MALONE CENTER FOR CAREER ENGAGEMENT

LinkedIn has a fantastic built-in way to search for and connect with Furman Alumni. By visiting the Furman Universi-

ty page, you can click on the Alumni tab and ﬁnd a group of every user on LinkedIn that lists Furman in their proﬁle’s

education section. From this page you can then search for alumni by geographic location, company, industry, major, skill,

and how you’re connected. This type of search can help you identify people for informational interviews, companies to

potentially work for, and ways to expand your personal professional network.

Much like the alumni tool, LinkedIn also organizes people based on their employer. If there is a speciﬁc company or or-

ganization that catches your aention, ﬁnd their proﬁle and select the “People” tab. This will show you a database where

you can search for people by location, where they studied, occupation, major, skill, and how you’re connected. Searching

this way can help you address a cover leer or ﬁnd informational interviews to learn more about the company. You can

also pay aention to how the company is labelling its positions and industry which can help ﬁlter results when searching

for jobs on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is designed to help people identify and build their professional networks. This is done through sending and

receiving connection requests from other users. There are two ways that you can send requests.

• Blanket Connection Requests: When using the tools above, the results will show snippets of peoples’ proﬁles that will

have a “Connect” buon depending on security seings and network distance. If you click this buon, LinkedIn will no-

tify the person you wish to connect with them. This method of connecting should really only be used when you know the

owner of the proﬁle well (i.e. a friend, classmate, coworker, etc.) and you are working to quickly build your network.

• Personalized Connection Request: The preferred method for connecting with people on LinkedIn is to visit their

proﬁle and click “Connect” so that you are able to “Add a note” to your connection request. LinkedIn usually only allows

users with premium to message when not connected, but when requesting a connection, they do permit you to send a

short message to explain why you’re seeking to connect. The message does need to be concise since you only have 300

characters to work with.

Sample Connection Request:

“Dear [name],

I see that you graduated from my current institution, Furman University—go Paladins! I’m a physics major

and would be excited to hear more about your work with NASA. I was hoping to ask a few questions and

learn more about your career path. Please let me know if this is a possibility.

Thanks so much,

James Paladin”

ALUMNI TOOL

SEEKING CONNECTIONS AT COMPANIES

SENDING CONNECTION REQUESTS

MALONE CENTER FOR CAREER ENGAGEMENT

LINKEDIN NETWORKING GUIDE

Another way LinkedIn engages its users outside of the more traditional networking aspects of the platform, is allowing

users to follow companies, inﬂuencers, and even hashtags that will help populate the feed found on your home screen.

Utilizing this type of function on LinkedIn can keep you up to date on what topics are being discussed in your industry

or even who is hiring. You may choose to follow pages that relate to companies of interest, target locations, professional

development insight, inspirational leaders or individuals, non-proﬁts, etc.

WHO TO FOLLOW

GROUPS

LinkedIn groups is an additional way in which professionals can network based on shared interests, professions, or

whatever shared characteristic the groups agree upon. Groups can provide a place for professionals to share their insight

and experience through discussion forums and connecting with members of the group that would be outside your direct

professional network. Even as a student, you should request to join the “Furman Alumni Group.” Check to see if your

academic major or department has created a group for current students and alumni.

MALONE CENTER FOR CAREER ENGAGEMENT

LINKEDIN NETWORKING GUIDE