Off Topic LinkedIn

[ColoradoDriver]

MOD EDIT: 08/15/2020 - Hi everyone. I created this thread because there was some off-topic discussion about LinkedIn in a different thread. Instead of deleting those posts, I figured I'd move them here in case others might find the discussion valuable or interesting.

I killed my LinkedIn account so can't look him up to see if he came to/stayed at Mazda from the Ford years.

Dave Coleman hardly has a LinkedIn presence. An account with no picture and barely 56 connections and no years listed for the Mazda entry.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

He hardly has a LinkedIn presence. An account with no picture and barely 56 connections and no years listed for the Mazda entry.

Thanks. How the heck can this guy have so few connections? I got requests from people who are 10 degrees of separation removed (although I never accepted them.)

I wonder if I can find his resume elsewhere. I find it interesting that Mazda has R&D Engineers in the states. I wonder if each locale specializes in different functional areas.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Thanks. How the heck can this guy have so few connections? I got requests from people who are 10 degrees of separation removed (although I never accepted them.)

I wonder if I can find his resume elsewhere. I find it interesting that Mazda has R&D Engineers in the states. I wonder if each locale specializes in different functional areas.

That's not the right way to use LinkedIn, my friend.

I don't get it either. I have 3600 connections and will connect with anybody and everybody. That's the only way to exponentially grow your 2nd and 3rd connection exposure. Most big names do the same thing.

But then again, if you aren't looking for new jobs, then doesn't matter.

 

[7eregrine]

That's not the right way to use LinkedIn, my friend.

I don't get it either.

It's finally happened... we finally disagree on something my Colordian twin. This is absolutely NOT how you are supposed to use LinkedIn and goes against the very principle that LI was founded on.
Direct from LI: The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.

You... are a LION: LINKED IN OPEN NETWORKER.

So if I want a recommendation for my business I'm not coming to you because you just network with anyone. Every single person in my network is someone I know or have worked with. I trust them all to recommend.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

It's finally happened... we finally disagree on something my Colordian twin. This is absolutely NOT how you are supposed to use LinkedIn and goes against the very principle that LI was founded on.
Direct from LI: The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.
know and trust professionally.

You... are a LION: LINKED IN OPEN NETWORKER.

So if I want a recommendation for my business I'm not coming to you because you just network with anyone. Every single person in my network is someone I know or have worked with. I trust them all to recommend.

There are those two perspectives for sure, but yours doesn't really leverage how LinkedIn actually works in the back-end and you and I are probably describing 2 different use cases. What you describe seems to be the small office "I know a guy" scenario rather than I am in a large IT market of thousands of people in a hot IT city and need exposure to recruiters, hiring managers, etc. The "I know a guy" is still certainly a factor, but doesn't help you at all get exposed here where the larger your 1st degree connections are the exponentially larger your 2nd and 3rd degree connections become as well as your exposure as a result. Case in point, I haven't sent a connection request to more than maybe 10 people in the last 3 years and when I was at around 1000 connections. So 2700 connections are people finding me and asking to connect over the last 3 years.

And in many cases, being an open networker has introduced me to many people locally that I either actually started building mutually beneficial professional relationships with, or else been exposed to some companies, tools, etc. and now, contacts, to see if I can use them for problems I am trying to solve. Have some meetings scheduled next week with some local folks representing some enterprise grade IT tools...I've been shopping around as we need some for some specific workflows, and I meet these people on LinkedIn.

EDIT: And just to be clear, I have a good network of my close people I know and trust, and have worked with before and would be the ones to get my recommendations if asked. So in your scenario, I have both worlds.

EDIT 2: Oh and because I have very close and trusted colleagues that live on the other side of the country now looking for other opportunities (one got re-orged out of his job recently, but he is easily a top level guy in his area of work, honestly would love to work with him again), I can blast my network and chances are I'm connected to recruiters or otherwise in his area who otherwise maybe wouldn't have seen him since he has like 72 connections.

All in all, I don't really care what the founders of LinkedIn say. It's not Facebook, and because of how LinkedIn works, doesn't really do you any favors to have 50 connections of only people you know if you live in a big city with a big market and are looking for other opportunities.

 

[7eregrine]

It does exactly what I want it to. I don't want 150 recruiters in my network. My god the emails would never stop...

 

[ColoradoDriver]

It does exactly what I want it to. I don't want 150 recruiters in my network. My god the emails would never stop...

Like I said, different use cases.

Perhaps my initial premise of "You're using LinkedIn wrong" was not the right way to word it.

And I got my last 2 jobs through LinkedIn and because I networked like that. So just depends on what you are using it for. I have filters for recruiters and my email is fine.