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Social Media Tools
for Graduate Students
Kamilah McCoy, Associate Director for Graduate Student Services
Heather Nystedt, Associate Director Northwestern Alumni Association
Presentation Objectives
• Review the benefits of using social media for graduate
students’ career development
• To provide direction and resources for getting started
with professional social networking tools.
• Today’s Demonstrations:
– Northwestern Alumni Association: CareerNet
– BranchOut
– ResearchGate
– Epernicus Network
– Academia.edu
– Versatile PhD
“Social Media is for Undergraduates!”
Top Five Reasons Graduate Students aren’t interested
in social media (from Psychology Today):
1. “Graduate students really don’t need to be on the
internet—we need to focus on researching, writing,
teaching and studying”
2. “I’m an introvert. I consider myself a private person.
I don’t want my personal life on the internet”
3. “I don’t have time”
4. “It’s superficial and I don’t see the value”
5. “‘Real’ academicians aren’t into social media”
Source: Social Media and the Graduate Student Job Search, Published on November 26, 2011
by Katharine Brooks, Ed.D. in Psychology Today: Career Transitions blog
Social Media Tips
for Graduate Students
• Use social media strategically to publicly highlight your
graduate student activities and reach a broader audience by
commenting or sharing knowledge of current research, or
demonstrating teaching skills by posting class materials.
• Keep your postings related to your professional ambitions and
professional topics, rather than your personal life.
• Make a schedule for updating and sharing via social media
• Using social media strategically and professionally can help
you attain visibility in the field and make connections with
others in your field.
• Social media has a rapidly expanding presence in academia.
Many professors have personal websites, blogs, Twitter feeds
and LinkedIn pages.
Source: Social Media and the Graduate Student Job Search, Published on November 26, 2011
by Katharine Brooks, Ed.D. in Psychology Today: Career Transitions blog
The world’s largest professional network
with over 150 million users
CareerNet is an online database of NU
alumni aimed at facilitating networking
and informational interviewing
A Facebook application that allows you to
expand your professional network to
include your Facebook contacts.
ResearchGate is a free social networking
site and collaboration tool aimed at scientific
researchers from all disciplines of science
A social networking platform for research
scientists.
A platform for academics to share
research papers. 1,029,061 academics
have signed up to Academia.edu.
The Versatile PhD mission is to
help PhDs and graduate students identify
and prepare for non-academic careers.
Social Media and Online Tools
LinkedIn 101 Heather Nystedt
Associate Director of Student Services
Northwestern Alumni Association
LinkedIn Overview
• World’s largest professional network on the Internet
• 150+ million members in over 200 countries and territories
– 60 million members in the US
• Professionals join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second
• 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool.
– All 2011 Fortune 500 companies are represented
• Corporate hiring solutions are used by 82 of the Fortune 100 companies.
– More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages
• 37,000 university groups
Why LinkedIn?
• 2.1 million LinkedIn members are US Students
• Approximately 200,000 college students join every
month
• 70% of jobs are found through personal networks
How LinkedIn Can Help You
• Join Early – Learn the ins and outs of LinkedIn
– Connect with professional contacts throughout your college career will help you later • Work-Study or Part-Time Job Supervisor, Advisors
• Friends & Family
• Importing Address Book
• Student Portal – Recommends jobs based on your education and interests
• Allows Companies to Find You
• Helps you connect to other students & professionals to see how they landed their jobs
• Applications Page
• Opens a worldwide network
• Research Companies – “Companies” Tab
• Overview of What NU Alumni are Doing
• Profile – Student Section!
Showcase College
Accomplishments
Highlight your achievements to potential employers and industry experts who can help shape your career:
– Projects: • Shows that you can apply classroom learning to real-world challenges and
work effectively in a team
• Add compelling research or class projects to your profile that demonstrates experience relevant to your professional goals.
– Honors & Awards: • Dean’s List, merit-based scholarships, etc
• Honors & Awards provide objective validation for your accomplishments.
– Organizations: • Leadership abilities, and making a positive impact within an organization, are
talents widely sought by employers and recruiters.
