LinkedIn is one of the best and commonly known online, professional networking services. Many graduate students can take advantage of this platform to grow professionally, especially since LinkedIn is one of the places where different companies find their employees through recommendations.
However, since every student has a profile on LinkedIn, you should strive to make yours stand out in ways that will capture the attention of the reader. Since everyone is focused on their LinkedIn profiles, the LinkedIn summary is often overlooked. As a graduate student, you can focus on your LinkedIn summary to stand out from the rest of the students from all areas of study.
Another important reason why you should consider writing a good graduate student LinkedIn summary or the “about” section is because this is the third part that your readers will see after seeing your profile picture and name. The profile picture and the name may be appealing, but if the summary is not well written, the reader will lose interest even before reading the summary further.
Unlike other platforms which may limit you to the number of words that you need to use in your summary, LinkedIn allows you to write a summary about yourself in about 2000 words. Some of the best tips for writing the best graduate student LinkedIn summary include the following.
1.Start your first sentence with a hook
The first sentence of your graduate student LinkedIn summary should capture the attention of the reader and make him or her want to read more. Managers have so many things to do, and if they are looking for the best graduate student LinkedIn summary, yours should stand out in unique ways. To make your LinkedIn summary stand out, you need to make the reader want to know more about you and to effectively do this, use a hook in the first sentence of your LinkedIn summary.
2.Use specific- keywords
Using keywords help in putting you closer to the top. This is because most employers use keywords when looking for the best candidates for a specific position. This is why a graduate student LinkedIn summary should incorporate keywords, to help find a student fit for a specific position easily.
For instance, you can write that “I am currently in my last year as a Law Student at Harvard University”. When an employer is looking for law students, you are most likely to appear at the top because you have used the keyword “law student”. In addition to that, all the other students with the same keyword will also appear at the top of the search.
3.Always write from a first-person perspective
Most of the professional biographies usually take the third-person narrative. However, when writing a graduate student LinkedIn summary, you should always use the first-person narrative. This makes the reader know more about you at a personal level from just reading your voice.
The tone that you use in your LinkedIn summary will also tell the reader more about yourself, and if you are very passionate about your professional achievements. Confidence is one of the key things that most employers look for in their candidates, making it very important to portray a high level of confidence in your graduate student LinkedIn summary.
For instance, you can say that “I know how much teamwork can cause a positive change in the company and for individuals. I believe that teamwork makes dream work, and I consider myself a good team layer.” The fact that you have written the summary from a first-person perspective shows the reader that you are talking about “you”, and that you have recognized some of your best qualities that you think are important when put to use.
4.Use short to medium-length paragraphs
A well-written paragraph should have at most seven to eight lines. This makes it easier for the reader to get the point of the whole graduate student LinkedIn summary. Consequently, writing long paragraphs will only make your work look boring and unpleasing to the reader. However, if the paragraphs are short or medium length, the reader will be interested in going on reading your LinkedIn summary.
In addition to that, also ensure that your paragraphs do not have long sentences. Have short sentences that are punctuated correctly, and can give the reader time to relax and get the whole point behind the graduate student LinkedIn summary.
5.Include information about your personal life
Remember that the reader also wants to know more about your personal life, and the things that you find interest in. since LinkedIn is an online platform that is used mainly for professional purposes, it is better to show the reader that you are a human being, and that you also have a life outside work.
Some students think that listing only their professional life will get managers attracted to their profiles. However, when you cannot find something fun to do after work, getting productive at work will be difficult because you will be burnt out and exhausted from working all the time.
The reader also wants to see the personal side of your life too. In your graduate student LinkedIn summary, you can include a few of your hobbies, the things you find interesting, and even your pets. Listing this on the summary is important especially since the rest of the LinkedIn profile says everything there is about your professional life.
For instance, you can say that “I am a football fan, and I spend most of my free time watching my favorite teams. If I am not glued to the screen watching a football match, you will find me walking my dog, mostly in the evenings.” You want to portray that you are human and you also have a life outside of work.
6.Avoid saying you are Unemployed
Telling the reader that you are unemployed only shows that you are not optimistic and that you are not ready for whatever may happen in the future. For instance, if you are a graduate teacher, engineering student, or law student, then you should focus on what the future holds for you. You are not unemployed, rather you are the future professor, engineer, and lawyer that the country needs. Therefore, whenever you are writing your graduate student LinkedIn summary, avoid using the term “unemployed” to refer to your current situation. It would be better to show some level of optimism.
7.Explain what you are doing currently
The experiences that you have gained so far need to be recognized in the graduate student LinkedIn summary. The employers need to know why you are doing what you are currently doing. Writing about your current experiences also shows the reader whether you are fit for the task at hand in a given company. However, when explaining what you are currently doing, focus on making it as simple as possible, so that it is easy for the reader to understand.
