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Creating a LinkedIn Profile

Why have a LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a great way for you to showcase your skills, academic achievements, extracurriculars, and more! It’s a great way for recruiters and potential employers to get to know more about you. 

Setting Up Your LinkedIn

1. Pick a good profile picture
  • Choose clean, professional pictures for your profile and background.
  • For your background, consider choosing an image that shares more about your interests.
  • Ideally, choose a professional headshot (this can be done on campus, for free!)
2. Choose your headline
  •  Your headline should contain eye-catching titles (i.e. your major, job titles, club positions, etc.)
  •  Be succinct and include key terms that are relevant to your industry! 
  •  You can also highlight meaningful details about yourself that you’d like to share, like “Hardworker”
  •  Essentially, you should use your headline to promote your area of expertise  
3. Write your About section
  •  This is similar to your elevator pitch, where you should discuss your year, major, relevant experiences and education. 
  • Ideally, this section should not be longer than one to two paragraphs. You can also use bullet points if you’d prefer instead of writing paragraphs. 
  •  You can also indicate any fields and positions that you are interested in (i.e. “Looking for:...”)
  •  Feel free to include points of contact, if you’d like.
4. Complete the Experience section
  • You should keep your profile updated with all your professional experiences, especially those that align closely with your current career goals! 
  • Note: Any work experience is relevant, even if it’s not directly related to your current career goals
  • Some examples of experiences that are worth including: Internships, retail industry experience, leadership positions in clubs, etc. 
    • Be sure to include details about what you specifically accomplished in these roles! Be specific! 
  • Don’t worry about filling this section! You’ll gain more experiences over the years :) 
5. Updating the Projects, Skills & Honors + Awards Sections
  • Listing your relevant skills helps recruiters to understand your strengths and abilities. Be sure to list any skills that you are confident in. 
  • Adding the projects that you have worked on can help demonstrate your skills. 
  • Don’t forget to add your awards and honors!
6. Add Virginia Tech to your education section!!
  • The education section is really important for entry-level job seekers! Having your Virginia Tech in your education section will make it easier for you to network and contact alumni in your field. 
7. Change the URL to your LinkedIn
  •  Once you’ve updated your LinkedIn, you can include it on your resume so that recruiters can use it to learn more about you! 
  •  You can customize your URL so that instead of being an alphanumeric string, it is whatever you choose for it to be (i.e. www.linkedin.com/in/your-name). This helps make it easier for people to find you. 

Connecting with People

Now, it’s time to start connecting with people on LinkedIn! You can start by connecting with your friends, family, and co-workers, as well as other students at Virginia Tech. You can also follow companies and figures that you are interested in. In this way, you can tailor your feed towards industries that you want to work in.

Posting on LinkedIn

As you further your academic and professional career, you can post updates about accomplishments you’ve achieved, like awards, scholarships, internships, and research positions. You can also post recaps highlighting what you have learned at the end of unique experiences like jobs and conferences. When posting, you can tag other people who are relevant to the experience. 

General Tips

  • Make sure that your LinkedIn profile is public, so that it is visible. 
  • Make sure that your LinkedIn is up to date! Your resume and LinkedIn should be consistent with each other. 
  • Be mindful of what you are posting and commenting on LinkedIn. Keep in mind that everything that you post and comment is visible on your LinkedIn profile, so your connections and potential recruiters will be able to see your interactions. 
  • As a freshman, it’s totally okay to include high school achievements on your profile. As you get more experiences in college, you can slowly start to purge high school experiences off your LinkedIn in favor of more recent experiences. 
  • Feel free to reach out with any questions to the Professional Development Chair (secprodev@vt.edu) !

Additional Resources

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