The Undercover Recruiter

A new career portal was introduced a few months ago on LinkedIn: LinkedIn for students and recent graduates. Apparently, it has been quite popular in the US, but hasn’t really been known enough here in the UK and Europe just yet!

The platform enables its users to search for internships and many entry-level jobs, offered by a very large amount of companies from all around the world. This way, you can have access to job opportunities that suit you and even be directly targeted depending on what you are looking for.

Beyond networking with your University classmates, your favourite companies and collegues, LinkedIn has a also a purpose of creating a real relationship between public organizations, companies that are hiring, and you.

Find below some tips on how to begin using the Jobs for Students and Recent Graduates Portal!

1. Selecting the type of job you are looking for

First enter the sector you are interested in.

From Art/Creative to Science, find the industry that suits you in order to get into the platform, and search through everything you need.

2. Refine your search as much as you need!

The platorm includes many criteria giving you the chance to target as precisely as possible what you are looking for. From the company to the location, but also the salary or your entry-level, refine your search so that it defines what you’re looking for.

Note as well that sometimes, it’s better not to be too precise when looking for an offer: you might be missing some results that could have interested you.

Try to stay as open as you can, knowing still that you are able to refine your searches whenever you want.

3. Apply!

Once you’ve found an offer that suits you and went through the job description, desired skills and experience, you can apply directly from the platform. Just hit the “apply now” button and add any information you want in addition to your LinkedIn Profile, such as your resume and cover letter!

Note that, depending on the company and the offer, you will sometimes be redirected to the company website to apply.

4. Save your searches

On the portal, you can create your own “job basket”: save your searches, save your favourite jobs, and easily manage your applications! Stay connected to your LinkedIn account and find everything you need to get that next job you’ve been waiting for!

I hope you found this helpful and will make the most of it! Find out for yourself and start using the LinkedIn Student Job Portal. I’d love to hear your thoughts of the subject, so please feel free to share your ideas and comments!

Marion Muller is part of the Link Humans social recruiting training team in London.

photo by: ralph and jenny

Laurence Hebberd

Laurence Hebberd is Community Manager for Link Humans in London. He also runs the Link Humans Twitter feed - @LinkHumans.

Considering the excellent benefits that connecting with professionals on LinkedIn brings, college students can never ignore this social networking platform. In fact, your networking on LinkedIn should begin as early as possible. LinkedIn can help you find jobs as soon as you graduate from college.

However, it’s a regret that college students spend very little time on this professional social networking platform, as compared to the time spent on other popular social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Given below are some key tips on how college students should use LinkedIn and how they can reap maximum benefits by connecting with professionals on this social networking website.

1. Getting Job Email Alerts

Once you have created your professional profile on LinkedIn, you can set email alerts to receive notifications of recommended jobs. Students and jobseekers will be able to see the notifications on their homepage as soon as they log into their LinkedIn accounts.

2. Connecting with Professionals

If you have a look at LinkedIn, you’ll be surprised to find out the large number of professionals who choose to connect here. In fact, you can find your friends, co-workers, colleagues, classmates and family members on this platform. And it’s never a tough job connecting with them all. What’s more, you can even import your email list to find out who among your friends is present on LinkedIn.

3. Conducting Company Research

One of the biggest benefits LinkedIn offers college students and jobseekers is that they can check out the pages of their targeted employers. By visiting company, pages, you can conduct a research on the whereabouts of the company, the hiring process and what people have to say about that organization. This kind of company research on LinkedIn can always keep a stay ahead of your competition and increases your employability.

4. Getting Recommendations

LinkedIn also offers a feature through which you can get other people to recommend you. People with a maximum number of recommendations have a great chance of attracting the employers’ attention. College students too can try to get as many recommendations as possible to increase their employability.

Be sure to check out How to Get More LinkedIn Recommendations as well.

5. Letting Companies Find You

Today, a large number of organizations look for talented candidates on social networking platforms like LinkedIn. If you have created a good and detailed professional profile, chances are you will attract employer’s attention. And it would really be nice to be invited by companies for your job position you always wanted to occupy.

6. Connecting with Other Students

College students can also use LinkedIn to network with other students. This type of networking gives you a wonderful opportunity to find out how other college graduates found a job or got hired by an employer.

7. Landing International Jobs

Well, LinkedIn is a global networking platform. If you are interested in landing jobs overseas, you can get a lot of benefits by networking on this social media website. You can connect with all the major international employers and find jobs in foreign countries.

Conclusion

It’s about time that college students too created their profiles on LinkedIn and started to use this social media platform for connecting with professionals. If you prepare yourself as early as possible, you can easily stay ahead of your competition when it comes to landing a job of your interest.

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

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How To Find Graduate Jobs and Internships on LinkedIn