LinkedIn

[Vinnie]

Conversation at work today about the merits of LinkedIn.  I have been on LinkedIn for about 3 years now, have very little information on my LinkedIn, and there is often very little activity in the news feed.

Do folk find it beneficial?  How do you get the best from it? 

[DJAS]

I've had mine for a while but same as you I have very little on it. My mate did get approached for a job on it and got the job.

[Vinnie]

Ive had a couple of offers of interviews, messaged to my LinkedIn inbox, based on my profile.  Im not really looking to change jobs so, I ignored them. 

I use it for business purposes occasionally, but given its supposed to be a business "tool", Im often surprised at the amount of folk who keep their profile private.

 

 

 

[DJAS]

Yeah this is true.

I haven't really spent anytime updating my profile, usually only have a look when someone has been nosing at my profile.

[DougieDave]

I use it all the time to track the business, competitors. old work / Uni colleagues, job information and it also generates you a cool CV if you keep it up to date - been using it for many years

[Vinnie]

Is that in the premium services DD?  Or do you simply mean the recommendations that folk give you?  

[Steak_Bridie]

You can convert your Linked In profile to a .pdf and use it as a CV. I think thats what DD is referring to.

I use it regularly for business purposes however, like mentioned above, it defeats the purpose of it as a business/networking tool if people keep their profiles private.

[Deutsch Par]

I've always found it as something that's good to have rather than being essential.  However I have done the aforementioned and created a pdf of my CV based on my LinkedIn profile. 

[DougieDave]

I don't pay for the Premium service - no need for it

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nugentd

 

 

[Deutsch Par]

Yeah, I always thought that seemed pretty pointless. 

[Vinnie]

Just tried to convert my profile to PDF.  Maybe I need to pad out my profile more to make it worthy of a CV.  But good to know that function exists.

[Paradox]

Didn't think of that as an option for updating a CV - good shout @DougieDave!

[Digs]

The Premium service is really aimed at Recruitment and Sales Professionals. I have Premium but my company pays for it. 

It is fast becoming a recruiters tool, and they market it as such to an extent but I would say don't let that put you off. I use it a lot for finding people but more 'passive candidates' (ie not necessarily looking/in the job market but might be interested) rather than the way some recruiters who are lazy and not very good at their job who just fire out messages asking if you want an interview without checking your profile, then ignore you if you get back to them.

I would say connect with as many professional people as you know. It does come in handy if you use it regularly, I could cite several examples of times I've got in touch with a contact, as I knew they could assist me with something, and I've had it in reverse. 

It's essentially an electronic version of the Rolladex (sp?) from the 70's/80's. A contact list. 

In terms of the CV, be careful. You'd essentially need to write your CV on LinkedIn, and then take that out of PDF. Personally, I wouldn't use it for that, as it's not a nice looking document. Put it this way, I wouldn't send it to an employer, as it comes across as quite lazy tbh. Also, if you're updating content like that, and you are connected to colleagues, or worse, your boss, LinkedIn will show on your connections newsfeed saying you've done exactly that. You can hide your career related activity in the settings though if you are using it for job hunting.