[Closed] Linkedin. Can somebody tell me what it actually does?

Facebook for business.

Its so that people who are so spirit-crushingly tedious you'd never add them on Facebook, get to pretend they've got some friends

It's a way of looking for a job without looking for a job.

It gives recruitment agents a way to work out random people at organisations to email with CV's in a speculative manner!

Facebook without the poking.

Basically an online CV and a way to see who you know and who they know etc.

As an employer you get a candidate in, look at his LinkedIn profile and see he is connected to someone you know, so you call them up and get an unofficial reference.

As a jobseeker you find out that your mate knows someone at the company you're applying to so he can put in a good word for you.

Modern version of the "Old Boy's Network", but also for girls 😀

Networking innit. Good way of being head hunted rather than having to hunt, apparently.

It's a way of [s]looking for a job[/s] stalking without [s]looking for a job[/s] actually stalking.

Also a good way to work out who's intending to move by the frantic mining of their outlook contacts list.

It's a way of[s] looking for a job[/s] stalking without [s]looking for a job[/s] actually stalking.

Its like the Bullingdon Club for povs

GrahamS sums it up nicely for me.

From a work seekers point of view it's another way of getting your details "out there". Good way to look up old contacts and tell them you're looking for work. It's used by a lot of recruiters which may not be a bad think if you're looking.

Edit. It also works better if you invest time in it. If you join groups, send messages, connect to people, comments on things your profile will become more prominent so more people will contact you.

GrahamS sums it up nicely for me.

Thanks. Can I have a Recommendation?

Don't know but it's very difficult to remove your profile.

GrahamS, only if you can introduce me to your network...

very relevant to a contracting/ consulting point of view for recommendations

There's groups as well. These include chat forums where people chat about work. Handy for finding leads, especially as a freelancer.

It's also useful to keep track of former collegues / classmates who have sinced moved on.. or at least that's what I use it for..(oh.. he's working at x now etc, etc)

It's a great way to see who is looking for a new job as they add hundreds of contacts (including recruitment consultants) in a very short space of time. If that's not a giveaway clue to your boss that you're unhappy in your role then what is?

"imagine a world populated by those dreadful grasping middle management sorts in their ill-fitting suits and bottom-of-the-range-but-one AUDIs, incessantly ****ing each other off while recruitment plebs spam everyone involved" was how it was described to me.

Say what you like but within 24 hours of signing up my mate (who was crashing at mine) had an approach which led him to a just starting a job in Monaco!

I always thought he was a tosser anyways...

hmm. {looksatlinkdininviteswithrenewedinterest}

It's middle class Facebook in it

Also a good way for recruitment agency scum to go through your cv and then bombard the firms you previously worked for and people your connected with at those firms with phone calls trying to place people.

Missed random Jeremy's description but his is a better explanation than mine

Well if you find LinkedIn baffling you'll be truly stumped by Ecademy - as far as I can tell it's aimed at the same sort of people as LinkedIn but you have to pay (up to 80 quid a month!) to use most of the features, which seem to be pretty damn similar to what LinkedIn does for nowt. Bonkers.

i get at least 2 calls a weeks from Headhunters from being "found" on linkedin

I just (cringingly) love the comments that people post on discussions.

They're so obviously eager to put across the "right message" all positive, "look at me" and "yeah, go for it".

Its a very easy way to get invitations to interview without making any effort at all 😀

Also it is terrifying how few 'links' away people can be, I looked up a potential candidate from Australia whose CV I had received for a job in London, and she was only two people away from me. Small world.

The only people I know who regularly 'use' it have one thing in common.

They all have jobs where they talk endlessly about stuff. Usually in complete management ****ty-bollox. but its difficult to ascertain what they actually DO. If anything.

In fact randomjeremy has pretty much summed them up for me. Starlingly accurately actually

Love it, You need to get profile to 100% before it is any use and get your keywords appropriate to what you want.
It found me two contracts lasting 15 months total and then a perm role so works for me. Lots of Webinars for free explaining how it works so worth doing well.

Webinars

Binners was right

Is there a huge difference between the free and the pay-for?

I'd imagine the difference is in the users. The ones who pay I would think are a salespersons wet dream

what's your most inappropriate "profile viewed by"?
Mine yesterday:

"Someone in the Entrepreneur function in the Apparel & Fashion industry from Mauritius"

WTF?

"Someone in the Entrepreneur function in the Apparel & Fashion industry from Mauritius"

Sorry. That was me.

love me long time?

Gary Fisher looked at me the other day. As did a product manager from Fisher Outdoor just this week.

[s]*goes to link to CFH*[/s]

EDIT pffft. already in my network 🙄

(3rd degree though)

*Ponders recommendation for Stoner...*

The man's good with a graph, I'll give 'im that! Can't remember who he's already connected to, mind you.....

🙂

anyway, couldnt link to you CFH, it would blow your cover eh, eh 😉 😉

Then I'd have to kill you to death. 🙂

Back on topic, if I may...

Linkedin is a very good way to publicise yourself and your business, and to get yerself noticed by people who you want to know about you. Yes, there's the very obvious benefit if you're job hunting, but you can also use it for wider network development to get in front of people you otherwise wouldn't be able to.

Also a great way to know a little bit of detail about people before you meet with them. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.

I like it as a memory aid for people and projects I've worked on... but I dislike it's use by headhunters because I'm currently not looking for a new job.

Don't know but it's very difficult to remove your profile.

I reckon most of the look ups on mine were finance companies trying to sell services to expats. The rest were colleagues.

If I need it properly in future, I'll create a new profile.

Never used it, although I did get an invite from a former work collegue which I never followed up. However, thanks to LinkedIn I've now got back in touch with a former work collegue from around ten years ago; she's now living in Scotland and found a current work collegue, who was our former boss at a previous firm, and emailed him while I was looking at something on his Mac.
Emailed her and we're now back in touch on Facebook. Really pleased about this, we got on well and she's a good friend, and she posts lots of excellent photos which I find inspiring.
Just occasionally these things have their uses outside the intended.

I have a paid account (recruitment scum, sorry). You can message people you're not connected to, which I rarely use. You can save people's profiles in folders, which can be useful if you see people you might want to come back to later. But I only really use this for folks I might want to try and hire for myself some day.

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