Pursuing a Passion Using the
LinkedIn Network

Shekhar Pareek, an MBA student at Brandeis University, always knew how crucial networking was to finding a job. Passionate about Product Management, Shekhar wanted to get his foot in the door at tech companies offering summer internships. “Boston is a hub for Product Management but you can't just interact with everybody that would actually give you a job,” he said. While already active on LinkedIn, Shekhar upgraded to a Job Seeker Premium account to take advantage of features like Profile Organizer, InMails, enhanced search capabilities, and more.

“It's a great tool for lead generation” Shekhar said. “If you're going to pursue an internship 5 months down the line, you want to save the HR's contact's profile and get in touch 2 months before the internship. That's the hot period. I would save them with certain labels so I could refer to them later.” Shekhar also used InMails to reach out to hiring managers. “I sent an InMail to the CEO of a mid-sized company that does analytics, asking to learn more about the company. I then got an email from the President and met with him for an informational interview.”

Shekhar ultimately landed his dream internship with Infogroup's Emerging Business Unit in NYC and believes that a large part of his success was due to the Job Seeker Premium subscription. “People searched for me on LinkedIn and interacted with me. I had more than 5 different offers and 4 were via LinkedIn.”