01.15.07
Making the most of LinkedIn
I think I signed up to LinkedIn.com (a professional networking site for the those not in the know) a couple of years ago and forgot about it. A couple of invitations for connections here and there prompted me to periodically update my profile but I never really thought much about it or found it terribly useful.
My thinking is changing though as it seems in the past week or so I have read a spate of articles of blog posts about how to use it more effectively and first-hand reports on how useful people have found it to be.
Guy Kawasaki has some good advice on his blog, How to Change the World. For example, if you’re a job hunter it’s a good way to research someone who is going to interview you for a job, or get reverse references for a potential employer. You can also request your profile to be indexed on search engines such as Google so that employers can more easily find you.
Penelope Trunk of the blog Brazen Careerist has also written about LinkedIn in several posts, including a Q&A session with one of the co-founders. She has also linked to a recent article on CNN saying that LinkedIn has now reached a tipping point and becoming a must-have for people in business.
So I am going to make an effort to get more out of LinkedIn, especially now that I work for myself. So if you know me (in a professional context) and we are not already “connected”, please feel free to send me an invitation. If I know your work I would also be happy to write an endorsement.
It occurs to me that it could also be a very useful tool for journalists – I am frequently in the position of trying to track down people after they’ve left companies and to be able to see all their previous workplaces and then make contact with various people they’ve worked with in the past could be an enormous help.
penelope said,
January 16, 2007 at 6.21 am
Caitlin. thank you for linking to Brazen Careerist. Eventhough Guy Kawasaki and I have both written a lot of tips for using LinkedIn, we both sort of missed the most obvious, which is that you need to treat your LinkedIn profile as seriously as you treat your resume. It needs to be focused and well-written and filled with the kind of keywords we want people to use to find us. But it doesn’t work to cut and paste a resume because the layout and information are a little different than if you were applying for a job.
Penelope
Caitlin said,
January 16, 2007 at 6.54 am
Thanks for your comment, Penelope. That’s a good point.
Juan said,
March 23, 2007 at 6.00 pm
Very true. I have heard of people who were passed over for jobs-despite their qualifications- because of the ideas that recruiters got on whether they would be a good fit as a result of looking on their MySpace page. I think the same thing applies to LinkedIn and ZoomInfo. If you use them wisely they can do wonders for your job hunting, but used poorly, they can be a thorn in your side.
Juan Rodriguez
employment blog