Social Networking
November 22nd, 2006 by Mark Rittman
I’m just sitting in the departure lounge at Dublin Airport, waiting for my flight back to London Gatwick; I’ve been doing the BI Masterclass over at Oracle’s offices at Eastpoint over the last couple of days, and I’m running it again tomorrow and Friday at Oracle’s offices in Thames Valley Park. Even though it’s my birthday (bid for sympathy…) I’m spending it working and travelling, but at least I’m going via BA rather than Ryanair so it’s not going to be the usual miserable journey I usually end up experiencing.
One or two of you might have got an email from me, via Linkedin, over the last few days with an offer to “link up” using their “social networking” tool. I’m normally a bit leery of these sorts of schemes - they’re usually a way to sell you something, or get a list of names for recruiters - but quite a few people in the Oracle world are part of the scheme, with the prompting in fact coming from an invite I got last week from Steve Karam.
So far, although it’s nice when someone accepts your invite, I’m still trying to work out what use you can put the service to. All the people I’ve “Linked in” with I could just email anyway, although I guess now I can search their list of contacts and ask them to “make an introduction” - but I guess I’d normally just email them directly anyway - but then I am a bit forward like that, anyway. One nice thing I have noticed is when someone “recommmends” you - after I sent out the invites, Dan Vlamis from Vlamis Software Solutions, and Jean-Pierre Djicks from OWB Product Management, wrote recommendations for me, which was very nice of them. If you’re interested, here’s my profile here (which needs a bit of sprucing up, to be honest, and it’s out of date now)
I was wondering though - apart from hustling for work, or looking for a new job/looking for job candidates - what do you use LinkedIn for? Am I missing something? Or is the sending out of invites just a nice chance to get back in contact with people, perhaps get talking with someone you’ve not corresponded with for a while? I’ll have to have a play around with it, and see just what this friend-of-a-friend, social networking thing is all about. Also, if I didn’t include you in the invites, but you’ve got an account (I mainly sent them out to other consutants, I sort of expected a bit of a ribbing from the DBAs…) and you want to link up, just send me an invite. You never know, we might actually find a use for it.
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:13 pm
I think the main idea is finding employers/employees thoughout your network. I do actually know someone who was offered a job through LinkedIn due to his putting “ruby on rails” in his profile.
Here’s my profile if you feel like need a good laugh:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dtseiler
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:40 am
This LinkedIn stuff does allow you one more thing: To let everyone else know that you have changed jobs/position. Some HR headhunters use this to keep track of collaborators as well.
Sorry to hear about your “meltdown” the other day, Mark.
Cheers,
Borkur
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:37 pm
I’ve been on Linkedin for some years, pretty much since it started out I think. I’ve been inviting collegues (and former collegues) to sign up and been updating my profile as I think I’m going to be job hunting in the not too distant future, I figure it can’t hurt and may even help.
I was a bit unsure about LinkedIn at first (hence the address I originally registered with was a throwaway one, if it started getting spammed I could kill it, I have never received a spam to that address so figure that LinkedIn are legit) but now I’m more confident about them. I figure that it works like the old “Letters of references” system where by if you like someone’s work you write them a glowing reference so if I know and trust you I’ll read the reference and be confident in that person. Without the references it’s not really much use, you may as well put your CV/Resume on MySpace.
Stephen
November 24th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Mark, I hadn’t done anything with it either, until Laurent Schneider sent me an invitation. I figured LinkedIn is something like a MySpace for professionals…and you never know what can come out of social connections.
Cheers!
December 8th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Mark, its a competition to see who has got the most mates.
Your invite from me is in the post
March 8th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I believe that social networking is the way of the future, As a company that provides online career portfolios I am here to tell you that it is extremely important. It is a form of branding that you can use to truly promote yourself or destroy yourself. What you post on Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIN or http://jobpains.blogspot.com/2007/02/social-networking-is-it-new-trend_13.html“>Protuo.com now determine whether you get a job. In a lot of ways this is unfortunate, because there is no way a person independently has control over what is posted about them on the Internet. I believe that the Internet should be used as a tool to help promote. Do I believe that LinkedIN is going toward the job board space. Yes, I do and it has created a very large community. The question then begs itself do social networking systems such as Protuo and LinkedIN among others begin to replace or enhance current day job boards?