social media tools for graduate students

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:

– LinkedIn

– 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

h-nystedt@northwestern.edu

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