LinkedIn is positively invaluable for any career-minded person over the age of 20. The site, which launched in 2003, is the place where professionals stay connected. You can think of it as a social networking site—and certainly, a good deal of socialization does go on—although it's really more of a professional networking site.
LinkedIn is free for a basic account, with additional features available to paid subscribers.
As with other networking sites, users set up a free account and draft an online profile, only here profiles resemble resumes and CVs. Where social networking sites frame tiresome lists of movies, bands, and favorite quotes as evidence of one's persona, LinkedIn emphasizes professional affiliations, work experiences, and job titles.
The site provides a huge array of services, but most people don't need to use every last one to reap the benefits of having a LinkedIn account. In that sense, LinkedIn can be very low maintenance, which is a huge benefit to busy professionals. For users who aren't actively seeking work or clients, logging in just once a month can pay off with huge results.
Setting Up
Free to use, LinkedIn requires little more than an email address and password to get started—although there's no benefit to using the service if you don't also fill in your profile. As mentioned, the profile is very similar to a resume, with a summary section and job history prominently displayed. LinkedIn prompts you to upload other information about yourself, including a photo. Until your profile is 100 percent filled in, the site will remind you periodically to complete the process—and it's mutually useful that it does. Users get more out of the site when their profiles are complete, and the the more user data the site has, the better an experience it can deliver.
The next step is to connect to people you know. You can find them by importing names and addresses from an email program. Most of the big webmail services are supported, but to grab contacts from Outlook, Apple Mail, and other desktop email clients, you need to first create a .csv, .txt, or .vcf file.
As you connect with co-workers, friends, business partners, etc., LinkedIn will begin to suggest people you may know based on shared relationship and company affiliations. The suggestions are unobtrusive and easy to accept or hide with one click of the mouse.
