The Career Services Center will host a LinkedIn workshop from 11 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, March 3 at the Curb Family Conference Center in Heggblade. The workshop is designed for anyone wanting to learn more about how LinkedIn can help with professional networking.
Unlike Facebook, which is considered a portal predominantly for socializing, LinkedIn is an online networking site used primarily for professional purposes, says Young Kwak, Associate Director of the Career Services Center. The workshop will cover how to create a profile in LinkedIn, and also explain the features and functionality of the site.
"LinkedIn provides opportunities to reconnect with past coworkers and classmates as well as potential employers," Kwak says. "I found classmates and colleagues that I have not connected with for a while. It gives people an opportunity to be introduced to people that they want to get to know."
Prospective employers, she says, are just beginning to use social media/networking proactively to connect to students. How much employers use LinkedIn to identify job candidates isn't yet known since the number of students now utilizing the site are low, she says.
But Kwak says that with more than 150 industries represented including Fortune 500 companies LinkedIn is a valuable resource for connecting with previous coworkers as well as prospective employers.
"I think students will benefit from knowing how to use it," Kwak says, "especially since networking is a real key to finding jobs and internships in this tough job market."
---Kristina Bergess '12