L LANCER CAREER PREP
Workplace Prep

LinkedIn & networking

A profile takes about forty minutes to build properly. The skill that actually matters is asking a stranger for ten minutes of their time — and that's learnable.

Why bother while you're still in high school

Not because a recruiter is about to hire you off LinkedIn. The real reason is that the adults who can open doors for you — OLu alumni, your parents' colleagues, the manager at the place you want to intern — are already on it, and having a profile is what makes you findable and legitimate when you reach out. A message from someone with a real profile gets answered. A message from a blank account usually doesn't.

Check the age requirement and your family's rules first. LinkedIn requires users to be at least 16 in the United States. If you're younger, work through the rest of this page on paper and build the profile when you're eligible — the writing is the hard part anyway, and it doesn't expire.

The seven pieces of a profile that doesn't look empty

Do these in order. The first three are the only ones most people ever see.

1 · Photo

Plain background, good light, shoulders up, looking at the camera, wearing what you'd wear to a nice church service. A phone camera held by a friend is completely fine. Not a selfie, not cropped out of a group photo, not sunglasses.

2 · Headline

This sits under your name and follows you everywhere on the site. Don't leave it as "Student at Orange Lutheran High School." Say what you're aiming at.

Student at Orange Lutheran High School · Interested in mechanical engineering · Robotics team

3 · About

Three or four sentences, first person. What you're interested in, one piece of evidence that you're serious about it, and what you're looking for right now. Written like a person, not a press release.

4 · Education

Orange Lutheran High School, expected graduation year. Add relevant coursework, and your GPA if it's strong.

5 · Experience

The same entries as your resume, including the unpaid ones. Babysitting, yard work and volunteering are all legitimate experience entries.

6 · Skills

Add five to ten. Be honest — anything here is fair game for someone to ask you about.

7 · Custom URL

Edit your profile address to linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname rather than the version with random numbers, then put that on your resume.

Then connect

Start with people who already know you — family, teachers, coaches, classmates, your parents' friends. Thirty connections stops a profile looking abandoned.

Writing your About section

Compare these two. Same student, same facts.

Generic

I am a hard-working and motivated student who is passionate about engineering. I am a team player with strong communication skills and I always give 110%. I am looking for opportunities to grow and learn.

Nothing here is false. But it describes no actual person, and it could be copied onto any profile on the site.

Specific

I'm a junior at Orange Lutheran High School planning to study mechanical engineering. I've spent two seasons on our robotics team, mostly on drivetrain, and last year I rebuilt a gearbox that had failed at two competitions — it held for the rest of the season. I'm looking for a summer internship or shadowing opportunity with an engineering or manufacturing company in Orange County.

Same length. Now the reader knows what you do, has one concrete detail they could ask about, and knows exactly what you want.

The test: could someone else in your class copy your About section onto their profile without changing anything? If yes, it isn't finished. Put in the detail only you have.

Reaching out to someone you don't know

This feels rude. It isn't — professionals get these messages constantly and most are glad to help a student, because someone did it for them. The rules are: be brief, be specific about why you picked them, and ask for something small.

Connection request — keep it under 300 characters

Hi Ms. Rivera, I'm a junior at Orange Lutheran High School interested in physical therapy. I saw you work at Hoag and studied kinesiology — I'd love to connect and hear about your path. Thank you!

Informational interview request — after they accept

Hi Ms. Rivera, thanks for connecting.

I'm exploring physical therapy as a career and I'm trying to learn from people actually doing it rather than just reading about it. Would you be open to a 15-minute call in the next few weeks? I'd mainly want to ask what your day actually looks like and what you'd tell a student deciding on this now.

Completely understand if you're too busy. Either way, thank you.

Your name

Thank-you — send within 24 hours, every time

Hi Ms. Rivera, thank you for taking the time yesterday. What you said about shadowing before committing to the major genuinely changed how I'm thinking about next year, and I'm going to look into observation hours at a local clinic because of it. I appreciate you being generous with your time.

Two things that make the difference. Ask for a specific, short amount of time — "15 minutes" gets answered, "pick your brain sometime" doesn't. And say why them, referencing something real from their profile, so it's clear you didn't send the same message to forty people.

What to expect

Most people won't reply. That is completely normal and is not about you — busy people miss messages. If you send ten thoughtful requests you might get three conversations, and three conversations is a genuinely good outcome. Never send a second message pushing someone who didn't answer; just move on to the next person.

Brightspace assignment

LinkedIn profile, stress-tested with AI

The failure mode for a student LinkedIn profile isn't bad writing — it's generic writing that could belong to anyone. This assignment uses an AI assistant to hunt for exactly that, and your job is to replace whatever it finds with something only you could have written.

Before you start. Use only an AI tool your teacher has approved. Most AI assistants require you to be at least 13, and if you are under 18 they expect you to have a parent or guardian's permission — check with them first. Never paste your phone number, address, email or another student's name into any AI tool.

  1. Write your headline and About section yourself first

    Use the examples above as a guide. Don't ask the AI to write them — you'd get something polished and hollow, and it would be obvious to anyone who has read more than a few of these.

  2. Remove personal details before pasting

    Take out your school if you'd rather, and definitely take out any phone number, email, or other students' names. Your headline and About section are all the AI needs.

  3. Run the generic-detector prompt

    LinkedIn coaching prompt 
    You are a career coach helping a high school student with their
LinkedIn profile.

Do NOT rewrite anything for me. I need to write it myself.

I will paste my headline and my About section. Respond with:
1. Which exact phrases could be copied onto any other student's
   profile without changing a word? Quote them back to me.
2. What specific detail is missing that only I could supply?
3. Two questions you would ask me whose answers would make this
   concrete and believable.
4. Anything here that sounds like it was written by an adult or by
   an AI rather than by a 16-year-old.

Be blunt. A profile that sounds generic is worse than a short one.

Here is my profile:

  4. Rewrite using your own answers to its questions

    The questions in point 3 are the valuable part. Answer them honestly, then work those answers into your profile. That's where the detail only you have comes from.

  5. Draft one real outreach message

    Pick a real person you could plausibly message — an OLu alum, a family friend in a field you're curious about, someone whose job you'd like to understand. Use the templates above, then have the AI check it against the prompt below.

    Outreach message check 
    I am a high school student about to send this message to a
professional I don't know. Do not rewrite it. Tell me:
1. Is it under 300 characters, and does it ask for something
   specific and small?
2. Does it make clear why I chose THIS person, or could it have
   been sent to anybody?
3. Is there anything that would make a busy adult ignore it?

Here is my message:

  6. Fill in the log and submit

    Generate your report below, then upload it to Brightspace along with a screenshot of your finished profile.

Your headline

Your About section

Your outreach message

A role and a reason is enough — "an OLu alum who works as a paediatric nurse." No need for their full name.

Either answer is fine and neither costs you marks. If not, say what's holding you back.

Name one specific suggestion you decided against, and your reasoning. If the AI tried to make you sound older or more accomplished than you are, that's worth writing about.

Due date and rubric

The due date, point value and rubric for this assignment live in Brightspace. If anything there conflicts with this page, Brightspace wins.