Your exams are finally over (congratulations!) and you’re probably already planning your summer? Use your time wisely and think about getting ready for the next academic year. There is no better way to do that than setting up a LinkedIn profile (for those of you who don’t have one) or polishing an existing one. Of course everyone deserves a good summer break, we all know that you have been working hard over the past year, but who said that building your online portfolio has to be a chore? Take your laptop, go to your favourite spot in a park or sit outside in a nice cafe and invest in your future!

Why should you worry about LinkedIn profile? According to LinkedIn itself, it is your professional brand in the world and a huge number of graduate recruiters and employers across all sectors will check your social media before hiring you or they will search candidates for positions using social media platforms and key words. LinkedIn is a place to find but also to be found, with 90% of recruiters using the platform.

Here are 5 top tips for your LinkedIn account:

Your photo matters

Upload a professional photo of yourself, try to avoid any holiday or party pictures. Having a very unprofessional photo can negatively influence the perception of you and impact a potential recruiter’s decision to contact you or not. On the other hand, no having a photo at all also puts you in a negative light as the majority of recruiters don’t even look at profiles without pictures.

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