What role will LinkedIn play in your networking journey?
There is a strange idea followed by LinkdedIn, the less entertaining version of social media; that it is only something you invest time in when you are looking for a job or have entered the job market. Usually around third year. Usually after a mild panic. Usually with three connections, a blurry profile picture and a sudden realisation that everyone else seems to have been using it for the past two years.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Start before you need it.
It is never too soon to start building your professional presence. Even if you’re still doing your GCSEs, there is value in becoming familiar with the professional world early. People working in industries you may one day want to enter are already there, and many are genuinely interested in helping young people learn, ask questions and build things.
If you’re at university, your first year is a particularly good time to start. And by “start”, I don’t mean create the profile and leave it sitting there until you desperately need an internship in second year.
Start using it.
Connect with your programme directors and course leaders. Find your school president. Connect with people in your cohort. Look beyond your own course too: students from the business school, scientists and engineers, economists, designers, filmmakers and all the artsy people you might otherwise only admire from afar. Even more, connect with those from other institutions and across countries.
Your community is bigger than your degree
Your community is not limited to your degree.
In fact, one of the most useful things about LinkedIn is discovering just how much bigger your network can become when you stop thinking of it as a list of people who study the same thing as you. That engineering student you met at a networking event might one day become the technical expert you need when you start a company. The economics student you connected with in first year might end up working in an industry you suddenly want to enter. Someone you met at a conference might introduce you to someone in Singapore, where you’ve always wanted a career 5 years down the line.
Careers rarely follow the neat path we imagine at eighteen.
And neither should your network.
LinkedIn can also be a surprisingly useful place to discover CEOs, founders, researchers, start-ups, scholarships, events, internships and other opportunities. More importantly, it can take you beyond the people and institutions immediately around you. A connection can be in London, Dubai, New York or somewhere you've never heard of, and suddenly a conversation that would never have happened in person is possible.
It doesn't mean you need to become a LinkedIn influencer (unless you want to be).
You don't need to post motivational essays every Monday morning or announce that you are “thrilled to embark on the next chapter of your journey” every time you join a society.
Start simple.
Build a profile that tells people who you are, what you're interested in and where you're going. Add your education, experiences (many don’t have any, don’t worry), interests, projects, societies, volunteering and anything else that genuinely tells your story. Keep it current. Follow people and organisations you find interesting. Read things. Occasionally share something you've learned or worked on.
And when you meet someone interesting, instagram does not need to be the go to exchange. Ask for their LinkedIn.
Then send them a short message afterwards:
It was great meeting you at …, hope to stay in touch.
That's it.
Simple, professional and considerably more memorable than following each other on Instagram and then silently watching one another's stories for the next three years.
Make the first move.
Most importantly, take the initiative. Don't wait for the CEO of the FinTech company that was acquired for £45 million last year to ask for your LinkedIn. Chances are, they won't. You're the one at the beginning of your career, looking for direction, connections and opportunities, so be the one to make the first move.
And don't let those “let's stay in touch” messages become empty promises. Actually stay in touch. Keep up with their posts, message them when something they've shared genuinely interests you, and send an article, opportunity or idea their way when you think they'd appreciate it. You'll be far more memorable that way than through any aggressively enthusiastic “Good morning, LinkedIn community!” post.
Don't be afraid to make the first move. Ask them for a coffee chat. Follow up on that nanotechnology product they've been involved in because you genuinely want to learn more. Or simply connect with the student taking the same module taught by your favourite lecturer, Dr. Whoever-Is-Teaching-This.
Ultimately, you'll be surprised by how much more fulfilling it is to build 20 genuine connections than to collect 400 followers who wouldn't recognise your name. Although, don't underestimate those either, opportunity has a funny way of showing up (very silently) where you least expect it.
It’s never too late.
And if you're reading this in the second semester of third year, halfway through a master's, or five years into your career thinking, I probably should have done this earlier, that's fine too.
The point isn't that you missed the perfect moment.
The best time to build your network is before you need it. The second-best time is when you realise you need it.
It's never too late to reconnect with your BMD 201 lecturer from second year, the one whose lectures somehow convinced you to pursue a career in BioTech, even if you're now on your third role change, four years after graduation. Send them a message. Tell them you enjoyed their class, that their talks on “Why cells refuse to behave" stayed with you, and that their work on their work on antibiotic resistance still impresses you to this day. You'd be surprised how much a thoughtful message can mean to someone who may not even realise the impact they had on you.
Or perhaps you're in your third year at a Big Four firm and still haven't connected with the director of your sector. Well, this would probably be a rather good time to rectify that.
Use it, don’t live on it.
One thing worth remembering, however, is that LinkedIn, with all its promises, is not quite The Good Place. Some days it feels less like a professional networking platform and more like a support group for the global employment crisis. Between the posts about dwindling interview invitations, graduate unemployment, redundancies and the general state of the world, it can occasionally read like the world's most professionally formatted group therapy session.
And no judgement here, trust me, I've had my own fair share of those moments.
But try to make room for the good, too. The people sharing what they've learned, the opportunities you might otherwise never have found, the conversations that lead somewhere unexpected, and the occasional reminder that someone else's career is not necessarily moving at the same pace as yours.
So, behind the stories from a night well spent at Ministry of Sound, the questionable 9am decisions and the 45-minute commute that feels like a personal endurance test, leave yourself ten minutes to nurture your LinkedIn community. Reply to a message, connect with someone interesting, read an article or simply see what people in your industry are up to.
LinkedIn is a way of staying in the loop, keeping up with developments in your industry, emerging ideas, global conversations and opportunities you might otherwise miss. What you learn today could become the insight, connection or opportunity that shapes your career tomorrow.
You don't have to turn every scroll into a networking exercise, nor should your entire life become one long attempt at professional advancement. Use LinkedIn for the opportunities it can open, not as a daily referendum on how well your life is going. Build your network, stay curious, and then get on with living the life you're building it for.
Think of LinkedIn as your own professional brand representative.
Only this time, you're the brand.
Until next time,
Sara S
A Failure is a Win of Experience
