LinkedIn for Students and Future Graduates
By Sue Ellson
This event was designed for Students and Future Graduates who would like to learn more about how they can use LinkedIn and is the eleventh event in the LinkedIn Insights Webinar and Online Event Series.
It is highly recommended that you read the following articles and watch the videos for more detailed steps:
LinkedIn Tips and Tricks for Students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyBpa4tKipQ
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-students-future-graduates-sue-ellson (content also below)
https://sueellson.com/blog/how-to-choose-your-next-job-or-career
https://sueellson.com/blog/linkedin-for-schools-colleges-and-universities – collection of many articles
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-find-school-college-university-students-staff-alumni-sue-ellson
https://insights.digistorm.com/en-au/linkedin-for-existing-and-prospective-school-parents
https://university.linkedin.com LinkedIn for Higher Education Professionals with links to resources for students
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-help-someone-career-when-wont-listen-your-advice-sue-ellson
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tough-love-unemployed-job-seekers-under-30-years-age-sue-ellson
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-linkedin-for-students-2021 LinkedIn Learning Course
There are several items below including:
- video recording
- PowerPoint slides
- LinkedIn Event page for networking
- selected comments from the chat in the webinar
- comments after the webinar
- reviews after the webinar
- follow up personal assistance
- how to say thank you Sue
- engage on social media
- upcoming and past presentations, recordings and publications
- latest offer access
The LinkedIn Event Video Recording
YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHyy5UTLm2c
The LinkedIn Event PowerPoint Slides
The LinkedIn Event Page for Networking
You may also like to visit the event on LinkedIn as for the next 12 months, you will be able to see the 243 people who registered to attend and network away to your heart’s content!
Selected Comments from the Chat in the Webinar
Thanks for the amazing session
Thanks Sue. Very useful session!
This has been really helpful! Thanks Sue
Thank you for sharing your experience
Thank you
Thanks so much for this insightful presentation
Thanks Sue
I thought interesting
Thankyou
Great resources Sue. Have your books already from your book launch in Melbourne a few years ago as does my daughter, who has found them great for her career.
Thank you Sue
Very informative session!
Thank you Sue
Thank you Sue look forward to looking at further links
Thank you! Very nice
Fabulous as always! thank you Sue
Thank you for your informative presentation and resources…love your enthusiasm.
Thank you so much Sue – would love to chat further with you about how to educate our Yr 11’s and 12’s about their LinkedIn profile
Thanks Sue
Sue – so much material in just an hour! Thankyou! Reactivating my interest in LinkedIn via your inspiring training!
Thank you Sue, very informative presentation. I will share some of the tips with my students next week.
Thx Sue – great up-to-date info, as always.
Thank you for sharing your expertise
Sue, you have a plethora of LinkedIn knowledge, ideas and tips. I plan to update my profile today and try out adding content to a few sections that you recommend. Thank you for sharing your brilliance!
Thank you Sue, lots of nuggets in there to further develop the teaching I do with uni students. Fabulous session and appreciate your generosity.
Thank you so much
Comments after the Webinar
Thank you for this lecture Sue. It was a great effort.
Fab presentation! Do you do talks for Year 12 groups? Could you do one via zoom and what are your costs? (Yes and shared directly)
Thank you Sue appreciate the session today. I will be back in touch in the future.
Thank you so much Sue, I really enjoyed it. Have an awesome day!
Thanks very much Sue. I look forward to sharing these great resources with my senior school students.
Wonderful. Thank you Sue.
Such an insightful webinar thanks Sue.
Reviews after the Webinar
Thank you Amy Greenshields
Sue Ellson #Kudos Thank you for your #GreatPresentation
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amymgreenshields_kudos-greatpresentation-activity-6962962806048514048-amV2
Follow Up Personal Assistance
Book a personal appointment with Sue Ellson
Request a presentation for your school, college or university
Service examples https://sueellson.com/services – please Contact Sue
How to say Thank You Sue
If you find any of this free information helpful, please consider writing an informative online review!
