This weekend, I planned on going to the CMC career fair as my big “career move” of the week. Though the fair stated that there would be employers in government and public policy attending- something that would be helpful for me as a politics major- as I went through the list of companies nearly all the companies were based in finance, something that I’m not interested in the least. I did stop by CP&R to get some pointers about going to the fair, which I plan to test out another time. But this isn’t as a depressing a narrative as it could be – while planning to go the career fair, I decided it was high time to update my LinkedIn.

To be clear, I didn’t create a LinkedIn; I already had one, and it had been sitting around like your weird great aunt’s Facebook. Or Denice posting in the Dollar Tree group.

I had no connections, and just one meager piece of volunteering information. I didn’t know how to add people. However, I feel like we all have that one friend who isn’t terrified at the thought of networking, and she insisted that I update it. I had also planned to go to the career fair with her, and I thought that if I can’t do it for me, I could at least do it for her.

Getting down to the nitty gritty, setting up a LinkedIn really isn’t that hard, if you have a decent resumé. I don’t have a decent resumé, so before I could do anything, I shaped it up, spending a lot of time finding synonyms for words like “Participated” and “Collaborated.” “Collaborated” is kind of my go to. It just sounds so nice and professional. Say this aloud: The founding father’s collaborated to form the Constitution of the United States. Like, as soon as you throw the word collaborated on your resumé, you’re immediately doing something the founding fathers did! Wild.

Anyway, the actual process of adding things to your LinkedIn isn’t that much different from making an elaborate Facebook account, like you would when you were thirteen and were hell-bent on telling the world your top ten favorite movies. Except instead of your favorite movies, these are actual cool, professional things that you’ve done. And instead of a cute profile picture, you need to have a head shot. Right now, my picture is an awkwardly cropped photo of me from over a year ago, taken on a subpar iPhone camera. I’m hoping that soon, (Maybe even at CP&R’s LinkedIn Photo shoot during Life After Scripps Saturday October 1, 11:00-11:30am- be sure to RSVP on ClaremontConnect as space is limited.) I can convince one of my friends to take a casual photo shoot of me in the rose garden, giving me some better pictures to work with. But until then, this awkward cropping will have to do, though it doesn’t exactly scream “hire me!”
Though I may have my profile down, I’m still trying to figure out the nuances of LinkedIn- like who exactly it’s socially acceptable for me to add. If you need help getting started, CP&R is hosting a LinkedIn workshop Saturday October 1st 10:00am – 11:00 am and you can RSVP on ClaremontConnect LinkedIn may be a stressful part of the career search, but it’s one that does provide me with a weird sense of hope. As I’ve gone over the profiles of recent Scripps graduates, I can see all the amazing things they’ve done, giving me hope that one day, I may be able to do the same.