LinkedIn - Tips for graduates
If you a recent graduate, or heading into your final year your thoughts may have turned to LinkedIn.
You may already have a profile and want to update it, or you feel it is time to set one up to best position yourself for graduate roles.
Our team are here to help!
1. Who are you?
In your summary – outline your educational choices and career aspirations.
As a graduate you will have limited or indeed no professional experience. A clear and impactful summary explaining your academic achievements and the motivations behind your career choice can make a big impact.
If you do have some experience(interships, placement year), make sure and include these.
2. Motivation, Motivation, Motivation
This is a great angle if you don’t have much work experience.
What are your areas of interest?
What are the strengths you have that will make you good at this career?
Being specific and detailed and showing that you’re motivated to make a start will make sure you stand out from other, more generic profiles.
3. What are the skills that you can bring?
Part time or casual jobs, internships and voluntary work can all be used to evidence your employable skills.
Outline your responsibilities, and, if possible, give examples of achievements from your time there.
Describe what you learnt and how these experiences shaped you.
4. Tell the story of your greatest accomplishment
This is an option if you have no job experience.
By describing an accomplishment from your education or experience outside work – something you’re particularly proud of – you can evidence transferable skills.
You never know exactly what a recruiter is looking for, so don’t be afraid to draw on your extra-curricular experiences.
5. Focus on what you want the employer to see
It’s important to get your audience to focus on your future prospects.
If you have already graduated, don’t position yourself as unemployed; position yourself as a future teacher, doctor or graphic designer.
Milkround.com have provided a simple template structure
LinkedIn summary template – recent graduate
Remember to give your first two sentences impact to hook the reader into clicking “show more”.
It’s best to write in a separate word-processing document, so you can save your drafts and avoid accidentally publishing an unfinished summary.
I’m a graduate of [insert subject] with special interest in [insert specialisms] and I aspire to [insert preferred career] . [Insert industry] fascinates me and I love connecting with people who share my passion for [insert professional interest].
EDUCATION
I chose to study [insert course or subject] at [insert institution] because [add explanation]. I achieved [explain results or special achievements]. The most valuable lesson I learned was [explain insight into topic]. This made me realise my future career lay in [insert industry or job role] because [add explanation].
KEY SKILLS
The skills I have mastered in my studies include [insert skills]. I hope to apply these in [insert field of interest] and build on them to become a great [insert job role]. I have the ability to [describe something you do better than anyone else] which has been noted by [insert evidence] and has taken me to [tell story of achievement].
EXPERIENCE [skip this if you have none]
My experience in [insert part-time job/internship/volunteering] has taught me valuable skills in [list skills]. Through this work, I have learned [tell this story and what you learned].
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Outside of education, I have [insert accomplishment], which has taught me [insert explanation]. From my experiences in [describe experience] I have learned [insert employable skills and motivations].
ASPIRATIONS
As a graduate in [insert subject], I am currently seeking opportunities in [insert job or field of interest]. I hope to [explain aspiration] and make a difference by [explain the value you hope to bring in this career].
Our team have help lots of new graduates with their CVs and LinkedIn Profiles – to find out how we can help you, book a FREE 30 minute review call with our team.
