Missouri State University

Creating a LinkedIn account

To create a LinkedIn Account, simply navigate to LinkedIn and enter your information in the fields to the right.

  1. Enter your first and last name, a valid email address, and a password. Once you click Join Now, you can then begin to build your LinkedIn profile.
  2. Next, you'll be able to enter some information about your employment status. When you select whether you're employed, a business owner, looking for work, working independently, or a student, the fields following will change and you'll be able to complete the form. When finished, click Continue.
  3. LinkedIn will offer to connect with your email account to import your contacts and find users you may know who are already using LinkedIn. Entering your username and password with the corresponding service will start this process when you click Find Contacts. If you'd like, you can click Skip this step to advance without pulling in your contacts. If you chose to import your contacts, you will have to select the ones you want to send a request to connect. You can also invite the ones that are not using LinkedIn to join you.
  4. If you have chosen to skip the last step, or use the contacts from an email service other than the one you registered with, you will have to confirm your original email account. Follow the steps to do so. 
  5. You will then go through the same process as step 3, only with the contacts from your original email account.
  6. Lastly, you can enter email addresses of colleagues and friends to invite and connect. This will help give you a foundation for your professional network. Remember, LinkedIn is not like other social networking sites -- more than Facebook, it depends on connections -- so it's important to build and establish a strong list of professional contacts.

Once the basics of your account have been created, you can explore the LinkedIn service to further detail your profile, with various features such as a picture, listing your job history, uploading a resume, detailing your specialities, and so on. Be sure to enrich your profile with as much content as possible, as this will help communicate your professional goals and abilities to others.