Unlocking Your Potential: A Guide to LinkedIn Premium for Students

In today's competitive landscape, being a student extends far beyond academic pursuits. Building a professional brand, expanding your network, and securing coveted internships or entry-level positions are crucial components of launching a successful career. LinkedIn, as the world's largest professional networking platform, offers valuable tools for students. However, the question arises: Is the free version of LinkedIn sufficient, or is a premium subscription a worthwhile investment? While LinkedIn doesn't offer a specific student discount, it does provide a range of options that can be strategically utilized by students.

Understanding LinkedIn Premium

LinkedIn Premium is a suite of enhanced tools designed to accelerate your career. It moves you from passively building a network to proactively shaping your career path. For students, a premium account can be a game-changer.

Premium Career: Tailored for Job Seekers

A student's premium journey often begins with the "Premium Career" plan, which is specifically tailored for job seekers. While there isn't a specific student-only price, the "Premium Career" plan is the most relevant for students.

Key Features of LinkedIn Premium for Students

LinkedIn Premium unlocks several features that can significantly benefit students in their career development:

Enhanced Profile Visibility

Who's Viewed Your Profile: The free version only shows you the last five people who viewed your profile. A premium account gives you the complete list for the previous 90 days. This insight is priceless. You can see who is interested in your profile and reach out to them directly. It means you're more likely to be seen by the right people for the right opportunities.

Direct Messaging

InMail: It allows you to message recruiters or hiring managers directly, even if they aren’t in your network. It is your ticket to reaching recruiters, hiring managers, and industry leaders with a personalised message. Instead of waiting for recruiters to contact you, take the initiative to reach out. Introduce yourself, explain why you're reaching out, and ask a specific, thoughtful question.

Learning Resources

LinkedIn Learning: A premium subscription includes unlimited access to a massive library of over 21,000 expert-led courses. It's an especially useful option if you’re looking to gain skills in areas like project management, marketing, or even software development. You can learn in-demand skills, earn certifications, and add them directly to your profile.

Job Application Insights

Applicant and Salary Insights: When you're applying for jobs, this feature gives you an inside look. You can see how you compare to other applicants. It shows you the skills, education, and experience of other candidates.

Maximizing LinkedIn Premium Without a Student Discount

While a direct student discount isn't available, here's how to leverage LinkedIn Premium effectively:

The Power of the Free Trial

Free Trial: Everyone is eligible for a one-month free trial of any premium plan. It is a great way to test the waters and see if the features are right for you. After the free trial ends, your subscription will start automatically. Consequently, your credit card will be charged. So, be careful to cancel the promotion in time. Otherwise, you will be charged after the free period ends.

Strategic Timing

Use the free trial when you're ready to make a serious effort in your job search. Use it strategically during peak job-hunting seasons.

Explore Alternative Options

Check with Your School: Could you check with your school's career services or library to see if this is an option for you?
Amazon Prime Student: In the past, there have been promotions where Amazon Prime Student members could get a free trial or a discount on a premium plan.

Sales Navigator Referral Program

Apart from starting the 1-month Sales Navigator free trial, you can also get Sales Navigator 2-month free use. Here is how someone can provide you with a Sales Navigator referral or vice versa in 2 easy steps. The only thing left to do is to hit the Send button. And, that’s it.

Managing Your Subscription

Cancellation: Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time. Firstly, click the profile icon at the top of the homepage. Secondly, click the Account preferences. Next, the new page will open up. Thus, you can choose the subscription from the recommended section. Here is where you can read more about the Premium plans. In addition, please note that the price displayed below the button doesn’t include the tax or VAT. Lastly, keep in mind that if you are already a Premium user, you’ll need to cancel your Premium subscription.
Starting a Free Trial: Select Your Premium Plan: Choose the Premium plan that best suits your professional needs. Click on “Start My Free Month”: Once you’ve selected your desired plan, click the “Start My Free Month” button. Enter Your Payment Details: Provide your credit card information. Don’t worry-you won’t be charged immediately. This allows you to explore the benefits of Premium without committing to the full cost. Click the “Cancel Subscription” button. A new window will open up prompting you to continue with the cancellation process.

Alternative Strategies for LinkedIn Success

Even without a premium subscription, students can still maximize their LinkedIn presence:

Optimizing Your Profile

Showcase your skills, experience, and education clearly.
Highlight your career interests and the types of internships or jobs you're seeking.
Actively participate in relevant groups and discussions.
Connect with alumni, professors, and industry professionals.

Networking Effectively

Personalize connection requests with a thoughtful message.
Engage with other people's content by liking, commenting, and sharing.
Attend virtual or in-person networking events.

Important Considerations

No Guarantees: No, a premium subscription does not guarantee you will get a job.
Strategic Use: However, if you're serious about your job search and want to stand out from the crowd, the premium account is a powerful accelerator.

