LinkedIn profile

Pros

• You're visible to recruiters;
• you can present yourself in detail;
• you can share information about yourself or your interests;
• others can contact you directly;
• others can also respond to your messages, allowing you to interact directly;
• you stay informed about developments at organizations or within your network;
• you have insight into vacancies that may not be listed on a website;
• because so many people have created a profile, it has organically grown into a powerful search engine.

Cons
Of course, there are also drawbacks. For example, you might have privacy concerns, or a common complaint is that people paint an unrealistic picture of themselves and pretend to be better than they actually are.

Regarding privacy, you can adjust everything in ‘Settings & Privacy’ to your preferred settings. As for pretending to be better, it's difficult to detect this in someone else. Find a way to express yourself that works best for you.

• Personalise your URL, a.o. by removing the numbers at the end of the URL.
• Verify your profile. This shows that you have an authentic profile.
• Make connections. Invite friends, family, fellow students, or people from your internship or sports club to start building your network.
• Complete your profile.
• Keep your profile up-to-date.
• Post regularly and/or comment or like others' posts.
• If you have an international network or are planning to travel abroad, for example, you can choose to create a profile in a second language.

Note: if you make changes to one profile, they are not automatically reflected in the other profile.

• Also check out Zety for more tips – "How to optimize a LinkedIn profile to get more jobs"

LinkedIn has divided the various sections you can add to your profile into three categories:

• Core. These are education, experience, and skills. You can also indicate which services on the platform you are open to.
• Recommended. You can indicate what you are proud of, and this includes licenses and certifications, projects, courses, and recommendations.
• Additional. Volunteer experience, publications, patents, awards and prizes, test scores, languages, organizations, and charities.

By section: 

• Profile photo – use a professional photo with a neutral background that clearly shows your face and look into the camera.

Note: If you're looking for a job, you can add #OpenToWork to your photo.

• Background – change the default background to an image that says something about you. For example, if you're a law student, feel free to use a photo from a law book. If you're a painter, (part of) a painting will also work. Or if you're a computer science major, a formula or "ones and zeros" will tell you more about yourself. Make it personal.

Note: Make sure your background matches your profile photo in terms of color or style, for example.

• Headline – in your headline, highlight your values and/or expertise. For example, include relevant keywords. You can use a maximum of 120 characters.

Note: ‘psychology student looking for a new challenge’ doesn't say much. ‘Psychology | Youth | Family Issues | Basic Psychodiagnostics’ tells you much more in fewer words.

• About – in your summary, briefly explain what you have to offer and what you're looking for. Write in the first person and begin with an opening that piques your curiosity. Also, be sure to include keywords in your summary to ensure it's discoverable by the right people. You can conclude your summary with a call to action to invite the other person to get in touch and by listing the most important keywords that apply to you.

Note: The first two sentences are readable by other LinkedIn users. Make sure these invite them to click the "more" button for your full story.

• Work experience – list your work experience here. In addition to job title, organisation, location, and period, include your tasks and responsibilities, for example. This clarifies your experience. Besides describing your work experience, you can also add skills and/or media.

Note:

• If you have (had) a sabbatical or gap year, or have traveled, you can indicate this in this section as a ‘career break’.
  • If you have several (short-term) part-time jobs that you would like to list, but prefer not to list them separately, you can also bundle these work experiences. See the CV explanation for more information.
     
• Education – what education have you completed or are you currently enrolled in? You can include this information in this section. Also explain what your education entails, mention relevant subjects, an average grade (if applicable), and your thesis, if applicable. Here too, you can add any skills and/or media, and any activities and/or (study/student) associations.
   
• Licenses and certificates – here you can indicate whether you have obtained certain licenses or certificates.
   
• Projects – any projects you'd like to list separately can be included in this section. You can indicate what you did and when, as well as the skills you used. You can add media and others who are or have worked with you on the project. Finally, you can link the project to an education or work experience.
   
• Courses – courses that are not part of your education can be listed separately in this section. You can, however, link these to an education or to your work experience.
   
• Skills – to indicate what you are good at. You can list your skills separately. Others may endorse these skills, and here too, you can link a skill to an education or work experience, for example.
   
• Recommendation – this makes your profile more relevant and shows that what you've written is endorsed by others. So, feel free to ask your thesis or internship supervisor, for example, for a recommendation.
   
• Volunteer experience – if you have volunteer experience, you can mention this separately in your profile. You can provide information in a similar way as for work experience and you can also add media.
   
• Publications – you can list your thesis and/or other publications in your name here. You can also add a co-author or the URL that leads to this publication.
   
• Patents – if applicable, you can indicate whether one or more patents are registered in your name.
   
• Honors and awards – perhaps you're participating in an honours programme or have another distinctive achievement. To draw extra attention to this, you can mention it here.
   
• Test score – here you can enter test scores that are important to you. You can link these to an education or experience, for example.
   
• Languages – if you speak multiple languages, LinkedIn also allows for this. You can indicate a language and proficiency level.

This includes information about

• A specific organisation;
• a specific position;
• application procedures;
• assumptions you have about a particular career path, for example;
• job openings or where to find them;
• what's important for a specific position;
• working abroad;
• what a specific job entails;
• whether or not you need a Master's or PhD;
• what others with your background have gone on to do or what their first job was;
• people from your home country who have a job in the Netherlands (to build your Dutch network).

In addition, you will also find information in other profiles to help you improve your own profile.

On LinkedIn, you'll meet people who

• you know;
• are studying or have studied the same field;
• have the job you want;
• have (had) an interesting first job;
• are (not) studying or have studied a Master's or PhD, just like you;
• are working or have worked abroad;
• are from your home country.

In other words, having the information that is important to you.

An easy way to find information, is to start with the university's alumni. Through Leiden University's LinkedIn page, you can easily access more than 150,000 profiles of people who, like you, have a connection to the university.

You can then make selections to find profiles that interest you.

You can select based on:

• where someone works
• where someone lives
• what someone does
• what skills someone has
• what someone studied
• how you are connected to someone

And on any keyword. Think of the keywords you use in your own profile, a specific research method, or target audience.

Note: you can, of course, also search for alumni at other educational institutions and in a similar way within organisations: 'alumni' is then replaced by 'people', but you can apply selections in the same way to find out, for example, whether an organisation of your interest employs people with a similar background to yours.

If you've found someone with an interesting profile and would like to learn more about them, feel free to send a connection request. Always include a note so the person knows the reason for your request. This increases the chance that your request will be accepted.

In addition, LinkedIn is a place where you can be found as a job seeker. By indicating on your LinkedIn profile that you are looking for an internship / (side) job, you can be found and contacted by recruiters and employers.