As students we all know that feeling of opening LinkedIn and seeing the same person posting their third internship of the year, leaving you wondering if you are falling behind or if it’s all just for show.
I feel like that first wave of pressure starts to hit most of us throughout our first year when suddenly everyone is in that race for 500+ connections. Students often struggle with the idea of having to build a digital presence for themselves while still looking for experience.
When first getting into the app, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to have the most connections in an attempt to stand out. In reality, that can become students’ biggest obstacle when trying to secure opportunities from LinkedIn.
Junior marketing major Sofia Martinez shared her experience with LinkedIn
“Although I believe increasing connections is important, I focus more on making genuine networking connections instead of just reaching a certain number [of connections],” Martinez said. “I think having meaningful connections with people who can offer advice and career opportunities tailored to my interest is more valuable than having a large number of connections.”
Taylor Hamman, a junior psychology and neuroscience double major, talked about what these performative behaviors can look like when coming into professional environments.
“Performative to me means setting new expectations based on social surroundings that can be influenced in work places, groups, etc. It’s how someone may want to be portrayed to others rather than what they are,” Hamman said. “From peers, it’s easy to see performative behaviors when going through life changes, [for example], going to college, trying to join new friend groups or clubs. You can sometimes realize that this person does not actually act this way but is setting up behaviors to fit in and or be liked.”
Seeing posts like these can create another source of pressure for students trying to put themselves out there with limited experience in the professional world.
“When using LinkedIn, I see a lot of people my age with the most outstanding prerequisites or qualities and think that I’m behind or not putting in enough effort,” Hamman said. “However, most of those qualities can be exaggerated to look better on the resume and doesn’t actually take away everything someone has done for themselves to prepare for their futures.”
One of the biggest challenges, apart from trying to reach a certain number of connections, is trying to stand out on a platform where people only post their highlight reel.
“One thing I would change about this platform is making it easier for college students to connect with professionals and discover entry-level opportunities,” Martinez said. “My biggest challenge is standing out when applying to internships because a wide number of students are applying for the same positions.”
Regardless of how it may seem to students, faculty see the importance of using the platform in a strategic way.
Senior lecturer of economics Tom Karbowski believes LinkedIn is a necessary platform for starting one’s career.
“I will be crystal clear,” Karbowski said. “I think LinkedIn is an incredible tool for Butler students, and it does not matter if you are a business major or a CCOM major … Everybody at Butler is going to be a professional down the road … I kind of view it as like your electronic resume, and so it is a great mechanism to kind of capture your accomplishments, document them in a professional way and put it out into the professional community.”
Even though LinkedIn allows students, young professionals and industry professionals to celebrate hard work, the growing popularity of AI posts makes it harder to find authentic engagement.
“You can almost see when people have used ChatGPT to create a post for LinkedIn, and I think it is fairly obvious,” Karbowski said. “The best LinkedIn posts are more authentic … use LinkedIn to maybe sharpen up what you want to communicate, but do not over rely on it because if you do, I think it just makes your posts look artificial.”
Instead of getting stuck in the cycle of using LinkedIn as any other social media platform, Karbowski highlights that what makes the platform so powerful is being able to open real doors for yourself.
“Utilize it as a way to communicate what you have done, but also utilize it as a way to expand your professional network,” Karbowski said. “If you have contacts within organizations that you link in, so they can kind of see what you have done, I think it is an effective tool for Butler students to have in their toolbox.”
At the end of the day, LinkedIn is only a performative space if that is what we want it to be. Yes, there will be fake brands trying to get you to sell insurance or a random CEO from a company with no followers. However, there are also opportunities to focus on genuine connections to set yourself up for success.