Networking advice needed.
Mar. 31st, 2004 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrupI need some advice, from all and sundry. First the background:
I'm not much of a networker, social or otherwise, and yet I've long known of the studies that say the best way to get a job, bar none, is by personal recommendation of someone who's seen your work. So, when a friend and old co-worker of mine invited me to join the LinkedIn Network several months ago, I did.
This is an invitation-only network of professionals who use the site to build networks of trust based on folks that they know personally. In other words, you are expected to invite other folks who you know who would either be willing to recommend your work, or you would be willing to recommend theirs. You do this by uploading your contact lists (e-mail addresses of folks you know), and then selecting who, if anyone, on that list you want to invite. It also tells you of anyone on your list who is already a member, and how many links away from them you are. You can elect to 'invite' someone who's already on the site, and if they accept you build a direct link to them.
Later, if you are looking for a job, or for someone to do a job for you, you can perform a search of the database and find folks. You can then send them a message via your network of links, and if everyone between you and them approves the message, they eventually get it. Thus, you have no way of finding out the e-mail address of anyone you don't already know, and the site itself claims that they make no use of the email addresses that you upload other than those you explicitly approve. (Their privacy policy is here.)
Then the question:
So, today I finally decided to trust them enough to upload a select list of e-mail addresses, to fill out my online address book. It turns out that the only person I know that is already on LinkedIn is Austin Hill, executive CEO of Zero Knowledge Systems. I had his e-mail address from some contract negotiations Pooq did with him years ago. So, I don't exactly know this person well, but I have no reason to think he has any negative memories of me. And he's clearly someone who believes in this networking thing, so I'm tempted to just invite him into my network. Still, when I first got my invite, I almost trashed it as spam, because its just not the sort of thing I usually join. Maybe I should be trying to change that behaviour though. I dunno.
Anyway, the BIG question in my mind is whether or not I should send invites to any of my friends, and what they would think about getting an invite message from LinkedIn that was originated by me. How many of you would resent it, or classify it as spam, and who would actually WANT to be invited into a social network like this? I'd like to hear from as many of you as possible, since I would like some statistics to help me judge whether or not to approach the folks who AREN'T on LJ that I might want to invite in.
I'm not much of a networker, social or otherwise, and yet I've long known of the studies that say the best way to get a job, bar none, is by personal recommendation of someone who's seen your work. So, when a friend and old co-worker of mine invited me to join the LinkedIn Network several months ago, I did.
This is an invitation-only network of professionals who use the site to build networks of trust based on folks that they know personally. In other words, you are expected to invite other folks who you know who would either be willing to recommend your work, or you would be willing to recommend theirs. You do this by uploading your contact lists (e-mail addresses of folks you know), and then selecting who, if anyone, on that list you want to invite. It also tells you of anyone on your list who is already a member, and how many links away from them you are. You can elect to 'invite' someone who's already on the site, and if they accept you build a direct link to them.
Later, if you are looking for a job, or for someone to do a job for you, you can perform a search of the database and find folks. You can then send them a message via your network of links, and if everyone between you and them approves the message, they eventually get it. Thus, you have no way of finding out the e-mail address of anyone you don't already know, and the site itself claims that they make no use of the email addresses that you upload other than those you explicitly approve. (Their privacy policy is here.)
Then the question:
So, today I finally decided to trust them enough to upload a select list of e-mail addresses, to fill out my online address book. It turns out that the only person I know that is already on LinkedIn is Austin Hill, executive CEO of Zero Knowledge Systems. I had his e-mail address from some contract negotiations Pooq did with him years ago. So, I don't exactly know this person well, but I have no reason to think he has any negative memories of me. And he's clearly someone who believes in this networking thing, so I'm tempted to just invite him into my network. Still, when I first got my invite, I almost trashed it as spam, because its just not the sort of thing I usually join. Maybe I should be trying to change that behaviour though. I dunno.
Anyway, the BIG question in my mind is whether or not I should send invites to any of my friends, and what they would think about getting an invite message from LinkedIn that was originated by me. How many of you would resent it, or classify it as spam, and who would actually WANT to be invited into a social network like this? I'd like to hear from as many of you as possible, since I would like some statistics to help me judge whether or not to approach the folks who AREN'T on LJ that I might want to invite in.
