Just looking for some expert tips as this board has been very helpful with providing business insights in the past. Don't have any specific questions, but I'm sure I (well, more importantly my son) and many others here could benefit from a thread topic on this.
OT: LinkedIn Help
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Simple tip - put enough info on there to make it interesting and keep it updated as you gain more experience. I got my last job thru LinkedIn and get a lot of recruiters (direct and third-party) contacting me with job opportunities all the time. I know it sounds terrible and cookie cutter, but put as many industry buzzwords into it as you can. the recruiters are HR people who don't understand the actual business in great depth, so they depend on these buzzwords in their searches.
I've been on LinkedIn for 10 years or so, and I still have no idea what the point of it is, or how they make money off it.
What is your use case for setting up LinkedIn? Is it for identifying potential job opportunities, identifying prospective employees or leveraging the platform for business development purposes? That will dictate the value you will ultimately extract from the platform.
I run business development at a financial technology company and use LinkedIn exhaustively and almost exclusively for prospecting potential sales and business development opportunities.
I created a LinkedIn account about 10 years ago and deleted it about a year later because I couldn't see the value of it. I was hoping this thread might help me determine if there is some value for me, and maybe I'd create another account now.
I can see some value if you are actively looking for a job, because LinkedIn can act as a bulletin board for you to post your resume. I can also see the value if you are in HR (or have a similar type function) where you need to look for candidates to hire.
Although I have done a lot of hiring, I have never hired anyone through LinkedIn (though it is possible that my HR dept has identified candidates through LinkedIn).
Beta mentioned that he uses LinkedIn for business development purposes. But I don't have that need and I don't necessarily want others to use my information on LinkedIn to contact me to sell me stuff.
So I am really wondering what the value is to me if I were to set up a LinkedIn account.
If you post a picture of yourself, make it professional or at least in line with your industry. This is not a social media network, even though they're trying to make themselves one.
Be wary about adding in your current company, because it does give management and HR a way to track you.
Be wary about adding in your current company, because it does give management and HR a way to track you.
I was checking an applicants background this week and hit their linkedIn profile. I didn't realize I was still logged in, but it showed me that someone I am connected to on LinkedIn was connected to this applicant. Having a profile good. Building up connections can make it much more useful.
I use it daily and have connected with multiple people and their companies and done a significant amount of business as a result. LinkedIn provides many training classes on-line that will help you get maximum value from it. Two suggestions: first, be complete and truthful with the info you provide and second only connect with people you know or that are connected with you somehow. It's well worth the $19.95/mo. I pay for Premium.
The best thing for your son is that linkedin becomes your electronic roll-a-dex. Business colleagues move, change cell numbers, change office numbers, change emails and in the past you would lose touch of them. However they update their LinkedIn.
I would strongly recommend that your son reach out and connect with all of his college buddies now. It's kinda weird but I bet that if some old random acquaintance contacts you out of the blue thru Linkedin vs. not thru LinkedIn you are more likely to respond to the LinkedIn contact.
It is fantastic for networking mindlessly.
I would strongly recommend that your son reach out and connect with all of his college buddies now. It's kinda weird but I bet that if some old random acquaintance contacts you out of the blue thru Linkedin vs. not thru LinkedIn you are more likely to respond to the LinkedIn contact.
It is fantastic for networking mindlessly.
This is good advice. Connect to college buddy's now. When he gets an internship, connect with the people he is working with while working with them. He can contact them later while looking for future jobs. I'm in the pharma industry and people bounce around from company to company and LinkedIn is the best way to stay connected to them.
Disagree. As a former hiring manager, I never thought one of my reports having a LinkedIn profile was an indicator that they were looking for a new job. It's just part of the current professional "look".
In a later professional life, I worked as a an executive recruiter, and LinkedIn helped me to identify candidates for Job Orders that I would contact via e-mail, telephone or, if necessary, InMail, to ascertain interest in the position.
I am in a private law firm that does intellectual property law work. Largely a complete waste of my time, and get lots of connection requests from potential vendors/sales for services we do not need. Never hired someone from LinkedIn, never got a client from LinkedIn, and I wonder why I continue to keep up my account. Had a friend who had three times the Linked in Connections that I had boasting over his number of connections, and I asked how many clients or employees did he get through LinkedIn and he said none.
Interesting discussion. I have a half-assed LinkedIn account and don't really use it much. It might help, but I just don't see that much potential in it for what I do.
RU85inFla nailed one big advantage in using it as a cloud-based rolodex. People move around so much in some industries that keeping a rolodex in your email or via business card can be useless. I have a drawer full of business cards of people that have moved on to other positions, with completely different contact info. Also good for connecting to folks you'd never connect to otherwise.
I could see the advantage of using it as an electronic rolodex. But I have my email contacts list that serves the same purpose. As my colleagues and I have changed jobs over the years, we've traded personal email addresses. I guess LinkedIn saves you from having to share your personal email, but the flip side of that is if I'm not willing to share my personal email with someone, they're not likely to be someone I'd contact in 3 years through LinkedIn either.
Yeah it really depends what you do and how you like to operate, I reckon. I have few close contacts but hundreds who I may or may never need to get in touch with one day ... sometimes years after I met them. Many of them are in high turnover positions, so by the time I do contact them, their company/position/contact info has very likely changed. To answer KnightShift's question, it's not even worth the time to organize them into Outlook, unless initial contact is via email and it can be done quickly and painlessly.
LinkedIn is a good solution for that kind of situation because your contact info is the person, not the position.
I have connections with people on LinkedIn that I don't know well, but had some contact with them. If I am looking for a new job and they work for a company that has a job opening I contact them and ask about the company, culture etc. it has worked out for me. I even had a connection contact me about a job opening at my company and after a few emails and phone conversations I submitted the resume for them and received a referral bonus !!!!
I'm in pharma as well and this hits the nail on the head. LinkedIn is great for keeping in touch with peers and colleagues.
I updated my profile a couple months ago for the first time in years and had two recruiters contacting me about a job the next day. It's all about keywords. Programs that you use that other companies want you to be familiar with. Etc.
TIP- If you're going to try to make a connection (the linkedin version of a facebook "friend request") write a note to the person when you do so, explaining who you are and why you want to connect. I delete every cold call connection request that doesn't include some reason why Im being asked.
Same here. I find it useless in the legal field. I'm absolutely stunned it is about to be sold for more than $20 billion!