LinkedIn help?

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Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,691

15 Nov 2011, 1:52 pm

I have a LinkedIn page but it's gone neglected for a while. I received a connection and got to wondering if I should dust it off and polish the page a little.

I was just wondering if LinkedIn has been helpful for anyone else for job networking. Or is it just a Facebook wannabe? Is it used enough in a mainstream way to even bother?

introversal
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 3 Sep 2010
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 71
Location: Washington, DC

15 Nov 2011, 11:30 pm

I haven't gotten a job from it yet, but it can't hurt. I've spoken with a couple of recruiters so far who use it as a double-check of your resume.

AspieRoss
Tufted Titmouse

Joined: 22 Nov 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 48

25 Nov 2011, 3:52 pm

I just signed up this week, and have one connection and one recommendation (my old boss). I am a freelance
graphic designer, who has been out of work for a while... looking for full-time hours with benefits, so hopefully
this LinkedIN site will help. My cousin just got a good job through the site. I am a horrible socializer/networker, so it sort of does a lot of
the networking for you... gives you advice on what to add to your profile, job leads, etc.
I think it's basically a Facebook for professionals who want to have an easier way to connect to other professionals, whether socially or
for finding work. Many people have a photo of themselves on their profile page, I do not! I have a hard enough time on interviews, why have
some one reject you for a job, simply because they don't like your hair, or the way you look.
To sum up (yeah right), I think the LinkedIN site is a valuable tool when you are looking to stay connected to the work force. They do have free membership, but then they also have a couple of paid memberships that offer enhanced tools/etc... I am still learning all about it.

I have an idea! Maybe we can all use this very website to network with each other and find jobs for each other? I think that could work.
Plus I bet some members may find that they will want to hire other members for jobs such as; website design, writing, graphic design, drawing/painting,
songwriting, jewellery-making, etc. Just an idea!

kritie
Tufted Titmouse

Joined: 10 Feb 2012
Age: 55
Gender: Female
Posts: 35
Location: USA

11 Feb 2012, 9:27 pm

I do hiring for my office, and I always check LinkedIn to see what it can tell me about the applicant. I am interested in seeing if the person has the ability to network and whether they are signed up for any professional groups. It also helps if they have recommendations from former employers (one bit of advice: do not have friends or coworkers post recommendations). I'd definitely sign up.

starkid
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 9 Feb 2012
Gender: Female
Posts: 5,812
Location: California Bay Area

11 Feb 2012, 9:37 pm

I've had a profile for about a year and a half. I've received one offer to interview for a job. I think the main benefit of a LinkedIn profile is not job offers (there probably are not many given via the site), but something for an employer to see if they look you up online, a small piece of info to help them verify that you are who you say you are and not a psycho. It probably helps to have professional connections because employers can see that you are trustworthy enough to have some sort of work connections. It can also be helpful by giving you somewhere to upload a portfolio.

Xyzzy
Snowy Owl

Joined: 31 Jul 2011
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 126

14 Feb 2012, 6:07 pm

VIDEODROME wrote:

Yup. Definitely. LinkedIn is a dream come true for people who can't find the time or motivation to network in person. However, with that said, it's still work. The people that just blindly connect to you based on a stale profile aren't the ones that you want to network with.

Dust off the page and make it relevant and personal. You want to put a bit of yourself out there for people to see (not everything. This isn't facebook. Just share some relevant info that you might share at work or over lunch with a business associate. If you can build an elevator pitch, even better). Then join some of the groups and post a question or answer someone elses. Set a goal for yourself like maybe a post a week or a couple of times per month to keep visible. You'll be surprised how many people will connect with you and how quickly you can build an a real network.

I haven't "outted" myself as an Aspie at work or in my professional life, so I won't offer to connect with you
But take some comfort in knowing that we're out there

Good luck!

_________________
"You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike"

infinitenull
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15 Feb 2012, 8:33 am

I agree with Xyzzy.

One of the thing I've noticed at the company I work for is that generally mostly those who are professional level contributors (salary) or leaders really are the only ones who have profiles. So having a profile myself reminds the Directors, Managers, and other Analysts that I am also a professional and that I am interested in maintaining a strong professional network with my colleges.

For me, that's mostly what its for. To put myself out there for executive level leaders so that they remember I am out there between projects and will remember to come to me when they have something that needs to be done (I often work at a national level these days, so I am not always in the same office as someone who I want to rely on me). I also connect to a few professional associations I belong to through there and get updates about local group meetings for those associations.

If I were to loose my job, I would already have a head start on my resume and a recommendation (although if I lost my job I would probably get quite a few more just by asking), and my page fits what recruiters expect for that sort of thing.

I also am not "out" at work, plus I haven't decided how connected to RL I want to be on this forum so I can't offer to connect to anyone either but I would say that its a great thing, especially if you work in a corporate job.

_________________
Very high systematizing, low empathy, but moderate to high sympathy.
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Xyzzy
Snowy Owl

Joined: 31 Jul 2011
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 126

15 Feb 2012, 9:05 am

infinitenull wrote:

...So having a profile myself reminds the Directors, Managers, and other Analysts that I am also a professional and that I am interested in maintaining a strong professional network with my colleges.

Excellent point. There's a function in LinkedIn to update your status and I've used that as a back-channel to people at work that I know are linked to me. So, I may post something like "Wrapping up a major project and looking for the next big challenge" as my status. Though it's like chum in the water for the recruiters, it also gets the occassional notice from the people that I work with. They also see when I post responses to questions or questions of my own. There's a lot of room for communicating through behaviors and activity rather than just directly.

