How High School Students Can Use LinkedIn

In today's technology filled world, the job search is all about your "online presence."

However, web 2.0 technologies such as LinkedIn, can be utilized for much more than a full-time job search.

LinkedIn can also be used as a branding tool for anyone who is looking to advance their career, including High School students.

High School is the perfect time for seniors to begin to network and build a profile on LinkedIn. 

Students in High School are not necessarily looking to find and network for a full time job. However, what students are looking to accomplish, is getting accepted into the college of their choice and top-notch internships, making LinkedIn the perfect place to start.

Here are a few tips for beginners:

1. Interested in attending college to study computer science, finance or marketing? Unfortunately, few High Schools offer courses in marketing or computer science. For students who may be interested in those subjects, I recommend coming up your own course. Creating a PowerPoint slide-show of your ideas and posting it to your LinkedIn profile is one way to catch a recruiters attention.

2. Connecting with college admissions officers and current students on LinkedIn is a great way to push yourself to the front of the lie.  Add them to your network and ask thoughtful questions about their school's programs, internships and activities.

3. Seek out professionals in a possible field of study that you are looking into. Ask them questions on how they got to be, for example, a “director of marketing or engineer.” Ask what courses, universities, programs and internships that they did to get them to where they are today.

4. Do you have a summer job? Connect with those individuals that you work with and your managers on LinkedIn. The bigger your network, the better.

5. Senior year in High School and Freshman year in college equals internship time. Its never to early to begin to build your resume. The earlier you can get an internship the better.