What is LinkedIn, How it Works, and Why You Should (or Shouldn’t) Use it?
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional platform for building your career identity, connecting with others, and discovering opportunities. Think of it as your professional social media base, part resume, part networking, and part learning hub.
On LinkedIn, you can:
- Tell your story through a personalized profile that reflects your experiences and goals.
- Connect with people who can support your career growth — from classmates and alumni to recruiters and industry leaders.
- Explore opportunities such as internships, jobs, and career paths.
- Learn skills through LinkedIn Learning (free for CSU students).
Why use LinkedIn?
- Recruiters often use LinkedIn as a first stop when evaluating candidates.
- You can see what CSU alumni are doing with your major and explore industries before committing to a path.
- Sharing your projects, leadership roles, or reflections builds credibility early.
- LinkedIn now requires verification for recruiters and executive titles to reduce scams.
Why might you wait or even decide not use it at all?
If you’re not ready to present yourself professionally or don’t want the responsibility of maintaining another social platform, it may not feel useful right away. Some students also view LinkedIn as a performative space where self-promotion often overshadows genuine connection. Recruiter outreach can seem transactional, fake job postings and scams are still a concern, and for many, the platform becomes one more source of pressure, focused more on image management than on building real relationships.
Building a Strong LinkedIn Profile
Your profile is your foundation — it’s how people discover you, understand your story, and decide to connect.
Explore this LinkedIn article for a detailed overview of building your LinkedIn profile!
Profile Essentials
- Photo & Banner: Use a clear, friendly headshot and customize your banner with something that reflects your field.
- Headline: Instead of just “Student at CSU,” describe your focus and skills. Example: “Computer Science Student | Research Assistant | Interested in AI & Data Science.”
- Summary (About Section): Tell your story in the first person. Share your values, skills, and career goals. The Muse has templates that make it easy to start.
Experience Is More Than Jobs
When listing experiences on LinkedIn, don’t limit yourself to just jobs or internships. Leadership roles in student organizations, volunteer work, and research or class projects all demonstrate valuable skills and initiative. You can also include personal projects, such as building an app, designing a campaign, or any other self-driven work that highlights your abilities. These experiences show that you are applying what you’ve learned both inside and outside the classroom.
Emphasize skills you applied and outcomes you achieved, not just responsibilities.
Skills, Education & Extras
- Add and reorder your skills so your top ones appear first – include at least 5!
- List your program, minors, certificates, or trainings.
- Include media like class presentations, posters, or event photos.
Optimize for Visibility
LinkedIn is also a search engine. Use keywords that recruiters and employers search for in your headline, summary, and experience descriptions. This helps you get discovered in searches both on LinkedIn and Google.
How to Use LinkedIn
Once your profile is strong, LinkedIn becomes a tool for growth and exploration. You can build your network, explore careers and companies, job and internship search, and/or learn new skills!
Build Your Network
Use LinkedIn to connect with classmates, professors, alumni, recruiters, and industry reps.
- Add a short, personalized note when sending requests. Examples:
- “Hi [Name], I noticed we both attended [University] and are interested in [Major/Field]. I’m a current student studying [Your Major], and I’d love to connect to hear about your career path and any advice you might have. Thanks!”
- “Hello [Recruiter Name], I’m a [Your Major] student at [University], and I came across your profile while researching [Company or Role]. I’m very interested in opportunities in [Industry/Field] and would appreciate connecting to learn more about what skills are most valued in your work.”
- “Hello [Name], it was great meeting you at the [Event Name]. I really enjoyed our talk about [Topic] and your insight into [Industry/Role]. I’d like to stay connected and learn more from your experience.”
- Explore our page on informational interviewing to learn how to have these conversations.
- Avoid these pitfalls when reaching out to recruiters.
- Join groups like the CSU Career Center to find resources and events.
Explore Careers & Companies
Use the CSU Alumni tool to explore the career paths of graduates from CSU. You can filter by graduation year, major, location, company, or keyword to see where alumni work and what fields they’ve gone into. This lets you compare what they studied with what they’re doing now, giving you ideas about possible career directions. Once you find alumni in roles you’re curious about, you can reach out with a personalized connection request to learn more.
You can also:
- Follow companies, professional associations, and industry leaders.
- Pay attention to career stories, challenges, and advice people share — authenticity and vulnerability are now highly valued.
Search for Positions, Learn New Skills, and Engage
Use the Jobs tab to search for internships or full-time positions and set alerts for opportunities that match your interests. Research salaries, required skills, and career paths to make informed decisions about your next steps.
At the same time, take advantage of LinkedIn Learning (free for CSU students) to build skills, earn certifications, or prepare for interviews.
Sharing your experiences and engaging with others is equally important: post class projects, photos from student events, or reflections from internships, give shoutouts to mentors, and comment thoughtfully on posts to build your network. Short, authentic videos are also trending and can increase visibility while showing your personality and skills. Together, searching, learning, and sharing help you actively develop your career while connecting with others.
Privacy and Security Tips
- Review your profile settings to control who can see your connections and personal information.
- Be cautious when sharing contact info or engaging with messages from strangers — if something feels off, don’t respond.
- Regularly verify recruiter requests and job postings to avoid scams.
Using AI With LinkedIn
- Profile Building: Use AI to draft your headline, About section, or job descriptions. Start with a prompt like, “Write a LinkedIn summary for a biology major interested in science communication and nonprofit work.” Then edit for authenticity.
- Job Research: Ask AI to summarize job postings, compare roles, or identify the most common skills across listings in your field.
- Content Ideas: Use AI to brainstorm posts about your projects, experiences, or career reflections.
- Prep for Networking: Before connecting with someone, AI tools can help you generate conversation starters based on their profile.
- Interview Prep: AI can role-play common recruiter questions you might get from LinkedIn job applications.
Pro Tip: Don’t copy-paste AI outputs directly. Employers value authenticity, so always revise drafts to sound like you. Think of AI as your writing coach, not your ghostwriter.