LinkedIn?
 

I have recently received a number of email invitations to join the "LinkedIn" professional networks of people whose names I don't recognize.

What's this all about?

Some sort of scam?

I "joined" it, but found it useless. I tried to actually contact someone on there that I knew, and they wanted money. F that.

It's a very big networking sight.. highly regarded.. Actually you CAN contact anyone on there for free, Widebody you must have tried to use one of their "advanced" features..
FWIW I know a number of recruiters who use it almost exclusively to find and recruit candidates

So why would people I don't know try to link me in?

Do they just send these things to everyone?

Did they get my name from someone?

What do they do with my details — if I send them?

Howzit work?

I get those.

They are usually people that are trying to solicit business from you.

I just ignore them.

I've gotten an invitation or two from recruiters. I'd suspect that's who you're running into.

I've gotten invites from plenty of folks with whom I had lost touch and was happy to be back in touch with. I don't pay for it. As long as you know where someone works, it's pretty easy to track down their contact info through other means. I find Facebook far more valuable. I am looking for a job, but don't want that to be on my LinkedIn page and viewable to my employer. On Facebook I can make it so only my friends can see it.

I joined LinkedIn, but that's about it, and within a few days, I recieved an email from a headhunter I'd used after my contract position with IBM ended 25 years ago (he actually did earn his fee back then - the hiring co. paid), asking me if I was me :)? From my experience in corporate america (IT), a headhunter will likely eliminate you from even being considered in many/most cases. What co is going to pay 10s of thousands to a HH when there are so many other ways to see qualified candidates in this job market...YMMV.

My company still uses a recruiter. I suspect they do it because it's cheaper than hiring someone full time to sift through resumes and conduct intial phone interviews. Besides, it wouldn't be good for my morale for me to see them advertising for my job on Careerbuilder. I got a call from a recruiter yesterday (Sunday). Hey, I'm happy to be getting calls.

Good luck Rick! My experience was with larger cos (Fortune 500s), and specifically with IT positions. I never was in management (no desire whatsoever to play that game :)), but sure evaluated plenty of resumes from a technical perspective as a senior techie, and other than one or two "recruiters with an inside track", any resume that came from an unsolicited HH was immediately "round filed". In fact, many candidates had already eliminated themselves even when they applied directly because their HH had already "shotgunned" their resume to many of the large cos in my area. I'm sure it varies greatly, but that was my experience.

My sis in law has her own recruiting co, finance people.

She's really good at what she does.

She does not simply shovel resumes to her clients. She interviews every candidate personally and only passes the truly qualified.

Her clients love her.

She makes a healthy few hundred k a year.

Funny story, 15 years ago when the wife and I got engaged, sis in law was working for a recruiting company.

One of the accounts that she was trying to get was a Hospital.

So she's talking to the Head of HR, Mr Jenkins, one day and says, "by the way, my sister is marrying a Jenkins. Do you know a Scott Jenkins" So he says "needs a haircut?, Brother named Ray?"

She says "yeah"

"He's my son"

Apparently she had been speaking to my father for months and it never occurred to her who he was, odd considering he and I sounded Identical on the phone.

Yep, the "good ones" do QUITE well and that's the "double edged sword". I'd bet that her client's use her "exclusively" (other than resumes they might receive directly), and a resume coming from another HH would be "tossed" without consideration in many cases (that was the point I was trying to make). I had one HH (a good one) that stayed in contact with me for over 20 years, then one day some bozo calls (pretending to be him, but the voice wasn't EVEN close)...haven't heard from "him" again :).

In my short time on LinkedIn I received one invite from someone I didn't know. I blocked it, pretty simple.

Regarding recruiting, all of the aviation companies in Wichita utilize headhunters/recruiters extensively. I know a lot of people that have been hired via headhunter, so they're not always time wasters.

Be careful with that. I got a request from someone too I had never heard of, blocked it. Months later I was going through my PayPal transactions and I saw a name in there I recognized as that Linked In guy I had blocked. Turns out he was a local PCA guy I had sold some parts to on eBay and he wanted to stay in touch. I think I met him at the track before that, so I felt kinda bad and went back and invited him to my network.

I've had 2 former students invite me to join their group (or whatever) on LinkedIn. I joined, but haven't heard anything else since.

JP

This was some guy from India. Totally random. If I thought I might know him, I probably would have accepted.

This was discussed covered just over a year ago. There's actually a Pelican Parts group!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/392200-linkedin.html?highlight=LinkedIn

It depends. I'm using it find new contacts down in Mexico to help me find more places to sell equipment.

It also works well to develop a network to find work, especially for contract work. HR people use it find work. And of course, you can use it to find a job.

So, depending on the business/work you do, having a network of professional people can be good. The "Group" feature allows you to join groups, and then you can connect to people in that group. Groups usually have a common theme, certain type of professional, ex-employee from somewhere, college, etc.

If you connect with people, or want to advertise yourself, it can be a good site. I have developed a couple of clients, including one unexpected from Brazil, using for only about a month.

I believe the reason recuiters and head hunters are so interested in joining your network is because that gives them access to your contacts as well. Given the fact that most folks in your network will typically be part of the same trade, it is a sure win for the head hunters. I generally don't invite HH's into my network, nor do I accept their invitation. I don't like them pimping my network list!

That said, I have joined a few groups in LinkedIn, and have found them to be useful. I've asked a couple of questions, and even answered a few technical questions related to my field - IT SAN/Storage management. That is where you can get good exposure and networking to others in your industry - ask the right questions, and answer the right ones, and you will get noticed.

Incidentally, if you didn't know, there is a Pelican Parts BBS group setup on LinkedIn. Worth joining that group, IMHO.

I like LinkedIn much better than other social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, becuase it is geared more towards the professional worker - there is no fluff, no cutsy-web pages, and no kiddies interested in such a networking website. That discourages riff-raf, (not to mention predators) from getting involved with LinkedIn.

As with anything, YMMV.

-Z-man.

It’s no scam if you know the inviter’s handle…
PP has a group on LinkedIn, you all should join it! (As Z-MAN has stated)

I think all of us PP members should link to each other; it really expands individual networks in a big way.
My latest IT contract came from LinkedIn BTW.

Think of LinkedIn as Facebook/Myspace without the juve’s that rule the wasteland therein :D
Dottore, look for similar screen names between forum names and LinkedIn sigs?