LinkedIn Questions + build up your contacts at least 6 months before looking for work

[ElizabethB]

So, my husband convinced me that I should be on LinkedIn. I have been building up my contacts but have a few questions for those of you on LinkedIn.

 

Most of my contacts are from when I was in the Air Force, which is heavily weighted male vs female. But, even my civilian friends are more likely to be on LinkedIn if they are male. Is this true of your friends for your industry? (I would think that elementary school teachers would skew female, for instance.)

 

Also, how about people who hit on you or your husband at the dentists office? Should you add them? Or is that too weird or does it depend? What if it was 10 or 20 years ago?

 

So, those are my questions for the hive.

 

Finally, for those of you not on LinkedIn, I would encourage you to build up your contacts early, before you are going to be needing a job by at least 6 months. Building up contacts is taking longer than I thought, but maybe I am just slow. Of course, I am also finishing up my last few boxes from our late summer move, homeschooling, making a new DVD series, writing a Greek and Latin worksheet for the series and the website, and a few other things...

 

Edit: I am not looking for an actual job, I am just building up my profile for my nonprofit, I am Director of our nonprofit associated with my website and my husband thought I would have more credibility with a LinkedIn profile, he said everyone had one...and many of our friends and family and my old co-workers do.

Edited February 21, 2016 by ElizabethB

[Mama Geek]

I am and engineering is more male than female.  But I also have contacts with others as well.  I know that our lawyer that drew up our wills is on linked in, there are boat brokers, realtors, are professors on linked in.  I wouldn't add someone that hit on one of us to Linked In, I would and did add our lawyer because I thought she did a really good job and we spent a fair amount of time with her.

 

I don't know if over all it is male dominated or not.  I am not even sure how much it is actually used.

[madteaparty]

I don't add many people on linked in, and also hate the silly endorsement feature. But, it is useful, once you've added your experience, it recommends job openings to you based on that experience. And people add you too.

[G5052]

I have a profile and consider it useful because I do a lot of work as a independent contractor and also have students who use it when considering me as a professor.

 

I've had to find professionals to handle a relative's affairs over the last year, and several mentioned that they used it and other resources in their background check of me.

 

But other than resume-type stuff, I'm not sure how useful it is. I have people wanting to link to me that know zero about my professional capabilities. Students who want to link at the beginning of the semester, the contractor who built my porch, a friend from college that I've had zero contact with since then, etc. etc. Frankly I turn down links unless they really know me.

[Luckymama]

Please, everyone make and maintain a LinkedIn profile!

 

Signed,

A LinkedIn engineer's mother ;)

[Arcadia]

The ones who contact my hubby through Linkedln are headhunters and mostly females. The commission for headhunters by the hiring company is good. His field is nanotech/semicon so quite even number of males and females colleagues in his dept.

 

My friend has an autism non-profit. She also has a facebook page for the non-profit besides the LinkedIn profile. Hers would be probably more females than males as we went to all girls schools from 1st to 10th.

 

Signed,

A LinkedIn engineer's mother ;)

When are you coming over for a visit? Lots of WTMers near his workplace :)

[Rachel]

My husband got his last job because of LinkedIn, sort of. His name had been given to someone and because of LinkedIn, it was easy for him to get in touch with my husband. He's an engineer so his profile skews very heavily toward make contacts.

[Luckymama]

When are you coming over for a visit? Lots of WTMers near his workplace :)

We'll be visiting between May and August. It all depends on what dd does this summer----and we won't know that until the end of March (fingers crossed). My aunties are all in Sac and all my cousins live between the Bay Area, Davis, and Sac :)

[umsami]

Of my contacts, it's pretty even....male/female.  My contacts come from undergrad, grad school, past jobs, past professors, etc.  Even some from my high school alumni association.  (Background was business (marketing, e-commerce/social media, competitive intelligence), if that matters.)