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I was wondering if anyone on here uses LinkedIn or any other form of internet networking tool, I'm currently a senior in college, and the career development center at my school gave us a presentation which highly recommended the use of things like LinkedIn and Twitter as potential job finding aids, but I was somewhat skeptical of exactly how useful they are in actuality. Are they really useful for building a network of people who can help you find a career, or are they more just of a social network that allows you to keep track of old friends/co-workers? Any input would be much appreciated.

I personally have an account to keep in contact with old classmates (most of whom are/were in the financial and banking sector) and former colleagues. Although I've never used it to professionally network, I've been contacted by a good number of recruiters/head hunters over the past few years through my linkedin account. Not sure if it works quite as well with legal employment, though.

I like LinkedIn very much. I only use it for business and it's been very helpful in terms of keeping up with when people transfer jobs/etc.

f0bolous wrote:I personally have an account to keep in contact with old classmates (most of whom are/were in the financial and banking sector) and former colleagues. Although I've never used it to professionally network, I've been contacted by a good number of recruiters/head hunters over the past few years through my linkedin account. Not sure if it works quite as well with legal employment, though.

Around how many contacts do you have? Do you think the recruiters find you through your contact list, or the networks you are a part of?

For me personally, it has not led to any useful results, other than keeping general tabs on where past colleagues are currently employed and such (which I could also do through facebook). I also have high privacy settings on my profile, so I wonder if that may be part of it.

Friend of mine had recruiters calling him based on his profile.

huckabees wrote:

f0bolous wrote:I personally have an account to keep in contact with old classmates (most of whom are/were in the financial and banking sector) and former colleagues. Although I've never used it to professionally network, I've been contacted by a good number of recruiters/head hunters over the past few years through my linkedin account. Not sure if it works quite as well with legal employment, though.

Around how many contacts do you have? Do you think the recruiters find you through your contact list, or the networks you are a part of?

For me personally, it has not led to any useful results, other than keeping general tabs on where past colleagues are currently employed and such (which I could also do through facebook). I also have high privacy settings on my profile, so I wonder if that may be part of it.

84 contacts (including a handful of headhunters). As for your second question, I'm not really sure, since they never really mention it in the emails they send.

It's good because it comes up in google searches of your name, if you don't have anything that comes up or weird shit from people with the same name.

it only takes like 5 mins to setup and is pretty helpful in the long run. once you start building a network, you can search for potential employers/people with similar backgrounds/credentials and reach out to them (especially if they are in your extended network)

I also use it as a means to keep in touch with old classmates as well as current business contacts. However, I have yet to utilize it as any means of networking but there is plenty available (especially if you join various groups like you college alumnus group). Personally, I use it more as a 'professional facebook'; but it is always fun to see what your old high school/college buddies are doing nowadays (especially when you find out that you work for the same company)!

megaTTTron wrote:It's good because it comes up in google searches of your name, if you don't have anything that comes up or weird shit from people with the same name.

This. I do my best to keep it updated so that it's the first thing that shows up when people google me.

Renzo wrote:

megaTTTron wrote:It's good because it comes up in google searches of your name, if you don't have anything that comes up or weird shit from people with the same name.

This. I do my best to keep it updated so that it's the first thing that shows up when people google me.

Some 14 year old idiot from louisiana has my same name, middle name and all, and has a horrendous myspace page. linked in was a godsend.

Just made account and holy shit there are a lot of people on there...I had no idea.

megaTTTron wrote:Some 14 year old idiot from louisiana has my same name, middle name and all, and has a horrendous myspace page. linked in was a godsend.

LOL. Nobody in the world has the same first and last name as me. It has its advantages and disadvantages.

My father owns a recruiting firm, his researchers often used linkedin to find qualified candidates. But he/they don't use FB or twitter.

I've been contacted a number of times (non-legal work) via LinkedIn. Also agree with the Google point!

Apparently how useful it is depends on your field and how complete/updated you keep your file. I've been told that most lawyers have LinkedIn profiles so it's good to get one.

megaTTTron wrote:

Renzo wrote:

megaTTTron wrote:It's good because it comes up in google searches of your name, if you don't have anything that comes up or weird shit from people with the same name.

This. I do my best to keep it updated so that it's the first thing that shows up when people google me.

Some 14 year old idiot from louisiana has my same name, middle name and all, and has a horrendous myspace page. linked in was a godsend.

Sorry, but I lol'd.

It's useful. In law school, I used LinkedIn to get information from alumni in regions and legal fields that I was interested in practicing in.

Some law firms even require their attorneys to set up profiles. An ex of mine that worked in a Biglaw firm marketing department spent a couple months creating profiles for all the attorneys. I'd assume they wouldn't waste the effort unless they got some business out of that.

Pretty useful.

My school runs an Alumni Mentor Program, where we can get in touch with Alumni who make themselves available for informational meetings and mentoring sessions. The director of the program has a LinkedIn account, and once you make a connection with him, people in the program have full access to the network of alumni who are in contact with him.

It only takes a little bit of effort to set up, and like someone else said, it will eventually be a top hit on a Google search for your name.

megaTTTron wrote:

Renzo wrote:

megaTTTron wrote:It's good because it comes up in google searches of your name, if you don't have anything that comes up or weird shit from people with the same name.

This. I do my best to keep it updated so that it's the first thing that shows up when people google me.

Some 14 year old idiot from louisiana has my same name, middle name and all, and has a horrendous myspace page. linked in was a godsend.

A classmate of mine with an unusual name discovered recently that Googling himself revealed the MySpace page of a teenager from Billings, MT who wrote erotic vampire stories. Seriously. Check you Google results often.

On-topic though: I don't have a LinkedIn and I'm not particularly worried about missing out on anything.

SBL wrote:]
A classmate of mine with an unusual name discovered recently that Googling himself revealed the MySpace page of a teenager from Billings, MT who wrote erotic vampire stories. Seriously..

I've been wondering this myself a bit. I'm on linked-in but don't visit much.. Then again, I still haven't really even caught on to Twitter yet.

..

acrossthelake wrote:

megaTTTron wrote:

Renzo wrote:

megaTTTron wrote:It's good because it comes up in google searches of your name, if you don't have anything that comes up or weird shit from people with the same name.

This. I do my best to keep it updated so that it's the first thing that shows up when people google me.

Some 14 year old idiot from louisiana has my same name, middle name and all, and has a horrendous myspace page. linked in was a godsend.

+1 I have my fb set so that I can't be searched by name, but other ppl with my name have often have trashy prof pics, so I made a linked in so I wouldn't be associated with them.

Yeah. My FB is unsearchable, but people with my (odd) name scare me.

It wont let me upload my resume therefore its useless.