Please sign up for this discussion:
1.Eric Viscardi
2.Steve Green
3.Katelyn Savery
4.Henry Azu
5.Patrick Scanlon
6.Katie Mondile
7.Joel Beach
8.Jayme Haynes
10.Ade P. Smith
Begin discussion below:
Eric's Input
I signed up for LinkedIn for after two co-workers and a former classmate sent me requests. Once I entered the requried information, I saw how this particular form of social netowrking was better geared towards professional advancement in lieu of other social networking sites such as Face Book or MySpace. While on there, I found other co-workers and friends, and was able to connect one of my friends looking for a job to another friend of mine that is a recruiter at Toll Brothers. By being on LinkedIn, it allows people to view who is in my circle, and get information on their career experience. The one example of employment opportunity I provided was solely based on my LinkedIn connections. however, I have received emails from head hunters in the Defense Industry, and have been able to set up some interviews with some of Boeing's competitors. Another benefit of LinkedIn, is that it allows the user to search by profession and find possible mentors. I utilized LinkedIn to find a mentor within The Boeing Company that I would not of normally had the chance to, and am now getting insight on how to enter into the Business Development field
Steve's input
My experience is with classmates.com, the online social networking services.
It is a relatively easy site to navigate around, and it offers plenty of activities, suchas reuniting classmates, military, friends, co workers, and basically any one that's a member of classmates.com site. Since joining I have been able to maintain a distant relationship with friends, coworkers, and classmates. I would like to share some of the interesting experiences I have had as a member of the site. Its when I became part of a listserve that included only members from my high school graduating class. This enabled us to keep in touch with each others, track events, and stay up to date with what's going on in each others lives, such as Marriage, Children, Career, and Higher Education. This list serve consist of an email system that has only one email address, however, all members receive, write and reply from this same email address. This system informed me of the dates and locations of our class reunion in time, for me to make plans and attend them. Also when one of us travels, we inform every member of the site our destination and if any one from our class is there or have been there previously they provide us with beneficial information.
Katelyn's input
My experience is with linked in. I had been somewhat apprehensive, I guess because I didn't full understand how to use it, to join linked in. I have now join and can say it can make the job process so much easier. Anyone who has gone through a job search recently can attest to the fact that you spend hours upon hours uploading your resuming, a lot of time having to adapt the font and format, to get back an automatic response and never hearing from the company again. It basically feels like you're sending your resume into the universe. Linked in is so user friendly and useful from my limited experience with it. It uploads all your email contacts directly from your email, so it basically inputs anyone you've ever had an email with and will connect you to them if they have an account. Within the first day I received 3 emails from direct higher ups at organizations I'm interested in looking at positions with. It basically puts you in direct contact with the right people. I think this is such a powerful tool and brings back a lot of the personalization to the job application process. You are also able to search by company and location, so if you have an interest with X company, you are able to look up and see who the recruiter is and contact them directly! Being unemployed right now, I think this tool has really opened the doors to numerous opportunities!
Patrick's input: LinkedIn
In the past I have heard about LinkedIn from a number of friends and colleagues from work. It seemed like a great way in which to build upon your existing network of contacts and then to grow your future contact listing. I was skeptical about joining as I am with anything in which my personal information is placed available on a site, but as part of this Wiki experiment, I finally was pushed to join. Navigating the site is fairly easy, in my initial signon and subsuquent visits to the site, I updated my profile, but have yet to include any other information except for the required information that is required when joining the site. AI on the site seems to be somewhat advanced in that when I signed on for the first time, I entered my company information, it populated many of my co-workers that have also joined the site.
