By Jocelyn Reyes, April 18, 2023
César E. Chávez Center for Higher Education presented students with a LinkedIn workshop that helped guide them through learning and navigating LinkedIn Thursday April 13.
The workshop was intended to help Chicanxs/Latinxs students increase their outreach, recruitment, retention, graduation rate and culture. Organizers made clear they were interested in aiding all students to a successful future in their career.
“I would like students to know that César Chávez center is here to help students, not just Latinx students,” said Teresa Aquino, a social justice leader at CECCHE. “Everyone is welcome and we want to see all the students succeed and so if they participate and come along, they will not only just learn but they will also create a community and meet other people.”
Ashley Duran, a career coach at Cal Poly Pomona, started the presentation and explained how to navigate, build and create a well-structured LinkedIn profile companies can see when hiring or connecting.
Unlike all the other social media platforms, LinkedIn is a platform that provides business and employment-related content through its websites and mobile apps.
“Before LinkedIn you worked at a brick and mortar and you knew the people that you worked with,” said Jules Barbosa, a social justice leader at CECCHE. “But the one way was to advertise physically on billboards or flyers but now as emails, as LinkedIn and social media has taken over. There is no going back, you have to put yourself in the app, establish yourself to even get opportunities in the future,” said Barbosa.
During the presentation Duran spoke on how important it was to create a LinkedIn profile in order to contact other companies and to receive opportunities in students chosen fields. It is more than placing resumes, using LinkedInthan placing resumes, it gives companies evidence of the skills students have and a form of building a network where employers post jobs.
LinkedIn states there are more than 30 million students and recent grads on LinkedIn. 13% of millennials are on LinkedIn and more than 200,000 college students join LinkedIn every month.
“I think it is very important especially since not a lot of students know what LinkedIn is and how it can really impact your future goals and I think it’s important for students to learn and also connect with others,” said Aquino, “I did not know how to navigate it and what to put on my profile or what picture to use.”
Not only did the CECCHE have this workshop for students but there were snacks to enjoy while students were working on creating, organizing and adding to their LinkedIn. With the support of Duran several students were receiving the answers they needed to fix their profile, whether that was including skills students did not know they can add or seeing what profile photo is appropriate to use.
“I think coming to this workshop is very helpful, especially with growing connections and going beyond just participating,” said Aquino. “I feel like there are not a lot of resources where they can help you build connections and actually help you get a job.”
The presentation also went over several things to keep in mind when adding to your LinkedIn profile which included education, professional photo, volunteer experience, skill and more.
“I honestly never knew how to take a good profile picture, a professional one,” said Barbosa. With her current profile being her in a hoodie and a beanie. Being said that this weekend she will be taken a more professional picture.
With the end of graduation for some seniors, it is important to emphasize that networking process doesn’t end with graduation, it’s just the beginning. Graduating students will begin to network more once they graduate.
“If you’re interested in a company, reach out to them, reach out to the alumni from CPP that have worked there, don’t be afraid. I know that taking that first step is always scary but once you do it and once you build those connections, you create a community, you create a network,” said Duran. “They’re there to help you, to assist you and mentor you. I will just end with this that your dream position is closer than you think.”
Feature image by Jocelyn Reyes
