No, your eyes are not deceiving you; I am posting so soon after my last blog because I am now officially addicted to blogging. In other news, I have also began the process of mastering Twitter.
If you have been following/reading my past few posts you know that I have been struggling to get an internship for this upcoming summer.
The 5 W’s of LinkedIn Keywords
By Donna Van Derveer
Who?
YOU, of course. When others view your LinkedIn profile, a box displaying your profile highlights fills the screen. This is your chance to make a good impression. Therefore, the information in your profile should be complete, current and optimized by using keywords.
What?
A keyword is a tool for scanning large volumes of information quickly to identify specific data to target.
Learn about one University of Montana student’s internship abroad in Bolivia.
What Does Your LinkedIn Profile Picture Say About You?
By Donna Van Derveer
Did you know LinkedIn profiles with pictures attract 50-70 percent more inquiries than profiles without pictures? And, according to Forbes, LinkedIn profiles with photos are seven times more likely to be clicked on than profiles without photos. If you’re on LinkedIn to get noticed and make professional connections, a quality professional photo is a must.
Why Should I be on LinkedIn? Part II
By Donna Van Derveer
Join groups
Joining groups on LinkedIn helps you stay in touch with former or current organizations, find people with similar interests, and participate in a professional online community. Being a part of a group extends your network, increases profile visibility, and promotes your brand. You can also stay in touch with alumni and past colleagues.
Why Should I be on LinkedIn? Part I
By Donna Van Derveer
There are currently 200 million LinkedIn members in 200 countries and territories worldwide. According to a 2011 USA Today survey, only 35 percent of those members are college students. Many college students assume LinkedIn is only useful while in the workforce. However, if you are still relying on old fashioned job search approaches, you are missing a chance to connect with employers around the world.
By Ashley Widtfeldt
For Elyse Jardine, the internship experience has been what she considers a continuous loop of learning. She applies what she learns in class to her internship and then what she learns in her internship to her classes, creating this expanding circle of knowledge. “It increases the information I learn at least ten fold,” she stated.
Elyse is studying Public Administration with a concentration in International Development. This made her internship with the World Affairs Council of Montana a perfect match for her academic interests. Her main role at the World Affairs Council of Montana is to plan Academic World Quest, a competition between Montana High School Students that showcases their knowledge concerning our nation’s six top national security issues.
This has been Elyse’s first big experience in the nonprofit field and she has made connections throughout Montana as well as in the International Community that will be invaluable to her future job search. Also through this internship, she can now include things like public relations, event planning, and member development to her resume. Not to mention the $120,000 grant she co-wrote with her supervisor, a feat that’s sure to impress any future employer. “My resume now is massive and I feel like I’m marketable as a person to do all these different things,” claims Elyse.
Elyse would “hands down” recommend every student seek out an internship experience. She believes that it is the best way to learn how to apply what has been learned in the classroom and also adapt to new scenarios that might not be the textbook case: “Sometimes what you get in class is the ideal book version and that’s not always how it happens in the real world.”
