you would not be suitable for the role, at least you know that you don't have to waste your time applying just to get rejected.Having a LinkedIn profile provides you the chance to build your online presence professionally. Think for a second what would happen If your recruiter goes through your Instagram/Facebook to know you professionally. Are you confident about that? Therefore, build a more professional side of you on LinkedIn that you will have lesser doubts to share with recruiters.
Once you completed your profile, start networking! Don't know how? Find individuals on LinkedIn that teach you how to network! Most importantly, step out of your comfort zone.
To get job alerts🔔
Companies post their job openings on LinkedIn. You can set different job alerts for a specific role in a company at an exact location or just generally. This will ensure that you wouldn't miss the chance of applying for the job when there is an opening.It will look like this in your email
See what does your dream job requires🧐
This is an example of a job opening looking for a Software Engineer by YouTube in Paris, Île-de-France, France.
As a student, if you are 100% clear on which company you wish to work at, you can simply search for the job posting and understand the requirements thoroughly. This will narrow down your learning scope and stress massively. It can also save you a massive amount of time to learn other things! If not, at least you know which technology the companies are using currently. When you graduate, you can use this feature to understand the qualifications and responsibilities to see if you are qualified and sparks your interests. If you are using LinkedIn premium, you can see how many percent you stand out from the rest of the applicants or find a job where you would be a top applicant. (Purely based on the skills you added and can be inaccurate)
Note that if you are confident in all the responsibilities stated in the job posting, chances are you should be looking for a higher role.
To learn📖 Choosing to pursue tech means that you signed up for continuous learning. I find that LinkedIn is a platform to learn and start meaningful conversations. Try LinkedIn Learning with LinkedIn Premium if you want to. It is free for one month.
- Try joining groups that suit your interest (AI/Fintech/ML/Web Dev/UXUI/Finance/Job related)
- Subscribe to newsletters (Tech/Career related)
- Follow resourceful pages (Search for "Udemy Free Courses")
- Follow individuals that are posting meaningful content:
- Technical (Depends on your niche)
- Soft skills related (Public speaking, presentation skills, leadership)
- Career-related (Interview, dos, and don'ts, career coaches)
To motivate💪 Being on LinkedIn motivates if used in the right way. You can see your peers learning new techs, contributing back to their community, the internships that they got at their dream company, and a lot more. It will motivate you to work towards your goal one foot at a time. One day it might be your turn!
You can also follow positive individuals like Simon Sinek and Gary Vaynerchuk that are very optimistic and could provide you that extra nudge to lift your spirits!
Who You Should Connect With?
- Recruiters from your dream company
- Employees from your dream company
- Employees doing your aspiring role
- Students that have similar interest as you
- Students in your University (Senior/Junior)
- Local Developers
- Developers that everyone follows for a specific topic
- Even individuals from different professions. You never know when you might cross paths with them. You can typically fit tech-related jobs into most industries.
Why You Should Connect?
- Gain insights into working in your dream company (as motivation too)
- Gain tips for dos and don'ts from seniors in your university or developers in general
- Building your online presence
- Opportunities in the future for a job
- To learn! (Should be your number one priority, period)
Treat your connections as professional connections, not friends (Maybe in the future). Do that on other platforms instead. Strictly not a dating platform too🤪
General Tips for Tech Students
- Start early and show how you progress.
In tech, students are always recommended to start early. Your personal projects, the knowledge gap between your university courses & the industry standard you have to fill, networking...and a whole lot more)
- Send that request to connect
- Send formal messages
- Don't be afraid to ask
- Bring your friends onto the platform (Support and market each other)
- Think of a specific content you can post frequently
- Don't be disappointed if someone does not reply
- Try understanding the person by reading their posts so that you could start a conversation with them
Conclusion
Everything stated above is free of charge. Utilize it with some effort. It could do you wonders in the future. You never know now. One day you would thank yourself for doing something a few years back rather than regretting what you should have done.
Further Reading
- How to use LinkedIn Effectively
- LinkedIn for students
- 10 LinkedIn Tips for Students & New Grads
- Best LinkedIn Summary Examples for Students
- 7 Ways College Students Can Benefit from LinkedIn
Thank You For Reading
Follow me or subscribe to my newsletter for more similar content! Share this blog with your juniors, peers, student tech communities, or friends that you think may benefit from this!
Do leave a comment below if I missed out on anything or you would like to correct some points!