During the PhD · Be memorable

LinkedIn, networking and staying visible

Most jobs go to people someone already knows. LinkedIn is how you become someone they already know, long before you apply.

6 min read · By Marc Sleiman

Online applications are a low-probability channel. Large employers receive hundreds or even thousands of applications for a single posting, and many are screened out by software before a person reads them. What gets a resume read is usually a person inside the company who says “take a look at this one.” LinkedIn is how you meet those people, and how you stay in their minds until the moment you need them. It is also where recruiters search for candidates, so your profile is working for you even when you are not.

Your profile

Your profile should be more detailed than your resume, because it has no page limit and because recruiters search it by keyword. Fill every section properly.

Photo and banner

A clear, professional headshot with a plain background. The banner can be simple; a clean image related to your field is enough.

Headline

This is the line that appears next to your name everywhere on LinkedIn, so make it your pitch in one line. “PhD Candidate in Economics at Georgia State University” tells people very little. “Economist | Causal inference and pricing experiments | Python, SQL | PhD candidate, Georgia State” tells a recruiter exactly why to click.

About

Three short paragraphs in the first person. What problems you solve and for whom. One or two results you are proud of, with numbers. What kind of role you are looking for or open to. Write it the way you would speak, not like an abstract.

Featured

Put your portfolio website, your best project and your brochure here. This is the section most people skip and the one visitors actually click.

Experience and skills

List research assistant and teaching roles, internships, consulting and projects, each with one to three lines in the action-and-outcome style from the resume page. Add the keywords recruiters search for: causal inference, A/B testing, experimentation, forecasting, econometrics, machine learning, Python, R, SQL, Tableau. Use the words that appear in your target job postings.

Stay visible: follow, comment, post

A finished profile is not enough. LinkedIn rewards people who show up. The most effective thing most PhD students never do is simply to be active where the people they want to work with are active.

Follow the companies you want to work for, the economists and data scientists on their teams, and the leaders in your target industry. Then read what they post and comment thoughtfully. Not “Great post!” but a real comment that adds something: a related finding, a short question, a connection to your own work. A good comment puts your name and headline in front of the author and everyone who reads the thread. Do this a few times a week, and people start recognizing your name before you ever message them.

Comment on comments too. Some of the best conversations on LinkedIn happen in the replies under a popular post, and replying there is less crowded than commenting on the post itself.

When you are comfortable, post occasionally yourself. A short post every two to four weeks is plenty: a chart from your research with a two-sentence plain-language explanation, a takeaway from a conference talk, a link to a new project on your website. You do not need a large following. You need the people you are trying to reach to see your name regularly next to something smart.

Who to contact

Start with the people most likely to answer and most able to help, roughly in this order.

Alumni of your program

Look at your department’s placement history and search LinkedIn for graduates of your PhD program working in industry. A shared program is the strongest reason a stranger has to reply. Include alumni of your undergraduate and master’s schools too.

People two to five years into the role you want

They remember what it was like to be in your position, they know what their team needs right now, and they are often the people asked to refer candidates. They are usually more responsive than senior leaders.

Economists and data scientists on target teams

Find the teams behind the postings you collected and the people on them. Their backgrounds also tell you how the team hires.

Hiring managers who say they are hiring

Some managers post that they are hiring or mark it on their profile. That is an invitation. A short, specific message to them can put you at the front of the line.

Recruiters and executives come later. Recruiters are useful once a role is open. Executives rarely reply to students and rarely know about specific openings.

What to say

Ask for insight, not a job. A request for fifteen minutes to hear about someone’s work is easy to accept. A request for a job, or to “pick your brain” with no specific question, is easy to ignore. Keep messages to four or five sentences and make them specific to the person.

To an alumnus or alumna

To someone you do not know

After a comment thread or a conference

When someone agrees to a call, come prepared with three or four questions about their work and their team, keep to the time you asked for, and at the end ask two things: “Is there anyone else you think I should talk to?” and, if it fits naturally, “If a role opens on your team that matches what we discussed, would you be comfortable referring me?”

The numbers to expect

Expect about one in five people to reply, sometimes fewer. That is normal and not a reflection on you. A simple system works: pick ten to twenty target companies, find two or three people at each, and reach out to them steadily, a few each week, rather than all at once. Spend about thirty minutes a week on it, every week, starting long before you need a job. Students who network only when they are desperate sound desperate. Students who started in Year 2 are simply following up with people they already know.

Staying in touch

The first conversation is the start, not the end. Every two to three months, find a reason to reconnect that gives the other person something: an article relevant to their work, a finding of yours that relates to their team’s problem, congratulations on a promotion or a launch, or a short update on what you did with their advice. Keep a simple spreadsheet with each contact, when you last spoke and what you talked about, so you can do this without it feeling forced.

Never let your only messages be requests. People help those who have been helpful and present over time. When the moment comes and you ask for a referral, it should feel like a natural next step in a relationship, not a cold request from someone they spoke to once.