Originally Posted by Good CO

I'd never even heard of Linked_In VM! Could you start a separate thread with some info?

With pleasure Boss. As I wrote on the networking thread, the convention in my new adopted industry and many others is Linkedin.com and even in these straitened times it's been the source of two recent calls from headhunters. I have quite a detailed profile and don't pay a penny. There are a number of military groups also established on LinkedIn and these numbers seem to increase daily.

The site functionality is good and serves as a sort of grownup facebook. As well as the job calls I have had several rendezvous with old University and Army friends as a result of wandering around LinkedIn.

It serves as a union of business networking, social networking, job seeking and also information sharing. Like arrse it can become pretty immersive and I've found a number of useful answers to questions on the site, as well as tried to provide my own. You do have to exist under your actual name so there's a real dearth of BATUS whorehouse memories I'm afraid.

A nice touch on LinkedIn is the ability to endorse the work of others - so that when your profile states that you singlehandedly ran an AOR full of loonies there's someone there to say 'yes, this was the man' - increasingly recruiters are finding these endorsements pretty powerful and a useful walt-screen.

One word of caution - I'd say that you should keep your own network pretty lean, that is, only offer connections to people you know well or from people who you know well. LinkedIn thrives on the tertiary connection - people who know people who know you. There are some people out there who are serial connectors with 500+ connections. Leave them alone - they effectively devalue your network. I have 33 connections, as an example.

So - this is unlikely to be a busy thread but I'll RSS it and bump it from time to time. Happy to answer any questions arrsers might have and I'd thoroughly recommend it.

V_M

I'll second V-Ms comments about LinkedIn. V useful and you will be surprised at how wide a network you have after you start setting yourself up. All those old friends and colleagues you know and worked with who got out years ago will now work in diverse industries; many in positions that can help you as a leaver, to find your feet in industry.

I too am in the 30-40 range of contacts and I am happy that I won't grow it that much bigger.

As a member of the RMAS group, I've also been able to track down a couple of old friends from my pl there, one of whom has been very useful in helping me with advice. I had lost touch with him after he got out some 15 years ago and it was good to catch up.

Use it cleverly and it is a great way to explore options. Just remember, networking works both ways and whilst you may use some credit at the the start, you are there as well to help those that approach you. Good fun and satisfying when you can help.

Agree with both comments.

I have closer to 70 contacts, but perhaps this stems from spending too much time in a US company.

There are also a number of groups you can join that are professionally oriented. For those looking to take their security clearance on to civvy street, I would recommend the
SC / DV cleared "Use it or loose it" Group.

I am also finding it useful for tracking down individuals in by own company ( just over 4,000 strong) who have specific skills that HR may not be able to retrieve.

Groups are growing in size and interest - and there are some very interesting topics running in some of the groups. Little text speak either, altho' some appalling massacres of the English language and some pretty wooden and empty thought going on in some quarters.

On the whole they are pretty good though. I try and answer at least one question a day posed by someone on one of the groups - usually as a warm up before opening my work inbox.

The moment you post a response to a question or two be prepared for a couple of people wanting to join your network - just brush them off - particularly the ones with 500+ contacts. Also, if you belong to a group that has a global dimension be prepared for a lot of twittish and bone questions coming out of Bangalore etc. A lot of it is contact trolling...

Here is a group on linkedin that might be of interest to those doing/are interested in contract work with the US government:
TFCN
and also:
Jobline
Good luck!

It is interesting to read such positive endorsements. I too have a profile on there, but don't/haven't really done much with it partly as a reaction to some negative feedback from a couple of people I know. Perhaps it's time for a rethink and re-vamp of the profile to see just how useful it could be.

Should we not start an Arrse group?

Its a "proffesional" networking site, you cant just start up any old shite, ie its not facebook. Plus you have to use your own name

Thankyou Polar69

I know I am already on it and been using it for the last three years.

Originally Posted by Victorian_Major

There are some people out there who are serial connectors with 500+ connections.

...ahh, the joy of accepting a connection from a friend who owns a recruitment firm... I've been on LinkedIn for a couple of years; but I've not tried to use it seriously.

However, I've only got my day-job stuff on it; nothing on it overtly links me to the TA (even though I've been out for a couple of years now). This is a result of a period in 2002/2003 where it appeared that mentioning the TA on your CV guaranteed that you didn't get an interview...