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HiroProtagonist posted:Personally, I would see this as a little weird. By all means, research the company and pepper any solicitations with relevant information that you find, but researching someone specific is probably both more than a little difficult and may potentially come off as inappropriate to the person you're contacting. (read: easy to come off as creepy.) I should have mentioned I'm coming from a science background where knowing someone's work before speaking with them is essential. That probably doesn't apply for other situations.
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Feb 10, 2013 15:58
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I have two stupid questions: Do you have to put a picture up? I'm not totally comfortable putting a picture of myself online, especially on a site where anyone can view it. It doesn't help that I don't have any professional looking pictures of myself, and I really don't photograph well at all. I've got a small network in the city I live in right now. That would be nice if I was going to stay here, but I plan on moving to another city where I have no contacts and nobody in my network has relevant ones in that city. Any suggestions?
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Feb 11, 2013 19:02
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It will keep you from being in the profile complete range. I've seen some people upload logos instead of pictures. I'm not sure how that looks to anyone interacting with you professionally though.
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Feb 11, 2013 19:19
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Is there a list of things I can do to finish my profile? I'm sitting at 85% and it keeps telling me to update things that are already up to date.
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Feb 11, 2013 19:44
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SaltLick posted:Is there a list of things I can do to finish my profile? I'm sitting at 85% and it keeps telling me to update things that are already up to date. When I was finishing my profile, what kept me from 100% for a long time was that I needed to have 50 contacts. That could be it.
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Feb 11, 2013 20:00
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Fame Throwa posted:Do you have to put a picture up? I'm not totally comfortable putting a picture of myself online, especially on a site where anyone can view it. It doesn't help that I don't have any professional looking pictures of myself, and I really don't photograph well at all. If I were a recruiter searching for someone to hire I'd probably skip everyone without a photo. Not because I care what they look like, but because I assume anyone without a photo doesn't use LinkedIn very often and I don't want to waste my (limited) time on profiles that aren't up to date or people who don't check messages from LinkedIn. -RTB edit: From WSJ blog "LinkedIn profiles that include a photograph are seven times more likely to be viewed than those that don’t, according to company stats. Without a photo, you’ll be more likely miss out on a job rather than land one. " Source RTB fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Feb 11, 2013 |
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Feb 11, 2013 21:37
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RTB posted:Thought I’d share something about LinkedIn that people often overlook. I have a pretty goofy headline. I like it because it's actually true and super unique (not "Rockstar Ninja" or some buzzword BS), and usually sparks conversations with new connections and within companies I work at. To be honest though, I'm not sure how well it plays outside my current network/company. I didn't feel too compelled to be super serious when I was working my way up through entry level, but now that I'm facing moving up to a managerial role and starting to field some more recruiters, I don't want my inside joke of a headline to give some weird impression. Any opinions?
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Feb 11, 2013 22:10
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Three of Clubs posted:When I was finishing my profile, what kept me from 100% for a long time was that I needed to have 50 contacts. That could be it. Sure enough the second I hit 50 it jumped up. Now to figure out this last 5%. I'm guessing it's getting a recommendation from someone.
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Feb 12, 2013 01:19
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I used a photo of me giving a presentation in front of a large group. I think it does a good job of showing me doing something important looking while also not making me feel like I'm being judged on my appearance or something.
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Feb 12, 2013 01:34
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Dr_Amazing posted:I used a photo of me giving a presentation in front of a large group. I think it does a good job of showing me doing something important looking while also not making me feel like I'm being judged on my appearance or something. I think that this would be a good sort of photo for an organizer or team leader.
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Feb 12, 2013 03:41
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Trying to join Stairmasters, but haven't gotten approved. 
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Feb 12, 2013 07:50
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SaltLick posted:Sure enough the second I hit 50 it jumped up. Now to figure out this last 5%. I'm guessing it's getting a recommendation from someone. I don't think that is it as I am on 100% without any recommendations. I am out of ideas.
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Feb 12, 2013 07:57
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Fame Throwa posted:I have two stupid questions: Yes, absolutely. If you don't photograph well as you say, you need to either get a photographer friend to help out, or take head shots. You absolutely need a professional, attractive picture on Linkedin. Fame Throwa posted:I've got a small network in the city I live in right now. That would be nice if I was going to stay here, but I plan on moving to another city where I have no contacts and nobody in my network has relevant ones in that city. Any suggestions? It depends on the industry you're in. Can you elaborate?
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Feb 12, 2013 08:16
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Matlock posted:Trying to join Stairmasters, but haven't gotten approved. Sorry about this. Actually the mailbox feature of linkedin is blocked by my office VPN for whatever reason, so I'm only able to approve people when I'm at home. If anyone else wants to be an admin of the group, just let me know. I asked in the last thread and got no volunteers. Or I could just make it a free group I guess, whatever you guys want.
