LinkedIn, a professional networking platform, is commonly used at the 7Cs and by students nationwide. The app has become increasingly vital in navigating the job market. As of 2020, 58 percent of undergraduate students credit LinkedIn as a useful asset in their job search. In 2023, 80 percent of professionals said they view a candidate’s presence on LinkedIn to assess their eligibility for a job.
“Many people feel drawn to LinkedIn for its necessity,” Ava Hinz SC ’25, managing director of Pomona Consulting Group, said. “LinkedIn can bring meaningful connections, provide crucial information on job postings, and allow students to maintain awareness on market trends.”
Alongside its capabilities to connect with like-minded professionals, the app has become a place for college students to promote their accomplishments.
“I think most people use [LinkedIn] for their public image,” Kaili Shoop PZ ’27, a member of Pitzer Investment Society, said. “It’s just another form of social media.”
Many users have turned their own resume into another facet of their online persona.
“I also think that our generation is very accustomed to creating online presences and tailoring our approach and profile to the specific app,” Hinz said. “We have apps that track essentially everything, like Beli for what restaurants we go to and Letterboxd for what films we have watched, so why should we not have an app that records our professional accomplishments?”
Shoop added, however, that achievements can – and often are – embellished.
“A lot of people either lie about their experience or over-exaggerate their experience so I don’t really think there is much transparency, but it definitely adds competition,” Shoop said.
In addition to displaying their own accomplishments, users can also endorse the accomplishments of others on the platform. Students can reach a potential audience far beyond their immediate circle, making it easier for students to compare resumes and end up discouraged.
“As someone that has not worked for a large, internationally known company like many other students at the 5Cs have, I’m more anxious about how others perceive me and the value I can bring to jobs even though I have a strong breadth of experience,” Hinz said.
With ever-expanding job opportunities and career paths comes the pressure to excel in hustle culture.
Professional jargon is endemic to LinkedIn networking culture. Though college students care less about reaching a wide audience and more on the curation of their self-image, some students adopt a more professional tone on LinkedIn.
When LinkedIn users announce career accomplishments, there is often a protocol that many students adopt for self-promotion to potential employers.
“[The language on LinkedIn] definitely doesn’t feel super authentic to me.” Patricia Eskenazi SC ’26, vice president of Scripps College Mock Trial, said.
Eskenazi said she saw an inauthenticity inherent to professional culture.
“I prefer to get to know people on a more authentic level, and I wish professional development were more based on merit than ability to network … [but] the reality is that we do live in a world where people often have to network and hustle for jobs,” Eskenazi said. “LinkedIn does offer a good opportunity for people to connect with others they know easily.”
Although many poke fun at the promotional language, the culture of competition can be stressful for students.
“LinkedIn can feed into a competitive culture since there’s a temptation to compare yourself to your peers,” Eskenazi said. “People might feel stressed if they think that they haven’t ‘done’ as much as the average person in their position.”
“For me, it was like a wake up call. So now, I got a research opportunity and I got an internship, but if I didn’t see all of those people getting those experiences, I don’t think I would be in the position I am in today. But, it is a bit unhealthy to think that way.”
In this way, it functions like Instagram and many other apps that are heavily critiqued for causing comparison amongst other college students. Yet some use this anxiety as fuel for their professional pursuits.
“I would look on peoples’ LinkedIn and see all these internships and research and all these experiences that I didn’t have, and that gave me a lot of anxiety,” Shoop said. “But for me, it was like a wake up call. So now, I got a research opportunity and I got an internship, but if I didn’t see all of those people getting those experiences, I don’t think I would be in the position I am in today. But, it is a bit unhealthy to think that way.”
The consensus among many students is that LinkedIn has contributed to a professional culture that increases access to opportunities. However, the pressure of the modern job market and the need to be “professional” can make the platform uninviting.
As Gen Z uses more casual language as they enter the workplace, this professional linguistic bent may diminish.
“Recently I have been commenting in a more casual way, not in a phony way,” Shoop said. “I think that is actually better because you are being yourself and you are not doing what everybody else is doing which is saying things like ‘Well deserved!’… When you would never say these things in person.”
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