LinkedIn

By the company’s own definition, LinkedIn is a means to re-connect with past colleagues and friends, power your career by networking with professionals, and answer questions about industries that interest you.

Join LinkedIn and Build Your Professional Network

The New Users Starter Guide is an excellent resource to help you begin establishing a professional profile.  You can upload your resume and select the appropriate parts of your resume to include on LinkedIn.

It’s important to begin building your network of contacts right away.  You can import contacts from your address book or webmail account and look through the list for people marked with the blue “in” logo to the right of their name (this means they’re already on LinkedIn). But be selective about whom you invite.  We suggest that you invite current classmates, colleagues, current and former supervisors, and close family friends to join your network.

LinkedIn groups allow you to join communities of professionals with common interests, backgrounds, and affiliations.   Consider joining a group for your undergraduate alma mater, a professional association aligned with your career interests, or a cause that you support.

We also invite you to join the Maxwell School LinkedIn Group.  As a member you’ll be able to display the Maxwell logo on your online LinkedIn profile and gain access to the list of Maxwell faculty, alumni and students in the group. 

Search for People and Organizations

If you want to locate Maxwell School alumni simply type “Maxwell School” in the people search line located at the top of the LinkedIn page.  If you prefer to conduct a more targeted search, use the Advanced Search feature and you can search by name, title, school, groups, and/or company.

Use LinkedIn to learn about people you plan to meet through networking and job interviews.  Find out if you share common connections, interests, and groups.  Ask former supervisors and colleagues to provide recommendations for you based on your past performance.  This will help illustrate your achievements and capabilities.

Find a Job Using Your LinkedIn Network

LinkedIn offers a number of excellent ways to help leverage your experience, knowledge and contacts so you can land a professional position.  Utilize the LinkedIn Learning Center and participate in the numerous webinars

The JobInsider toolbar is an excellent resource provided by LinkedIn.  When you view a job posting on an external website (currently available when searching Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Craigslist, SimplyHired, Dice, or Vault) you can automatically see your connections at that organization.

More LinkedIn Tools

The Answers tool is a great opportunity to get more exposure to potential recruiters and mentors from your field. Ask questions within your area of interest. Additionally, recruiters often ask questions in the Careers and Education section, looking for responses from current job/internship seekers.