Is LinkedIn still relevant? Do college students need to have a LinkedIn page in preparation for applying for internships while in school? For applying for jobs when they are getting ready to graduate?

If no to LinkedIn, what other online platform should they be considering?

Why this question:
I'm in charge of our intro course for students in the foreign language+business program, one aim of the course is to prep students for international internships etc. I'm wondering if I should have "set up a LinkedIn page" as one of the activities we do this semester...

My husband had to recently do a job hunt and he did all of his reference contacting through it. Also the company he was applying to checked it before hiring him. He’s in IT. It’s never been relevant to K-12 education in Canada, but perhaps it is elsewhere. But I think it definitely depends on the field.

I don’t use mine, but apparently people look at my profile a lot recently.

Mr. AM uses it a lot; it’s very helpful to him (sales/marketing/advertising).

Thank you both for these comments!

Ditto to what's been said already.

I have one. I almost never use it.

When somebody wants to link in--What do they call it? Friend? Follow?--I accept if they don't look like an ax murderer.

I don't pay to see who's looking at my profile, but I'll look when LinkedIn offers me a peek. It's usually colleagues at my institution or at others, but sometimes I think it's readers taking a look. The numbers are too small for it to matter.

I'm pretty sure that university placement centers encourage students to have LinkedIn accounts, because I get occasional requests from them, which I accept.

Thanks MA.

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university placement centers encourage students to have LinkedIn accounts, because I get occasional requests from them

Looks like I'll be contributing to this... :P

I sure hope so.

My son works there as a sr. software engineer (about to be promoted!).
Of course, it will probably be a stepping stone to something else (in the Bay Area ) but he is very impressed by their ethics. (And they treat their engineers like diamonds! As a work environment, it couldn't be improved on.)

The ethics comment refers particularly to their long-standing egalitarian salary/hiring/promotion policies for all (here, say towards women). Also about their outreach training for high school students. Also egalitarian (not just women).

That's intended to give minorities a leg up. (I especially like that as I've long believed it's a step too late to try to equalize at the hiring level rather than insuring all students be given equal opportunity/encouragement earlier.

Of course, I feel weird calling women a "minority" but effectively they/we are second class citizens especially in the BRO tech world. What IS the proper term? "Disadvantaged"? And to repeat, it's not just women LinkedIn encourages at lower levels.

(That said, I used to be super irritated by their policy of sending unsolicited contact information - ones suggestive of prior relationships. Big Al and I had a complicated experience of that sort! Asking my son about it, he said it was "above my pay grade" to say anything, but it was acknowledged there. Why do they do it? Because it works!)

FWIW they've sure done well during this pandemic. Son and I commented ages ago about the protective aspect of working there in case of a recession.

That being because they'd always be useful to help people needing replacement jobs when in difficulties. Et voila!

They were bought by Microsoft almost a decade ago, BTW. That too is protective.

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Thanks MA.

quote:

university placement centers encourage students to have LinkedIn accounts, because I get occasional requests from them

Looks like I'll be contributing to this... :P

I find that the students who follow up on this advice are the diligent ones for whom I am most happy to write recommendations.

I have a friend who is a recruiter. She is on Linkedin all day long...She has a premium account so she can look folks up by degree, skills, location, willing to relocate...etc...

She then reaches out to potential candidates and encourages them to apply for positions..

So yes...encourage your students to polish their LinkedIn profiles...

Thanks for all these comments everyone!

Well, that settles it, this will be one of their assignments.