Using LinkedIn

I spent part of last week updating my LinkedIn profile. Since starting to look for a job, I have had a number of people ask if I am on LinkedIn. My profile hasn’t been totally complete (still isn’t). It is something that takes time to complete by adding connections and getting recommendations. But there are advantages to getting it done.

I first heard of the importance of using LinkedIn from Paul Allen. Paul has wrote a lot about it on his blog and I’m sure will continue to do so. Then at the beginning of the year, Guy Kawasaki wrote a few posts on his blog that convinced me even more that I needed to keep an updated profile, with or without a job. You never know when something unexpected happens. You can only be prepared.

For those of you who aren’t aware of what LinkedIn is, read the wikipedia entry. And then get a profile if you don’t have one. They will help you no matter what your career-entrepreneur, real estate agent, programmer, artist. Here is how anybody could use their LinkedIn profile to their advantage. If you are not on LinkedIn yet and I know you, there is a good chance you will get an invite within the next few days to join. Do what you want with the invite, but I recommend using it to your advantage and enhance your career and take it where you want it to go.

In the last few days, I have been inviting lots of colleagues to be added to my network. As I have been browsing around the LinkedIn site, I have noticed that the majority of people do not have an updated profile or their profile is very incomplete, much like my profile was before I started updating it last week. Guy gives a few good pointers on updating your profile.

I can’t wait to see everybody’s profiles soon. I’m sure I will post more on LinkedIn in the future to tell how I am using it in my job search.