<p>I applied to a job some time ago, and saw that the person doing the hiring looked me up on LinkedIn. I'm not sure as to why, given he already had my resume on hand. Unfortunantly, I never spent much time on the site, so much of it was empty, and my connections were limited to a few.</p>
<p>What is the point of this website, is the question I'm trying to get at. I see lots of people with 500 + connections, but I imagine the connections with that many people, can't be strong. Connections have helped me get job offers, there's no doubt about that, but all of them are personal connections I have a strong relationship with offline. </p>
<p>Can someone please help me understand what people get out of this website, while making their resume public for the world to see.</p>
<p>well, you can change your privacy settings.</p>
<p>Also, you can keep in touch with people that you have previously worked with. Just because you are connected with people on linked in does not mean that you do not know them in real life.</p>
<p>How strong do you think the connections are when a 40 year old grad from school X hires a 22 year old grad from the same school? Not very strong, but they have a connection. You don’t need to be super good friends with someone for them to potentially be a valuable resource for you.</p>
<p>There are a couple of ways I’ve benefited from LinkedIn:</p>
<p>By joining a few groups on LinkedIn specific to my field, I began to see users who were in my field as well as geographically near. I got a job fresh out of college after messaging someone I inadvertently found nearby in a LinkedIn group. You are able to engage in direct conversation with the people who care about the same things as you without going through HR.</p>
<p>I get messages from recruiters and companies, including some fairly desirable companies (Google, D.E Shaw). This by no means guarantees you a job, but you will get an interview.</p>
<p>I can maintain contact with former colleagues / bosses without having to add them to Facebook.</p>
<p>trout basically just covered it. Rather than needing a file for every business card you ever received, you can add someone on linked in and access their contact information if you ever need it. HR loves being able to browse profiles.</p>
<p>Basically it’s Facebook for busy people who want to seek professional benefits, rather than for going on when you’re bored and need distractions.</p>
<p>Use it, it’s really beneficial in our modern age in our modern age, trust me.</p>
<p>As mentioned, LinkedIn is facebook for your professional life. LinkedIn can work very well for you if you are honest and may be badly if you are not. </p>
<p>If you say you have done specific things on your resume, a correlation with LinkedIn profile works in your favor. LinkedIn allows you to get people to recommend you as you get more experience and people can see it online. If you keep it upto date, there are people contacting you about openings or asking if you know someone who needs a job if you are not interested. </p>
<p>If you have a profile in linkedIN that does nt match up with your resume in terms of your work expertise or places and times of employment, it is easy for someone to figure out a dishonest candidate.</p>
<p>Please remember that they may googled you first to get to your linkedIN which means people are doing a online check on you. So if you have open facebook profile or stories about you anywhere, they can all be accessed. So it is important to do an online check on yourself to see what can popup about yourself before you are surprised about why an employer knows this or that about you.</p>