LinkedIn Worth Shit for Actual Networking?
How important is LinkedIn for networking purposes? Is it a good way to network if you don't know many people in your targeted industry?
If I don't have any work experience but have a lot of liberal art-ish E.C.'s, should I put them on my profile anyway or just leave my profile blank? I'm still a student (Senior at a target). Think debate club type stuff.
Any other advice on how to approach LinkedIn? Just search for anyone who might meet your criteria and shoot them an e-mail? Should you go for quality or quantity, etc?
I have meetings with 5 bankers next week. I met all of them through Linked In...
linked in works fantastically. it creates access to people that you would ordinarily never have a shot at meeting.
Linkedin is the only way I have made connections.
So what do you do, just email them and ask for help?
It works great! Do a search for anyone that went to your school and then narrow it down to the city or company you want. You can narrow the search with a ton of variables, etc. Found a lot of alums that were willing to help, etc.
I also would add people at banks that I am interested in and just connect with them with a general email/message. Most people indicate whether they are open to networking/job opportunities/etc. Not the only thing you should use, but a great asset for sure.
This sounds great, but can people answer the other questions I asked? In particular:
"2. If I don't have any work experience but have a lot of liberal art-ish E.C.'s, should I put them on my profile anyway or just leave my profile blank? I'm still a student (Senior at a target). Think debate club type stuff.
This sounds great, but can people answer the other questions I asked? In particular:
"2. If I don't have any work experience but have a lot of liberal art-ish E.C.'s, should I put them on my profile anyway or just leave my profile blank? I'm still a student (Senior at a target). Think debate club type stuff."
Also, how do you approach e-mailing these guys anyway? I assume it should be short and to the point, and just asking them for advice on how to approach the job search....or what?
Any personal insights or successful stories would be appreciated!
Put whatever you think will look the best on your LinkedIn. You can put a lot more on the site vs. a resume so I would try and paint the best picture possible. Leaving it blank can only hurt you (unless you put really ridiculous stuff on your page)
Join some industry specific groups, answer some questions, build a rapport. Personally, I usually go for alumni first and then HR people or mid-level individuals in the firms I am looking at. If you just want advice or a general contact you can go for more junior people.
You can also look at LinkedIn as a business card on steroids. If you meet someone and make a good impression, in addition to sending them the standard thank you email you might also find them on LinkedIn and add them. That way you can see the type of people they are connected to and go from there.
Linkedin is a great way to network. I also like to use it to do some diligence on interviewers before the interview happens. However, here are some of my linkedin pet peeves, that may actually hurt your chances.
Writing a biography of yourself in the third person: Mr. Smith is a highly successful investment banker.....Mr. Smith holds a B.S. degree in Economics from Harvard.....Mr. Smith has a proven track record......etc
Putting a non-professional profile picture up: Drunk at a frat party, etc. etc.
Putting "open networker, feel free to add me" in your headline: Translation: I am desperate for leads and can't network proactively on my own.
...Open for debate of course.
If you don't have a good pic, just use Anthony's like I did. It's rather professional looking and not close enough that someone would be able to tell it wasn't you. It's been working much better than the Darden Guy picture I had up before.
Regards
I recently signed on to linkedin and upgraded my membership. I've sent inmails to people who are not in my network, mainly recruiters at firms I'm interested in. No response from anyone yet. Am I going about this the wrong way? Advice would be greatly appreciated.
My best advice is to hit your alumni network hard. People seems to have varyng levels of success, but in my experience the response rate has been pretty good and pretty positive.
Linkedin is the only thing that has gotten me connections.
Because of it I got interviews at GS and UBS and I came from a complete non-target. In fact it was what got me my SA position for this summer.
How is LinkedIn any better than other social networking websites if they let you connect with only people you know in real life? (Originally Posted: 11/20/2016)
Basically the question. I'm interested in couple of MSF programs and I tried connecting with the alumni of those programs but LinkedIn wouldn't let me unless they were colleagues, family or friends. What's the use if I can only connect with people already in my social circle? I don't get it, I can do that on Facebook. But LinkedIn is for networking and networking doesn't necessarily mean you have to only network with people you already know without being able to expand it.
If you search for someone by name, you don't have to go through the page asking about your relationship to that person if you click the "connect" button on the search page rather than the button on the person's profile page.
Nice one, thanks!
So, what's the difference? You can choose "friend". For the person, to whom you want to connect, it's all the same.
If I find someone I want to contact, what would be the most effective way of getting in touch with them? Through InMail? Or trying to add them?
How are you guys contacting people over LinkedIn? Whenever I try to send messages to people I find through searches, I'm greeted with a page that says I can't send messages unless I buy InMail for $25 / month.
Use their name to figure out their email address. I.e john doe at goldman sachs would be [email protected]
Can the people who've previously commented that they've made connections from linkedin say exactly how they did so? Thanks.
I've had recruiters randomly contact me for jobs on Linkedin. It pays to put effort into your profile, and to have it cater to your target job. Also make yourself easily contactable by recruiters for your target jobs. You can do this by joining industry groups.
re: the OPs question about the liberal arts background/experience, you can spin your role in practically any actitivy to show that you acquired or employed the skills necesary for your target jobs, i.e. working as a staff writer for a school newspaper can easily turn into 'pitched ideas for stories,' which is a skill asset managers look for in analysts, etc...
Re: the Inmail runaround, you can expand the network of people you're able to contact directly and for free by joining groups, such as alumni groups, so if you were an SA at Goldman or BlackRock over a summer you should join the BlackRock/Goldman alum groups, etc... LinkedIn allows you to directly contact people you share groups with and 1st connections. your best bet is to increase the contactable network through group membership.
LinkedIn is the greatest online professional networking tool.
Here is my story for how I used it:
http://rubenharris.posterous.com/progress-update-23
http://rubenharris.posterous.com/progress-update-interviews
http://rubenharris.posterous.com/progress-update-evolving-strategy
http://rubenharris.posterous.com/progress-update-denouement
perhaps WSO should being charging for a LinkedIn profile service, similar to WSO's resume service.
I think LinkedIn is a great tool, but I find sending the InMails or whatever they call it to be really unhelpful. I've received a couple of hedge fund analyst positions when I was looking for a new job, so it can only be helpful to put a lot of work into your profile.
If anything, I liked using it to find the person and then figuring out their personal email address as I found people more responseful. Also, I recently got a message from someone asking if I knew who was in charge of an industry group at a bank in London. Completely random and completely not getting a second look.
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