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The Academic Designer

Communications for Professors and Scientists

7 LinkedIn Profile Tips for Graduate Students

Why linkedin is important for graduate students like you.

LinkedIn is the best social media platform for graduate students. This guide tells you why.

I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome to The Social Academic blog, where I share how to manage your online presence. I write about websites and social media for academics.

In this article, learn 7 ways to improve your LinkedIn profile for graduate students

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7 ways to improve your LinkedIn profile while in grad school

Your headline should be descriptive

How do you write a LinkedIn headline as a student? Most grad students I see on LinkedIn have a Headline like “Graduate Teaching Assistant at University of Iowa” or “PhD Student at Temple University.” The information I see most is Job Title + Affiliation, but it’s not enough.

You need more information in your Headline to invite people to explore your profile. Communicating who we are in just 120 characters is hard.

In my article on LinkedIn for Professors and Researchers, I talk about how your Headline is the one piece of information about you people are guaranteed to read if you

• write them a message
• appear in their search results
• send a connection request

Be specific when writing your LinkedIn Headline. Include as much detail as you can in 120 characters. A good formula to follow is “Keyword + Job Title or Student + affiliation | Area of specialization.”

A headline like, “Political Science PhD Candidate | Graduate Research Assistant at Duke University | Security, Peace, and Conflict” is descriptive. It uses keywords people may search on LinkedIn when looking for connections (i.e. political science, Duke University, security, peace, conflict).

When your friend asks what to put in their LinkedIn headline as a student, send them this post.

Join my LinkedIn profile course for academics.

Profile photos that focus on your face are easier to recognize

When you choose a profile photo for LinkedIn, choose one that focuses on your face.

Some people prefer an upper body headshot that includes your chest and face. On mobile screens it’s much harder to recognize upper body headshots than face headshots.

Choose a profile photo of your face. And don’t forget to smile!

Here’s how to take a professional headshot for free on your phone.

Write an About section with a friendly bio

Write a short bio for your LinkedIn profile that introduces you to profile visitors. I start mine with “Hi, I’m Jennifer…” because real people visit my profile and I want to be friendly.

Include in your bio the information you most want people to know.

This is not a traditional academic bio. You can talk about your

• work experience
• educational background
• volunteer/service experience
• hobbies and interests

Add the bio to your LinkedIn Experience section.

Let people know how to contact you

People may want to get in touch with you beyond sending a connection request on LinkedIn. In your About section, after your bio, include contact information.

How do you most want to be contacted? Some grad students like to use their institutional email address. Any email address is fine, as long as it’s one you check.

Maybe you spend more time on Twitter than checking your email. Including social media handles where you can be contacted is another great option for graduate students.

Share links in your Experience and Education sections

Your Experience and Education sections on LinkedIn can be dynamic! You can include links and other media to entries in these sections.

For example, in your Education section you could include a link (URL) to your

• School or department website
• Research lab
• Publication
• Blog post or interview
• News or media mention

You can also include other types of media like images and PDFs.

Choose 50 skills that make sense for you now

You can add up to 50 skills on your LinkedIn profile. Many of you may be headed on the non-academic job market.

Skills on LinkedIn are an important part of applying to jobs through LinkedIn. Basically, the LinkedIn algorithm matches your profile (including your Skills) to the requirements jobs you apply to through LinkedIn. Hiring managers get a score that says how closely your profile matches the job. So if you don’t include skills on your profile, your application may not even be viewed.

Check out my tips for social media and the job market.

Add 50 skills to your LinkedIn profile. The Skills section is a good one to update each year.

Your LinkedIn profile will change over time

As you grow and change, so will your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is the best alternative to a website because it

• Shows up high in Google search results and other search engines
• Can be updated and edited whenever you need
• Can include links and media making it more dynamic
• Can be extensive without being overwhelming
• Has advanced search capabilities making it easy to find the right connections
• Is helpful if you’re an academic for networking with your scholarly community
• Is highly recommended when applying for jobs (non-academic)
• Is becoming more social (more conversations are happening on LinkedIn)

But your LinkedIn profile won’t change if you don’t update it. Review each section of your profile at least once a year. Add an update to your calendar now. The best place to start your is by updating your student LinkedIn headline.

