How PhDs Get Noticed On LinkedIn

When it comes to getting a PhD-level job, LinkedIn is a critically important platform - a platform that continues to grow. In fact, Business Insider recently reported that LinkedIn has reached more than half a billion unique users.

Undercover Recruiter reported that 93% of companies use LinkedIn for recruiting.

The vast majority of companies use LinkedIn, so it is essential that you have a profile, and that it is professional and attractive. In addition to being used as a recruiter resource, LinkedIn, in addition to other social media outlets, is used as a screening tool.

If your LinkedIn is unprofessional or lacking information, you will likely be screened out before the interview process. A poor or non-existent LinkedIn profile makes you appear ill-prepared for industry. According to Time Magazine, 66% of recruiters will hold a minor spelling or grammatical error on your LinkedIn profile against you.

3 Underutilized LinkedIn "Hacks" For PhDs

Clearly, there is no room for error and as a PhD, it is essential to use the right strategies to create a great LinkedIn profile. The question is, as a PhD, how do you get hiring managers and recruiters to notice your LinkedIn profile amongst the 500 million other profiles?

LinkedIn is a medium underutilized by PhDs because academia leads you to believe that it doesn’t matter.

Academia is wrong. Your LinkedIn profile is very important. You need quality LinkedIn strategies or "hacks", to increase your visibility on LinkedIn and attract more employers.

Here are 3 hacks to increase the visibility of your LinkedIn profile and get hired…

1. Increase the ‘dwell time’ for your profile.

Dwell time is a phrase that’s used in the online search industry quite a bit. Google cares a lot about dwell time. LinkedIn cares a lot about dwell time.

Dwell time is how long somebody, such as an employer, stays on your LinkedIn profile. Because of the way LinkedIn’s algorithms work, increasing your dwell time will increase the number of people who are shown your profile.

So, how can you increase your dwell time?

First, you want to add URLs and images. If you’ve previously worked for a company, you want to add in the URL for the company page that you’ve worked at.

Also, add in the URL for where you went to university, where you got your PhD, and the academic institution that you are currently affiliated with. When you link these web pages to your profile, it will pull in images from the web pages. When employers come to your LinkedIn profile, they will stop and pause on those images.

Next, add a lot of white space on your LinkedIn profile.

Don’t just have a giant wall of text in any section of your profile, including the professional summary and work experience sections. Instead, have a sentence and a space. Then another sentence or two and a space, and so on. Lots of white space will keep people skimming all the way to the bottom of your LinkedIn profile, which will result in them spending more time on it.

An increased dwell time will result in LinkedIn’s algorithm showing your profile to even more employers. More employers looking at your profile will increase your chance of being approached by a recruiter and securing an interview.

Finally, to increase dwell time, PhDs should add any publications they have to their LinkedIn profile. The publications section will pull in pictures of the other authors of those publications ...and pictures are good. When an employer is reading through your LinkedIn profile, they’ll stop and look at those pictures of other people on the publications.

This has an added bonus of showing employers that you're not just another awkward PhD who can't work collaboratively with others. Instead, you'll be seen as having a network of collaborators already in place.

Adding pictures, URL links, and white space to your LinkedIn profile will increase the dwell time for your profile and in turn increase your profile’s visibility.

2. Repeat your relevant transferable skills throughout your profile.

In industry, transferable skills are essential.

You have to develop and communicate your transferable skills in order to successfully transition into industry. The communication of these skills begins with your LinkedIn profile and you should repeat the top 10 transferrable skills that you have throughout your LinkedIn profile.

However - and here's the key - you need to repeat the transferable skills that are relevant to the position you want. Transferrable skills include things like communication and leadership skills, as well as business acumen, and product and market knowledge.

Transferable skills go beyond your technical skills - in most cases, these skills are your non-technical skills. They are what set you apart from the rest of the PhDs who have the same technical skills as you.

To determine top relevant transferable skills, simply dig into job postings for the positions you’re interested in and identify the transferable skills they want you to have.

Once you have looked at several job postings, compile all the transferable skills they ask for and determine the top 10 (or more). Then, put those top transferable skills throughout your LinkedIn profile.

For example, if you are a PhD interested in a medical science liaison position, one of the requirements for this position is to have relationships with key opinion leaders, or KOLs. Hiring managers and recruiters looking for someone to fill an MSL position are going to be looking for the words, "key opinion leader" (or "KOL") on the LinkedIn profile of a PhD.

For whichever industry positions you are interested in, you should determine the key transferable skills and then repeat them throughout your profile.

3. Post to Pulse - LinkedIn's newsfeed.

You probably noticed that when you open LinkedIn, you go to a newsfeed. On LinkedIn, this is called your Pulse.

As a PhD looking to transition into industry, you must contribute to Pulse.

Why? Because LinkedIn will reward you.

When you publish on Pulse, LinkedIn will show your profile and the article you published to more employers. It’s very important to start writing and adding value to LinkedIn, specifically by publishing to Pulse.

If you are not sure what to write about, remember that as a PhD, you are an expert in your field and have lots of experience writing. Draw on this expertise and write a short summary, like you would for the background section of a review. Of course, you LinkedIn publications are not a peer-reviewed journal articles, but rather short summaries, about 500 - 1,000 words, on something you’re interested in.

It could be about the scientific field or engineering field that is in your background, or about the field that you want to move into. Publish this summary to Pulse and you will increase your visibility on LinkedIn. You can also contribute to you Pulse by commenting on other people's LinkedIn articles and sharing other people's posts.

Don't upload another resume online until you attend our NEW, FREE webinar, "The New Rules Of PhD-Level Resumes". During the webinar you'll also learn...

• How to create a LinkedIn headline and summary that captures the attention of employers.
• 9 new LinkedIn strategies that have been proven to increase the visibility of PhD-level profiles.
• Key insights on how to network effectively on LinkedIn, especially if you want to get hired in a different location from where you are currently.

Click here to reserve your seat (only 1,000 can attend live so don't wait to reserve your seat).