Linkedin and you!

Well, honestly, I do not know how many of us would have thought about this. Our Linkedin profiles and their significance.

Now why do I ask this?

I have been here for a few years, and I have interacted (one-way communication) with a few hundreds and actually 'interacted' (a complete cycle of communication that involves two people and responses to queries) with probably a couple of dozens of them! Yes I mean it!

1. "This is a virtual platform for networking" - Oh yes it is! there better be one for all those professionals who want to boast their step by step stroll and, a vent out for those desperate job seekers who have a tag "Please hire me" and spend hours here thinking something is going to come out of this. Yes, there needs to be some place where rants are seen and not heard! (I am laughing out loud and clear as I pen this)

2. "Employers view you, get noticed, recruiters want you" - Alright no more of that jazz, please. I am here to get viewed and who doesn't like a little bit of attention? But is this is the kind of attention that will land me in that dream job? I keep asking myself that, I want to see who and how many are actually noticing me? And guess what? The ones noticing and connecting are the ones that think YOU can help them get a job. It couldn't get any more ironic than it already is!

3. The 'Send message' option - Wait a minute, why do we even have this? Linkedin needs to give an option like Facebook, where even messaging can be curtailed by the receiver. And what if I still take the chance to message a person who just connected? Hell no! They have a hundred messages coming in, your'e just that lucky Joe, if you manage to get a response, and even luckier if they recognize you or even check your profile.

4. Reading up and blogging - At this point, I must say, this is the only feature that has kept me glued to this platform. I can read some very useful articles and the experiences of many a professionals like I, helps me to get a different perspective about things I already know, and learn about the stuff I don't really know.

5. See who is doing better than you - Yes, this is why you need to know where are your friends and ex-colleagues moving and what are they up to? Are they doing better than you? Are they still with the same firm? Have they moved on? So on and so forth....

A few months back, I had a friend post an article on 'How to make Linkedin more productive for yourself'. I was thrilled to know that people could use this platform for more than a mere 'connect'!

I don't want to keep this long, but the gist of what I am trying to say, is that if you are here, ensure you dedicate some bit of time to socialize and network or even mentor people who write to you. It always gets annoying to reply to messages whilst at work, but how many times a day do you check your Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter? Atleast once? Why don't we imply the same rules here? If there are job seekers writing to you, why don't you take some time to write back and tell them the truth.

Remember you could have once been there... or you could get there some day, some bit of courtesy and politeness can go long way indeed!