Linked In

[Mike]

I'm a HUGE advocate for the professional version of Facebook called LinkedIn. If anyone is in the workforce anywhere in the world at any level, or you're going to be, this is almost essential in maintaining career options and searching for a job.

It's like Facebook, but it's all professional. You set up your work experience and education info, and you can have past co-workers/managers write recommendations for you that employers can view. So you build a network of connections. You can view people who are connected to your connections. You can go out one more level and see people who are connected to connections of people you are connected to. For instance,

• I have 68 connections.
  
• These connections are connected to 27,900 people
• These people are connected to over 2,590,000 people!!

When I was searching for a job, this is how I landed one. First you have to establish a network of connections (friends, family, coworkers). If you know of a company you'd like to work for, you can search for people at that company and find out who you are connected to and get an "in". You can't communicate directly with people who aren't your connection, but you can ask a connection to introduce you to them. In today's volatile market, you never know when you're going to need this support. An employer could contact you too, even if you're not looking for a new job because they saw your profile and are interested. This could mean a great career advance falls in your lap! Everyone should be on LinkedIn whether looking or not. It's very secure and very professional. No Facebook nonsense.

linkedin.com

 

[Pizzaguy]

I will consider that.