Welcome back to Moving from College to Career! In this space, we share practical insights to help you explore career paths and prepare for recruiting.
As always, our goal is usefulness over noise. If there's a topic you're curious about, just reply. We'd love to hear from you.
Today's Tactics: Building a LinkedIn Profile When You’re Still Figuring Things Out
These tips draw on a conversation we had with Angie Bergner, Chief Operating Officer at Veris Insights, who joined us to share advice on building a strong LinkedIn presence.
Most college students hold off on their LinkedIn profile because they don’t feel like they have enough to put on it yet. But LinkedIn is often the first place a recruiter, potential mentor, or professional you’ve reached out to goes to learn more about you. A profile that honestly reflects where you are right now is more useful than one you’re waiting to finish.
The good news: you don’t need a clear direction to have a strong profile. You just need to show up with some intention.
Start with Your Headline
Your headline is the line that appears directly under your name, everywhere on LinkedIn. Most students leave it as their school or their major. That’s fine, but you can do more with it. The goal is to give whoever’s reading your profile a sense of who you are and what you’re interested in, even if that interest is still taking shape.
None of these requires a job title or a fully formed plan. They signal engagement and give whoever’s reading something to respond to.
Write an About Section
Few students write an About section at all. That means the ones who do immediately stand out. The key is writing from where you actually are, not where you think you’re supposed to be. Recruiters and professionals who look at student profiles know most of you are still exploring. Pretending otherwise usually reads as generic. Writing authentically about what you’re curious about and what you’ve started to connect is more compelling than a polished-sounding summary that says nothing specific.
This student doesn’t have a defined path yet. But they have a starting point, a thread connecting their interests, and a clear sense of what they’re curious about. That’s enough.
Ask for a Recommendation
A recommendation from someone who has seen your work is one of the most credible things on a LinkedIn profile, and most students don’t have any. The bar for asking is lower than it feels. Think beyond senior executives: a professor who knows your work, a supervisor from a summer or part-time job, a coach who can speak to your character and work ethic. All of these count. When you ask, make it easy for them by telling them specifically what you worked on together and what you’d like them to address. A specific, genuine note from someone who knows you well is worth more than a generic one from someone impressive.
In Case You Missed It
We recently launched several new features on the Introships website.
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A career chatbot built from our session archive. Ask it anything you would ask a recruiter, hiring manager, or experienced professional in a field you are exploring, and it pulls answers from more than 400 recorded presentations by professionals across industries. It credits each presenter by name and links directly to the moment in the video where they address your question, so you can go deeper if something catches your attention.
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The Introships directory. A searchable database of current students, program alumni, and past presenters going back five years. If you are trying to find someone who works in a field you are exploring, or who went to your school, this is a good place to start.
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A conversation request system. You can use it to request a 20-minute virtual conversation with a presenter or Introships alum. We have streamlined the process on both ends, so requests are easier to send and easier for the other person to respond to. It is a lower-lift way to reach out than a cold LinkedIn message, and the people in the directory have opted in to receiving them.
If you already have access to the portal, just log in to explore. If not, reply to this email and we can share more about how to get access.
We hope you found this helpful. Feel free to reply with questions or feedback, and stay tuned for more from Introships on LinkedIn and Instagram!
Joe Fiveash & Sean Wetmore
