Career Services Center encourages students to use LinkedIn to enhance networking opportunities with professionals.

Career Services said recent statistics show 99 percent of job recruiters use LinkedIn to seek potential employees.

Ryan McNaughton, a career counselor at Career Services, said he notices more students actively using their LinkedIn accounts to network with professionals.

“If you look at all online tools that are available to recruiters, LinkedIn is always number one,” McNaughton said.

McNaughton said that he has been doing more presentations solely on how LinkedIn works because students and faculty are starting to realize the value of the social media tool.

“I’ve noticed more juniors and seniors making LinkedIn accounts when searching for jobs and internships,” McNaughton said. “It helps them develop professionally.”

For students looking to advance their LinkedIn profiles’, McNaughton suggests students don’t just copy and paste their resumes to their profiles, but take advantage of the unlimited space by posting projects, awards, accomplishments, etc.

“With resumes you only have one page,” McNaughton said, “however, on LinkedIn, you don’t have any time or space constraints,”.

When it comes to networking LinkedIn has pages where you can search specific groups. One of those groups is the Kent State Alumni Association that consists of around 60,000 alumni.

Carrie Circosta, associate director of international alumni relations, said students and alumni looking for networking opportunities can search different groups related to their profession and connect with them.

“There are always different posts in each group about what’s going on in the industry and up-to-date information on job opportunities,” Circosta said.

To help students enhance their LinkedIn profiles, Circosta paired up with the Career Services Center and planned an event that would benefit student’s online manner.

For the fourth consecutive semester, the Alumni Association hosted it’s annual “Smile, You’re On LinkedIn” photo booth. This offered students and alumni the opportunity to have a professional headshot taken for free.

Circosta said each time the event was hosted, more people arrived to get their photo taken. Last semester, more than 300 students and alumni had headshots taken.

“Going somewhere to get a professional headshot can be pretty pricey, so we hope students take advantage of the opportunity we are giving them,” Circosta said.

Senior communications major Tyler Maruschak said he attended the Job and Internship Fair and decided to get a headshot done since he was already dressed in his business attire.

“I’m hoping that by having a personal headshot on my LinkedIn profile will be a good first impression on employers that view my profile,” Maruschak said.

Contact Zabrina Hvostal at [email protected].