Update your LinkedIn Profile after your Summer Internship

The summer has a funny way of always flying by.  Now it’s time to think about going back to college. This is a great time to update your LinkedIn profile and resume. Here are the key things to consider for your LinkedIn updates:

• Experience: Make sure the description for your internship position includes all the major accomplishments including the appropriate keywords. Statistics are great to add here. “Increased social media engagement by 32%” is an example. Add the end date of your internship in the experience section so your timeline is clear.
• Summary: Review your summary statement to make sure it is up to date. You may have learned new things about yourself that will affect what you wish to project in your summary section. Your summary should pull together your entire profile and give the reader a holistic impression of you, your capabilities and your future goals.
• Headline: Redo your headline after the job has concluded. This is very important real estate. Your headline should reflect your current status and interests. You may want to be “UConn Junior with a passion for film” or “NYU Sophomore interested in a PR internship”  instead of the “XYZ intern” you had during the internship.  Be thinking about your next career steps and use the headline space accordingly.
• Skills: Did you learn new skills? This is a great time to review and add your new skills.
• Photo: Do you have a new photo to add on LinkedIn? Remember you want to use a professional headshot.
• Projects: If you did a special internship project, add it to LinkedIn as long as you have the permission of your employer. You may have participated in creating a video or presentation that would be appropriate to share.
• Special items: Did you take a summer course that is relevant to your passions and personal brand? If yes, add that in your profile. Did you write a great blog post? Add that in the publications section. Think of all your accomplishments and how you can highlight those on your profile.
• Connections: Send invitations and connect with your hiring manager, internship coordinator, coworkers, vendors or partners that you worked with during your internship. Make sure your connection invitations are personalized. This is a great chance to thank them and ask to connect.
• Recommendations: Make sure you ask for your internship recommendations while you are still fresh in your hiring manager’s mind. Send out a request for a LinkedIn recommendation before school starts.

Internships provide great work experiences for college students. Now’s a great time to make sure you capture all that you can from that wonderful experience to positively reflect in your LinkedIn profile.

How often do you update your profile?