Mi Amigo wrote:Good point about the increasing 'spamminess' on LI - IMO this applies particularly to endorsements of specific skills. However, I'd like to think that individually written recommendations are less prone to abuse. In my case at least I will only write recommendations for people that I know quite well and have actually worked with (not necessarily in the same organisation, but also in a customer / vendor relationship). The other point is that LI can sometimes serve as a conduit for contacting referees outside of the company's bailiwick.
Yeah! LI has helped me a lot in my current job search. Its a cool story: The company where I just got the offer, the hiring manager had approached me via linked in last year and interviewed me, but didn't select me last year, because the role suddenly changed from perm to contract and then they didn't even consider me but hired someone else. But he still remained my LI contact.
This year a recruiter called me and told me that there is an opening in the company and it was exactly same role that I had interviewed for last year and he asked me if I was keen. I said yes and applied through him, but I don't know whether he submitted my profile or not. But what I did was I directly contacted the hiring manager and told him I was extremely keen even though its a contract role and then he asked me to come for interview and then after 2 rounds in a span of a month I got the job. Lots of recruitment companies of the likes of Robert Walters, Palm Mason etc advertised for this opportunity in Efinancial careers, Monster, Linked In etc and I have seen atleast 100 people must have applied, but eventually I got the job, I guess mainly because I approached the hiring manager myself and showed them I was keen. Maybe the fact that by hiring me, they don't have to pay the recruiter's fees, also played a part, haha. Anyways, I consider myself very lucky
In another story, I noticed a job opening in a company and then I asked my friend(who I got to know because he had interviewed me in another company and then I added him in my Linked In and I kept in touch with him) whether he knows someone in that company and my friend had a Linked In contact in that company. I added that person(lets call him X), who was really senior guy and I told him I am keen to apply for the job. This person and me had a common LI contact who was my manager some 8 years and 3 companies back. This previous manager and Mr X had worked together sometime back. Mr X asked him about me and got a good reference and that's how I got an interview call. However, their process was so slow, that meantime I got the other offer.
Just goes to show how powerful Linked In is and it really pays to maintain your contacts.