I have an account. I think I've updated it a few times. It usually serves to flood my inbox with messages about connections my friends have added. Typically it tells me what they are up to as well...which talking to them usually fills in that info anyway.

 

i am using Linkedin from 4 months and i have 234 connectors. it is a good social media website that is very popular among a few months.

 

LinkedIn is an excellent resource for job opportunities. I'm not even looking for a job, but I get several offers per month; well, not concrete job offer letters, you know you have to interview first for that, but I get messages from first party and third party recruiters asking if I am interested in positions. there have even been a couple of straight up offer letters without interviews, from people I've worked with in the past. The thing that puts LinkedIn above the rest is the endorsements and personal recommendations. With monster or the others, all prospective employers see is a resume; with linkedin, they get my resume along with hundreds of people who are willing to vouch for the skills I claim to have. It takes time and effort to build your network and get people to endorse you, but once you do, your profile is so much more than a resume. If you have LinkedIn and you don't see its value, its probably because you signed up, made a few connections, and then decided it was just like facebook and never went back. If you don't have a LinkedIn page, you should make one. If I lost my job tomorrow, I could go to LinkedIn and have another one within a week. I have a list of people who would employ me, or find someone to employ me in a heartbeat.

 

That was mighty enthusiastic! I'm glad this service works for you as intended.

For me, the adds/results displayed are general at best. But I'm not looking for a job either.

 

A real nuisance for me.

Emails continuously telling me that somebody has added me in their list or changed status plus (what I do not like) stupid comments about unrelated subjects. Reading garbage is not my idea of using my time.

I did not try to understand how that garbage, comments et al, comes under the LI environment. Anything looking like Facebook is good to be avoided.

Invasive/agressive communication addressed to me, I hate, whether phone calls, emails, whatever. Anything that wastes MY time.

 

I never look at the "news feed" portion of it, containing all the ads and stuff. I login maybe once every couple of weeks and check out my new endorsements, endorse other people, search for people I've met recently, approve connections from people who've searched me out, etc. I don't reply to other people's posts and I don't post anything. It's just a living resume and contact book for me.

 

That was mighty enthusiastic! I'm glad this service works for you as intended.

For me, the adds/results displayed are general at best. But I'm not looking for a job either.

LinkedIn has an advanced job search option where you can narrow your search significantly, to field, type of job, location, experience level, etc. I'm still at a job right now, but in a way am in-between jobs, as I plan to leave this one in December. The searches I've conducted using LinkedIn have been very helpful.

A real nuisance for me.

Emails continuously telling me that somebody has added me in their list or changed status plus (what I do not like) stupid comments about unrelated subjects. Reading garbage is not my idea of using my time.

I did not try to understand how that garbage, comments et al, comes under the LI environment. Anything looking like Facebook is good to be avoided.

Invasive/agressive communication addressed to me, I hate, whether phone calls, emails, whatever. Anything that wastes MY time.

If you go to your account settings you can select what you do and don't want to be notified about. I agree, the frequent emails are annoying, which is why I disabled the notifications from my settings menu.

I never look at the "news feed" portion of it, containing all the ads and stuff. I login maybe once every couple of weeks and check out my new endorsements, endorse other people, search for people I've met recently, approve connections from people who've searched me out, etc. I don't reply to other people's posts and I don't post anything. It's just a living resume and contact book for me.

Same here, I always go straight to my profile page, look through the recommended contacts, and conduct job searches. If I get a new job I'll update my profile, but that's about it.

 

I have an account, tho' not really enough time to develop it into something useful...yet. I certainly agree with Mr. Strantor up there in #23

A lot of the people that know me from various jobs before I retired, that know my skill set, are on my list, and I would love to develop that into a word-of-mouth job source.

Something like linkedin would have been nice - 20 - 30 years ago, just for the network, so to speak, because I lost a lot of jobs due to refusal to play the cheating-dishonest pad-the-bottom-line games played in the repair / service industry.

Customers of some of the places that canned me, knew what I did for them, so I always had a good repute to fall back on, but starting over repeatedly from square 1 gets <snip> old in short order.

 

My LinkedIn page is fixin to get a major overhaul. I'm out of work end of next week and need all the help I can get. I've tried to show it to AAC members, but can't since we're not "connected"

 

You can try the following: Exchange e-mails via a big-shot mail service, such as Google, Hotmail or Yahoo. Both use the mail addresses you have registered with in LinkedIn. Then try asking LinkedIn to import contacts from your mail address book and probably you'll find them there.
For example, I had exchanged a couple of mails with Bill Marsden and then LinkedIn proposed his profile as a possible contact, when I chose to import contacts from my mail.

 

eh, if I were really that interested, I guess I'd jump through those hoops, which I consider quite absurd. I'm mostly interested in showing up in searches for paying empolyers, HR staff, etc. My professional informaion is very dated.

 

You don't seem to want another job all that bad...

Not sure if you're actually following the discussion, you seem to have taken my comment out of context. I put my efforts into channels which have the best chance of paying off. Making a bunch of arbitrary connections seems like a wast of valuable marketing time. I prefer to direct my efforts towards higher reward objectives. Many think because they have hundreds of connections, they have a 'good' network, but it's more about quality than quantity. This doens't mean I'm not using LinkedIn, only that I'm trying to use it smarter. After 20 years in the field, I have a good appreciation of how to best use my marketing resources.

