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Career Networking the Easy Way

We've been through the Career Center lectures on how important it is to build a Network of professional contacts. This works great for business-types who get used to talking, shmoozing, golfing, hey-buddying, cold-calling, etc. for a living. But what about the Engineer or Scientist, who may be a bit introverted, and a bit shy about approaching new people? Kind of difficult to grow a network then, right? Not anymore! Enter, the Internet, again the solver of all problems: check out LinkedIn. Use it to find former coworkers, meet more people at your current job, catch up with where your college acquaintances are working now, and even check on if your ex-boyfriend is still un-or-under-employed!

This is the first friend-tallying website I've joined. It seems to have more of a point than the others, and the professional emphasis should keep out the Trolls. It came recommended by a manager at a supplier that we visited in San Jose, CA, last month. My profile has very little content right now. I've got to dig up an old resume to look up job titles before adding the old summer internships. And I'm certainly not going to pay for an upgraded membership until I actually need to USE the Network I've built.

If you do join, I'm easy to find. A search on my name nets one result right now. Send me an invite! If I know you in real life, and you don't suck, I'll add you to my Network. (Hint: that is almost everyone I can think of. Unless you were my junior year optics project partner, who decided that D is for Diploma and left me to redo his half of the project...)
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  1. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2007 at 8:50 PM

    Welcome to the networked world. ;) LinkedIn is probably the most serious of the bunch and as a result, most seem to use it as an electronic Rolodex, for good or bad. I've also been using it for competitive research - http://caseysoftware.com/blog/open-source-intelligence-linkedin

    But the more fun ones are Facebook and Pownce.... they're quite a bit less serious but better for people research. I can't count how many old friends I've connected with, but counting about 8 hurts my head anyway, so maybe I'm a bad example.

    D is for Diploma, nice.

    Have a good one.

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