**CAPD photo booth sessions have ended for the spring semester 2025**

Your professional journey starts with a strong impression, and we’re here to help you make it unforgettable. Our photo booth offers a hassle-free solution for capturing the perfect headshot to boost your professional brand and LinkedIn profile.

Here’s why it’s a must-try:

1. First Impressions Matter: Your headshot speaks volumes before you say a word, making it essential to present yourself professionally from the start.
2. Craft Your Brand: Stand out with a headshot that reflects your personality, professionalism, and unique style, enhancing your personal brand.
3. Online Impact: Enhance your LinkedIn profile with a standout headshot that catches the eye of recruiters and industry professionals, bolstering your online presence.
4. Convenient & FREE: Skip the hassle of scheduling with photographers. Our photo booth offers a convenient and cost-effective option for capturing your perfect shot.

To be eligible for this offer, you must meet all the following requirements:

• Be a current or former U.S. military service member (non-US military are not eligible).
• Have not used the LinkedIn veteran promotion previously (one promotion per service member).
• You must not have a current LinkedIn Premium subscription.

Note: If you’re currently a Premium subscriber, cancel your subscription or let your free 30-day trial lapse before applying.

For more information, visit the LinkedIn help center.

LinkedIn allows you to keep a profile of your work experiences, education, skills, awards, connections, and other aspects of your professional identity. You can use LinkedIn to network, learn about companies, and even job hunt. Developing your LinkedIn profile may take time, but by continually keeping it up to date, the right opportunity may just find you.

And, keep in mind that many of the tips contained in this post can also help you develop and improve your Handshake profile too!

An Online “Master” Resume

If you have been feeling somewhat limited by your 1-page resume, and associated cover letter, you might find it beneficial to elaborate on your experiences, skills, and attributes through your LinkedIn profile.

Why fill out your profile?

• Think of it like a “keyword bank” that will help recruiters and hiring managers find you as they search LinkedIn
• Use the tips we covered about your resume to help you think about what to include (i.e. highlight keywords from relevant job descriptions)
• Over time, revisit content periodically and delete things you do not want to be further associated with to curate your “brand”

But do not feel you need to have everything to start! I will cover the basics first, and then give you options on how to further enhance your profile depending on your goals.

Beginning

Do not feel that you have to get everything published onto LinkedIn right away! This is something you can revisit and continue to refine over time. To help get you started, I want to provide a simple to-do list of basic things you can quickly do on your LinkedIn profile.

Headline

The headline is sort of tag-line for your profile. The headline will follow you around LinkedIn and give each user who encounters your profile a brief taste of what you might be about. Sure, you can keep this very simple to start, such as “MIT Student” or “Aspiring Researcher”. If you are looking for some additional ways to have an impactful headline, check out these 10 Eye-Catching LinkedIn Profile Headlines to Inspire Your Own.

Photo

You might not realize this, but having a picture on your LinkedIn profile makes it more likely to be viewed. If you have a selfie from your phone, that might be a good way to quickly start, but you may also want to take your photo to a higher level. So, grab your camera phone and a friend, and check out these 10 tips for picking the right LinkedIn photo. I have even used my laptop camera in a pinch to capture simple headshots if I didn’t have someone around to take the picture for me.

Customize your URL

When you first start off with your LinkedIn profile, you are randomly assigned a URL that is typically your name plus a random character string. If you aren’t planning to do much with LinkedIn, you might be fine with this. However, by customizing your URL, you can make it a bit more manageable for using it on your resume, business cards, other websites—wherever you think it can help!

Write a summary

Given that the About section is a large, blank space, I can fully empathize with the fact that you may be drawing a blank with what to write. You can always start with a singular line explaining a little about you. Think of it a little like a printed elevator pitch or similar to a cover letter. You can also add in elements of your interests, passions, and goals in your summary.  

Here’s a version you can download:

When well written, your About section can be one of the most brilliant aspects of your entire profile—giving you a narrative that can capitalized on many of the keywords recruiters may be searching for. If you’re ready to improve your existing summary, check out these 10 LinkedIn Profile Summaries that We Love (and How to Boost Your Own).

The rest of your profile at the start

At the very least, try to add what is currently on your resume to your profile. LinkedIn provides a whole variety of different sections to add content to, so make sure you check out the various sections to find an appropriate place to add your content. At the very least, be sure to add in:

Experience

Similar to your experience section on your resume, here you can add in bulleted accomplishments and projects you have done or you can leave it blank to start and just indicate your title, organization, and dates.

Education

Add both MIT and your high school (plus any other schools or programs you might have participated in). You have the ability to add your degree program, expected graduation date, activities, and a description if you like.

