LinkedIn Profile Checklists
Your LinkedIn profile is more than an online résumé. It is a place to introduce yourself professionally, highlight your experiences and skills, and give employers, recruiters, alumni, and other professionals a better sense of who you are and what you have to offer.
You do not need years of professional experience to create a strong LinkedIn profile. Your education, campus involvement, research, internships, part-time jobs, leadership experiences, projects, volunteer work, skills, and interests can all help tell your story.
The goal is not to make your profile look exactly like someone else’s. Your goal is to create a profile that accurately represents you, your experiences, your strengths, and where you are headed professionally.
Why Use LinkedIn?
LinkedIn describes your profile as a “professional landing page” where you can manage your professional identity and communicate who you are, what you stand for, and what interests you. LinkedIn recommends keeping your profile complete and representative of you.
With more than 1.3 billion members, LinkedIn connects professionals, employers, organizations, schools, and industries around the world. LinkedIn currently lists:
- 1.3B+ members
- 71M+ companies
- 144K+ schools
- 42K+ skills
And LinkedIn is very active. Every minute, there are:
- 93 people add a new role to their profile
- ~8.2K job applications are submitted
- 1.8M+ feed updates are viewed
- 18K connections are made
- ~123 hours of learning content are consumed
These numbers are a reminder that LinkedIn is a large and active professional community, not simply a place to store your résumé. Your profile can help you establish your professional presence, showcase what you are learning and doing, and make it easier for others to understand your interests and experiences.
What Can LinkedIn Help You Do?
A strong LinkedIn profile can help you:
- Manage your professional brand. You control the information you choose to highlight about your education, experience, skills, and interests.
- Create opportunities. An updated profile can help you become more visible to people and organizations on LinkedIn.
- Showcase your accomplishments. Your profile can document internships, jobs, research, leadership, projects, awards, certifications, and other milestones.
- Build a professional presence before you need it. You do not have to wait until senior year or until you begin applying for jobs.
- Give people a fuller picture of you. Your résumé has limited space. LinkedIn gives you additional opportunities to provide context and show examples of your work.
- Continue building your profile as you grow. Your LinkedIn profile can change as your experiences, interests, skills, and career goals develop.
How to Use These Checklists
You do not need to complete every part of your LinkedIn profile at once.
Think of these checklists as a roadmap you can work through over time. Start with the basics, then build and refine your profile as you gain more experience.
Start Here: Build the Basics
The Foundational Profile Checklist is designed for students who are creating a LinkedIn profile for the first time or want to make sure they have the essentials in place.
Start here if you need to:
- Create or update the core sections of your profile
- Make sure your education and experiences are represented
- Add relevant skills and accomplishments
- Develop a professional headline
- Establish a solid foundation for your professional presence
Keep Building: Strengthen Your Profile
The Profile Development Checklist is designed for students who already have the basics in place and are ready to make their profile more detailed, targeted, and engaging.
You might use this checklist to:
- Create your about section, including listing your top 5 skills
- Add more detail to your experiences
- Highlight projects, research, organizations, or accomplishments
- Add relevant certifications, courses, or skills
- Showcase examples of your work
- Strengthen sections that are already complete
- Continue developing your profile as your career interests become clearer
You Can Use Both
These checklists are designed to be used in order, as a reference, or a combination of both.
If you are new to LinkedIn, start with the foundational checklist and work your way through it. If you already have a well-developed profile, you can jump into the more advanced checklist and choose the sections that would be most useful to you.
There is no single “perfect” LinkedIn profile. Your profile should develop with you.
Start with what you have. Build from there. Update it as you grow.
LinkedIn Help & Examples
Throughout the checklists, you will find links to LinkedIn Help articles for individual profile sections. These resources provide LinkedIn’s instructions for completing each section and, in many cases, examples and additional guidance.
Use these links when you want to learn more about how a particular section works or see LinkedIn’s recommendations for completing it.