Henry's input: LinkedIn
I joined LinkedIn after one of the career development workshops earlier this month with Craig Loundas. I had previously had invitations from friends and colleagues and ignored them because i assumed it was one of the social networking sites and since I was on Facebook I did not need a second one. Upon joining, I realized this was no Facebook, whereas Facebook helped you find friends and know where the party was at, LinkedIn helped to find business contacts and where there was a job opening. My excitement came to a halt when after a week I had just about 5 contacts which included Craig and mostly family. I figured it was not for me and would not benefit me and as such forgot about it. I later found out through a friend’s link I did have friends and colleagues on LinkedIn, but since it was a professional network, no one used any of their crazy email addresses or usernames. This is when I started to appreciate the business tool LinkedIn was. Unlike Facebook and other social sites, LinkedIn is not a place to upload pictures from parties or leave comments on a friend’s profile or picture. LinkedIn is an easy way to build a resume and hook that dream job. My first regret for not joining earlier was finding someone in my second degree who could have facilitated an interview with an insurance company I had wanted to work at. I asked for an introduction and now have the contacts number and assurance of scheduling a meeting and possibly an interview whenever I am ready. This makes LinkedIn for me, a way to assure myself that when the time/need comes for me to find a job; I would have made enough contacts, introductions and opportunities to get the job I want.
Katie's Twitter Experience:
I have been a faithful Facebook user for years, and several years ago I signed up for LinkedIn in an effort to keep a professional network separate from friends and family. When Twitter became the latest social networking phenomenon, I honestly did not see the appeal, but this assignment was an excuse to try it. My first impression of Twitter is that it's similar to a status update on Facebook, and how interested are other people in what you're doing throughout the day? My unfamiliarly with the site made it somewhat confusing to navigate at first, but after learning how to search for people or brands/stores/newspapers/ etc. I started grasping the concept behind the website. From a business perspective, I could see Twitter being used as a marketing platform. With a Twitter account, the user has the ability to "follow" other accounts and see what those other users are posting. Businesses would be able to keep their followers informed of events and happenings. Aside from using Twitter for commercial reasons, I could not personally see myself using the site. I simply don't see the appeal in it, but to each his own.
Joel's Input: Linkedin
Since I had no prior Web 2.0 experience, I decided to try the Linkedin application. I’ve been asked to join Linkedin by several people in my industry, and it is touted as being the “most professional” of the Web 2.0 applications, so it seemed to be my best choice. Registering for Linkedin was very easy. When I logged in, I immediately had several contacts (all known to me) appear on my screen asking for me to accept their invitations to link. I accepted and proceeded to complete my profile. I decided to be very brief and simply list employers and education. As I handle quite a bit of litigation, I would hate to have an adverse litigator find something useful on this site and gain some perceived advantage. I then imported my professional e-mail contacts. Of these, a few were already Linkedin members. The site automatically set up a page where I could invite all, or any portion of, my contacts to link with me. I took advantage of this and sent out several invitations en masse. I spent some time testing the site by searching jobs and looking for others in my industry. I noticed that time passed quickly as I trolled the site for old friends. I think that I would only use this application occasionally to identify and expert or counsel for a particular area of the country. Of course, if I need to find a new job, I expect I would suddenly be a heavy user.
Jayme's Input: LinkedIn
LinkedIn was a unique experience for me. Although I was aware of this network previously, I had not spent much time exploring what the site offered. LinkedIn is a social network that is mostly used for business networking. The user has the ability add Connections. These Connections are individuals they know via work, recreational activities, or other settings. When setting up your profile you are asked to input employment history. With that information, LinkedIn suggests individuals you may know via your employment and other affiliations. When using LinkedIn I reconnected with many former colleagues. It was very exciting to me. I received Connection invites from individuals that are currently in my field and are members of organizations/affiliations where I am involved. Quickly I was able to see how helpful and fast a network can be built using LinkedIn. LinkedIn can also be used to search for employment. When a job of interest is found, the individual can see if they already are connected to someone who works for that company. Everyone knows that if you already know someone inside the company your likelihood of getting hired increases. It can also be used in the other direction. Employers can use LinkedIn to research potential candidates. This is not only free but also sensitive to time limitations.
Ade's Input: LinkedIn
I found LinkedIn to be very useful, I did not use the site to post my resume, but mostly to reach out to former co-workers form KPMG and PWC. Since I was a part of the Internship program at PWC and the 2003 First year class at KPMG, there were many co-workers I had lost touch with. By joining a group for both of these companies I was not only able to catch up with old co-workers, and give them updates. I was also able to refer some of them to my accounting recruiter, since they were looking for a job. I found LinkeIn to be very useful and easy to uses.
