An important part of becoming a responsible adult online appears to be making a LinkedIn account (or so I've been told). Claiming to be "The world's largest professional network" with over 400 million users, LinkedIn presents itself as the best way to utilise the power of social media in order to gain employment.
LinkedIn allows you to basically transfer your CV onto an online profile, displaying your qualifications, employment history and anything else relevant to millions of potential employers, massively increasing your ability to network.
And this all could be true and very beneficial, if I had any real idea of how to use the site!!! Despite making my profile without a hitch, I was then faced with the "Now what...?" stage of discovering a new social networking site. And here is where I made my first mistake...
A big fan of the "Facebook stalk" I decided to transfer my skills to LinkedIn and began ploughing through the connections of my sister, my sole connection on the site. Half an hour in, and just a few vaguely connected profiles stalked, I was then informed (to my horror) that LinkedIn kindly notifies you of who has viewed your profile. Faaantastic.
I swiftly decided to avoid any further embarrassment through the site, and leave my sister to explain to her work colleges why they had been professionally stalked by yours truly.
Despite this little misunderstanding of LinkedIn etiquette, I still believe the site can be an excellent tool for networking and will be returning to my profile later on as I progress in my career, when the sites true potential can be reached!
However, if you currently find yourself at a loose end during your job search, I really recommend you take the time to create a basic LinkedIn profile, that you can then return to and build upon in the future when you are more established...(Just try and avoid being too trigger happy on the profile hopping!!!)
LinkedIn allows you to basically transfer your CV onto an online profile, displaying your qualifications, employment history and anything else relevant to millions of potential employers, massively increasing your ability to network.
And this all could be true and very beneficial, if I had any real idea of how to use the site!!! Despite making my profile without a hitch, I was then faced with the "Now what...?" stage of discovering a new social networking site. And here is where I made my first mistake...
A big fan of the "Facebook stalk" I decided to transfer my skills to LinkedIn and began ploughing through the connections of my sister, my sole connection on the site. Half an hour in, and just a few vaguely connected profiles stalked, I was then informed (to my horror) that LinkedIn kindly notifies you of who has viewed your profile. Faaantastic.
I swiftly decided to avoid any further embarrassment through the site, and leave my sister to explain to her work colleges why they had been professionally stalked by yours truly.
Despite this little misunderstanding of LinkedIn etiquette, I still believe the site can be an excellent tool for networking and will be returning to my profile later on as I progress in my career, when the sites true potential can be reached!
However, if you currently find yourself at a loose end during your job search, I really recommend you take the time to create a basic LinkedIn profile, that you can then return to and build upon in the future when you are more established...(Just try and avoid being too trigger happy on the profile hopping!!!)