I have some really weird connections in my account. Hell, somehow I have 3rd degree connections to Steve Wozniak and Kevin Mitnick and second degree connections to Michael Dell and President Obama. And that's without really looking... Anyone else have any odd connections?
Because it seems like a dinosaur that only old people use under the pretense that it's "professional". In other words, the BlackBerry of social networks.
That's, as opposed to Facebook - the inventors of Farmville, 24h attention-whoring and irrelevant life updates -, it IS professional. Regardless of what you think about the website itself, it's commonly used and accepted in the professional world to network and I think that's what this thread is asking for?
That conclusion is wrong: Facebook isn't inherently less professional because of those things, it's all based on what you use it for. The difference is that there's actually a choice of doing different things with FB, as opposed to being limited to shitty text on LinkedIn.
A lot of recruitment agencies use it to headhunt candidates. I was just speaking to a friend the other day who got headhunted through it and is now in a similar role at a better company with better perks.
LinkedIn is the accepted social networking standard in the business world. If you want to make professional connections, it's better to show and ask for LinkedIn than Facebook accounts. And I don't get where all the badmouthing comes from, it's a growing network with over 200 million users. MySpace is dead, yes, but LinkedIn is growing. Of course it will never be as overlord-ish as Facebook, but I don't think that the idea behind it.
Yeah, I don't get the bad mouthing either. I get headhunted all the time and I got a very nice position through LinkedIn at a previous company that I worked for.
If you want to be spammed all day by people desperate for Jobs, linkedin is for you. All I got when I was on there was people asking me for referrals, or trying to sell me network marketing bullshit, aka pyramid schemes.
Depends on your network and your profile, but I haven't had much of a problem with that. I guess the end result is that no one here has any interesting connection because no one here uses it...
Studies say that you are linked to every single one of those 7 billion people out there over an average distance of six people. That means if my moms friend knows my mom, I know my mom, I know you and you know Bill Gates, my mom's friend is almost directly connected to Bill Gates - and billions of other people. LinkedIn is a valuable source to establish connections on a business level, but just like in real life 99% of the 'connections' are more or less irrelevant. But that doesn't mean one should entirely ignore it... I'm in business school and one thing they tell us all the freaking time is that making connections is the #1 strategy to land a good job - and nowadays, this is done vastly through LinkedIn, at least the "stay-in-touch" part after the actual networking.
I feel like a dick having my linkedin acct. People often "endorse" me or whatever and I NEVER do any of that stuff, and it's often from folks that I don't even know (or don't think I know). Plus, I own my own business and get way more from FB and showing my goods there than I do on LI. I'm not ever looking for a job, and I have enough connections to get pretty much anything I need at this point already, and if I don't have a source for something, then someone I know does. It seems like it's sorta creeping in to FB territory too. I get all these connection requests from people that I absolutely do not know and that I would have zero reason to make a business connection with (as best I can tell). Do they just wanna be friends? I don't get it I'm sure it's useful for some folks, I just don't really understand what I'm supposed to use it for. Anyway, if anyone here wants to be my linkedin buddy, here you go! http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=25770691&trk=tab_pro
This explains a lot, since I'm pretty sure most of the curriculum in business schools is learning to say buzzwords like "making connections" and "networking" without barfing a little in your mouth.
They do, but judging by the people I know who graduated and got their jobs, I think everyone should at least try to say them without barfing a little. Personally I dislike this superficial "networking" shit, some people just collect business cards and feel like a big player - they are wrong. True 'connections' are nothing else but friendships and everyone can make them. Only thing that matters is who your friends are, and one should try to control that.
