LibGuides: Finding Alumni: LinkedIn

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Alumni Searching in LinkedIn

The first step is to create an account on LinkedIn. A basic account is free, but has some restrictions (more on this later). This guide will not discuss all the elements that go into a good LinkedIn profile, but there are many good suggestions available.

The Advanced People Search is the ideal tool for searching, and using it is pretty straight-forward. The word Advanced is just to the right of the search box at the top.

Unless you have an decent number of contacts established on LinkedIn, be sure to uncheck all of the boxes under "Relationship." Having this added to your search may help you find mutual points of contact, but requires a fair number of established connections in LinkedIn. Otherwise, it can cause your search to fail.

Important search fields are:

School
Location
Industry
Keywords
Company

The most important field is 'School', as this will identify graduates of UGA law. The search term "University of Georgia School of Law" (including the quotation marks) is the most common phrase used in LinkedIn profiles for practicing attorneys.

Location will help you target the search to a geographic area. The "Postal Code" option in the left column will provide a more narrow search, while the "Location" search in the center area has an auto-complete feature that will suggest the most popular areas.

Industry provides a list of areas that you can use to tailor your search. Obvious designators include "Law Practice" and "Legal Services", but other fields might include "Judiciary", "Legislative Office", or "Government Administration."

Keywords can narrow your search to specific practice areas, like "Copyright", "Tax", "Securities", etc.

Searching by Company will help if there is a specific firm you are interested in.

After searching, you will notice that the details available to you are limited. You will see the terms you've searched for, like school, location, and industry, but that will be about it. To see more details about the person, you have two options.

Send an email message (an 'InMail' in LinkedIn terms) to add the person to your network
Pay for premium access to LinkedIn

Invitations to your network work similar to friend requests in Facebook, and the approval process for the person receiving the invitation is just as simple. It is advised that you modify the message that is sent with the network request, as the default language is very neutral.