Tools to Enhance LinkedIn Usage

To further enhance your LinkedIn experience, consider using tools that can streamline your workflow and improve your outreach efforts:

GoLogin: Managing Multiple Accounts

Looking for an antidetect browser online, you will likely meet GoLogin as the most well known vendor. An antidetect browser looks like a common Chrome browser, only it has a sophisticated browser fingerprinting mechanism inside. Gologin also allows for a seamless workflow of marketing agency team members with remote assistants, allowing for multi user workspaces and admin rights control.

Account Security: Your accounts are secure.
Cost Efficiency: Cost efficient.
Professionalism: Maintaining professionalism. Clients expect professional conduct.

Setting up GoLogin

Set your profile name.
Choose built-in GoLogin proxy. Built-in proxies are paid per gigabyte, but you’ll get some free traffic to test them.
Choose Residential proxy type.
Click Check Proxy to see your new IP details. Afterwards, click Create Profile. This will return you to the table of profiles. It’s critical to give each of your browser profiles a separate IP address. If you are familiar with how proxies work, feel free to use third party proxies as well. Multiple IPs can be pasted in bulk into GoLogin with just one click.

Multiple Profiles: Next, create as many browser profiles as you need to operate multiple social media accounts. Remember each profile IP needs to be different. You can freely run multiple GoLogin profiles at the same time with no problem.
Session Management: When you use a social account in a GoLogin profile, you won’t have to enter passwords or 2FA codes. That’s because the session will pause and continue from a safe cloud server. When you’re done working in your accounts, click Stop on your profile in GoLogin. When you restart this profile next time you need to work, the browser session will continue exactly from where you left. That’s it! The profiles can be logged in from any location and device or shared with your partners.
Registration: Register an account. That’s it! Professional Plan costs $49/month per 100 accounts.

DICloak: Automation and Privacy

DICloak creates a unique browser fingerprint for each account, making it appear as though each one is being accessed from a different device. This feature makes each account appear to be accessed from a different location, even if you're managing them all on the same device. This helps reduce the risk of being flagged for suspicious activity and ensures greater security and privacy.

Automation: With this feature, you can schedule tasks like sending connection requests, applying to jobs, or interacting with posts. DICloak’s automation keeps each account’s actions private and separate, ensuring that no activity overlaps between accounts. This means that each account operates independently, ensuring no activity overlap.

Addressing Common Student Concerns

Many students express concerns about the relevance of job postings and search results on LinkedIn. It would also be nice to have some indication of a posting being related to the career interests you have express.

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Improving Job Search Relevance

The search has to have better results that actually relate to the term searched and not have students go through so much unnecessary content. Now of course one could chalk that up as a result of sorting by most recent and generically typing in intern, but a quick find in webpage reveals that the first posting does not even have the word intern anywhere in the post! This makes it even more perplexing to see in this search. Now I could narrow down my search by selecting the experience level as intern but I am then risking losing jobs misclassified as full time by recruiters.
As you can see in the top applicant section I can mostly only see full time Product Management positions. Although nice to see that I am developing the skills that a full time PM would need, in my current job search this is not relevant to me considering that I am looking for an internship. This is clearly illustrated in my career interests but still as a student looking for a Product Manager internship my job homepage does not aid me towards them. A homepage with actual product manager internships would have much more pertinent information to me and actually help with my job search! Even if it has jobs I may have already applied for, it is still much better to see them then jobs that I will not be applying for until 2 years from now.

Showcasing Value to Recruiters

Do not only show the person viewing the job but on hovering over them show the positions available at the company as well. This way the user can see the value of connecting with the individual and will be more incentivized to network with them. This is also beneficial for recruiters because students can see what jobs they may be hiring for and go in with a better expectation of what opportunities their conversations may lead too. It could look something like this: This contextual bubble can provide better insight into what opportunities this connection could getThis is a pretty rough design but hopefully conveys the point I am trying to get across.

Best Practices for LinkedIn

Professionalism: Maintain a professional online presence.
Privacy: Maintain Privacy: Never share your login credentials or any overly personal information.
Genuine Need: Showcase Your Need: Demonstrating genuine need and how you plan to use the subscription can make a compelling case.
Application Windows: Monitor Application Windows: Pay close attention to the application window, which opens each quarter.
Library Card: Get Your Library Card and PIN: Ensure you have your local library card and the associated PIN.

Additional Resources

Visual Studio Dev Essentials: Visual Studio Dev Essentials is a developer program created by Microsoft. Once you create it, go to Visual Studio Dev Essentials and click the Join or access now button. Once there, navigate to the Benefits page.
Skylead: Are you a recruiter or a sales manager who wishes to outreach your candidates or prospects and close more deals? Welcome! We are Skylead. Let’s chat and see how we can help you with your outreach.
Journalist Network: They offer access to journalist network, insights, and webinar. To apply for the webinar, you need to pay close attention to the application window for each quarter.
Military Veterans: military veterans as much as possible.

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tags: #linkedin #student #discount #eligibility