Sign up for a free LinkedIn account at LinkedIn.com (click “Join now”). To set up an account, you will need to provide a valid email address you have regular access to and create a password. (Note: If you already have a LinkedIn account, skip this step; you do not need to create a new account.)

When creating your account, use your full name. It's recommended to use your full professional name. Avoid all lowercase or all uppercase. Writing your name in all capital letters or all small letters is generally considered unprofessional. Stick to proper capitalization.

LinkedIn Article: Changing How Your Name Appears on Your Profile

Upload a recent high-quality photo where your face (shoulders up) is the focus. Recruiters want to see the type of person they are looking to hire, so your photo should reflect who you are professionally.

Check out our 8 tips for taking professional photos employers will love.
Video resource: How to add or change your profile photo.

You can also add a background image. Use a visually appealing background image related to your professional field or industry. Use it to quickly give a virtual impression of who you are and/or what you do. Your background could be a portfolio or something to showcase your expertise/services.

LinkedIn Article: Add or change the background photo on your profile

Just like your resume, your headline on LinkedIn becomes your tagline and prominently appears on your profile and search results. Your LinkedIn headline should speak to your goals and let recruiters know who you are. By default, LinkedIn will use your current job position or education (if you are not working) as your headline, but you can customize it. You might say “Current BYU-Pathway Worldwide student: (current certificate you’re working on).” For example, “Current BYU-Pathway student: Project Management.” 

LinkedIn Article: Edit your headline

LinkedIn uses this data to help you connect with colleagues and potential job options in your industry and area. Recruiters also search by their preferred industry and location, increasing the chances that you would be found in their search results if you have set them up.

LinkedIn Article: Change the industry and location on your profile

If you have a resume, you can start with the summary you created for your resume. Add additional details and high-impact statements that demonstrate your achievements and how you can add value. Remember that a resume matches up with a specific job posting but LinkedIn matches up to an industry. Make sure that you use keywords, phrases, and values that are specific to your industry or professional community. Only the first three lines of your summary will show without clicking to see more, so make sure that you use a strong hook.

Key information in your “About” section helps recruiters find you. Our hiring partners will be looking for the phrase, “I am a current BYU-Pathway Worldwide student.” Add it to your profile to show up in their searches. Another phrase that can help recruiters find you is the phrase, “I prefer remote work” if this applies to your situation.

List any certificates and degrees you have or are working on. For example:

• Certificate(s): Commercial Fundamentals Certificate
• Working on: Business and Leadership Skills Certificate and Associate of Applied Business Management

Highlight any other professional and educational accomplishments. Let recruiters know about your goals as a BYU-Pathway student and beyond.

LinkedIn Article: Edit the About section of your profile

Add additional information to your profile to help recruiters know more about you and your qualifications. Before starting this step, you could temporarily turn off sharing changes to make sure that as you are constructing your profile, your network will not be notified every time you save changes and you can turn it on once you are done with your changes. You can turn it back on once done with everything.

LinkedIn Article: Share profile updates with your network

You can add information to the following standard and additional sections:

Work Experience: You can use your résumé as a starting point. Share your past employment history including company name, dates of employment, job title, description of responsibilities, and key achievements. Make sure that you include high-impact (or power) statements. They should be in paragraph form but you could use bullet points to emphasize specific key areas like achievements. If you have little to no work experience and you have had volunteer roles relevant to your field of labor or study (such as missionary service, stake auditor, or ward social media specialist) you can also add this to your work section and you can note it was a volunteer position.

LinkedIn article: Manage your experience section

Skills: Add your professional skills to showcase to recruiters. Adding relevant skills to your profile increases the chances that you’ll be found in job searches. Add at least five relevant skills you possess to each role. Take the LinkedIn skill assessment to get a badge of competence for the skill when you score in the top 30%.

Video Resource: Adding skills to your profile

Education: Search for and add “BYU-Pathway Worldwide” as your school and add any other schooling. Adding BYU-Pathway Worldwide is very important as our hiring partners will be looking for that. At the completion date section, if you are a current student, select a date that you anticipate completing school. Add key projects and outcomes of the class. For the BYU-Pathway certificate and degree outcomes, check the Certificates & Degrees Degree List.

LinkedIn Article: Add, edit, or remove Education entries from your profile

Open to Work: If you are looking for a job, let your network and/or recruiters know. Recruiters use LinkedIn to find potential candidates. You have the option to show to recruiters only or to everyone that you are "Open to Work." This setting will also help your profile appear more in recruiter search results, according to your specified job roles and preferred location.

LinkedIn Article: Let recruiters know you’re Open to Work

Customize your LinkedIn URL: LinkedIn assigns a complicated URL (link) to your profile by combining your name with a series of digits. Having a direct link to your profile is great, but it’s not very memorable to list a complicated URL on your resume. Thankfully, LinkedIn allows you to customize your URL. When customizing your URL, avoid using nicknames or complicated combinations that are not memorable. The simplest way to customize your URL is to just remove the complicated digits that were assigned together with your name.

LinkedIn Article: Manage your public profile URL

Additional Sections: Click on the “Add profile section” button under your profile picture, scroll to “Recommended” and click “Add Courses”, and/or “Add Licenses & Certifications.” Furthermore, after clicking “Add profile section,” you can also scroll to “Additional” and click “Add volunteer experience,” and/or “Add languages.”

Courses: Highlight relevant courses that may stand out to recruiters

Licenses & Certifications: Show your earned credentials , such as “Administrative Assistant Certificate.”

Volunteer Experience: Add all other volunteer roles here with the key responsibilities, and achievements mentioned in the description. E.g., if you served a mission or joined a community project, you can add that here.

Languages: Include English here in addition to any other languages you may speak and showcase your proficiency in each language.

Connections build your network and boost your profile. There are two approaches to networking on LinkedIn. One is to be liberal making connections; the other is to be conservative. If your goal is to generate leads, get people to follow your content or posts, or create a wide network, then connect with as many people as you can. However, make sure that you review each invitation before you accept it. LinkedIn has tools to help you grow your network. Just click on “My Network” at the top of your profile and you can add your email contacts like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc. You can also accept invitations on this page. Search for people you may know from work, school, church, etc. in the LinkedIn search bar and then request to connect with them.

LinkedIn Article: Various ways to connect with people on LinkedIn

Ask people who know you well in a professional setting and who can recommend your skills and qualifications on LinkedIn. It’s better to choose someone who knows you well over someone who is well known.

Request Endorsements: Endorsed skills increase credibility, especially if it is endorsed by someone who’s highly skilled at it. Ask people you know well and who can speak to your skills and qualifications to endorse your skills. The endorsement process is often a two-way street—endorsing your connections often leads to them endorsing you in return, and vice versa.

LinkedIn Article: Endorse Someone's Skills

Recommendations: This gives a platform for your colleagues to vouch for your expertise, skills, strengths, impacts, and experience. You can request a recommendation from coworkers, mentors, managers, executives, senior leaders, partners, etc. Customize recommendation requests to make them more personal. Be clear on what you want them to focus on.

LinkedIn Article: Request a Recommendation

Once complete, share a link to your LinkedIn profile with your mentor. Your mentor will share your profile with BYU-Pathway Worldwide.

LinkedIn Article: Find your LinkedIn public profile URL

Keeping Your Profile Private
If you have privacy concerns, you can set limits on how much information is displayed to others. The following article outlines how to hide specific sections of your profile from public view: How to Control Your Public LinkedIn Profile.

Join the BYU-Pathway Worldwide Alumni and Friends Group to connect with other BYU-Pathway alumni for connection, employment, and professional development opportunities.