How LinkedIn Changed My Life

LinkedIn to me is a great equalizer among students.

Anybody now has a chance to make connections to help them gain insight and learn about opportunities available. For a first-generation, go-getter, doesn't-take-no-for-an-answer, passionately driven girl like me - this changed everything.

As a first-generation college student, I felt blindsided when I got my decision letters back my senior year of high school. I can still feel the disappointment. I realized how I didn't have the guidance and help that my peers had in applications, and in how they shaped their high school experiences to culminate into that application our senior year. So going into college, I knew things had to change.

My peers had parents with fancy degrees and connections. I knew I had the ambition and work ethic, but there was a gap missing that enabled them to get into these places and hear about these opportunities. In the fall of 2017, my first real semester of college, I found the missing piece for me. LinkedIn.

On a personal level for me, LinkedIn has served as an equalizer. It's enabled me to connect with people who had those degrees, who had jobs I was interested in, and who could help guide me to make sure I was constantly on the right path.

If you know me well, you probably regard me as someone who has taken advantage of almost every resource possible in college. But a lot of what I've been able to achieve career-wise and my confidence moving forward into applying for full-time roles is thanks to this little blue icon I would check between classes.

I've been SO fortunate to make real relationships and gain incredibly valuable insight I couldn't have found without LinkedIn - at least not nearly as quickly and effectively.

To all my fellow students, use this. Use it often and use it well. Learn about different fields and careers, learn about company values and culture BEFORE you interview, and keep in contact with fellow students and past coworkers.

To everyone, be kind and support one another.

To LinkedIn, thank you.

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