This is a good practice to develop for your clients, providers and others – don’t leave writing a review until something is ‘wrong,’ write good reviews and increase the size of your digital footprint.
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- Google Review (Gmail or Google Account needed) https://g.page/sue-ellson-author/review
- Online Review (no login required) https://sueellson.com/reviews
- LinkedIn Recommendation or Skills Endorsement (happy to Connect if we aren’t already – the Endorsement is just a vote, no writing needed!) https://www.linkedin.com/in/sueellson
You may also like to read this article on ‘Sorry we don’t have a budget for that – but here’s what we can offer instead’ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sorry-we-dont-have-budget-sue-ellson-1c
And if you haven’t already, please follow or subscribe to my social media channels listed below and connect on LinkedIn
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Upcoming and Past Presentations, Recordings and Publications
Presentations listed here for various topics.
Free LinkedIn Insight Online Webinars and Recordings.
Latest Offer Access
https://sueellson.com/latest-offer
LinkedIn for Students and Future Graduates (further information)
First published on 20 January 2020 at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-students-future-graduates-sue-ellson
By Sue Ellson BBus MPC CDAA ASA WV SPN
More information on LinkedIn for Schools, Colleges and Universities here.
Students are one of the fastest growing segments of people on LinkedIn – it is definitely not a social media platform just for educated professionals! Eventually, every student either graduates or leaves their school, college or university and then LinkedIn really starts to showcase its value.
For an example of a good quality student profile that I have helped improve, check out Zoe Giagoudakis (Secondary School Student, very comprehensive). This is a great pro forma for your to consider and if you are a little further along in your career, check out my Sue Ellson LinkedIn Profile as I have implemented all of the following strategies in my own LinkedIn profile.
There are some specific suggestions I have for students who are either still in secondary school or who have started their tertiary vocational, college or university education (Yes, I believe that LinkedIn is a very useful for tradespeople and creatives too, not just people in professional services!).
Why is a LinkedIn Profile SO IMPORTANT for students?
- You need to keep a record of your achievements (unwritten = likely to be forgotten)
- You need to build your network throughout your life (emails, phones etc change, remaining connected means you can still be found or find others)
- So you can appear in Google Searches and tell your own story. You need proof of what you have done online (up to 75% or people will Google you before a job interview, 95% before offering you work)
- You need to acknowledge your education provider (it is great to be a part of an alumni network and maintain long term relationships with people associated with your education)
- You can start collecting online skills endorsements, written recommendations, publish content, engage with the newsfeed, do research on companies and individuals, find mentors etc. In my view, LinkedIn is one of the most under-rated and under-valued social media platforms. It is my absolute favourite social media platform (I joined on 21 December 2003, member number 77,832) because it has stood the test of time and continues to innovate and provide immense value.
How to update a student’s LinkedIn Profile
- include as much detail as you can about your education providers and the subjects you have completed for each qualification you have in the Education section (you may also wish to include your date of conferral and certificate number to allow hiring managers to confirm this information if required). I recommend choosing the school from the drop down box, mentioning the year the school was established and a brief description of the school, provide an alphabetical list of the subjects completed (grades not necessary) and a URL link to the school for verification purposes. If the school has a great video or other document you can attach as media, do that too!
- share information about all of the voluntary work you have completed (even day-long projects both at school and outside of school). This can be included in both the ‘Experience’ section and the ‘Volunteer Experience’ section.
- describe any Honours or Awards you have received and what they recognized (be specific and provide a link if there is one) – add these in the ‘Honors and Awards’ section of your LinkedIn Profile. Remember the ’S.J. Hughes Award for Geography’ doesn’t mean anything by name, but if you explain that it is for ‘Most outstanding team geographic modelling project’ it is much more interesting.