Skills & Endorsements

LinkedIn will allow you to add up to 50 skills. I recommend you start with a small list and add to it overtime.

You may have other items that might fit under the other sections (e.g. Volunteer Experiences, Publications, Patents, etc.), and certainly use them as applicable.

As you are just getting started, you may even find it helpful to view what peers and alumni have done with their own profiles for inspiration. You might find a interesting photo you would like to emulate or a structure for an About section you appreciate. Don’t just sit there and view them; reach out to them as a means to build your network! You can conduct informational interviews with alumni, or simply begin to add classmates, peers, and faculty members.

Level Up

Once you have set a solid foundation as a beginner, you can now start to develop it further by enriching and adding content to climb the LinkedIn ranks of Beginner, Intermediate, Advance, and Expert.

On your way to “All-Star”, developing your profile will be a continuous process. Since you already have content under Experience, Education, and Skills, here are some ways to improve those sections:

Experience

Education

Skills

As you have new experiences, continue to add them to your existing profile. If you add rich content to them as you add them, over time you may not need to revisit older (and potentially less relevant) experiences.

To grow and develop your profile, you will also want to revise your About section and Headline, and add content to some of the sections you did not have a chance to fill out before. Don’t forget, LinkedIn is a social media platform, so adding connections and following organizations and groups are additional ways to further develop your profile.

All-Star

Hopefully by now through this (and continuous development of your profile), you have obtained the “All-Star” status on your profile. This is a good goal to set for yourself as you might find it benefits you getting found by recruiters through LinkedIn Search. If you’re still not there yet, check out LinkedIn’s How to Achieve All-Star Status on LinkedIn.

As an all-star, you may be asking yourself “what’s next?” This is where you can start to further leverage some of the features of LinkedIn, including:

• Use it as a portfolio – add links to websites, upload media, or add photos of projects
• Stay connected – not only to friends and classmates, but also to current and former employers who might serve as a reference for you someday (or write a recommendation and endorse you for skills)
• Conduct research – find information on jobs, salaries, or employer contacts

Regardless of how strong your profile is, it is never to late to check out some of these other features in LinkedIn:

LinkedIn Learning – as an MIT Student you have access to over 16,000 online courses. After completing a course, details can be added directly to your profile under Licenses and Certifications. For additional support in adding LinkedIn Learning to your MIT account, check out IS&Ts knowledgebase article.

Jobs – LinkedIn provides a full job board for you find opportunities and connect with employers. In some cases, you may be able to see your fit for different positions based on your profile. LinkedIn will also indicate alumni from MIT who work there, and you might be able to connect with them for an informational interview as you prepare your application.

Groups – LinkedIn hosts a variety of public and private groups. These are great ways to build community across the platform.

Final Thoughts

Now that you have a professional online presence, it will be important for you to revisit this periodically to keep it updated. You may also want to develop your Handshake profile as well—you never know how a recruiter might find you. I recommend if you have a smartphone or tablet, download the LinkedIn app as a quick and easy way to stay vigilant of your profile. You never know when a job opportunity might come through to your LinkedIn profile via inMail, so it helps to be ready at a moment’s notice! Happy connecting!

If you enjoyed reading this and would like to connect, find me on LinkedIn here and remember to include a message so I know how you found me!

1. Choose the right headshot

Your headshot is the first thing people see when they visit your profile, so it's important to choose a professional-looking photo. There are a lot of different ways to choose or create a suitable picture. You could ask your friends and family for photos of you that look clean and professional (nothing distracting in the background and you're not wearing a T-shirt or baseball cap). You can ask a friend or family member to take a photo of you outside in nice light against a plain background (the iPhone's “portrait” mode gives good results). Or you can get a professional photo taken. Whatever you decide, make sure to include a clear photo, one in which you're preferably smiling and certainly not frowning.

2. Create a clear and concise headline

After your headshot, your headline (often called your “tagline”) is the next thing people see when visiting your profile, so it's important to make a good impression with this short introduction. Your headline should be clear and concise, highlighting some of your achievements and what you’re best known for. Your headline quickly helps people learn about who you are and what you're best at. One common mistake is only including your job title. Feel free to include much more, showcasing your uniqueness. For example, instead of just including “Marketing manager,” you could include something like: “Experienced marketing manager with a focus on consumer product, renewable energy, and tech sectors.”

3. Include keywords in your summary/about section

Your summary (or “About”) section is where you can include a few lines that describe you as an individual or professional. This is where you show the types of services or products you've worked with in the past and why people should hire you for certain roles. So, make sure to use keywords that describe your skills, experience, and knowledge so that people looking for someone with your skills and experience will find you more easily. Try to use action-oriented words, such as change, manage, develop, lead, empower, and help. You should also include numbers, dollars, and percentages where relevant. For example: “helped grow company from 6 people to 100+ people” or “helped increase annual subscribers by 85 percent.” 

