LinkedIn - how useful is it?

[floppy]

slmkhoo:

How useful is a LinkedIn profile? Is it troublesome to have and maintain?

Depending on the industry that you are in, it can be very useful in generating leads, getting referrals, establishing contacts, headhunted, etc.

You only have to set up your profile and update the info once, and you will be good to go. Will take you 30 minutes the first time round but if you have the required info on a resume, you can always transfer them over (and shorten the data entry process).

Along the way, unless you have some updates (not the Facebook kind of status updates), there isn't a real need to update / maintain it.

[hquek]

Have heard of job openings (by HR of companies/ headhunters) via that channel.

[sky minecrafter]

slmkhoo:

How useful is a LinkedIn profile? Is it troublesome to have and maintain?

Agree with floppy & hquek. Very useful, worth the effort to maintain. Banking, IT, Supplier Relationship Management... From a real instance, one could be seated in Singapore, under country A's payroll, doing supplier management of country B.

[Jennifer]

You might get many invites to Link with someone.


In a way receiving these invites in emails and acting on them - accept or decline is part of maintaining the account.

[sharonkhoo]

Jennifer:

You might get many invites to Link with someone.


In a way receiving these invites in emails and acting on them - accept or decline is part of maintaining the account.

I just set up an account, but set the options to not getting emails and not sending them out either. I just have a profile available for people who want to see my resume.

[happyheart]

slmkhoo:

Jennifer:

You might get many invites to Link with someone.


In a way receiving these invites in emails and acting on them - accept or decline is part of maintaining the account.

I just set up an account, but set the options to not getting emails and not sending them out either. I just have a profile available for people who want to see my resume.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool to connect you to people professionally. If you set up the account for the purpose of job opportunities, I suggest you do not opt out the emails as people may want to reach out to you. For a start, to build your connection, it is fine to set as open so that you can get more people to look at your profile. At times, you will be surprised with the opportunities that come knocking at your door through this channel. A lot of employers use this media to look for potential candidate .

[Jennifer]

happyheart:

slmkhoo:

[quote=\"Jennifer\"]You might get many invites to Link with someone.


In a way receiving these invites in emails and acting on them - accept or decline is part of maintaining the account.

I just set up an account, but set the options to not getting emails and not sending them out either. I just have a profile available for people who want to see my resume.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool to connect you to people professionally. If you set up the account for the purpose of job opportunities, I suggest you do not opt out the emails as people may want to reach out to you. For a start, to build your connection, it is fine to set as open so that you can get more people to look at your profile. At times, you will be surprised with the opportunities that come knocking at your door through this channel. A lot of employers use this media to look for potential candidate .[/quote]get linked up with another person who has a wide number of contacts.

If I am not wrong, LinkedIn is like FB, you can link up with the contacts of the person you linked to.
This way, more people will get to know you.

[sharonkhoo]

happyheart:

slmkhoo:

[quote=\"Jennifer\"]You might get many invites to Link with someone.


In a way receiving these invites in emails and acting on them - accept or decline is part of maintaining the account.

I just set up an account, but set the options to not getting emails and not sending them out either. I just have a profile available for people who want to see my resume.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool to connect you to people professionally. If you set up the account for the purpose of job opportunities, I suggest you do not opt out the emails as people may want to reach out to you. For a start, to build your connection, it is fine to set as open so that you can get more people to look at your profile. At times, you will be surprised with the opportunities that come knocking at your door through this channel. A lot of employers use this media to look for potential candidate .[/quote]I understand what you mean, but I just feel very uncomfortable about being so linked up. I've avoided social media for that reason too. Baby steps - maybe one day I'll feel able to make info about myself more freely available...

[floppy]

slmkhoo:

I understand what you mean, but I just feel very uncomfortable about being so linked up. I've avoided social media for that reason too. Baby steps - maybe one day I'll feel able to make info about myself more freely available...

If you want to use LinkedIn as a platform for recruiters / headhunters to find you, you can't avoid putting up info about yourself. You can limit those info to your professional life and not social ones though. At the bare minimum, there has to be enough info for recruiter to sieve out whether your match the candidate profile. Also, LinkedIn has an InMail which recruiters will definitely use to contact you initially.