The Magical World of LinkedIn

Chances are you are familiar with LinkedIn.com. Since its launch in May 2003, it has become the de facto “professional social networking” website.

I will say this: as a recruiter, it is THE website I spend the most time on these days.

First the basics: I like to think of LinkedIn as the electronic validation of the “Six Degrees of Separation” theory. You know me, I know Bob, he knows Jane… so you are three degrees away from Jane. (Movie fans may know the film version of this theory – that everyone who has ever been in a movie is connected to Kevin Bacon within six degrees… believe it or not, I am two degrees away from him, another story for another time)

With LinkedIn you create a profile and then start inviting people into your “network.” Of course, the people in your network also invite people into their network, then those people bring people into their network, and so on and so forth. What the website then allows you to do is utilize the relationships you have established to connect with those you do not know.

It’s a great networking tool in that you can connect with just about anyone you would want! So you are looking to network with people that have a specific subject matter expertise? Run a search on RUP, or the Agile methodology, or SAP, or Medicare – whatever you want. You can narrow your search to a particular geographical area if you wanted to find someone in a particular area like the Twin Cities. You can also search for people who have worked for a particular company – so say you are an ex-Deloitte consultant who wants to network with other ex-Deloitte consultants? You can do so via LinkedIn. Oh, you went to St. Olaf and want to get back in touch with other Oles? Check out LinkedIn.

Connecting with people is easy. You can either send direct invitations to past colleagues / classmates, or utilize folks in your personal network to connect with others.

On your profile, you can indicate your areas of expertise, past companies you’ve worked with, personal interests / hobbies, and also create and receive recommendations from others.

You can also indicate why you would use LinkedIn – for example, if you are open to expertise requests, to get back in touch with others… OR… to let the world know you’d like to learn about consulting / career opportunities. Which is where we’ll focus more of our time.

Savvy job seekers have used LinkedIn for a while if they are even remotely interested in learning about new opportunities by flagging that part of their profile. This tells a recruiter that they *might* be interested in seeing what they have to offer. And recruiters like me can quickly narrow our own searches to only those who are open to hearing from us about new opportunities (which is nice – I don’t really want to bug those that don’t want to hear from me that way).

There have been three great articles written for the Star Tribune recently about LinkedIn and how it can be best utilized. Laura French, a communications consultant who writes many articles on workplace issues wrote about LinkedIn recently: http://www.startribune.com/jobs/35870194.html. In the article, the gentleman talks about “blocking” – which I disagree with. I’ll get into that later.

This article focuses specifically on why job seekers need to be LinkedIn and features a colleague of mine, Paul DeBettignies, who is one of the best recruiters in the Twin Cities: http://www.startribune.com/jobs/career/36298554.html?elr=KArks+c4iU0EyDDy_nE:EQDkD:aUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU.

And another article on the STrib recently talked about utilizing all social networking tools for job hunting, with a specific focus on LinkedIn. http://www.startribune.com/37029434.html?elr=KArksDyycyUtyycyUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

As far as personal suggestions, I have four “best practices” to keep in mind when actively looking for work on LinkedIn:

1) Without question, make sure you indicate you are open to learning about “Career Opportunities” or “Consulting Offers.” You’ll want to indicate both if you are open to both. But be sure to flag these, as they are filters recruiters will use on searches as indicated above.

2) Get your profile 100% complete. I learned recently at a seminar that if your profile is 100% complete, you will pop up higher on searches. So don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations, just be sure to return the favor. Don’t feel comfortable posting your picture? Go to http://www.faceyourmanga.it/ and create a “cartoon you” – they can be more fun anyway.

3) Don’t be afraid to accept invitations from anyone!! When someone sends you an invitation on LinkedIn, you have the opportunity to decline it. I urge you not to! There’s no reason to limit LinkedIn’s capabilities. You never know when the person sending you an invitation will be connected to the person you’d most want to hear from. In fact, I’d suggest you become an “open networker” which is an option you can select that makes it easier for anyone to connect with you. Here’s the thing – if someone you connect with ends up being a belligerent recruiter or salesperson, you can always unconnect with them in two easy steps. Should you still decide that you don’t want to accept an invite, always “archive” it as opposed to “declining” it – that’s common courtesy. (if you “decline”, it’s a black mark against the person sending the invite)

4) Be sure to invite this guy into your network: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkwalton And then let him know how he can be of help in any way!!