Your online presence helps your real life

Grad students, I have faith that you can do this. You can make a great LinkedIn profile that helps people understand who you are and what you care about. People that want to help you.

Want step-by-step training to update your LinkedIn profile? Here’s my online course to help you do-it-yourself.

If you want more help with LinkedIn, don’t hesitate to reach out! I’d love to work with you. Graduate students have used university funds (professional development funds, academic department, and graduate school) to pay for support when they work with me on 1:1 online presence services.

Ask your university to bring me in as a speaker. My workshops are fun and interactive. And you’ll build confidence when showing up online. I’m here to help you. Learn more about my workshops.

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Jennifer van Alstyne View All →

Jennifer van Alstyne is a Peruvian-American poet and communications consultant. She founded The Academic Designer LLC to help professors build a strong online presence for their research, teaching, and leadership. Jennifer’s goal is to help people feel confident sharing their work with the world.

Jennifer’s personal website https://jennifervanalstyne

The Academic Designer LLC https://theacademicdesigner.com

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• Pingback: Graduate Students: Tips to Improve Your LinkedIn – Custom Career Content | UM Alumni | University of Miami

• 11 . 24 . 19
• Build Your Network , LinkedIn

I Reviewed 53 PhD Linkedin Profiles. Here’s What I Saw

• Posted by: Chris

One morning in December, I put the call out on Twitter that anyone with an advanced degree looking to build a career should join the new Roostervane group on LinkedIn.

Plus, I promised to do a LinkedIn review of anyone who joined that day.

The requests started rolling in quickly. And by the end of the day, I’d reviewed 53 profiles. It was amazing to see the caliber of people in the group. So many with fantastic skill sets and interesting backgrounds. And while so many of the profiles had so many great things, I noticed a few common places where they could be improved.

This post may contain links to affiliate products, which–if you choose to purchase–pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. This helps to support our work. We only promote products we’ve used and love.

You can read my story about leaving academia in Doctoring: Building a Life With a PhD–Available on Amazon.

1. Work from top to bottom

Go look at a few LinkedIn profiles and see what you notice. If you’re like most people, you see:

• The Picture
• The Headline
• The “About” Section
• The “Experience” Section
• Anything else

Exactly in that order.

When you fill out your Master’s or PhD LinkedIn profile, the temptation is to put the most work into the “Experience” section—like a resume—to show what you’ve done.

But the thing about LinkedIn is that people open a page, start at the top, and stop reading if they get bored. Unlike a resume, they can’t glance down at your history; they have to scroll.

When people have all their career details buried in the “Experience” section, which some readers will never get to, it hurts the profile.

Since the “About” section comes first by default on LinkedIn—some people never get there.

Make sure your profile starts with a strong headline, at least a few sentences of “About” that are interesting and show some personality.

2. The Picture

So arrange your priorities based on the list we just wrote.

What’s the first thing people notice? Before they even click on the link that takes them to your site?

The picture!

This is so important. The picture should be clear and close up. It needs to be close enough that people can look into your eyes and trust you. And if you’re smiling it goes a long way!

Professional headshots are great. But if you don’t have that, wash your face, do your hair, put on something clean and professional, and stand against a wall outside and smile directly into your phone’s camera-selfie lens. You’ll get something that looks good. (I know it’s awkward. I’ve done it too. Push through it.)

Allow me to demonstrate.

This picture is me.

This picture is also me.

Crooked tie, I know. But still, it’s obvious which one is best.

The thing that’s vital… and I mean vital… to understand, is that a connection request from the first picture will get ignored. The second might get some traction.

