Because of recent networking that resulted from some unintentional name-dropping on a different blog post (oh, the glory of the internet!), it was recently recommended to me by Valinda Lee of Career Planning & Resources that it was time to set up my very own LinkedIn account.

Of course, I have had this idea in the back of my head ever since last year, when a very business-minded friend of mine suggested the same thing. However, I had never actually gotten around to it, and since the creation of my own personal blog as well as writing for this blog has resulted in me being in contact with a few writers and book critics, I figured it really was about time to take my online-networking one step further.

LinkedIn is very simple to set up. After creating an account with your email address and a password, the website takes you through a variety of steps to establish your network. Primarily, it wants to go through your email contact list. Normally, I hate social networks that try to go through your email contacts, but for LinkedIn this struck me as an excellent idea. I’m able to pick specifically who to request as contacts, which is good because, for example, there are some email addresses for other Scripps student who I barely know, nor relate to me in career interests. I go through the list on contacts (which specifies who is actually on LinkedIn already, and who isn’t), and pick out some of the desired ones: a book critic I’ve communicated with, some Rotarians I know from back home, classmates and Scripps graduates, my dad… I can’t help but worry about LinkedIn etiquette. As a college student, Are there people I should extend invitations to and people I shouldn’t?

Next, I upload my websites, which is really just my personal blog. I also have to put a current position “Public Relations Intern at Scripps College,” which is definitely more impressive than “Barista,” my area of interest as “Writing and Editing,” and region, which I put as “Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area” since I’ll be looking for internships in the Twin Cities, most likely. Plus I don’t have transportation in Los Angeles, anyway.

I check to see my “profile completion” percentage. Only 40%. Hmm. I know I should upload a picture, but unfortunately I always have trouble finding good pictures of myself for things like this. Should I go with my senior portrait, which was professionally taken? Why don’t I have any decent headshots of myself? I go through photographs from this past summer, and finally find a decent one to crop. Maybe it is obviously nothing professional, but I look good and you see my face.

After uploading a picture (and watching as my “connections” slowly increase from one to three), I move on to the “Summary” and the “Specialties,” which prove to be yet another perplexing challenge. Essentially, this seems to be the part where I re-write my resume into… a box. I hesitate at “Specialties.” Do I have any specialties yet? You’d think writing could be one, especially looking at my writing-intensive resume, but I personally feel like there is still lots of improvement. I know I’m a fast learner—is that a specialty? I leave the area blank for now.

Unfortunately, my profile is apparently still only 50% complete. I fiddle around some more, adding my cell phone number, some more work positions besides my internship, add “journalism” to my interests, and specify that I’m looking for career opportunities.

LinkedIn is very involved, and I keep wondering what I should bother including and what I shouldn’t, since it gets a bit repetitive. My school “activities and societies” happen to be the same as my positions, which also happen to all be included in the summary of my experience—how many times do people really want to read about how I’m a writer for The Student Life? It’s getting a little tedious, but the professional in me doesn’t want to leave my page only half-done. Still, as my connections have increased slightly to five, I end this blog post  feeling that much more accomplished, and one step closer to gaining the connections I would love to have.