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Feb 12, 2013 08:46
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zmcnulty posted:Sorry about this. Actually the mailbox feature of linkedin is blocked by my office VPN for whatever reason, so I'm only able to approve people when I'm at home. What good is the group? Does it have a separate discussion board, or something? Can other people see that I'm in a group called "Stairmasters"?
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Feb 12, 2013 12:14
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Got my profile sitting at a lovely 90% complete, gunning for the 50 contacts. I'm tracking down my friends, school mates, teachers, pretty much anyone I've talked to in my life but its frustrating waiting for the responses. A lot of the recommendations for companies seems to be a bit skewed for me, I've worked in a variety of different sectors like museums and children's activities but just getting the museum stuff, any pointers to get a more even selection?
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Feb 12, 2013 13:20
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DukAmok posted:I have a pretty goofy headline. I like it because it's actually true and super unique (not "Rockstar Ninja" or some buzzword BS), and usually sparks conversations with new connections and within companies I work at. To be honest though, I'm not sure how well it plays outside my current network/company. I didn't feel too compelled to be super serious when I was working my way up through entry level, but now that I'm facing moving up to a managerial role and starting to field some more recruiters, I don't want my inside joke of a headline to give some weird impression. Any opinions? I always go back to the recruiter test - If a recruiter for my dream job saw this, would they be more or less likely to click through to my profile? Recruiters are often busy, so I tend to keep it more to the point. Job title plus some certifications/accomplishments/awards you’ve received that make you stand out above others. That said, I think it also depends a lot on your industry and what your current goals are. A unique/fun headline like yours could also help weed out boring recruiters and provide a filter so you’re only getting found by less uptight companies. That’s perfectly fine as long as you’re aware of it and it’s what you want. Finally, don’t feel like you have to come up with something perfect today. You can change it every week/month if you want to see what works the best. Just making it non-generic will already put you ahead of most LinkedIn users.
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Feb 12, 2013 16:35
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Temascos posted:Got my profile sitting at a lovely 90% complete, gunning for the 50 contacts. I'm tracking down my friends, school mates, teachers, pretty much anyone I've talked to in my life but its frustrating waiting for the responses. A lot of the recommendations for companies seems to be a bit skewed for me, I've worked in a variety of different sectors like museums and children's activities but just getting the museum stuff, any pointers to get a more even selection? Don't limit yourself only to your personal contacts. Just start sending connection requests to anyone that pops up in the "you may know" box. As far as recommendations go--are you searching for "museum" or "museums" in the Jobs section of the site? I'm a little unclear where it is you're seeing these recommendations.
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Feb 12, 2013 20:05
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HiroProtagonist posted:Don't limit yourself only to your personal contacts. Just start sending connection requests to anyone that pops up in the "you may know" box. Once you start building up your contact list, this sort of snowballs since the "you may know" seems to be at least somewhat based on your current contacts. Every once in a while I'll pull up the "you may know" page and just scan through for anyone I even recognize and send them a request. This includes high school friends, former coworkers, current coworkers, family, friends of family members, coworkers of family members, pretty much anyone. I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but make a connection with pretty much anyone. It's not expected to have any more communication with them after you are a contact (like being Facebook friends implies), so the more contacts the better.
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Feb 12, 2013 22:13
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GTGastby posted:Can other people see that I'm in a group called "Stairmasters"?
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Feb 13, 2013 04:41
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ObsidianBeast posted:I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but make a connection with pretty much anyone. Absolutely. I put it in the OP for a reason.
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Feb 13, 2013 07:43
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Thanks for the help guys, got a lot more contacts who I recognised by going a bit off the beaten track. Now I just gotta wait for their responses and hopefully they'll accept me. Got an e-mail from linked in saying that I got a free month prenium membership but bizarrely enough that was not actually true. And just noticing the advice in the OP I'm not gonna bother with it.
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Feb 13, 2013 14:15
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Temascos posted:Thanks for the help guys, got a lot more contacts who I recognised by going a bit off the beaten track. Now I just gotta wait for their responses and hopefully they'll accept me.
