Got into grad school, career-related questions.

zkt

First question is, is it acceptable to add my school to my resume/linkedin profile even though I don't start until fall, and second parter is how do I regulate who views my linkedin profile based on company? I don't see an option anywhere for this. The reason is I don't want certain people where I work to see I am going back to school for something unrelated to what I'm doing now, as I am planning a career change. I'd like to keep my career search as discrete as possible.

Lewisham

If you don't want people to know what you're doing, block those people.

I don't see what value you think there would be in changing your LI profile to have your grad school that you aren't even attending yet. That's pretentious, anyway.

zkt

Lewisham wrote: »

If you don't want people to know what you're doing, block those people.

I don't see what value you think there would be in changing your LI profile to have your grad school that you aren't even attending yet. That's pretentious, anyway.

By blocking people individually will they see a message or something saying I've blocked them? If it comes off as pretentious adding a school I know for sure I'll be attending I won't do it then.

ED!

It most certainly can not hurt to update potentially interested companies to not only know what academics you will be pursuing (that may be of benefit to current openings) but to know the pedigree so to speak of your work.

Not sure how that comes off as pretentious, but different strokes for different folks I suppose.

Redjar

Edit: Post removed by user.

Hurtdog

It's absolutely not pretentious. Not posting the grad school you are going to attend doesn't change the fact that you will be attending and it will be a major part of your life. The only people that don't post shit like that are people that just aren't comfortable with themselves and who they are, and feel a need to take things down a notch; god forbid someone gets offended at your school of choice.

zkt

Thanks guys. Im just going to keep it simple and list the school name, program, and starting month.

ChopperDave

Usually people write on their resumes/linked in profiles "MXX Candidate at [University] [Expected Year of Graduation]."

For example, I will also be starting graduate school in the fall, and my LinkedIn says "MPP Candidate at Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, 2013."

Yeah, it's a bit of a shameless namedrop, but oh well ;-)

Also, I'm going to join the chorus in saying that updating your LI and resume to reflect your grad school is NOT pretentious and is in fact a very good idea. Chances are good that your grad school is going to expect you to do a summer internship; some may even expect you to work an internship/assistantship during the academic year. You are definitely more likely to get a good internship opportunity if you let people know that you're a Masters student -- current graduate students almost always get better opportunities in their field than BA/BS graduates of equivalent experience.

Lewisham

For the record, I was not saying that he shouldn't put his grad school in *after* he starts, just not before.

Demerdar

ChopperDave wrote: »

Usually people write on their resumes/linked in profiles "MXX Candidate at [University] [Expected Year of Graduation]."

For example, I will also be starting graduate school in the fall, and my LinkedIn says "MPP Candidate at Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, 2013."

Yeah, it's a bit of a shameless namedrop, but oh well ;-)

Also, I'm going to join the chorus in saying that updating your LI and resume to reflect your grad school is NOT pretentious and is in fact a very good idea. Chances are good that your grad school is going to expect you to do a summer internship; some may even expect you to work an internship/assistantship during the academic year. You are definitely more likely to get a good internship opportunity if you let people know that you're a Masters student -- current graduate students almost always get better opportunities in their field than BA/BS graduates of equivalent experience.

I wouldn't go that far Chopper, but it's definitely a good thing to put on the resume.

ChopperDave

Lewisham wrote: »

For the record, I was not saying that he shouldn't put his grad school in *after* he starts, just not before.

I guess it depends on what he's planning on doing for the summer and the academic year. If he's interested in applying for summer or fall internships/fellowships/assistantships/part-time jobs/whatever, then I think he should go ahead and update everything. Having the grad school on his resume/LI will definitely help him get those sorts of things, and if he's planning on applying then he should start now.

If he's going to continue working at his current job and plans to go the full-time student route, then there's no point in updating now and he should wait until after he starts.

I'm applying for summer positions on Capitol Hill and at D.C. think tanks and consulting firms, so having HKS on my resume directly benefits my job search right now. It might not be the same way for him.