- showcase any involvement in specialist sports, arts, music, student exchange, travel or overseas programs etc
- list your extra-curricular activities (sports, interest groups) in the Interests section
- include rich media that explains your interests for the future
- become a student member of a professional association and include the details on your LinkedIn Profile
- fill in gaps of experience by describing your travel or gap years and what you learnt
- complete the projects section with at least three projects you have completed. Include the title of the project, a description of the project, the challenges you overcame, the results you achieved, the feedback that you received and any future outcomes that occurred (without including any commercially sensitive information – and try using percentages rather than exact figures)
Create a LinkedIn Profile
- choose a photo that is aligned with your purpose – not your graduation shot
- mention student as a keyword if you are looking for ‘student’ positions and would like to come up in these search results (depending on your purpose, you may also wish to include graduate, intern etc as well)
- discuss part time work and all of the transferable skills you have acquired – customer service, supervising, rostering, cash handling, trusted with keys and security codes, abiding by occupational health and safety policies, assisting with inductions, training others
- although you may not have experience in a particular field, if you have studied the topic or have an interest in it, please include these keywords in your LinkedIn Profile – particularly in the Headline and Summary (About) sections
- visit the Students Portal of LinkedIn at https://students.linkedin.com/ and check out the various resources at https://university.linkedin.com/linkedin-for-students as well
- add your school email address to your LinkedIn Profile and do NOT remove it (just make your personal email address your primary email address). This is so that people who know you via your school email address can still ‘find’ you on LinkedIn if they send an email invitation or they allow LinkedIn to invite contacts to LinkedIn and prevents you from accidentally creating two LinkedIn Profiles
- go through the LinkedIn Profile Cheat Sheet to see what you can update or complete
What else is important, especially for schools, universities and education providers?
In my personal view, a LinkedIn Profile should be completed by all students in their second last year in secondary education – for example, in Australia, for most students, that would be at the beginning of Year 11, before the demands of part time work, subject selection, exams etc interfere with getting started and building a network. I believe schools should aim to have at least 80% of students on LinkedIn with their school listed in the Education section BEFORE they leave the school so that they can remain a part of the school alumni and for all students to practice using LinkedIn for research, professional development and building a network before they finish secondary school.
LinkedIn can help students and graduates build an online network and personal brand from the very beginning of their work or enterprise life. It also helps maintain contact with people whose email address, phone number or location changes and it helps individuals reach people that were never accessible in the past.
Dunbar’s number suggests that a human can only maintain 150 stable social relationships. LinkedIn allows us to maintain, find and increase that number way beyond our wildest imagination – in fact, currently over 830 million members worldwide and nearly half of those are active monthly users.
Finally, everyone who has a LinkedIn Profile should set a good example for everyone else.
There is enough for everyone and everyone is enough.
Sue Ellson
Be proud of your achievements, declare your values, strengths and context so that you can attract aligned gigs now and in the future. Don’t assume that the only way forward is a ‘job’ or a ‘career’ for life.
I believe that the ‘future of work’ involves a variety of work, that allows you to explore all aspects of your strengths and personality across multiple locations and markets.
I would love to see more students considering a combination career rather than a specific career, a workstyle that matches a lifestyle and not automatically assume that the only way forward is a straight, linear, chronological path. Technology is enabling more people to try multiple options throughout a lifetime – so please, be courageous and be your own kind of peculiar!
Other Articles by Sue Ellson related to Students and Graduates
- How to choose your next job or career
- Tough love for unemployed job seekers under 30 years of age
- How to help someone with their career when they won’t listen to your advice
- Networking – Free and Paid Online and Offline – What really works?
- How to find a job or work using LinkedIn
- Zoe Giagoudakis (secondary school student sample)
- LinkedIn for Academics, Professors, Lecturers, School Teachers (teachers and staff to set an example)
- LinkedIn Page Strategies for Schools, Colleges and Universities (advancement staff and communications team)
- LinkedIn Marketing for Schools, Colleges and Universities (marketing)
- How to find School, College and University Students, Staff and Alumni (alumni)
- See my other LinkedIn Articles here
Keyword Hashtags
#linkedinforstudents #linkedinforgraduates
First Published: 20 January 2020
Last Update: 9 August 2022