How To Build A Personal Brand On LinkedIn To Improve Your Odds Of Landing A Top Internship

Many recruiters now scan LinkedIn profiles of internship candidates to get a getter glimpse of the candidate’s personality to identify a good fit. Therefore, it is vital that college students build up their Linkedin profile and develop a personal brand to land one of those prestigious internships at Google, Amazon, Meta, Citadel or many other.

With over 200 million users on LinkedIn, it is in no way limited to those with big professional accomplishments or those that are well written. LinkedIn is a great place for college students to build their personal brand and create opportunities for themselves. It involves communicating a lot about yourself, as well as connecting with like-minded people or potential alumni mentors.

Here are some things you can do to strengthen your LinkedIn profile and establish your personal brand.

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Tell YOUR Story

Even as a college student, it is vital that you establish your brand and voice early on LinkedIn to distinguish yourself from the rest and showcase your passion in the intended role or field. Begin by creating a unique headline.

In the short space you need to

• Tell your aspirations
• Tell your value proposition
• Tell who you are

Use the following template to write a good headline.

You need to communicate about what particular role or field that you have a great interest in, and follow that by what kind of expertise you posses in that field to differentiate yourself. Finish by disclosing your year and university.

You shouldn’t necessary say “seeking x role” since “seeking” can be taken as a sign of desperation among some recruiters.

This is the most simplistic headline, but you can customize a little to showcase your personality by adding hard skills.

Follow that by crafting a unique story in the “About” section.

In that section, outlines your

• Study and Year in College
• Expertise, Area of Focus, or Passion
• Experience
• Career Aspirations

It can look something like this

Your About section should quickly tell who you are and what you hope to do in less than a minute. This section comes at the top of your profile, so it is vital that you communicate your capabilities and the kind of value you will bring to the next role, so that you can encourage visitors and recruiters to continue reading your entire profile.

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Share Your History And Your Impact

This where you share your path, and how you got to where you are today. How you got to where you are today is largely by the accomplishments that you had at each step on the way.

List work experiences, preferably related to your interested field, and student organization involvements that you had. Regardless of whether you were in a leadership position or a member of a team, state all accomplishments in first person. And when listing your current role, make sure to state your involvement and accomplishments in a present tense.

For each experience, make sure that each bullet point mentions the impact you had using numerical details, such as “increased X% in sign-ups”. Recruiters and hiring managers care most about the result of your work, and very little about the variety of work you did.

Attaching the skills you gained at each role is also a great way to showcase what you gained at each experience in a concise manner. Make sure to add both hard skills such as any technical skills that you gained, as well as any soft skills that you nurtured.

Make sure to use action verbs in your explanations, using some of the words recommended by the Harvard Law School showcased below.

The purpose of this section is not just to outline your work, but highlight how at each role, you left the place better than it was with the work you did. Your experiences are truly a unique aspect about you, and how to describe about them can help you personalize your LinkedIn.

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Engage, Comment, Like, and Share!

One of the core features of LinkedIn is the ability to communicate your thoughts to your circle, as well as others across the platform. Many professionals, leading figures in industry and brands will post about their thoughts and comments on recent developments and events. You can showcase your interest and passion in a particular field by engaging with their posts.

You can definitely leave a like or share the post, but you can go one step further and leaving your thoughts in the comments as well. But that does not mean simply leaving “Interesting!” or “Thanks for sharing!”. You must provide your thoughts based on your experiences or worldview, even if you think your thoughts are not fully developed. Recruiter’s love to see passionate and driven individuals who are keeping up with the latest developments in the industry on LinkedIn.

You can also engage with your peer’s post, whether if they are celebrating their accomplishments or sharing the challenges they are facing. You can cheer them on or leave a word of encouragement. Recruiters love to see compassionate team players.

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Connect, Connect, Connect!

Send connection requests and network with as many people as possible to grow your connections and reach. Having a broad network on LinkedIn will not only create opportunities for you in the future, but also expose you to a wider view of the interested field or industry, which you can react to demonstrate that interest in the manner described before.

Sending a cold connection invitation can be intimidating but you can use the following message template to reach out.

Sample LinkedIn Message that you can send to someone with great content but you don’t know

“Hi [Name], I’ve been following your posts on [specific topic] and really admire your insights. I’d love to connect and learn more from your journey. Looking forward to staying in touch!”

Reaching out to an alumni on LinkedIn is probably going to be the easiest and quickest way to increase your network. They will most likely be the most encouraging and open to sharing insights that you can use during recruiting. If you’re lucky you might even get a referral, which can significantly improve your chances of getting that internship.

Sample LinkedIn Message that you can send to an alumni

Hi [Name], as a fellow [school mascot], I’m interested in [Field] and would love to hear any insights or advice you have. I’d really appreciate your time. Thank you!

It is important to be direct with your message. After they connect with you, do the following: 

• Start to establish a relationship and ask about their career path and how they got to their position. 

• Communicate your goal, and talk about what kind of field you want to enter and what kind of things you want to do

• Down the line, ask for a referral after you built enough relationship, and thank them for any help or assistance. 

Its not always that recruiters and others will look at the size of your network, but it doesn’t hurt that you have a broad network that you can engage with and learn from. Your engagement with your community or group can definitely help you establish your personal brand.

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There are many ways you can craft your Linkedin profile to standout amongst your peers and get noticed by a recruiter by trying some of the things listed above. You can establish your personal brand and tell what you might bring to a team or what kind of value you might create by writing your thoughts or engaging with posts from industry leaders and community members. But you know yourself best and you can only showcase your personality. We recommend that you start writing about yourself now and keep trying different angles until you’ve found your voice. Good luck!