Build a LinkedIn profile, one piece at a time
Checked
LinkedIn Help on how to create a good LinkedIn profile calls your profile "a professional landing page for you to manage your personal brand," and says a complete profile "will increase your discoverability and profile search appearances."
Talk about it at home: jump to the Table Talks
Scott Sandberg is a current classroom teacher who has taught personal finance for more than 15 years.
On this page
- What is LinkedIn?
- Can you join?
- Your photo and banner
- Headline and About
- Experience without a job
- Skills that get found
- Privacy and safety settings
- Share it on your terms
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn calls itself "the world's largest professional network with more than 1 billion members" on its About page. Its mission: "connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful." Members show their work history and skills, connect with people and find jobs.
TikTok's stated mission is to "inspire creativity and bring joy." Instagram's about page leads with the heading "Where everyday moments bring friends together". Our advice: keep LinkedIn for school and work.
Do this now: Write one school or work goal you want a profile to show.
Can you join?
LinkedIn's User Agreement says the services are "not for use by anyone under the age of 16." In some places the floor is older when the law requires parental consent. Creating an account with false information, or registering one for someone under 16, violates those terms. If you are under 16, wait. Do not ask a parent to create one in your name. Parents can report an underage account through LinkedIn's Age Correction Form.
Why bother at 16 or older? Among early-talent recruiters in NACE's Job Outlook 2026 who use social media for recruiting, 100 percent reported using LinkedIn, and 37 percent said they use it to check candidate profiles.
Do this now: Confirm you meet the age rule, then create the account yourself with true information.
Your photo and banner
Coming Oct 30
Members with a profile photo receive "up to 2X more profile views," and LinkedIn also reports "3X more connection requests." The photo must reflect your likeness. Logos, landscapes, animals, celebrity photos and childhood or baby photos can be removed. Your banner, which LinkedIn calls the background photo, can be removed under the same rules. You can limit who sees your profile photo; the default is anyone. Our advice: teens may prefer "Your network" over "Anyone".
Do this now: Upload a clear, current photo of you and choose who can see it.
Headline and About
Coming Oct 31
LinkedIn creates a headline from your positions. You can rewrite it to name a field, a skill or the kind of role you want. Keep it true.
The About section should "express your mission, motivation, and skills." LinkedIn suggests one or two paragraphs, or bullet points. Our advice: name what you can do and what you aim for, and skip buzzword lists with no proof.
Do this now: Draft a one-line headline and three About sentences on paper first.
Experience without a job
Coming Nov 1
LinkedIn says to keep your profile updated with experiences that align with your career goals, and you can add media samples for a portfolio piece. Our advice: students can include part-time jobs, internships, volunteer roles, club leadership and school projects. LinkedIn offers Projects and Volunteer experience sections for some of these.
In NACE's Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update, 59 percent of employer respondents wanted specific skills with examples; only 1.9 percent wanted a general skills list alone. Internships still matter when two candidates look equally qualified.
Free members can use Featured to showcase posts, articles, portfolio links and uploaded media. Pinning Experience, Skills or Education into Featured is only for Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter subscribers.
Do this now: Add one entry that names a skill and one real example of using it.
Skills that get found
Coming Nov 2
LinkedIn's Talent Blog (July 21, 2025) reported platform data in which 13 percent of recruiter searches were filtered by skill and 3 percent by degree. That is search filter data, not what recruiters read first.
Early-talent employers in the NACE Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update looked for teamwork (85 percent of respondents), problem-solving (82 percent) and verbal communication (78 percent) on a candidate's resume.
Skills help "colleagues and recruiters" see your strengths, and endorsements can raise the chance you are found for related opportunities. Recommendations have no request limit; ask people who actually worked with you. The Courses section and the Licenses and certifications section are separate.
Do this now: List five skills you can back with an example.
Privacy and safety settings
Coming Nov 3
If you are 16 or 17, LinkedIn adds age-based protections. Help says it does not use your data to train generative AI models to create content when it has estimated that you might be 16 or 17. Advertisers also cannot target ads based on any age grouping younger than 18.
LinkedIn Help on managing your LinkedIn account as a teen lists levers that matter, including who can see your name, what search engines can show, activity broadcasts off (the setting is now labeled Share profile updates) and messages limited to connections.
A short settings checklist:
- Turn on two-factor authentication under Sign in and security.
- Review what non-members and search engines can see on your public profile.
- Set email visibility to Only visible to me.
- Review whether people can find you by email or phone.
- Keep Share profile updates Off while you build or heavily edit.
Our advice: walk through these settings with a parent or guardian before the profile goes live.
Do this now: Finish the five checklist items before you send your profile link to anyone.
Share it on your terms
Coming Nov 4
When the profile is ready, set a personal public profile URL for your resume.
Open to Work has three visibility choices, per LinkedIn Help on letting recruiters know you are Open to Work: All LinkedIn Members, which adds an #OpenToWork photo frame; Recruiters only, where LinkedIn "can't guarantee complete privacy" from recruiters at a current employer; and Visible only to you. Adding job types and a location helps you show up when recruiters search.
For first connections, LinkedIn says to invite only people you personally know and who know you, and to add a personal note that briefly explains how you know them.
Do this now: Customize your URL, then invite three people you know, each with a short note.
Changing careers instead? A separate guide is planned; this page is for students.
Teach it this week
Big idea: A LinkedIn profile is a professional landing page you build one piece at a time. You must be 16 or older, skills with real examples beat buzzwords, and teens set privacy before they share.
Table Talks (10 minutes)
- Start (2 min): Ask your family: Who here is old enough for LinkedIn, and who should wait? Which one piece of a profile would be easiest for us to start with?
- Explain (3 min): Go over it together: Which privacy settings matter most to us: photo, email, search engines or messages? Who would we feel comfortable inviting as a first connection?
- Try it (4 min): Pick one section above and do its Do this now step on paper: a headline, three About sentences or one Experience entry with a skill plus an example. No passwords, emails or phone numbers on screen.
- Wrap-up (1 min): Sit with the privacy checklist and set photo visibility, email visibility and Share profile updates before the profile is shared outside the family.
Education only, not financial, legal, career or tax advice. Not a registered investment adviser. LinkedIn is a trademark of its owner; we are not affiliated with LinkedIn.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help: Create a good LinkedIn profile, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn User Agreement (Service Eligibility / Minimum Age), date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Managing your LinkedIn account as a teen, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Let recruiters know you're Open to Work, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- NACE: The High-Impact Skills College Students Should Showcase on Their Resumes, April 23, 2026, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: FAQs for age-based protections on LinkedIn, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Settings for profile photo visibility, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Talent Blog: The Business Case for Skills-First Hiring, July 21, 2025, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- NACE Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update PDF, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- NACE Job Outlook 2026 PDF, published Nov 2025, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Profile photo guidelines and conditions, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Add sections to your profile, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Connecting With Other Members, Best Practices, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Account security best practices, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Turn two-factor authentication on and off, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Control your public LinkedIn profile, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Manage who can see your email address on LinkedIn, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Manage your profile's visibility on and off LinkedIn, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Share profile updates, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Featured section on your profile FAQs, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Manage featured samples of your work on your LinkedIn profile, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Add or remove your profile content from the featured section, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn Help: Edit your profile, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- LinkedIn: About LinkedIn, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- TikTok: About, date checked: Oct 27, 2026
- Instagram: About us, date checked: Oct 27, 2026