Networking advice needed.

[swestrup]

I 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.

Comments

[denizsarikaya.livejournal.com]

If that's truly how it works, I'd not be averse to joining. I'm wary of things which end up being like a dating tool.

And you know that I know Austin decently well, having worked and partied with him. Of course I know his brother Hammie even better -- I just don't believe I have their e-mail addresses on me any more. Wow, what an idiot I can be.

ask them first

[drekken.livejournal.com]

I useualy delete any email I wasnt expecting. I like this better then alot of the job hunting web sites out there because on the hireing end I know I would probably get somebody who can get the job done. Employment side, IT jobs are getting harder to find so this might be helpful in that aspect

[azrhey.livejournal.com]

i don't think any of you has seen me work :(

[swestrup]

If you want, I can send you an invite then. Oh, and it turn out you can do a search for someone by name if you don't remember their email address.

[swestrup]

Well, I for one would vouch for your ability to do just about anything!

[azrhey.livejournal.com]

that's the problem.
It's not because I can do anything that I can do something.

In fact, I am good at pretending I can do anything.
The most obvious example was my trip to the UK, I got a bunch of papers I half read in the plane and got there and pretending I had a clue what I was talking about. So people were pleased I knew the project so well and ohh god you are so thorough in your presentation and I wanted to scream at them that they must be very stupid not to realize that three quarters of what I was saying was nice filling with no actual content. I mean those people are in the business for decades they should KNOW I was bullshitting them!...

So yeah I am good I pretending I am good, but what do I know ? What Can I do ? Ohh sure I have a big mouth and all but what can I do properly and professionaly ? Nothing really...

[swestrup]

Are you kidding? If I ever need to be airlifted out of a war zone during a monsoon AND an alien invasion, you're the one I'll call, because if you can't figure out how to make it happen, no one can!

So yeah, its maybe true that you go through a presentation on filler and obvious generalities that anyone should be able to figure out. Its when you stop and realize that NONE of the other people in the room, including those who's actual profession it is, have worked out half the things that are 'obvious' to you, that it becomes clear that you ARE doing your fair share.

Call it the burden of the gifted. You do a slap-dash job and its head and shoulders above the work done by dedicated drudges, so everyone congratulates you. They don't realize how much it seems unfair to you that you're getting praise for work you could have done better and WOULD have done better if not for the incredible lowness of the bar.

Believe me, you're not the only one who's found themselves in those shoes. The perspective you need is to realize that if you pretend you can do anything and pretend well enough that you fool the professionals then you CAN do anything. Maybe not well enough to satisfy YOU, but well enough to satisfy everyone else.

Heh. I'm reminded of an interview with a famous actress with years of acting credits and hit movies under her belt. She confessed to the interviewer that she was STILL terrified that sometime somewhere someone was going to realize that she really couldn't act, that she'd been faking it all this time; just acting at acting.

[azrhey.livejournal.com]

hmmm...so that made me feel all warm inside :-)

thank you.

still feel like i can't do shit...but I guess if THEY don't realize that it's good enough for now...

[(Anonymous)]

What I did was to phone some people and ask them if they'd be interested, and others, like yourself I just sent a message via Linked-In with a note added by myself. I only approached people who I knew might be interested (since I knew many people looking for work), and nobody seemed to get angry at all.
-Jim

[(Anonymous)]

However, I did get only about a 50% success rate; I asked about fifteen people and only seven or eight joined up. One friend who didn't join up was the only one volunteering me job leads.
-Jim
http://www.geocities.com/jameswi.geo