If Jane Austen worked for LinkedIn

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a youthful professional in possession of few means yet plenty of ambition must be in want of new opportunities.

Allow me to bestow my wisdom upon you, and provide a satisfactory answer to this time-old inquiry:

Why should you - or anyone else, for that matter - make haste in creating and maintaining your personal profile and presence in the most excellent community that is LinkedIn?

And if you dare venture into considering it likely that the following paragraphs be tedious, allow me to be graceful in the face of such an insult to my literary capabilities.

Advantageous connections

First of all, LinkedIn is the most advantageous arrangement for one who is not well-versed in the art of professional networking. Far be it from me to suggest this to be your case, however I am led to believe it is an affliction most common among today's youth. Building professional connections is one key source of professional opportunities, and connecting on LinkedIn allows you to keep said connections in a lively state with much more ease than simply exchanging business cards or employing other means of communication.

When making new acquaintances, connecting with them on LinkedIn is an excellent method of securing your professional connection with them. Furthermore, it allows you to spy upon the connections of people with whom you have already acquainted yourself.

Become discovered

LinkedIn is often treated by potential employers and headhunters - those who seek talent of the utmost quality for the benefit of their good business - as a way of discovering connections of the mutually beneficial kind. In other words, an offer of employment, or of further discussions about the possibility, might be made to you due to your presence in LinkedIn.

Time is of the essence

The third, and, if I say so myself, the most compelling reason, is that a presence on LinkedIn cannot be easily established in the blink of an eye. Seeking out the people to whom you could reasonably expect to be connected can be time-consuming, and thus, building a network is not as easy a task as it might seem at first glance.

I would also like to draw your attention to a feature most ingenious - the listing of your areas of expertise, or particular talents, called "Skills", for which you can seek endorsements from the good people with whom you are fortunate to be acquainted. A profile with many endorsements in your chosen set of skills is vastly more convincing and, dare I say, compelling, to a potential employer, and to anyone else who might be the source of professional opportunities, in contrast to one in which not a single body has validated your claims of possessing such virtue.

However, without considerable amounts of time and effort expended in their cultivation, neither connections nor endorsements can be expected to mature into an asset of great value.

Hesitation begone

Therefore, for the reasons brought to your attention, starting early is the most advantageous step to take, as the perfection of one's presence demands a considerably long time to fully mature. To conclude, establishing a LinkedIn presence is, logically, the most sound decision for a person of youth and competence, such as yourself, to make with all due haste.

At present, I expect you to have been rendered speechless by the magnificence of such advice as was bestowed upon you by yours truly. If, however, there is something in your mind as you feel could provide value to others were they aware of its existence, allow me to permit you to leave any such insight in the section below, reserved entirely for commenting.