1. Maximizing on the benefits of
LinkenIn

2. What is LinkedIn?
• Linked is a social networking platform that focuses on the
professional aspect of your background.
• On its website, it is described as the “world's largest
professional network with millions of members and rapidly
growing”

3. What is LinkedIn?
The same states that LinkedIn can help you:
• Establish your professional profile and control one of the
top search results for your name.
• Build and maintain a broader network of professionals you
can trust.
• Find and reconnect with colleagues and classmates.
• Learn about other companies.
• Leverage powerful tools to find and reach the people you
need.
• Tap into the knowledge of your network.
• Discover new opportunities.
http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/45

4. What others have to say about LinkedIn:
• LinkedIn helps you to cheaply establish a professional
profile online. If you do a Google search of your name, for
example, you are likely to find your LinkedIn public profile
online.
• LinkedIn enables professional networking; you can join
groups of people with similar interest. In fact, LinkedIn
often recommend groups for you to join based on your
professional profile.

5. • LinkedIn helps you to find and reconnect with
colleagues and classmates. When you log on
LinkedIn often prompt you about people who
you might know based on the school you
attended among other things. You can also
search for others who attended your school in
your school year to find former classmates.
What others have to say about LinkedIn:

6. • LinkedIn helps you keep current with what is happening in
the lives of your connections. When one of your
connections gets a promotion at work or upgrade
information on their profile, LinkedIn informs you about the
changes. This gives you the opportunity to send the person
a note of congratulation or other relevant comments.
What others have to say about LinkedIn:

7. • LinkedIn helps your job search as a recruiter or
prospective employee. LinkedIn often prompts you about
jobs that you may be interested in. As a member of a group
you often receive emails notifications of job postings in the
group. Recruiters also have access to relevant professional
profiles when they join a group. Recruiters may even track
discussions to see who has the expertise that they might be
interested in. Recruiters can also do searches for the type
of person that they are looking for.
What others have to say about LinkedIn:

8. • LinkedIn helps you to tap into the knowledge of your
network. Often time persons will seek advice from
connections directly or use discussion boards in groups to
gather information and solutions to issues that they may
have at work. One of the persons who I interviewed said
that in one of his discussion he provided a solution to a
problem that a doctoral student was trying to figure out. He
said he was not aware that the person was a doctoral
student until the person emailed him to say thanks for the
solution (He said that he doubt that will be credited on the
thesis).
What others have to say about LinkedIn:

9. Caution on the use of LinkedIn
• The persons interviewed did note some things that
one should be conscious of while using LinkedIn.
Some are:

10. • Like with Facebook and other social networks, LinkedIn
provides a window into your life that prospective
employers have access to. Hence the information on
LinkedIn must be consistent with the image that you want
to portray to potential employers. One of the persons
interviewed related an instance in which he applied for a
job via email and while still using his computer he got a call
from the recruiter who did a quick screening interview. No
more than 5 minutes after the phone interview he got a
LinkedIn invitation via email from the person that he just
sent the resume to. When he logged into LinkedIn he was
notified that this person had just checked his profile.
Caution on the use of LinkedIn

11. • Do not automatically accept every invitation that you get.
Some potential employer may believe that you and your
connections know each other well and may seek
information about you from one of these persons who
hardly knows you, if at all. Further, if you know that a
person is of questionable character you should not connect
to them.
• Not all LinkedIn features are free. The basic access for
LinkedIn is free but some useful features like two
messaging to persons outside your network are not free. So
it is best to provide an email contact in your profile if you
want others to be able to reach you.
Caution on the use of LinkedIn

12. • Having gotten all this information about LinkedIn I got so
excited I wanted to try it for myself. After all it is entirely
free (well almost) and provides a lot of benefits.
• I tried to sign up and was told that I already had an
account; then I remembered that some years ago I had
created an account on the advice of a friend but had not
gone back to look at it since. So as most of us would do, I
guessed the password based on my usual codes and the
sign in screen disappeared.
My Own Experience

13. • The first page was unbelievable. I was amazed to see names
in the section “People you may know” of people who I
actually know. How did LinkedIn know that?!
• I also saw “Ads that I might be interested in” with relevant
advertisements. I saw how many persons viewed my
profile in the last 30 days and how many times that I have
turned up in searches in the same time period. Simply
amazing stuff!
My Own Experience

14. My Own Experience
• I browsed some more by clicking on the other menu tabs,
looking at my profile (well this need some work) and
browsing some of the jobs I might be interested in. Then I
wanted to sign out this session and this is where it got
tricky. I could not find a sign out button. After moving the
mouse around on the screen I discovered the little icon that
drops down a menu with the option to sign out. That was a
bit frustrating.

15. My Own Experience
• Since then I have signed in to LinkedIn a few more times
and is now fairly familiar with navigating the site. Full time
work, studies and family life have prevented me from
spending more time on the web site; but now that I know
the benefits and how to use the site; I will be employing it
to its fullest extent when I start looking for a new job. Also
it is clear that joining groups has additional benefits of
being a free resource for consultation and sharing of
information. I will definitely be taking advantage of this.