4. Get recommendations from people in your target field

Recommendations provide credibility and can help build up your profile. It's important to include recommendations from people who know you well and are familiar with your skills, rather than people who you don't know too well or those not too familiar with your work experience. Keep in mind that you don’t need to wait for someone to offer you a recommendation; feel free to ask your contacts if they'd be willing to write one for you. Chances are—if they know you well and have had good experiences working with you in the past—they will.

5. Add a link to your personal website, portfolio, or blog 

As a LinkedIn member, you can add links to personal websites or blogs to your profile. This can be an effective way to allow people to take a deeper dive into the work you've done. It’s also a good idea to add specific details about what people will find at the link (a short description is fine). Along with linking to a website, personal blog, or resume, you can also include links to other sources of information such as videos. You should also use appropriate keywords for this section so that people searching for something similar will find you.

6. Join groups you want to participate in

LinkedIn groups are designed to promote professional growth, so be sure to join groups that are relevant to your target roles and industries. LinkedIn groups give you opportunities to highlight your expertise and knowledge, connect with potential future colleagues, share articles and information that might be helpful for other group members (which helps to boost your visibility), and ask questions of others (which can start conversations that lead to strong connections). One thing in groups to beware of is over-sharing. But when used properly and sparingly, groups are great ways to build strong relationships with contacts in your field—which can go a long toward getting the job and career you want.

Stacey Perry is a writer who covers career development and job search topics.

5 steps to a great LinkedIn profile

1. Write a catchy, keyword-savvy headline.

Your headline appears next to your profile picture in searches and at the top of your profile page. Use this space to say who you are in a succinct way. The job of a good headline is to help you appear in searches and to attract views to your profile. Use words recruiters are likely to use when searching LinkedIn for candidates. Encourage clicks by crafting a headline that is clear, specific and engaging. LinkedIn will generate a headline for you based on your latest education or experience. “Student at MIT” is clear but vague. “Mechanical Engineering Student at MIT” is better, but doesn’t tell a recruiter if you have the experience or interest they’re looking for. Consider fuller headlines like “MIT Mechanical Engineer with a Passion for Building Medical Devices” or “Software Developer, C++ Expert and MIT Computer Science Grad.”

2. Use a good quality head shot for your profile picture.

Quality suggests professionalism, so don’t just upload a poorly-scanned Polaroid with your sister awkwardly cropped out, or a full-length picture that makes your face indistinguishable in a thumbnail. A headshot by a professional photographer is ideal, but not required. Grab a friend and a camera (most smart phones will do) and find a neutral, well-lit background. Don’t forget to smile! If you’re wondering if your picture is any good, try getting anonymous profile picture feedback with PhotoFeeler.

3. Describe your experiences like you would on a resume.

Don’t just list titles and dates; use action verbs and specific details to describe your contributions and accomplishments, just as you would when making an effective resume.

4. Complete your profile, especially the skills section.

Fuller profiles sort higher in searches, as do skills with more endorsements. Feel free to include volunteer activities, publications, and awards to show off a more complete picture of who you are. Just make sure to strategize the order of profile sections so that the most relevant (usually Summary, Education, Experience, and Skills) are on top.

5. Add media to your experiences and summary to build an online portfolio.

Don’t just tell, show. Link published articles, images, videos, presentations or websites that show off finished work you’re proud of or accolades you’ve received. Connect these media directly to specific positions in your Experience section or to your Summary.

How to write a LinkedIn summary

Don’t skip writing a summary; it’s the keystone holding your whole profile together. A well-written summary can score you an interview on its own merits – or at least cast a favorable glow over everything that follows. The rest of your profile is already a summary of your experience and skills. Like writing a cover letter, you want to complement what’s in your resume, not repeat it. This is your opportunity to share your motivations, express your passion, and sound like the kind of person somebody would want to work next to every day. While there are no hard and fast rules to crafting a good LinkedIn summary, there are a few parameters to consider. You may find some written in the third person, with statements like “John is an experienced web developer.” It’s up to you to find a writing style that works, but the first person is usually more natural and direct. As for length, an elegant quote can have impact, but might leave too much unsaid. Meanwhile, recruiters don’t have time to read your whole memoir, so try to strike a balance with a few short paragraphs. The best way to write a LinkedIn summary is to read a bunch of them and emulate the ones you like. It also helps to schedule an appointment to have a career advisor review what you’ve written.

While it may help to look at examples from your peers, here is some additional guidance to improve your LinkedIn profile:

Learn more about setting up your LinkedIn.