Advantages of using Linkedin.com

Hello,

I have never setup a Linkedin account. Has anyone had decent success "networking" with this site? I'm at point where I want to get my feelers out there.
I have friends that use it (they are in different fields), and have been contacted or contacted other people within their field. I am looking for an IT perspective.

Thanks.

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Comments

BradleyHU

eMeS wrote: »

This strikes me as funny.

"LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 60 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals."

If 60 million members isn't "mass appeal" then what is?

Is this less membership than Facebook and MySpace? Without a doubt. However, you do have to be 18 to register on LinkedIn.

MS

ok, maybe i should have phrased it differently. LinkedIn never got the publicity that twitter, myspace & facebook got. and like you said, it professional networking. I've gotten contacted for interviews off of LinkedIn, i even found a few job openings on their job search section on there. so i know its used by a good amount of pplz.

dynamik

eMeS wrote: »

To be fair, aren't all of your "friends" really just people who feel sorry for you?

MS

No, some are just strangers I pay to spend time with me to help keep the loneliness at bay.

eMeS wrote: »

Despite all of this, IMO the dumbest thing on LinkedIn is the TripIt application, which handily displays when and where someone is traveling, and keeps a log of past travel activities....

MS

I love TripIt, but I'm very selective with posting that type of information publicly. I'm currently only TripIt friends (or whatever) with astorrs.

eMeS

dynamik wrote: »

No, some are just strangers I pay to spend time with me to help keep the loneliness at bay.

Now I understand what you meant when you said that you "like" San Francisco....

Try Mitchell Brothers....

MS

eMeS

dynamik wrote: »

I love TripIt, but I'm very selective with posting that type of information publicly. I'm currently only TripIt friends (or whatever) with astorrs.

This is a good point, given that astorrs is Canadian.

FACT: Canadians are more likely to break into your house and leave valuables.

FACT: These last two replies were two posts instead of one because I like to keep my post count at or near 10% of yours.

FACT: Writing "FACT" in capital letters before a statement makes it more true.

tpatt100

eMeS wrote: »

In fairness though, it's possible, and people often do, display similar information about themselves on LinkedIn, and in many other ways as well.

Almost everyday I see people that display on LinkedIn their political affections, religious preferences and other personally-related things that most of us wouldn't want prospective employers/customers seeing. I probably have 1 or 2 things on my profile that are a bit iffy from a professional standpoint.

Generally I don't care what people think or do on their own. That's everyone's own business. As an potential employer for someone what I definitely don't want is that kind of stuff blatantly shoved in my face. I don't care if someone is a member of the democratic, republican, or racoon **** hair political party. What I would care about is if someone has a personal mission to convert others to their way of thinking.

Occasionally in the middle of the night if I need something I have to head up to the local Wal-Mart. There is a young woman that works there. On her smock she wears a piece of flair that says "Make the Scary Republican Go Away!". I live in Texas, which at the moment is mostly Republican. I don't even completely disagree with her sentiment. However, I really don't want to see nonsense like that advertised in my face when I go to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night to buy bananas for my kid's breakfast the next day.

Back to LinkedIn, I have one connection whom I worked with about 10+ years ago. He is a CIO at a small financial services company in New England. He regularly connects on LinkedIn to high-end escorts and prostitutes. It's very obvious and it gets communicated to all of his connections....

Despite all of this, IMO the dumbest thing on LinkedIn is the TripIt application, which handily displays when and where someone is traveling, and keeps a log of past travel activities....