 

Many think because they have hundreds of connections, they have a 'good' network, but it's more about quality than quantity.

Hi BrownOut--

I see exactly where you're coming from, and in most cases you're right--Quality > Quantity. However, the thing about LinkedIn is that the more connections you have, the easier you can become connected with quality people who could really help you get a job. The more connections you have, the more people you can become connected to who might be able to point you towards a good job. That's the purpose of LinkedIn. It's not ordinary social-media (like facebook or twitter). It's much more professional and has a professional purpose.

Regards,
Matt

 

I'm very well aware of the purpose of LinkedIn. I've used it for years now. I'm not convinced that many arbitrary connections leads to quality ones. I know that's conventional wisdom, but I'm not buying it.

In my younger days, I would take any paying job. Now my search is much, much more directed. My inbox is fillled every day with jobs which are either not what I do, or in places I don't want to go. I'm not looking for any job, I'm looking for the right job.

 

Hi Danny

You are obviously not hungry enough now. Take your time and find the employer that best suits you.

All the best,
tvtech

 

Hi tvtech, no not hungry. I keep savings for those periods in between jobs. When contracting (as I am now doing) that is a necessity.

Hope you are well.

 

Hi Danny. So glad you remembered TV Tech. I missed you when you left there.

And now you are here. How are you doing ??

Remember, I was supposed to send stuff to you to check out...more than a Year ago....No problems though.

I miss people like you immensely. The quite good people that simply get fed up and move on. Never moan, never groan.

Unlike me. I never stop complaining. I have a whole World to fix And not much time.

All the best,
tvtech

 

Never better, my friend.

 

I put my efforts into channels which have the best chance of paying off. Making a bunch of arbitrary connections seems like a wast of valuable marketing time. I prefer to direct my efforts towards higher reward objectives. Many think because they have hundreds of connections, they have a 'good' network, but it's more about quality than quantity.

I totally agree. I'm actually a little funny about who I will connect with on Linkedin. My sister's connection sat in my inbox for weeks until she finally confronted me about it; I didn't add her because I didn't think that having a "stay at home mom/ Doula in training" would do much to improve my network or hers either. Same reason I didn't add my "Drive through server/full time student" brother in law. When someone clicks on my profile, I want them to see that I'm connected to Controls Engineers, Project Managers, Systems Integrators, Talent Acquisition people (for the sole reason of promoting the idea that I'm in high demand), VPs, Maintenance Managers, etc., and that these qualified people (who have all had first hand dealings with me in the past) vouch for me. My sister or my brother in law endorsing me for PLC programming or Electro-hydraulic systems troubleshooting wouldn't lift me up at all; actually, it would drag me down if anybody took the time to drill into my profile and found out who they were.

Not adding my family probably sounds harsh, and you'll probably ask "what if the shoe were on the other foot?" Well, sometimes it is. A lot of the connections I attempt to make, don't go through. I see that they looked over my page and didn't approve the connection. They apparently didn't think that having me as a connection would be of any benefit to them. It sucks, but I move on.

I don't arbitrarily connect with people I've never met or spoken with. I can explain everybody in my connections. There are a few I've connected with that I've never had dealings with, but they were added strategically on case-by-case basis for different reasons. I only have 145 connections, but I have more endorsements than connections. I know several people who have 500+ connections and less endorsements than I do. Mine isn't the most impressive profile by any means; just emphasizing quality over quantity.

 

I totally agree. I'm actually a little funny about who I will connect with on Linkedin. My sister's connection sat in my inbox for weeks until she finally confronted me about it; I didn't add her because I didn't think that having a "stay at home mom/ Doula in training" would do much to improve my network or hers either. Same reason I didn't add my "Drive through server/full time student" brother in law. When someone clicks on my profile, I want them to see that I'm connected to Controls Engineers, Project Managers, Systems Integrators, Talent Acquisition people (for the sole reason of promoting the idea that I'm in high demand), VPs, Maintenance Managers, etc., and that these qualified people (who have all had first hand dealings with me in the past) vouch for me. My sister or my brother in law endorsing me for PLC programming or Electro-hydraulic systems troubleshooting wouldn't lift me up at all; actually, it would drag me down if anybody took the time to drill into my profile and found out who they were.

Not adding my family probably sounds harsh, and you'll probably ask "what if the shoe were on the other foot?" Well, sometimes it is. A lot of the connections I attempt to make, don't go through. I see that they looked over my page and didn't approve the connection. They apparently didn't think that having me as a connection would be of any benefit to them. It sucks, but I move on.

I don't arbitrarily connect with people I've never met or spoken with. I can explain everybody in my connections. There are a few I've connected with that I've never had dealings with, but they were added strategically on case-by-case basis for different reasons. I only have 145 connections, but I have more endorsements than connections. I know several people who have 500+ connections and less endorsements than I do. Mine isn't the most impressive profile by any means; just emphasizing quality over quantity.

Exactly right. I have a little over 100 connections, but I, too, can explain every one of them. Most are engineers, people I have worked with in the past, whose connections I feel I could benefit from.