One Reason LinkedIn is so Cool

I am not actually looking for a job for myself right now, but I am always on the lookout for resources that might help teachers and other education personnel in their job searches. I'm told that hiring managers now spend a majority of their time on LinkedIn looking for suitable hiring candidates, with very little of their time any longer spent posting jobs. I've been building my professional network on LinkedIn and have been pleasantly surprised to see that I have contacts from a variety of sources, not just my contacts from work.

LinkedIn has its own job search area, and for fun I typed in a few key words and a location, just to see what came up that might be of interest to teachers. I noticed something that I had not been aware of before: each available job tells you how many people in your LinkedIn network have a connection at the company that is posting the job. At first I didn't pay much attention to that subtle little link, but I had kind of an aha! moment when I realized that I don't know a single person who works at, say, Ernst & Young. I was curious why LinkedIn thought I did, so I clicked the link.

I was right; nobody that I know directly does work for the companies that came up in my search. However, I had numerous "2nd Degree" connections - which means that the connections listed know someone who is directly in my network. WOW! What a powerful way to use networking -  how in the world would I otherwise have found out, for example, that my former brother-in-law or my neighbor knows someone at a company that is currently hiring? Just click the "Get introduced through a connection" link. Introductions let you contact users in your network, through the people you know. If you want to contact a LinkedIn user who is two or three degrees away from you, you can request an introduction through one of your connections. Your connection will, in turn, decide whether to forward it on to the desired recipient.

Get that LinkedIn profile up and start building your online professional network!