– Test Scores: • View strong test scores as indicators of good problem solving skills
• Examples: Standardized Tests scores or G.P.A.
– Courses: • List courses that qualify you for positions you are seeking
• Demonstrate your commitment to expanding your academic horizons
Northwestern Alumni Association
LinkedIn Page
• 25,000 + Members
• Job Opportunities to NU Group Specifically
• Discussions
– Pose Questions & Add to Community
Recommended Groups
• Northwestern University Alumni (22,000+ members!)
• Northwestern University Career Services
• Northwestern School-Specific Groups
– School of Communication, McCormick, Medill, School of Music
• Academic Department Groups
– Lab or academic program alumni groups
• Industry-specific Groups
– Groups related to the industry you would like to enter
• Subject Matter Groups
– Groups related to your area of research/specialization
– PhD Careers Outside of Academia, Alternative PhD Careers,
Academia Jobs
• Professional Organization Groups
• Undergraduate Institution and High School Alumni
Groups
• A Facebook application that allows you to connect
professionally with your existing Facebook contacts
– www.branchout.com
• Leverage your Facebook friend network to find jobs,
source sales leads, recruit talent, and foster
relationships with professional contacts.
• BranchOut operates the largest job board on
Facebook with over 3 million jobs and over 20,000
internships
“The application unlocks massive amounts of career data about
my friends and friends of friends that was just impossible to get
to before.” –TechCrunch
• A professional network build by scientists for
scientists with the idea that science can do more
when it’s driven by collaboration.
– 1.4 Million Members
– 193 Countries
– 45 Million Abstracts
– 10 Million+ Full Texts
– 15,000+ Job Listings
– 400+ Colleagues at Northwestern
“The value of ResearchGate is that it can help move a stalled
research project forward in ways that haven’t been available
before” –New York Times
ResearchGate Profile Screen
ResearchGate Profile Screen (Cont.)
• Company founded to create software systems and
solutions for companies and non-profits doing
medical research. One aspect of the business is a
social networking platform for research scientists.
– Over 20,000 Life Scientists registered
• Goal is to is to connect researchers with their real
world scientific networks, enabling them to find the
resources they need to advance their work.
• Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share
research papers. The company's mission is to
accelerate the world's research.
• Academics use Academia.edu to share their
research, monitor deep analytics around the impact
of their research, and track the research of
academics they follow.
• 1,031,946 academics have signed up to
Academia.edu, adding 1,189,915 papers and
394,191 research interests. Academia.edu attracts
over 3.1 million unique visitors a month.
• The Versatile PhD mission is to help humanities and
social science PhDs and graduate students identify and
prepare for possible non-academic careers. Content has
recently been expanded to STEM disciplines.
• Information about academic employment realities,
nonacademic career options, and support for
preparing for a range of possible careers
– Meet PhDs and ABDs thriving outside the academy
– Join others who are also exploring alternatives
– Read fascinating stories of post-academic PhDs and ABDs
– See real non-academic resumes & cover letters by PhDs
and ABDs who got the job
– Protected from search engines; your posts will not come up
in Google searches
Additional Resources,
Articles and Websites
• Social Media and the Graduate Student Job Search from
Psychology Today
• How to Start Tweeting (and Why You Might Want To) from the
Chronicle for Higher Education
• ProfHacker blog in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Tips on
technology and productivity.
• online graduate student community
• List of Research Networking Tools
• UCS archived webinars on social media and networking
– Recommended titles: Social Media 101 (LinkedIn) , Social Media 201
(Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, Pinterest), Networking: All you need to know in
140 Characters or More
Upcoming UCS Events
Drop-in Advising Hours for Graduate Students
Mondays 11:00am -1:00pm The Graduate School
Career Paths in Higher Education-Administrative
Opportunities for PhDs. A panel discussion
Wednesday, March 7th McCormick Tribune Forum
Registration Required
University Career Services
Main Office
620 Lincoln Street
847-491-3700
Career Lab (Walk-ins Thursdays & Fridays Only)
Core Reserve
Main Library, 2nd Floor North
