LinkedIN profile

[auria]

How well does this work? Has this worked well for anyone here? Why would anyone put a picture of themselves on it? Or their resume for that matter?

[antistu]

It's sort of like a Facebook for business networking. I got on it long ago when some clients requested I join. Whether it very useful or not remains to be seen.

[DeepThought]

It's necessary for business, but my profile is somewhat dormant. I don't care for any social networking. I view it as a necessary evil.

[MartinH]

Used in lieu of business cards. Useful, but recruiters call you based on your public profile.

[auria]

Used in lieu of business cards. Useful, but recruiters call you based on your public profile.

Wow, recruiters can do that?

[Warrior]

I have a profile, but I don't have a picture on it. It reads like a mini-resume, but there are more details on my full resume than I put on LinkedIn. I know people that update their profile just like they would on Facebook. Every business trip and half of their meetings seem to be reported. I don't do that. I mainly use it as a tool to present a "first look" of my resume to potential employers.

Wow, recruiters can do that?

Yeah. I probably get at least two or three emails a week from a recruiter looking for engineers. I think you get more recruiter contacts if you join some of the groups that are set up.

[jkatra]

I'm one of the people that use Linkedin frequently. I've joined about 50 Linkedin groups too and participate in discussions with people from around the world. You can even do book recommendations on it and see what people are reading. I get contacted through Linkedin much more than job websites like Monster.com. When job searching you can actually figure out who the hiring manager is if you follow people's profile links and do some creative searches.

[Malkavia]

I have it and enjoy it. I was able to network and get in contact with some great people who have helped me figure a lot of career questions out.

[antistu]

Wow, recruiters can do that?

Yeah, I have had a few head hunters contact me through there as well.

[Mogura]

Wow, recruiters can do that?
Oh, yeah. I worked as a recruiter for one day. My job was to hunt down hiring manager contact info, so senior recruiters could circumvent the HR gateway...

[Anima Mundi]

I've found it to to be useful and relevant to me, unlike Facebook. I've gotten contracts and freelance gigs because of it.

[peppersasen]

Wow, recruiters can do that?

Yes, they do. They will Google you and some very determined (or "cautious" ones) will employ paid services that look into your social networking accounts. This is why you should always use names you don't list on your resume like "peppersasen".

This is why it's so important to have an online presence. Because people will Google you and when you have a LinkedIn account or professional Twitter account for networking and such, you can control what content pops up when people Google your name. Otherwise:

It'll just be stuff that other people post about you (tagged Facebook photos, TwitPics when you're mentioned, etc.);
People with the same name.

When you create your own online presence, at least you get to control how you want people to perceive you. You can try to appear 100% straight-laced and professional or you can try to appear normal (casually mention a hobby or a favorite film/show every once in a while).

I realized how important this was when I was in a cab with my boss and my boss' boss. My boss' boss said that apparently some people have Googled her and found there was another woman were interested in the same topic as her (she's an advocate and the other is a journalist). She said she was "lucky" because at least the other person was a decent person. Some people have the same name as adult actors (not that I find anything wrong with it, personally), but some people do. Sometimes adult actors do acting gigs to pay for school. I know a gay porn actor's enrolled in an international relations master's program in New York. Unless you're okay with being mistaken for a porn actor and don't mind employers not giving you chance because they thought you were someone else/did things someone else did, you better consider controlling your online presence.

I used to think people with mixed names were immune to this kind of thing, but they're not. You know how upper-middle class Asians (especially Chinese Hong Kong peeps) have mixed names? Like: Lucy Liu, Amy Chang, William Gupta, Thomas Al-Khaidir, etc. Typically it's [Christian first name][Asian surname]. But even the weirdest combinations [Scandinavian firstname][African surnames] are shared between at least two people.

Seriously. I never understand INTJ who avoid it in the name of being introverts as I always understood it as being a strategy thing. Of course you'd avoid posting personal tweets, but opting out from it altogether is just as bad.

[Hamsta]

I've grown to love LinkedIn, and it's powerful search engine.

A few good quality connections in the industry I'm looking to find work in (computer games) let me find potential places of employment by area, and the people who will potentially employ me in these places, even without a pro account.

I might get the HR director's name and first letter of his/her surname. I would then search it in Google, along with the company name, and in most cases the first link will be right back to LinkedIn with the person's full name. :D

[MartinH]

The company information and demographics stuff is fascinating. I found out more about my company there than on the intranet (like male/female ratio, average education compared to similar companies, which companies leavers go to, where joiners from from). Very cool.

Agree re: pepper's response - professional stuff on LinkedIn and separate Twitter account, more private stuff in separate accounts or with privacy settings. Never like to be too anonymous, the idea of possibly being held accountable for what I write hopefully stopping me being quite such a dick on the Internet as I'd otherwise be. :)

[peppersasen]

The company information and demographics stuff is fascinating. I found out more about my company there than on the intranet (like male/female ratio, average education compared to similar companies, which companies leavers go to, where joiners from from). Very cool.

It also gives you an idea of whether a "common" position in the organization is age-appropriate for you.

[jinx31]

I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. Lately I've been getting a lot of sales connection requests - companies in the area that sell services that fit my current job responsibilities. I've accepted a couple based on common connections, but typically ignore most unsolicited connections.

I did recently get an invitation from a former boss who was the reason I left the company. Yeah, that one got ignored too.

[HAL 9000]

I'm holding out as long as I possibly can. FB sucks enough of my life away. Call me old fashioned, but give me a phone and someone's card.