3. Make your headline shine

If employers or recruiters search for a role they need to fill on LinkedIn, your name will only come up if you have some of the keywords they’ve searched for. Then, they see your name on a tiny little list of people that pop up.

Try it yourself.

Search for a job title in the LinkedIn search bar and notice what you see. Which profiles stand out to you?

If you’re trying to get a non-academic job in a specific field, it’s important to add a field-specific word to your headline. “Researcher” doesn’t mean much, so it’s way better to have “AI Researcher” or “Historical Researcher.” I’d identify a field here with ONE ADJECTIVE ONLY. Keep it tight.

Also, if you’re looking a PhD for a non-academic job, I’d recommend having “PhD Candidate” or “PhD Student” as part of your headline—BUT ADD MORE THAN THIS! This is a bad PhD LinkedIn.

Fill it out a bit with a few extra descriptives.

If you are changing fields or are in a field that’s less relevant to non-academic work, try adding an aspirational title to your headline that identifies a specific value you bring to the job market.

For example, you might be a “Project Manager,” “Data Analyst,” or an “Editor.”

So all together, this could look like: “AI Researcher | Data Analyst | PhD Candidate” or “Historical Researcher | Research Project Manager | PhD Student.”

I format mine like this—with the tiny little bars—but you don’t have to. Have a look around LinkedIn at different ways to do it.

4. Be careful with academic jargon

This advice depends. If you’re looking for altac work splicing genoisotopic hormones of CHN—and there’s an industry for that—totally leave it in. (I just made that up, so don’t google it.)

But if you’re looking to make yourself hireable to a wider variety of employers, I’d keep it simple. “I do gene splicing,” or “I’m a conservation archeologist.”

And for humanities students in obscure fields (like my ancient history degree was), I wouldn’t talk too much about your research. Focus more on general value propositions you bring. So “my research is on ancient Egyptian sacrificial urns” might become “I’m a historian studying how people build meaning into their lives…” or something like that.

5. Let’s talk “About”

The “About” section is important. As I said above, it’s the thing people often see first, and sometimes the only thing they see.

I love an “About” section that’s engaging and shows some personality.

Remember, a lot of employers see academics as being out of touch and having their heads in the clouds.

There’s no better way to contradict this than with an engaging career story that shows that you’re more than just a pretty brain. ( I also wrote this post about assumptions employers make about PhDs and how to counteract them .)

Use first person.

Tell your career story with limited jargon.

Don’t just talk about your research field. Talk about the skills you bring to the workplace that employers want.

And don’t be afraid to say where you want your career to go.

6. Lead with your thoughts

If you’re on the non-academic job market or you will be soon, it can be great to engage in some thought leadership on LinkedIn. Start sharing links of posts in your field. Comment (kindly and intelligently) on things others have written or shared. And write your own material on LinkedIn or a blog and share it!

It’s a great way to get eyes on you and your profile and to establish yourself as an emerging voice. ( I wrote this post about the value of thought leadership ).

A few final thoughts about your PhD LinkedIn…

There are different seasons of a PhD LinkedIn. I’m not job-searching anymore. I’m an entrepreneur. And so, I don’t need potential employers to be impressed by my LinkedIn.

However, I do use LinkedIn for thought leadership! So I use my LinkedIn differently. And opportunities now come to me from my network.

LinkedIn was a great tool in building this network in the first place. And a LinkedIn reach-out literally got me my first job. So the possibilities are endless!

Finally, there’s no one way to do LinkedIn. If you search for advice on how to do it, you’ll find different things. People have different opinions on what works, and it changes regularly.

But if you focus on 1. Who you are, 2. What your skills are, and 3. How they can solve a problem for an employer —You’ll be fine.

Hey! If you’re in the process of building a career with a PhD, check out my book about leaving academia– Doctoring: Building a Life After a PhD — now available on Amazo n.

  Psst… Did you know Roostervane has a YouTube channel? Here’s a video I made with some quick networking tips. Don’t forget to subscribe!

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