In 2018, College of Computing & Informatics (CCI) student Blessing Adogame (Information Systems, '21) co-founded the Students of LinkedIn campaign as a way to educate and encourage other students to fully utilize the professional networking social media platform. Since its founding, thousands of students at schools across the US and Canada have joined Students of LinkedIn. Blessing's team has also been invited to present at speaking engagements and webinars for universities and organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers and Microsoft.
As CCI's Corporate Partners Program gears up for its biannual Career Networking Event, we asked Blessing to share her top five tips for how to leverage the LinkedIn platform. Check out her recommendations for how to make a great impression on recruiters through your digital presence.
Tip #1 - Make sure you have a professional looking profile picture, which can easily be taken on your smartphone. (Dress up, smile and *capture*)
Tip #2 - Update your About section to fully reflect who you are on a personal and professional level. This combination is what will make you stand out.
Tip #3 - Populate your Experiences not only with context about what you accomplished in that role, but add media to compliment and give credibility to your work.
Tip #4 - Liven up your Education section by adding student organizations that you're involved with, projects you were part of, or media you were featured in.
Tip #5 - Add Job Preferences by selecting the job types and titles that you're interested in, which is displayed to recruiters as soon as they go to your profile. To update your job types, follow this pathway: Profile > Add Profile Section > Intro > Looking for job opportunities.
Want to take a deeper dive into Blessing's work with Students of LinkedIn? Read her interview with Kivo Daily, check out a Prezi she created with advice on how to stand out on LinkedIn, or go straight to her LinkedIn profile to see how she has leveraged the platform to show off her experience and skills.