From school to work: How alumni networks on LinkedIn shape PhD journeys

This paper explores how alumni networks shape the school-to-work migration of PhD graduates entering nonacademic sectors. Using résumés collected from LinkedIn, I assembled a dataset of roughly 300,000 PhD graduates from 145 R1 universities between 1980 and 2016. The dataset provides detailed information on education and employment histories, enabling analysis of alumni stock and migration flows across school–state pairs. I employ panel regressions at the school–destination level, incorporating origin-year, destination-year, and origin–destination interactive fixed effects to address omitted-variable bias. The results show that a larger number of managerial alumni is positively associated with migration, likely reflecting a supportive role for new graduates. Conversely, more junior alumni are linked to lower migration, suggesting potential competitive pressures.