Mastering LinkedIn

Account Creation

I never had a LinkedIn account until I was searching for a job, and then I only paid attention to it here and there, but not much. I wasn't concerned about growing my network outside of people I knew and/or worked with. I figured people only use LinkedIn to find a job or find a person for a job.

Was there something more?

Two years ago, during Lent, I gave up Facebook and the news, and I ended up on LinkedIn a little bit more. It was not flooded with regular news nor was it filled with politics. It was a calm place to spend a reasonable amount of time visiting, but it wasn't a place I felt sucked into.

Almost a year ago, I became a manager, and I started looking to fill a job posting of mine. I posted the job, and I started posting little bits about coffee because the coffee ritual at work has done so much for me in getting to know my co-workers. I figured I could be more active on LinkedIn.

Then, I had an interesting post. I received my patent for Wrist Detection in the mail. I was so excited! I texted my family and friends, and I posted it on LinkedIn. I know part of it was Apple, but something incredible happened. It started racking up the views. It hit 1,000, and I was shocked. It hit 10,000 views, and I couldn't believe it. People I never met were congratulating me, and I realized I may have just inspired someone.

I also realized that the people I wanted to connect with probably weren't on LinkedIn. However, there were people who I could help. I came up with a plan: write about experiences. I made a list of stories, and I decided on a pace (2 articles per week).

I started figuring out how to make better articles, and I wanted to make sure I covered stories I thought others would be interested to read. The most surprising was Free Couch. It seemed to hit a certain note with some people.

Online Resume+

LinkedIn isn't to copy your resume on a URL. Instead, you should expand beyond your resume. You should talk more about your projects, add presentations, write about your experiences. If you want to full utilize the platform to really show potential employers who you are, you should aim to make your resume only a summary of what your LinkedIn profile is.

Recruiters will ask me for my resume, but the reality is that my profile is far more developed than my resume.

The Trick to Networking

The trick to LinkedIn and networking in general is reaching your hand out to help people. There is a certain joy when you help someone for a few minutes on their resume, and then they get the job. If I change the focus from "how can I get to a job" to "how can I help you get a job", then my attitude will become more positive. I've gotten so much joy from this endeavor.

For some people fresh out of school, the best they can hope for is to use LinkedIn to show more depth of their resume in case people are curious. Beyond that though, everyone can help the new person to the field. Even if it is just to have a conversation.

Connecting Philosophy

Initially, I was only connected to friends, but I soon started searching for people in my job field in different geographic regions. This was a slow and laborious process, and I didn't understand how people got 30,000 contacts. There's no way you have even met more than 1%, but to get a broader audience and meet interesting people, I wanted to expand faster.

To do this expansion, I went for the random stranger policy. If you consider Kevin Bacon and 6 degrees of freedom, that assumes a structured connected social structure. LinkedIn allows one to break this mold and connect to whomever. As a result, I'll find people to randomly connect with under the assumption that one day, that connection will connect me with someone else where I will help them or they will help me. Compared to Facebook, it isn't as creepy because people are trying to expand the people they know and what is shared.

One interesting result is the number of conversations that have been started as a result. I end up seeing a few resumes per week, and maybe I'll be able to help someone out. I'm connecting with many people fresh out of school who don't know much about the working world. My hope is that my articles may help people in their careers and personal development.