Why Obama's Summer Jobs Initiative Is Promising

Last week, President Obama joined LinkedIn and penned his first post. His post discussed how a first job can have a lasting positive impact on a youth's lifetime career. In conjunction with President Obama's post, the White House also announced the Summer Opportunity Project, a new initiative that will help young people find their first job. The program commits "to [giving] young people access to their ‘First Job,’ and encourage investment in programs supporting summer meals and learning."

The Summer Opportunity Project will be partnering up with federal agencies and private businesses to help close the opportunity gaps that many young students face today when applying for their first job. One company (and a personal favorite of mine) that will be helping with this project is LinkedIn. This partnership is good match for both organizations as LinkedIn's vision has always been to connect people with the right opportunity. This has been teased multiple times in the past year through LinkedIn's Economic Graph. The noble purpose behind the Economic Graph is "to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce."

A Personal Connection With The Summer Opportunity Project

As a first generation and low income student, I am excited to see that President Obama and his administration are supporting a program that will help young students, especially those from disadvantaged communities. This initiative hits home with me because my first summer internship in high school was through a similar program called Project SELF (Summer Employment with Law Firms). Like the Summer Opportunity Project, Project SELF was geared toward low-income and minority youths. Through the program, I worked as an intern at the city's Clerk Recorder's Office where I did filing and administrative work. For the first time in my life, the experience exposed me to real business and life skills—from communication to opening my first checking account and managing my finances. I eventually wrote about this summer experience in my college application to UC Berkeley. It is incredible to reflect and realize the how much a summer internship in high school has impacted my career so far.

LinkedIn Enters Mainstream Media To Bring Awareness To The Power of Connections and Opportunities

Along with its collaboration with the Summer Opportunity Project this past week, LinkedIn also recently debuted its first TV commercial, "You’re closer than you think." This is the first time LinkedIn has made a prominent introduction to mainstream media. In the commercial, LinkedIn shares that over three million LinkedIn users currently qualify to become a NASA astronaut. The message behind this commercial? We—you and I—are all closer to our dream career than we think we are. The marketing is concise, yet inspiring.

LinkedIn's "You’re closer than you think" Commercial

I am highlighting this commercial not just because I am marketing enthusiast, but like Project SELF, LinkedIn has played a critical role in my career throughout college. I am personally happy to see that there are now additional marketing efforts to bring more awareness to the platform. Similar to Project SELF and the Summer Opportunity Project, LinkedIn will help level the playing field for students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. These are the students who do not have the benefit of inheriting preexisting networks from their parents or extended family members.

My Story: Networking & Hustling To Open Doors of Opportunity

In 2011, I entered UC Berkeley and like many other millennials, my dream job was to work for a tech company like Google, Facebook, and Apple. At the time, I had no connection to the tech world. The idea of working for one of these tech giants was beyond my imagination. I ended up spending my first two years in college working at an unpaid marketing internship for work experience. From that unpaid role, I eventually landed my first work-study job on campus and a paid internship at a tech start-up in San Francisco called Prezi.

After having a taste for success, I decided to turn my first year's dream into an actionable goal entering my third year. Despite having an intangible goal to work at a Fortune 500 company, I still had a difficult time finding a tech internship without existing connections. At that time, I had heard of LinkedIn, but did not give the platform much thought. Like many millennials, I felt the platform was out of my league for a student with little to no work experience.

After doing several interviews, I quickly realized that all of my hiring managers and recruiters were on LinkedIn. This epiphany got me thinking about my online brand and social networking. I eventually brushed up my LinkedIn presence and started gathering recommendations from past jobs. During that same recruiting season, I immediately found success with top tech companies and received several internship offers from Adobe, Amazon, Flextronics, Logitech, and Samsung. All the hiring managers from these companies gave similar positive feedback on my social presence on LinkedIn. I ended up interning at Samsung and Flextronics in the summer of 2014.

