LinkedIn’s new app helps students figure out their career paths and find mentors — from thenextweb.com by Abhimanyu Ghoshal
Excerpt:
LinkedIn has already cemented its position as the go-to social network for working professionals. Now, it’s aiming at a younger audience with its new app for students that slated to launch on Monday.
Coming to Android and iOS, LinkedIn Students offers college folks a look at the career paths their degrees will afford them once they graduate.
Also see:
Addendum from LinkedIn.com on 4/20/16:
Introducing the LinkedIn Students App: Helping Soon-to-Be College Graduates Conquer Their Job Search
Graduation is quickly approaching. Your job search is all consuming. What do you search for? What job options are best for you? Today, LinkedIn unveils the first-of-its-kind LinkedIn Students app available for iOS and Android, tailored specifically for soon-to-be college graduates looking to answer these very questions. Using insights from LinkedIn’s database of over 400 million professionals, the brand new app helps you discover jobs that are a best fit for graduates with your major, companies that tend to hire from your school and the careers paths of recent alumni with similar degrees.
86% of students choose to go to college to get better jobs, but 44% of graduates are underemployed.* Let LinkedIn Students help you navigate these uncharted waters of finding your first job out of school; something you, yourselves have told us is the paramount challenge you’re facing:
As a student close to graduating, finding a job is the most important aspect of my life right now.
I am graduating with $35,000 of debt so landing a good first job out of college is extremely important to me.
I don’t understand how my major translates into a job I’m qualified for.
These are just a few quotes from San Jose State and University of Central Florida students who recently participated in our pilot test of the app, but it’s no mystery these types of concerns are shared by students across the country. An understandable trend given the uncertainties that come with an economy mired in $1.2 trillion of student loan debt and an unemployment rate among college graduates of 7.2 percent (compared with only 5.5 percent in 2007).**
So how can the new app help you tackle your college to career transition? Think of it as your personal job exploration guide, providing tailored jobs related recommendations based on real data from the career paths of hundreds of millions of successful professionals. You can use these insights to discover and explore career opportunities you hadn’t considered or even known were possible!
Here’s a quick overview:
You can chip away at your job search checklist in any of your in-between moments – walking between classes, waiting in line at the coffee shop or taking a study break. What initially felt like an insurmountable undertaking will morph into a manageable daily to-do list and, before you know it, you’ll no longer be asking “How do I find a job that’s a fit for me?,” but “Which of these jobs is the best fit for me?”
The new LinkedIn Students app is available for iOS and Android in the US only for now. We look forward to hearing your feedback and continuing to improve this experience to help you discover and land a first job you’ll love.
*New York Federal Reserve
**Economic Policy Institute, 2015
Hey, great! I can’t believe they haven’t thought about this earlier. I mean sure, you’ll probably want to take the recomendations with a pinch of salt, but still.
No doubt John. I just thought it was an interesting app to help students connect with others who might help them sort through what direction(s) they want to pursue and to learn more about what it’s like to work in a certain job/position/career.
Thanks John!
Daniel