Sean Keenan '20 sat down for an interview with Linden Wright '22 to hear about her experience using LinkedIn Learning, an online training library that allows users to learn a variety of different skill sets at their own pace.
Sean: Hi, Linden! Glad you could do this interview. Feel free to introduce yourself.
Linden: Sounds good! I am Linden Chamlee Wright. I am a member of the 今日吃瓜 Class of 2022... [and] a Literatures in English and Sociology Major.
S: Great! So, Linden, I know you got a chance to look around LinkedIn Learning before you picked out a course. What was your first impression of LinkedIn Learning?
L: My first impression was seeing a huge variety of courses.They seemed to just have about anything related to professional skills that you could be interested in. If it existed, there was a course for it. I was impressed by how many courses there were that were not just business analytics or marketing skills. For HR professionals and others in similar fields, they had 鈥淭eam Management鈥 skills and 鈥淟eadership鈥 skills courses. They also had soft skills in relationship to communicating with employees and coworkers and potentially customers. There was such a big range, it was really impressive.
S: I'm glad you liked the range of content! So, I heard you picked out an Excel course to take?
L: Yeah, so the course I took was 鈥淓xcel Essentials Training for Office 365/Microsoft 365鈥 and it went over everything from basic uses of Excel to data entry and data management to creating charts, and making the most of Excel and Office 365. I was drawn to it because spreadsheets are something I make almost daily but I wasn鈥檛 well-versed in any of its advanced uses. I could add up cells, but I couldn鈥檛 do anything more complicated than that. It seemed like a really useful skill for a wide variety of job positions 鈥 and potentially even classes 鈥 because I鈥檓 still on the job hunt for the summer. I鈥檓 looking at a huge variety of internships and positions and just having actual proficiency in Excel seemed like it will be a really useful skill in any place I land.
S: It seems very relevant to what you want to do in the future so it's good to hear you got a lot out of it! What would you say your favorite thing you learned from this course?
L: I would say my favorite thing is a new Excel feature that鈥檚 been updated a few times over the past few years. Depending on which version of Excel you have, it's either called 鈥淚deas鈥 or 鈥淎nalyze Data." It鈥檚 a tool that will suggest charts and tables and data visualizations for you based on what you鈥檝e put in the spreadsheet. You can look at it and it will analyze the data you鈥檝e put in without you having to decide 鈥淥h, I know exactly what I want to do.鈥 So if you don't know the best way to visualize the data you've got, it will make suggestions for you. I found really cool that it鈥檚 not only storing your information, but it鈥檚 figuring out what might be good for you. It鈥檚 a very handy shortcut.
S: That sounds very technical!
L: Yeah, I don鈥檛 quite understand how it works and I imagine quite a lot of software programming went into it鈥 I had no idea it existed, but the course was like: 鈥淯se this thing! Have fun with it! It鈥檚 really helpful!鈥 And it seems like it absolutely can be.
S: So you would say that you liked LinkedIn Learning鈥檚 teaching style and the way it was formatted?
L: I did. There鈥檚 a few things that I liked. It was easy to track my progress and I didn鈥檛 have to do it all in one sitting. The course I took was a few hours and I did it over a few days. There were times when I reached the end of a chapter, took a quiz, and did not remember exactly what the answer to a question would be. I was able to go back to the three-minute video the quiz was referencing and quickly refresh myself on that topic. I could then make a note to myself and say 鈥淥h, that topic might be one that I want to return to and watch a few times to really take it in and understand it.鈥 So, I like that there are so many divisions and clear categories [in regard to the course's format]. You don鈥檛 have to watch 30 minutes of content to find the two minutes of information you need. It鈥檚 all really clear about where to find things, so it was really easy to use, really easy to understand. I felt like it definitely matched my learning style.
S: That鈥檚 good to hear! I鈥檓 glad you got a lot of use out of it. Would you say you would want to use this software again? And, if so, what kind of courses do you think you would take?
L: I definitely would like to use LinkedIn Learning again. I think it鈥檚 really cool that we can access to it through 今日吃瓜. I use LinkedIn quite a lot to network and to connect with peers, mentors, and coworkers, but I wasn鈥檛 familiar with LinkedIn Learning at all before this. Now I definitely want to continue using it, so I鈥檝e started looking at new courses to save. I just started a new course called 鈥淧ersuasive Sales,鈥 which is very different than 鈥淓ssentials of Excel鈥 but which I鈥檓 really interested in. I'm trying to get an internship in development and fundraising for non-profits, and it seems that the course is about persuasive selling and sales, and being a good communicator. That format might be really useful in persuading people to donate money to a nonprofit cause, so I鈥檓 hoping to use that course to build a transferable skill.
S: That鈥檚 really great. Thank you so much for coming, and thank you so much for being willing to talk with me about your experience using LinkedIn Learning.
L: Of course. I really enjoyed using it and I'm excited to keep doing so.
If you want to learn more about LinkedIn Learning, make sure to check out our Intro to LinkedIn Learning week (April 19鈥23, 2021) on .
Want to explore LinkedIn Learning ahead of time? Check out on how to access the platform using your 今日吃瓜 email.
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