<p>Is my junior year of high school too early to get a Linkedin?</p>
<p>Why are you interested in setting up a LinkedIn account? Certainly you can do so at any age, but it’s really intended for professional networking.</p>
<p>I heard it helps get your name out there. I want to stick out as much as possible in order to get prestigious college’s attention. Do you have a resume on Linkedin?</p>
<p>Prestigious colleges have many thousands of students knocking on their doors. I really doubt they are combing through a site intended for adult job-seekers looking for high school student names. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine any college looking to see if a student had a profile on LinkedIn. It helps you get your name out there when you’re looking for jobs. Professional employers will look up job candidates prior to interviews. And it’s great for professional networking. </p>
<p>So when is the best time to make one? Senior year of college or earlier/later?</p>
<p>It probably makes sense to set one up earlier if you’re applying for internships/co-ops, pretty much whenever you start sending professional resumes out. It doesn’t cost anything for basic access, so you can set one up at any time, but it’s most useful once you start networking outside of college. Since you’ll just be starting out, you won’t have much to put in there that isn’t on your resume, but there will be groups you can join and other means of networking. Just make sure everything on there is sanitized and professional. I avoid joining groups based on personal interests and stick with college and job alumni groups as well as groups that relate to my professional skills. LinkedIn isn’t facebook, it’s not about expressing your individuality as much as it is about building a professional profile and useful contacts.</p>
<p>Thank you all!</p>
<p>Get a Linkedin now - it’ll help you connect with current students and former alumni of your school. It gives you a sense of your competition, and who’s serious about their extracurriculars in your school. It also improves SEO if you get it now - plus it’s easy and quick to make.</p>
<p>There’s no reason not to make one, and it’ll come in handy if you’re creating an organization/club or need a favor to ask and don’t know who to turn to.</p>
<p>I made a Linkedin to connect with someone who authored a research paper on a topic that I wanted to know more about. So it’s very helpful to get contact info for people in that sort of situation!</p>
<p>That’s great! I will make one sometime this weekend. </p>