7/3/08

LinkedIn: My Take

On the long passed recommendation of T-Bone, I finally joined LinkedIn, whose mission is "to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have." I was ashamed it took this long, but after a week of using it, I'm not completely convinced I was missing out on anything particularly critical.

My connections list is not a bad piece of work, but I have had trouble adding some of my most important contacts; some of my past clients have told me that this site is blocked by their work. Another thing I kind of don't like - no, wait - hate is this email connection business. If I wanted to just email these people I would use my friggin' email. That's why I want them to get the message on LinkedIn, not in their email box.

Finally, I have already talked to a couple of people that are having trouble recommending me (insert "you suck" jokes here). I have asked them and they have had trouble with the link and the website keeps dropping errors on them. That's nice: I'm trying to get recommendations and it's only frustrating the people that I'm asking. That's real nice. Hence, the "social" part of this website is awkward and not fantastically user-friendly, at least not for me and my peeps just yet.

Of course, I scoured the Internet to see what others are saying and it's a mixed bag. Some people love it. Some people think it's lame and boring. Some find incredible opportunities with it and others are just on it to show up. Right now, I'm just using it as an online resume, mainly because I'm a bit to lazy to put one together myself. Check out my public LinkedIn site at http://www.linkedin.com/in/evagro.

Here's some additional reading you might want to check out about LinkedIn:

4 comments:

Carlie said...

I signed up for linkedin a while back and saw it as just another thing I didn't want to deal with. I really didn't see the added value to my life. So I deleted my account. But I still keep getting emails from them. I tried to turn off the emails, but I couldn't sign into my account to turn it off because I deleted the account. Bunk!

Amy said...

I have to admit, I've never really been able to figure out what to use it for. I signed up at some point just to check it out, and when I tried to cancel my account after I decided I didn't want it, I got an error message. So whatever...

Maybe I should read the 100 things to use it for and get my account going again? (Something to do when I'm REALLY bored?)

I tend to think I'm too dyslexic for social media. Seriously. Like, I have a facebook account, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing with it other than logging in randomly when I get an email to approve someone new for my friends list. Digg and Stumble I get (sorta). The others, not so much.

pandamans said...

Well, I just used it to introduce myself to the chair of a committee for MLA that I'm interested in participating in. My resume on the site is fairly current - so it probably gave him a good idea of what I'm capable of and it did so in a way that was somewhat less in your face than a cold call or email.

I can't say that I've used it extensively - but it's nice to see how other people connect me to other people - in case I need an introduction somewhere down the line.

Unknown said...

"don't go. we will always be here if you need us. you knwo the log in information"

-heartless website