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Feb 13, 2013 16:42
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ObsidianBeast posted:Once you start building up your contact list, this sort of snowballs since the "you may know" seems to be at least somewhat based on your current contacts. Every once in a while I'll pull up the "you may know" page and just scan through for anyone I even recognize and send them a request. This includes high school friends, former coworkers, current coworkers, family, friends of family members, coworkers of family members, pretty much anyone. I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but make a connection with pretty much anyone. It's not expected to have any more communication with them after you are a contact (like being Facebook friends implies), so the more contacts the better. Is this really the right way to do it though? I intentionally keep my LinkedIn contacts to people that I have actually worked with or had some other kind of contact with in a professional or volunteer setting. Or at least have done some type of networking with. I ignore requests from people I had a class with in high school or anyone who wouldn't be able to provide at least a passing reference for me or help me find a job in their organization. I feel like who your contacts are says something about you professionally, and adding every Tom, Dick, and Harry dilutes your pool much more than it adds to it. Having 20 contacts who work for a given company doesn't do poo poo for you if none of them would be willing to take a few minutes to help you out with a referral or to pass your resume on to their manager. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 17:13
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Thoguh posted:Is this really the right way to do it though? I intentionally keep my LinkedIn contacts to people that I have actually worked with or had some other kind of contact with in a professional or volunteer setting. Or at least have done some type of networking with. I ignore requests from people I had a class with in high school or anyone who wouldn't be able to provide at least a passing reference for me or help me find a job in their organization. I feel like who your contacts are says something about you professionally, and adding every Tom, Dick, and Harry dilutes your pool much more than it adds to it. Having 20 contacts who work for a given company doesn't do poo poo for you if none of them would be willing to take a few minutes to help you out with a referral or to pass your resume on to their manager. No one's going to go through your carefully cultivated list of connections and note your good taste in colleagues.
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Feb 13, 2013 17:43
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Thanks for this post OP. I'm getting really frustrated with job hunting. Have had two interviews, but not even heard back from the people that interviewed me. This has inspired me to give LinkedIn a serious shot.
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Feb 13, 2013 18:49
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Only having 20 connections means that your network is very tiny. You won't be able to email anyone that you search for. I have every recruiter in this part of the state as a contact so that I have ideally email anyone that's ever talked to a recruiter.
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Feb 13, 2013 18:49
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Thoguh posted:Is this really the right way to do it though? I intentionally keep my LinkedIn contacts to people that I have actually worked with or had some other kind of contact with in a professional or volunteer setting. Or at least have done some type of networking with. I ignore requests from people I had a class with in high school or anyone who wouldn't be able to provide at least a passing reference for me or help me find a job in their organization. I feel like who your contacts are says something about you professionally, and adding every Tom, Dick, and Harry dilutes your pool much more than it adds to it. Having 20 contacts who work for a given company doesn't do poo poo for you if none of them would be willing to take a few minutes to help you out with a referral or to pass your resume on to their manager. Yeah, I agree with this poster. There doesn't seem to be much point in adding people you don't know. Maybe it varies based on your field? I have ~100 contacts but they're all people I've done business or gone to school (close classmates, not any random alumni) with, plus a very few (less than 5) people I know from social settings or through my partner. I'd feel comfortable asking any of them for an introduction to a company and at least half of them for a more personalized referral.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:41
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I have just approved 68 outstanding requests for Stairmasters, sorry for the delay. I also made GTGatsby another admin because I know him irl, but if anyone else is interested let me know. Worth noting that since the beginning Stairmasters has been a members-only group, so all discussions etc. are seen only by members. Whether to show it on your profile or not is your choice, you can change this under Stairmasters - More... - Your Settings. Being a member does NOT immediately make you a connection with all members of the group, so don't worry about that. You are however free to browse the member list, remembering that all are goons, of course. Stairmasters itself isn't listed in the public groups directory either. Personally I am pretty loose with connections, since adding someone on LinkedIn and actually providing a reference are two different things. A lot of times it can just be interesting to read resumes of people in a field you are interested in or with skills you want to obtain, to see how they use them. Or if they work or have worked for a company you are interested in, maybe he/she can just provide some idea of the culture and such. Hell there are plenty of other reasons to connect with someone besides recommendations. So if anyone wants to connect with me please feel free. zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 23:23
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zmcnulty posted:Personally I am pretty loose with connections, since adding someone on LinkedIn and actually providing a reference are two different things. A lot of times it can just be interesting to read resumes of people in a field you are interested in or with skills you want to obtain, to see how they use them. Or if they work or have worked for a company you are interested in, maybe he/she can just provide some idea of the culture and such. Hell there are plenty of other reasons to connect with someone besides recommendations. So if anyone wants to connect with me please feel free. I am too. If anyone wants to connect with me, do a search of the group for the "user experience designer" in NYC and that's me. 