LinkedIn Profile: Foundational Profile Checklist
| LinkedIn Support: | ||
| ☐ | Review LinkedIn Help Resources | These can be a great place to start if you have any questions: LinkedIn Help, contact options, free training (video & article) Tip: Look up alumni in your field using the LinkedIn alumni tool and look over their profiles to get inspiration. |
| ☐ | Review Privacy Settings | Choose what you want visible; review profile viewing and activity settings |
| Introduction Section: | ||
| ☐ | Add a Profile Photo | Clear, recent photo; avoid an obvious selfie or distracting background |
| ☐ | Write Your Headline | LinkedIn Help Article – Headline Optional Formula: [Class Year] [Major] at Binghamton University | [Current Role, Experience, or Area of Interest] | [Career Interest / What You’re Seeking] Example: Sophomore Marketing Student at Binghamton University | Student Marketing Assistant | Interested in Digital Marketing & Brand Strategy Example: Undergraduate Researcher in Microbial Biofilms | Developing Lab Skills in Microbiology & Data Analysis | Seeking Summer REU Opportunities in Biological Research |
| ☐ | Add Identity Details | Optional: Additional name, name pronunciation, gender pronouns |
| ☐ | Select Your Industry | Choose the industry you want to be associated with |
| ☐ | Add Your Current Location | Use your current city/region |
| Core, Recommended, & Additional Sections: | ||
| ☐ | Review Profile Update Settings | Consider turning off network notifications while making multiple updates |
| ☐ | Add Your Experiences | Start by adding relevant experiences from your résumé; use bullet points where possible [copy/paste bullet point symbol •] Examples: Full-time, part-time, seasonal jobs, research, teaching, campus employment, leadership, internships, fellowships, freelance work, entrepreneurship, significant projects LinkedIn Learning Training: Adding at least one position to your profile can get you up to: 2x’s as many profile views 4x’s more messages 2x’s more connections request |
| ☐ | Add Your Education | What to Add: your degree, school, graduation date, societies and activities |
| ☐ | Add Projects | Examples: Class/research/personal projects, and/or capstones |
| ☐ | Add Relevant Coursework | Highlight coursework related to your career interests |
| ☐ | Add Volunteer Experience | Include any volunteer involvement |
| ☐ | Add Your Skills | Include skills relevant to your interests, experiences, and career goals |
| ☐ | Add Test Scores | SAT, ACT, AP, or other relevant scores, if appropriate |
| ☐ | Add Languages | Include languages you speak and your proficiency level |
| ☐ | Add Honors & Awards | Examples: scholarships, academic awards, competitions, recognitions |
LinkedIn Profile: Profile Development Checklist
| LinkedIn Support: | ||
| ☐ | Review LinkedIn Help Resources & Styling Tools | These can be a great place to start if you have any questions: LinkedIn Help, contact options, free training (video & article), Symbols and Formats Tip: Look up alumni in your field using the LinkedIn alumni tool and look over their profiles to get inspiration. |
| ☐ | Verify Your Profile | Increase credibility with profile verification |
| Enhance Your Introduction Section: | ||
| ☐ | Customize Your LinkedIn URL | Add your updated URL to your résumé and email signature linkedin.com/in/___________________ |
| ☐ | Upgrade Your Profile Photo | Use the Iris Photo Booth; profiles with photos receive significantly more profile views |
| ☐ | Customize Your Cover Photo | Choose a banner that reflects your career interests or personal brand Optional Canva has free customizable options you can use |
| ☐ | Strengthen Your Headline | LinkedIn Help – How to edit your headline Jobscan’s Simplified Formula: [Job Title] | [Top Skills] | [Unique Value] Jobscan’s Elaborated Formula: [Current Role/Profession] | [Primary Skills/Areas of Expertise] | [Unique Value] | [Notable Achievement] | [Personal Passion or Career Goal] Jobscan Examples: Current Students & Recent Graduate Examples Listed Human Resources Intern at Deloitte | Business Administration Student | Focused on Employee Onboarding & People Analytics (Tableau) Incoming Investment Banking Summer Analyst | Finance Student at NYU Stern | President, University Investment Club |
| ☐ | Turn on Open to Work | Select jobs, internships, and/or volunteer opportunities |
| ☐ | Upload Your Résumé | Add it to your Featured section, Job Preferences, or both |
| ☐ | Write Your About Section | Options: Use the Jobscan template and LinkedIn examples to get started Themes: Your current role or focus; Key skills and accomplishments; What motivates you professionally; A touch of personality; A clear call to action – Source, Jobscan |
| Enhance Your Additional Sections: | ||
| ☐ | Expand Your Featured Section | Examples: Résumé, portfolio, projects, publications, presentations, media, certifications, GitHub, writing samples, awards |
| ☐ | Enhance Your Experiences | Add top skills, media, measurable accomplishments, and keywords |
| ☐ | Enhance Education, Projects, Volunteer, Honors & Awards | Add top skills, shared projects, and relevant media where appropriate |
| ☐ | Strengthen Your Skills Section | Add skills strategically and make sure your endorsement feature is on Reorder your skills to have the most relevant appear first LinkedIn Learning Training: “And adding key skills makes you discoverable by others across LinkedIn. In fact, did you know that members with five or more skills listed are up to 2.9 times more likely to receive profile views and 4.7 times more likely to receive messages?” |
| ☐ | Request Recommendations | Examples: Ask supervisors, professors, mentors, coworkers, or clients Optional: Customize these email templates to request a recommendation |
| ☐ | Build Your Interests Section | Ideas: Join groups, follow top voices, companies, newsletters, schools |
Need Help With Your LinkedIn Profile?