MS

I have had some political discussions pop up in some groups I belong to in LinkedIn but majority of the time nobody gets involved and they die pretty quickly. I just prefer to keep my opinions to myself until I get comfortable with coworkers and back off if some people get nasty. Bad enough I have to dig through all the "I hate Obama" emails at work to find the stuff that is work related. Kind of lame considering the government is our only customer. Wish somebody would lay down the ban hammer at work on that stuff.

eMeS

tpatt100 wrote: »

I have had some political discussions pop up in some groups I belong to in LinkedIn but majority of the time nobody gets involved and they die pretty quickly. I just prefer to keep my opinions to myself until I get comfortable with coworkers and back off if some people get nasty. Bad enough I have to dig through all the "I hate Obama" emails at work to find the stuff that is work related. Kind of lame considering the government is our only customer. Wish somebody would lay down the ban hammer at work on that stuff.

Yeah, that stuff is annoying. Back in the day there used to be an email that went around about how many people the Clinton's had killed. After that, there was basically the same email about Bush II.

Way back in the day before email was so big, spam and stuff like this used to come regularly through fax machine...does anyone else remember that?

Back to LI. I was originally referring to some of the groups that are out there. There's a group for anything on LI, and being a member of some could give people the wrong impression.

The discussions, even the ones that are quasi-professional, often border on the absurd and foolish. I can't tell you how many times in various groups I've seen links to **** posted, even by people who should know better.

MS

Turgon

Linkedin can be useful if you have a few years of good endorsements behind you. Point an agent or potential client at it and it wont do you any harm. It helped me. Then again no one is going to publish an endorsement that makes you look bad..but still.

veritas_libertas

eMeS wrote: »

Back to LI. I was originally referring to some of the groups that are out there. There's a group for anything on LI, and being a member of some could give people the wrong impression.

+1, I have noticed many very unprofessional looking groups on LinkedIN. I was frustrated when I went to join one that required you also be in a higher level group to join it. Then I found out something very useful, you can hide groups that you are a member of as well! Very nice... I have also decided that I don't want to be a member of more than four groups, otherwise you look like the car that is pasted in bumper stickers.

bertieb

Bit late reading this thread, but I have to say that several of eMeS' posts on here are pure quality and made me laugh out loud (literally).

Personally, I tend to use LinkedIn for business contacts etc and FB well, because I'm told to use it by the missus who obviously wants to check up on me and review (the ladies in) my friends list at every opportunity

SephStorm

I defiantly see LinkedIn as a growing, and beneficial tool. Whether you are looking for a professional organization to join, a job, or just to meet people in the industry, I check mine nearly everyday.

earweed

LI will start growing faster when FB starts charging people.

SephStorm

I don't even know why FB is even being brought up here, hopefully the high school kids haven't even heard of linkedin.

eMeS

One of my more annoying links on LinkedIn posted this article in her status:

NorthJersey.com: Your online presence: two extremely different views

"Only 7 percent of Americans surveyed believe information about them online affected their job search, while 70 percent of American recruiters and HR professionals have rejected candidates based on information they found online."

MS

Turgon

eMeS wrote: »

One of my more annoying links on LinkedIn posted this article in her status:

NorthJersey.com: Your online presence: two extremely different views

"Only 7 percent of Americans surveyed believe information about them online affected their job search, while 70 percent of American recruiters and HR professionals have rejected candidates based on information they found online."

MS

It happens. The problem is any clown who doesn't like you can post something defamatory about you on the web and it becomes currency. I think in the states though you can get a lawyer involved quickly and resolve matters can't you? In other countries its a grey area. The legal process just doesn't want to get involved.

I recall one US IT Pro I know who had problems with someone *dissing* him online and he sent the legal letter in to warn them of their actions. They promptly published his letter on their website and continued the tirade begging him to try and sue them. A few weeks later there was no trace of any of the nonsense online.

I dont know what happened but it worked.

eMeS

Turgon wrote: »

I think in the states though you can get a lawyer involved quickly and resolve matters can't you?

Not sure about quickly, but then again our legal system typically moves in relation to how much money you put into it.

In this case I would think threatening a defamation or libel suit would be what happened. The problem comes in when what is being said is true, and is therefore not libelous.

Also I think the information that people post about themselves on FaceBook or wherever is often much more dangerous than what some other random person might say.

MS