Winter Break is a great time for relaxation and catching up with friends. But it’s also a great time to get a jump start on your career. Courtesy of Whitman’s own Student Engagement Center, here are the five things you can do to make your break both fun AND productive!

1.  Make a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn is the online networking site designed to connect you, the ambitious student, with working professionals and recruiters. Don’t be left in the dust of other, more proactive peers–create your LinkedIn account today!
2. Stop by the SEC for some help with creating a Linkedin account. Obviously, you know that you need a LinkedIn in order to get a job or an internship, but what if you feel like you don’t know how to make one? We encourage you to stop by the SEC sometime, where our trained staff can assist you in logging onto a computer, navigating to linkedin.com, and creating your very own LinkedIn account. At the SEC, we eat, sleep, breathe, and bathe LinkedIn (and tuck LinkedIn into bed each night). You can’t possibly go wrong!
3. 3. Show all of your friends your LinkedIn. Once you’re LinkedIn, be sure to show all of your family and friends your profile. Your parents will ask, “what’s this LinkingOn, anyways?” Your friends will be speechless, stunned by your superior aura and blinded by the divine light that emanates from every LinkedIn member.
4. Did we mention that connecting via LinkedIn is the world’s most effective way of ensuring future employment? Hey, you there! Yeah, you! You should make a LinkedIn! Do it and you’re cool! Please? Why not? Aw, just do it, you know you want to. Also, for every Whitman student that doesn’t make a LinkedIn, an angel loses its wings and someone walks into the SEC with no shoes on. You wouldn’t want that on your conscience now, would you?
5. Heck, why don’t you just make another LinkedIn account for good measure? So you’ve made your LinkedIn–you’re on the grid. Congrats! But you’re not done there, friend … The only surefire way to stay on top of the job game is to make another LinkedIn account. Just imagine how impressed prospective employers will be by your two, completely identical philosophy degrees. Gosh, how did you manage to do the same internship twice in one summer? That’s the kind of go-getter attitude and gumption today’s employers are looking for!