In college, you receive the type of education you want depending on your major. You pay thousands of dollars to get your associates, bachelors, masters, doctorate degree, or whichever level of education you are pursuing. You take classes all four years that lead you to the stage on graduation day. Now what? You’ve been taught about your future career, but what do you do to earn that job? For starters, you have to start a LinkedIn profile! Many people don’t realize the significance behind making one. I’ll tell you what I’ve learned about this crucial step.
Everybody always says, “It’s who you know” but I’m not sure if that’s necessarily true. I feel it’s really about who knows you. You can meet a hundred people in a meeting that could help you find your dream job. How are you supposed to get that job if those people don’t know you and everything you have to offer? I feel making a connection on LinkedIn can help with this. Find those people to connect with and see how they can help you. Reach out and make your face and name known to those people. You can not get an upper hand in a situation if there’s no upper hand available. I use LinkedIn to connect with as many people as I can. I connect with people I’ve met in meetings, professors, and fellow students. I reach out and make a real-life connection as well. This is something that will help me in the future.
Being a college student, you don’t always have all the qualifications for your dream job just yet. You have so much learning to do before that future position becomes yours. Something you can do on LinkedIn (that I do all the time) is checking out the job opportunities on the site. You can use this information to your advantage! You can see the requirements and job qualities they’re looking for in the person they choose for the position. Even though you can’t apply yet, it’s good to know what kind of person they’re looking for. You can also use some of those keywords in their job description in your resume. They look for those things when reading over all of the applications they get, so truly read those descriptions!
Overall, in order to get a job, you have to be yourself. Make those important career goals early in your college career so you give yourself something to reach for. By connecting with people in your field, it gives you more of an idea of what you may be getting into. It’s a good idea to explore real-life examples of the career you’re looking to get into before you spend money and time getting into the wrong career field. I think the best thing you can do is start a LinkedIn and start linking with those who can help you.