When to put MBA on your LinkedIn

Hey gang, it’s Guy with another shared lesson. I searched Reddit for the earliest generally acceptable time to put “MBA” on your LinkedIn profile. I’m an Incoming MBA Candidate too. To save you the time I spent looking for answers, here’s the compilation. Most results I found said the following:

Why this matters:

• Crucial Networking. Networking is very important. The earlier, the better. Updating your profile makes it easier for alumni and students to recognize you when you request to connect with them.
• **school promoting.**This is a personal reason for me. I love my school and I’ll promote it. I remember my view of schools being impacted by the announcements and profile updates of peers who worked in my profession. I want to promote my great school to people who’re walking the same path I took.

When:

• when rejection events all pass. once your background check or any final official rejection event is cleared, send it.
• Example cases. This includes once you’ve paid the deposit and get the official notice that your enrollment is acknowledged. In my case, that was after the first of two deposits. The second was much smaller and the first determined my status.

How:

• “Incoming MBA Candidate at [University] [School] [‘YY].” example: Incoming MBA Candidate at McDonald’s Grimace ‘28. MOST results recommend putting this in your headline.
• DO NOT update your education until you start. As far as I can tell, maybe don’t not even do this till you graduate. Still figuring this out, admittedly. But confident that it’s too early before matriculating.
• Maybe ok to update experience. risky move here. Maybe not worth the risk. Reasons to do it: unknown. Multiple reasons not to though from what I could see. If you do, at the very least, make it clear when you graduate. Including a start date wasn’t mentioned much but I assume it’s smart too.

Anyway, hope this saves you a lot of time and gives you the sort of clear answer I was looking for in your shoes. Happy MBA’ing, cheers!