More College Students Are Using LinkedIn. Here's How to Stand Out. - Your Money Briefing - WSJ Podcasts

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• People that have more than 500 connections on LinkedIn have that little designation underneath their name that says 500 plus connections. And a lot of students are really trying to get that because they feel that legitimizes them more.

• So when they see that their peers have really sharp profiles on LinkedIn and have more job or internship experience, they can sometimes feel like they're falling behind and they want to catch up and put their best foot forward on LinkedIn as well.

• And new hires made through LinkedIn more than doubled in the last quarter,

• Luckily the career center at Wesleyan had a LinkedIn headshot and I went in and unfortunately I didn't really end up liking that photo of myself because I didn't feel like I was dressed up enough.

• It shows your vacations or your happy moments and LinkedIn is the exact same way, but with more professional experiences

• because I can definitely tell that it's people who just go on that explore page and connect with people who have maybe second connections or third connections.

• People that have more than 500 connections on LinkedIn have that little designation underneath their name that says 500 plus connections. And a lot of students are really trying to get that because they feel like that legitimizes them more

• And the number of connections they have on LinkedIn is one way they feel they can get that.

• Yeah. Most colleges and universities have a career center where people can go to get advice on building resumes. And a lot of them are, of course, offering guidance on how to develop LinkedIn profiles now. So there're definitely resources, free resources that students can go to for advice. There are also, of course, professional counselors who consult with students on these kinds of things that they can hire if they want to pay for that kind of feedback. But I think most colleges have some counselors on hand that can help.