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Feb 13, 2013 23:38
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There's open networking (lion) and closed networking. I do closed but will probably be going open when I take the business I'm building public. I think closed makes more sense for your average employee / job seeker, open tends to be business owners, recruiters, hypemen and overzealous corporate weirdos but ymmv. I DO personally go through contact lists of anyone I encounter, to get a sense of who they're networking with. Being "open" makes them a blank, faceless slate, which is better than a list of a bunch of people working at mcdonalds fry stations, but worse to me than someone with say 1-300 legit business connections. Especially in smaller cities...I can find someone I know in basically every contact list of anyone in the surrounding metro without having gone open and I expect any potential clients to be able to do the same in my curated list of ~200 all of whom I would be comfortable having someone contact them to ask about me.
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Feb 14, 2013 23:26
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It's also worth noting that LinkedIn can be a powerful tool even if you're not job hunting. On more than one occasion, I've had clients ask something to the effect of "We really like what company <X> is doing in this tech space, does your firm have any contacts there?" and I've been able to search my network to find out that a friend-of-a-friend is in the appropriate division of Company X, and from there arrange an introduction between the parties. It's also great for arranging introductions if you have a need to speak with someone in a particular field for background knowledge or for various other other non-job-hunt networking. Looking at the service as only Monster-meets-Facebook really undervalues a lot of its utility.
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Feb 16, 2013 00:25
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This thread has convinced me to finally put together a LinkedIn profile. I had a half-assed profile that I put up last fall, but now I am working to get to 100% completion. I added 7 contacts yesterday alone just from searching for friends. I figure it's one of those things that might help and can't hurt.
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Feb 16, 2013 03:22
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A lot of people have just their job titles listed under "experience" while others have full résumé-style descriptions. Is more information always better here?
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Feb 17, 2013 20:22
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zmcnulty posted:I have just approved 68 outstanding requests for Stairmasters, sorry for the delay. I also made GTGatsby another admin because I know him irl, but if anyone else is interested let me know. Thanks! I'd be happy to admin as well. JohnnyPalace posted:I added 7 contacts yesterday alone just from searching for friends. You're absolutely right. If it doesn't stretch outside of your comfort zone, do use Linkedin's features for finding connections through your personal email and other accounts. Stultus Maximus posted:A lot of people have just their job titles listed under "experience" while others have full résumé-style descriptions. Is more information always better here? No. You should list your experience in each position, but limit it to the most eye-catching and impressive bullets (for the field you're in). If you need help figuring out what those bullets are or should be, feel free to post here, or take it to the Resumes and CVs thread and ask there. hitension posted:Yeah, I agree with this poster. There doesn't seem to be much point in adding people you don't know. I have found in most cases that this isn't the case. You have nothing to lose by adding connections, whether related or unrelated to your field. And you never know when one of those seemingly unrelated connections might get in touch with you about a job in your field. Based on how many disparate relationships (professional and personal) that everyone develops over the course of their life, it's really not worth judging connections on Linkedin in terms of potential value to you.
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Feb 18, 2013 03:34
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I have a question: is there a way to have different versions of your profile page? Seems you can do multiple translations but can you do two in English? My background is sort of... varied. I feel sort of dumb listing the fact that I ran a fairly successful videogame website while in college, right below three years of experience in finance. Nobody in finance cares about the website, but likewise, (given the nature of my work) nobody outside of finance cares about the finance. This is simple to deal with on my actual resume, since I just cherry-pick whatever experience/studies are applicable to the angle I want to push. But I haven't found a way to do that on LI. Or is the common approach to simply not list any pre-graduation jobs? HiroProtagonist posted:Thanks! I'd be happy to admin as well. Sure, I'll add you tonight.
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Feb 18, 2013 05:08
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Thanks for this thread and all the fantastic advice! It's exactly what I need at this point of my life. Applied to join the stairmasters 
econdroidbot fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Feb 19, 2013 |
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Feb 18, 2013 18:03
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I hadn't realized the importance of getting a photo on my profile until I read this thread, thanks for the tip. Just applied for Stairmasters.
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Feb 19, 2013 21:30
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Approved everyone for Stairmasters who's applied in the last day or so. Just as an alternative or option for people who really don't want to connect their professional identity with SA: echoing zmcnulty, feel free to ask questions-slash-be goony as gently caress in the discussions section. Nobody outside of the group will see it.
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Feb 20, 2013 05:47
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First of all, thanks HiroProtagonist for making this thread, knowing how to use LinkedIn looks like it is a great boon to your career, and with a very good OP to boot. My question, for now, is: I'm not in the US, and I want to focus (for now at least) on getting a job around my region, but I don't want to completely shut out any possibility of getting a job in a foreign country (I can dream, right?  ). Am I just over-thinking this and I should just go for adding foreign contacts or should I stick to local contacts? Also, should I add my information on my domestic language or should I just go for full-on English?
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