for Graduate Students Kamilah McCoy , Associate Director for Graduate - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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

Social Media and Online Tools 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.

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