Bridging Campus and Career: LinkedIn’s Role in the Professional Development of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

This study explores the role of LinkedIn in bridging the gap between academic learning and career readiness among undergraduate commerce and management students. It specifically examines LinkedIn usage patterns, networking activities, engagement with LinkedIn Learning, and recruiters’ perceptions to assess their collective influence on students’ employability. Adopting a descriptive and inferential design, primary data were gathered through a structured questionnaire administered to students. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0, employing descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, and mediation analysis to test hypothesized relationships. The results reveal a significant positive relationship between LinkedIn usage, soft skills proficiency, and internship experience with employability readiness. Further, soft skills emerged as a mediating factor linking digital networking to perceived employability, highlighting their crucial role in converting online engagement into professional outcomes. The study contributes to the growing body of literature on digital employability by offering a dual perspective from students and recruiters. It provides practical implications for higher education institutions to integrate digital networking, experiential learning, and soft skills training into their curricula to produce career-ready graduates in a technology-driven employment landscape.