Writing a clear, straightforward, and concise summary is very important as compared to writing long LinkedIn summaries. A LinkedIn summary does not need a conclusion because the summary itself gives the information that the reader wants to know. Concluding a summary only makes you repeat everything you have said.
8.Common graduate student LinkedIn summary mistakes
The above tips help students write the perfect graduate student LinkedIn summary. However, there are some common mistakes that students tend to make in their LinkedIn summary. Some commonly made mistakes include the following.
Not having a profile picture
A profile picture helps the reader to know who he or she is dealing with. Failing to have a LinkedIn profile picture looks unprofessional and possibly could give a negative expression to a person who is interested in your graduate student LinkedIn summary. Not having a picture can deliver the wrong message that you may be a fraud.
Unprofessional profile picture
LinkedIn is an online professional platform where most people can be recommended for work. This means that most of the information you have on your profile should be professional, including your profile picture . Having an unprofessional profile picture will not get you any readers.
Spelling, grammar & punctuation mistakes
Human beings are prone to make mistakes. However, since you want to appear professional, you should go through your graduate student LinkedIn summary to ensure that there are no typing errors in your summary.
Not mentioning your core strengths
You have to mention the things that you are good at, both personal and professional in your LinkedIn summary. However, some students fail to include their skills in their summaries, and this makes their whole summary irrelevant. Readers go through LinkedIn summaries to get the best candidate, with the desired skills to hire.
9.Examples of Graduate Student LinkedIn Summaries
How a student writes a LinkedIn summary depends on his or her major. This is what will help you sell yourself and will make you appear at the top of the search list. In this case, we are going to focus on two examples of graduate student LinkedIn summary, which will be mainly focused on a Finance student and an Education student.
Finance graduate student LinkedIn summary
This market requires you to sell yourself through marketing your main background skills on LinkedIn. An example of the LinkedIn summary is as follows.
“I am a 2016 Finance graduate student from Cambridge University. I have a passion for Entrepreneurial Finance and have used my communication skills for the best interest of both my team members and the company as a whole.
I have worked in the real world, with real challenges, and getting solutions to these challenges is always very satisfying. Over the past year and a half, I am honored to say that my company has made me grow in ways I thought impossible.
I consider myself aggressive, passionate, and a problem-solver. I love getting things done and I take pride in seeing everyone happy with my work.
I am also a pet lover, who loves taking long walks with my dog when not on work duty,”
Education graduate student LinkedIn summary
Education is a major that is taken by various students. It is therefore advisable that anyone who wishes to pursue a career in education, to focus on any experience they may be having in the classroom. If you are passionate about teaching, then that is an added advantage. An example of a eduacation graduate student LinkedIn summary is as follows.
“I knew I wanted to be a teacher from the moment I kept tutoring my nieces. I realized that my passion for teaching grew immensely and I made sure that it did not stop at tutoring my relatives.
I pursued a career in Education and graduated in 2017 from the University of Massachusetts. Teaching has been my long-term passion, and I am confident to say that I love teaching Literature at Yale University.
I find teaching refreshing and my communication skills have positively impacted the lives of my students. Problem-solving has been made much easier through communication and understanding.”
Engineering graduate student LinkedIn summary
A well-written description will immensely help students in engineering and other technical programs—the engineering sector values participants who can communicate effectively and market themselves well. Using bullet points would be efficient to describe yourself to people. An example of an engineering graduate student LinkedIn summary is as follows.
I thrive on building connections between materials science and computational engineering and have spent several years in the domains of surface engineering and nanotechnology.
I’m a graduate of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
Freelance Academic Writer and Tech Blogger: Helping scholars and young professionals to advance in their carriers.
Data Analyst : Modelling / Visualization / Data management /Mining / Wrangling.
Proficient in : MATLAB / COMSOL Multiphysics / Solidworks / Creo Parametric / R Studio.
Learning never stops.
10.Conclusions
All the above graduate school summaries have one thing in common: they were all written from the first-person perspective. This shows the reader that you are talking about yourself and your experiences and depicts a level of confidence that may just help you secure a chance in a given company. The paragraphs are short, with precise and clear sentences that are easy to read and understand, making work easier for the reader. Therefore, a graduate student LinkedIn summary should be straight to the point and should show some skills that you possess and think that will help you secure a chance in another institution.
Images Courtesy : Photo by inlytics | LinkedIn Analytics Tool & Photo on Unsplash , Vector icon from freepik, Background photo created by rawpixel.com – www.freepik.com
This is really worthy article.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with everyone.
Thanks, Supun! That’s great to hear.🙂