My thoughts on the most useful LinkedIn tools for graduate students:

    * Build your profile. Make sure this is what employers find when they “google” you.
    * Build your connections smartly. Connect with relatives, internship bosses, professors, older alumni you had classes with, and people who can introduce you – and vouch for you - to people inside of companies where you want to work.
    * Read company profiles.  These give an inside view on which companies are hiring, whom you might know there, stats about where employees went to college, and common career paths for people at that company (e.g. Google: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/google).
    * Join the Duke University Alumni Network group.

Find these & more tips in LinkIn's new guide for graduate students, visit: http://grads.linkedin.com/gradstudents/

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Spotlight on Interview Coaching

You’ve located a couple of tantalizing job announcements. You can meet most of the qualifications, but not all. You’ve submitted your CV or resume with an engaging cover letter that accentuated the strongest features of your portfolio. You followed up with a search chair, employer representative or hiring manager to ask for additional information and the schedule for screening applicants. Not getting much concrete information, you continue sending out applications. Suddenly that hiring manager calls back, “ I’d like you to buy a plane ticket on your credit card. We want to do a first-round interview with you a week from Tuesday. You’re one of 3 candidates in our pool.”

What should you do to prepare for a first round? Make an appointment with Virginia Steinmetz or Kirsten Nicholas ( If you’re an MEMP student) for interview coaching, 919-660-1050. Make sure you send that tantalizing position description and those winning application documents to your coach at least a day ahead.