know why LinkedIn is important

LinkedIn is a social media platform for your professional self. It’s also a job board, a news feed, and a networking tool. LinkedIn has:

• 756 million professionals and students
• 20 million active job postings

You can assume that any prospective employer, whether for a campus job, internship, or your first job after college, will be looking for you on LinkedIn. An updated, accurate LinkedIn is a sign that you’re job ready!

Visit LinkedIn.com to get started.

Your profile photo is your first and lasting impression. Your photo should:

• have a simple, uncluttered background
• be from the shoulders up (your face should take up over half the picture)

Your cell phone camera will likely do the trick; just make sure someone else takes the pic. No selfies on LinkedIn!

For more tips, visit this how-to. 

Your headline is like your personal mission statement, encapsulating who you are professionally. What it includes depends on where you are in your career (and on your personality!) but here are some examples:

• design intern specializing in powerful websites for nonprofits
• education policy buff looking for opportunities in elementary education 
• digital marketing │ podcast: Market It │ UC Berkeley ’25 │ seeking social media internship 

Read more on how to write a professional LinkedIn headline—and check out the examples if you need inspiration.

The rest of your LinkedIn profile is like an extended resume. Important sections include

• summary (bring your headline to life by writing about your accomplishments, passions, and goals)
• work experience (include internships and volunteer work here—and you can deep dive a bit more than you do on your resume)
• education (include HS and any summer or study abroad experiences)

To help guide you, check out 20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile.

Finally, check your settings under “job seeking preferences.” If you’re open to new opportunities, now or in the future, we suggest setting everything to “yes.” with your financial aid office about whether you should take that approach or an alternate one.

Once your profile is set up, it’s time to add connections. You can add classmates, alumni, professors, and people who work for organizations that interest you.

As you request (or find) new connections, consider adding a short note introducing yourself and explaining why you’d like to connect. For example: “I saw that you just graduated from my current university and were also in student government! I noticed that you decided to pursue a career in public relations, and I want to go into this field as well. I hope we can connect on LinkedIn.”

Check out some other templates to help you customize.