Though one may think students’ favorite form of social media is Instagram or Snapchat, during internship and job application season, one would be mistaken. It is LinkedIn. If you are not connected with your friends on LinkedIn, can you even consider them real friends?
LinkedIn is a platform on which people are able to connect with others that they know, building a network for jobs in the future. The free software is easy to use. All one needs to do is share their education and job experience on their profile. There are also options to add certifications, profile photos and job updates. The goal of the app is to facilitate connections with others in similar career fields, helping to get jobs in the future and can be used to highlight one’s resume and send in applications.
Freshmen in the business school were required to make LinkedIn profiles for a class assignment. However, this does not mean that the craze is limited to business students. Students of any major are able to create a profile and explore the app.
“Even though I’m not a business student, LinkedIn helps me find people at Villanova that are in my major that I can talk to in the future,” freshman engineering student Sophia Koutsourakis said.
LinkedIn can help connect one with people they never knew were interested in the same field as them, facilitating relationships and advancing one’s job search in the future.
“As a nursing student, the app is fun for me to connect with people in my sorority that are also nursing students,” freshman Eloise Kircher said. “This helps me when picking classes because I can find people to talk and go to for nursing advice.”
From the initial creation of a profile, one is prompted to add connections based on the companies and education they provided. This is where LinkedIn gets a person coming back for more, as masses of people are suggested to add to one’s network. Out of all the features the app has to offer, the connections seem to intrigue people the most. Friends will even race to see who can get the most connections, with the label “500+ connections” on one’s account being basically equivalent to an Instagram verification badge. While some business students needed to reach a certain number of connections for their class, many continued to use the app afterwards. Once you start connecting, it is difficult to stop.
“It was fun to connect with people I had in my classes because I knew we all had similar interests,” freshman business student Ryann Segall said.
Another popular feature of the app is the ability to see what people are interested in. Education, interests and past experiences are displayed on each person’s profile. Students are able to see what others were up to in the past and what they want to do in future.
Though LinkedIn is a new social media craze, it is actually one that is very beneficial to students. The “500+ connections” that students are racing towards can ultimately help them find career opportunities and form relationships in the future. By helping students to create their very own networks able to assist them in securing internships and jobs, LinkedIn is the perfect way to have fun connecting with friends while also building towards one’s future.