You do not have to build your profile alone!
The Fleishman Career Center offers career consulting appointments and drop-ins where you can work with our career consultants regarding your professional development and career goals.
Consider scheduling an appointment if you would like feedback on:
- Your LinkedIn headline
- Your About section
- How to describe your experiences
- Which profile sections to add
- How to showcase projects or accomplishments
- How your LinkedIn profile aligns with your résumé
- Your overall professional presentation
Career Support & Sources:
| Reminder | What This Means for You |
|---|---|
| Use Multiple Sources | Information about careers and education can vary depending on where you look. Try checking several websites and resources when researching anything related to your career development (for example: job outlooks, salaries, industry trends, graduate programs, or fellowships, etc.). This will help you get a fuller, more accurate picture of what employers or admissions committees are looking for. |
| Make Sure to Network | Talking directly with people associated with your career goals or the programs/companies you’re interested in can give you the clearest and most useful insights. Reach out to professionals, recruiters, alumni, or current students to learn what really matters in your field (for example: company expectations, hiring timelines, résumé preferences, graduate program requirements, etc.). Even within the same industry or graduate program type, different organizations and admissions committees may value things differently. Listening carefully to their guidance can help you put your best foot forward. |
| Use AI Ethically in Career Development | AI tools can be a great resource for brainstorming, polishing materials, or practicing interview questions (for example: outlining position description details to guide your documents, generating practice questions, etc.). But it works best when you use it thoughtfully and make sure the final work reflects your own skills and voice. Some employers and graduate programs may not allow AI, so always check instructions carefully. Think of AI as a helper, not a replacement, and remember, Career Consultants are happy to guide you on how to use it effectively! |
| Be Aware of Employment Scams | When searching for jobs or internships, it’s important to stay alert for potential scams, especially when exploring positions outside of Binghamton’s Handshake. Common warning signs include requests for personal or financial information upfront, job offers without interviews, or anything that seems “too good to be true.” To learn more about what to watch for, see real examples, and find out how to protect yourself or respond if you encounter a scam, check out Employment Scam Information – Binghamton University. Staying informed helps you pursue opportunities safely and confidently. |
Drop-ins: When classes are in session, Monday-Friday, from 12-4 p.m., you can visit our office to schedule a 20-minute drop-in with our staff.
Appointments: You can schedule your 30-minute career session on Handshake. These are offered all year and can be done virtually and in person.
Online Resources: Visit uConnect, our virtual career center that is always accessible to support your career needs.
Picture Source: Chat GPT
Website Sources: Special thanks to the organizations, industry experts, and thought leaders who share valuable career resources, research, and articles with the public. Your work provides important insights that support students’ career development.
- LinkedIn: About Us
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn Help Articles
- Jobscan: 50+ LinkedIn Headline Examples That Get You Recruited in 2026
- Jobscan: 21 LinkedIn Summary Examples for 2026 (with Templates)
- Jobscan: How to Add Volunteer Experience to LinkedIn
AI Assistance: Portions of this resource may have been developed with support from AI tools (such as ChatGPT by OpenAI or Gemini), used to help synthesize research, generate summaries, and refine formatting. All final content has been reviewed and customized for Binghamton University students.
External websites may not fully comply with accessibility standards, and we cannot guarantee the accessibility of content outside the University. Please email careers@binghamton.edu if you encounter significant accessibility issues on these sites.