Just remember to keep your LinkedIn communications on a "business casual" or higher level. Some people seem to confuse it with a personal/family site and they do silly things like linking personal facebook accounts with pictures of last night's escapades with the group of transgendered dominatrixes (dominitri?) in Bangkok or they connect their Aryan Nation twitter feed to their home page. It's good to share some personal information and something about your personality, but don't put anything in LinkedIn that you'd be reluctant to disclose in an interview. Scratch that...don't put anything in LinkedIn that an ideal NT candidate would be reluctant to disclose in an interview

_________________
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ParadoxalParadigm
Snowy Owl

Joined: 28 Nov 2010
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 161

17 Feb 2012, 12:13 pm

I just made a LinkedIn account, as I am desperately seeking employment...

beers
Snowy Owl

Joined: 29 Jan 2012
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 128

17 Feb 2012, 12:23 pm

Mine's gotten me a couple of phone interviews, but apparently they did not like me.

I only really use it is a 'friend count' site similar to facebook. "Look at my vast network muah ah ah a".
Might have to start relying on it shortly for finding a new position, though.

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Robdemanc
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17 Feb 2012, 1:41 pm

I wonder if it is worth putting that I have Aspergers on my linkedIn. I thought of doing it because most of my ex colleagues must think I am just a freak so if I put that at least they may have some kind of explanation. Is that a wise idea do you think?

Logan5
Deinonychus

Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 398
Location: Sanctuary

19 Feb 2012, 9:31 pm

For what it is worth, the founder and chairman of LinkedIn has recently co-authored a book:
"The start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself and Transform your Career", by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, Crown Business/Random House Business Books, $26/£12.99.

Here is a review:

Quote:

"At work, it’s who you know that matters"
By Richard Waters
February 1, 2012 6:34 pm
http://www.ft.com/

Has a mastery of social networking become a prerequisite for a successful working life? If “friending” and tweeting are now essential skills for the professional classes, where does that leave the chronically network-challenged? And how do you get into the networks where the power-players hang out?

Questions such as these spring inevitably – and uncomfortably – to mind as you read The Start-up of You, a book co-authored by Reid Hoffman, founder and chairman of LinkedIn.

The premise is simple: in a world in which job security has become a thing of the past, who you know is more important than it ever has been. And with a host of new online tools to help you establish your identity and connect with people who might further your interests, to remain un-networked is to risk being excluded from the modern working world.

If this sounds self-serving, Hoffman at least does not cram LinkedIn down the throats of his readers. His case is a bigger one. Individual careers, he claims, are becoming like the start-ups he has led, and funded, in Silicon Valley: they take plenty of hustle and constant networking to build, and they often change course several times before any sort of pattern emerges.

For an idea of the sort of career this implies, look no further than Ben Casnocha, Hoffman’s co-author. On LinkedIn, he describes himself as “a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, author, blogger, traveller, and most of all, learner”. He doesn’t divulge his age but in 2001, when he was 14, he was already a two-time entrepreneur.

In the future, this book suggests, we will all live in a similar emergent state, a sort of permanent becoming. And it will take online social networks to lubricate the relationships that make such lives possible.

This will sound alien and scary to nine-to-fivers. That, though, is even more reason to dip a toe in the water. “Many people are repulsed by networking,” the authors write, before going on to produce a basic guide on how to go about it (and not just online). There isn’t much that will be news here for the most socially attuned but it’s a brisk introduction for the less adept.

Hoffman draws on the experience of his Silicon Valley circle as a model. There was the time, for instance, that he introduced Peter Thiel, an old business school friend, to a young Harvard dropout named Mark Zuckerberg (the $500,000 investment Mr Thiel made after that introduction will be worth billions of dollars when Facebook goes public). Or when he cut Mark Pincus, founder of social gaming company Zynga, in on an investment in Facebook – a favour that was repaid with the chance to invest in Zynga and join its board.

The consolation for the rest of us? “An alliance can be enriching even if millions of dollars are not at stake,” Hoffman says. Perhaps – but the millions certainly help.

All of which prompts a question: in a winner-takes-all world, do the networks of the rich and powerful become self-reinforcing? For all Hoffman’s claims that the lives of successful Silicon Valley zillionaires are a useful model, one cannot escape the sense that he moves in a rarefied world in which a you-scratch-my-back chumminess excludes the less fortunate.

Personal networks, of course, have always been the lifeblood of business. In the age of LinkedIn and Facebook, they are at least becoming less tied to accidents of place and social background. And ultimately, it is the optimism of Silicon Valley that infuses this book: there is still hope for those striving to break into the charmed circle.

camelia
Raven
Raven

Joined: 5 Aug 2011
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 121

03 Apr 2013, 7:57 am

kritie wrote:

So should we delete a rec from a friend? Does it look THAT bad?

How much do you value the "endorsements" section?

_________________
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WrongWay
Toucan
Toucan

Joined: 13 Feb 2013
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 261

11 Apr 2013, 11:07 am

Robdemanc wrote:

In general don't disclose as many people misunderstand AS and disclosing can cause more problems than it solves. You can disclose to people you trust but not on a public website that others can see. If you think you really have to tell your ex-colleagues then do so directly to them only, but even then I personally wouldn't as they might think even worse things about you if they don't understand AS properly.

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blueroses
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11 Apr 2013, 4:58 pm

I haven't been job-hunting since joining LinkedIn, so I can't really speak to whether or not it's useful in regards to finding a job. I have found leads and prospective donors through it, though, so I'd say go for it. It's not a huge investment of your time and might turn out to be helpful.

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