Building A Legit LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is basically just social media for professionals. Think of it as grown up Twitter and instead of memes its full of people sharing their professional achievements. It can be seriously intimidating, but just remember everyone has to start somewhere. Fake it ‘till you make it can sometimes be the best strategy. 

Start simple, add a profile picture. No one is going to add you if you're that creepy anonymous person with no photo. Go ahead and add a cover picture too, and when in doubt just add one of your school or hometown. This pretty simple step helps you quickly build a strong foundation. 

If you don’t necessarily have a job title that you want to appear right under your name, just simply put “student at ... studying …” as your headline. It looks professional and gives people a glimpse into what you’re interested in even if you don't have your dream job just yet. 

Adding a professional summary adds a nice little description of who you are as well. The summary about yourself on your page can be a great place to explain what you are interested in, and throw in some key skills there too. You can easily fluff it up to make yourself sound way more skilled than you may actually be. 

The next major step is to add your basic job experience and things you're involved in on campus. If you want to take it one step further, add a description to your experiences as well. It makes your profile look like you spent more time on it and gives an explanation of what you achieved for potential employers. Your page can become a glimpse of your résumé if you add the key details. 

Make sure to add any skills and volunteer work at the bottom of your page. Skills can be anything from Word and Google Drive to social media platforms and basic communication skills. It helps add substance to your page and make you look well rounded and skilled. 

Adding people to your network is important, but make sure you have a decent profile before adding everyone you know. You want to look like a professional, so keep everything on LinkedIn appropriate for anyone to see. Having a strong profile can set you ahead and make you look super professional, even if you don’t have your life totally figured out just yet.