Fast forward to today, I am now working at one of my dream tech companies. Along with determination and hard work, LinkedIn has helped me connect with the right people and opportunities when I needed it most. Although this may sound too real to be true, here is a quick overview of the impact that LinkedIn has played in my career within just one short year:

• In January 2015, I started publishing on LinkedIn to share my recruiting stories to classmates. That same month, I found additional support for my publishing endeavors after networking with Itamar Orgad, a fellow Berkeley-Haas alumni who worked at LinkedIn. Itamar then connected me with Maya Pope-Chappell, the editor for education & millennials. Today, my thirty or so posts have been read by thousands of readers and reached over a million views.
• In February 2015, I met with my current manager and mentor after I found him through LinkedIn. After connecting, he proposed for us to meet up for an in-person coffee chat. Three hours into our coffee chat, he offered me an internship that eventually led to my current full-time job today. I eventually spent that summer networking with many people, including tech executives and former CMOs. 
• In June 2015, I became interested in becoming a contributor for Forbes after having been an avid reader of the platform for quite a while. After several weeks of searching on LinkedIn, I found a Forbes editor and contributor who ended up connecting with me. I met with Steve Olenski, a contributor since 2009, who gave me advice to pitching my column to Forbes. By August, I met and chatted with Jenny Rooney, the editor of Forbes CMO-Network. With some persistence and several follow-ups, I became the youngest contributor for the Forbes CMO-Network two months later.
• In December 2015 and January 2016, I was honored to be part of two incredible lists: Forbes 30 Under 30 and LinkedIn Top Voices. Forbes and LinkedIn recognized me as the youngest honoree and writer of the year in marketing, respectively. Both awards directly tied back to all the mentors who I have met through LinkedIn.

By now, you might be curious: is this a marketing pitch for LinkedIn? Nope. I wrote this piece to start a dialogue for young people to take social networking and personal branding more seriously. I truly believe that LinkedIn has opened up many opportunities for me as a first generation student. Will creating a LinkedIn account guarantee you a job? No. Millennials and younger students should not view LinkedIn as just a jobs board. LinkedIn is a platform that helps connect your skills with opportunities by complementing and amplifying your hustle, hard work, and determination. 

Parting Thoughts

I am personally looking forward to seeing how President Obama's Summer Opportunity Project will develop in the months to come. This is an exciting time for young students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. As I reflect back on my last eight years of college and high school, I want to recognize the impact that many people, programs, and institutions have had on me. Tremendous gratitude to my parents, family, friends, and mentors for their continuous support of my education and career. Shout outs to programs like Project SELF and work-study programs that support young students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Kudos to businesses like LinkedIn for its commitment to helping connect young people with opportunities.

My career advice for young students? High school students, the world is your oyster. Dream big and find mentors in your local community who will support your ambitions—may that be your teachers, counselors, siblings, or parents. College students, take ownership and initiatives over your career. If you are lacking a skill needed for a job, go learn it online. If you are lacking a network, go out there and build one (here's a piece I wrote last summer about coffee chats).

What are your thoughts on President Obama's recent Summer Opportunity Project? What is your advice for young people who are looking for their first job? How will your advice differ for today's millennials who are having a difficult time finding a job after graduating college? How has LinkedIn impacted your career? Comment below.

P.S. I did not have much time to dissect LinkedIn's first TV commercial through my usual millennial marketing lens.. but lets just say I am definitely feeling closer to my dream career than ever before! #CloserThanYouThink

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Tai Tran writes as a millennial voice on marketing, millennials, and thought leadership, and academia. Tai is also a LinkedIn Top Voice and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Marketing & Advertising. He teaches marketing and digital publishing at UC Berkeley.

Enjoyed this piece? Follow me on Twitter (@taictran), LinkedIn, and Forbes. Reach out and subscribe to my monthly newsletter. Like what you read? Share, like, and comment. All opinions expressed are my own and they do not reflect the opinions of any of my current organizations. #StudentVoices