If you're a student or recent graduate, you might have little experience and are wondering what to include in your LinkedIn headline.
But don't worry! On this page, we'll give you a few examples of optimized LinkedIn headlines that will help get you more
views and opportunities on LinkedIn.
How to optimize your LinkedIn headline if you're a student
An optimized LinkedIn headline can increase the number of views to your profile significantly.
More views to your profile by the right people (e.g. hiring managers and recruiters) often means more
opportunities, whether those are internships or interviews. Updating your LinkedIn headline takes two minutes, but could have a dramatic impact on your LinkedIn network.
Before we dive into a few examples of what a good student LinkedIn headline looks like, let's see what a weak
LinkedIn headline might look like.
This headline, 'Student at ABC University', is poor and not optimized for LinkedIn.
You might notice that this is also what LinkedIn will set as your default headline if you haven't already changed it. It is a poor headline for two main reasons:
1) It does not contain any keywords that potential recruiters and hiring managers are searching for. This means you'll show up less to hiring managers and recruiters who are looking to hire you.
2) It does not stand out from other profiles in search results. If your profile showed up in a recruiter's search results, there is nothing to differentiate you from the thousands of other 'Students at [University]' profiles! The default headline is simply not catchy enough and gives a recruiter no reason to click into your profile or contact you.
A great example of student's LinkedIn headline
Let's now look at what makes up a good student LinkedIn headline. Here's an example of a student's headline.
Unlike the previous headline, the headline above ('Aspiring Java Software Developer | Seeking Entry-Level Programming Position | Experience with JavaScript and Python')
is an example of a great LinkedIn headline. Let's break down why.
The first reason is because it stands out from all the other students in the search results, thus resulting in a higher amount of clicks.
A higher number of clicks results in an increased number of connections, a bigger network and recruiters contacting you for more opportunities.
If you're a student or you've just graduated, be specific about the role you want in your headline. It's a wasted opportunity to say, "Student" or "XYZ University Student", since recruiters and hiring managers
are not searching for those terms. Instead, they're searching for terms such as "entry-level software developer".
You want to be sure you end up in search results when they search for those terms.
The key takeaway here is to use keywords from the job you want. If you don't have the skills needed for the job you want,
you should strive to get the right skills through university courses, extra-curriculars, internships or projects.
Examples of great LinkedIn headlines for students
Here are a few examples of LinkedIn headlines you can use if you're a student or recent graduate.
They all incorporate the structure we described above.
The details used in the above LinkedIn profiles are entirely fictional (e.g. names, locations, job titles).
Let's break each example down further...
Headline Example: Freelance Software Developer | Experience building apps in Java, Rails, C# | Full Stack Engineer:
Instead of positioning herself as a student, Kathy highlights her freelancing experiences. She also is aware to include keywords she expects recruiters
to be searching for in this industry; specifically, keywords like "Full Stack Engineer" and "Software Developer" are the exact job titles she wants
to be hired for!
Headline Example: Financial Analyst Seeking New Role | CFA Level II | Statistics Major in 2020:
Like Kathy, Peter includes keywords he expects employers to be searching for. These include the 'CFA' exam, the job title 'Financial Analyst', and 'Statistics'.
Headline Example: Aspiring Project Manager | Senior at NYU | Experienced with Scrum, Agile and Kanban:
Annette follows the framework that works. Specifically, she's clearly optimizing her LinkedIn profile headline for Project Manager roles by including the 'Project Manager' job title,
along with related keywords that are relevant for project management.
Get a Free LinkedIn Profile Review
If you're a student and you want to make sure you have a well rounded LinkedIn profile, try out our free LinkedIn Review tool.
We'll use AI to instantly identify any weak areas on your profile and give you actionable steps to improve your profile's success rate.
We dive deeper into the components of what makes up a great LinkedIn headline, what keywords are, and more in our
deep dive report. Here are the sections you might be interested in (click to open):
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