LinkedIn (...small GNHLUG logos)

[Jim Kuzdrall]

On Saturday 17 November 2007 15:15, Ted Roche wrote:
>
> If there's anyone who doesn't already know I'm a GNHLUG activist, I'd
> be surprised and a bit disappointed.
>
> There's nothing that LinkedIn will know about GNHLUG that anyone
> browsing the public email archives and our web site couldn't already
> work out. I think this is no worse that having your membership listed
> on a Chamber of Commerce or professional association site. Anyone who
> isn't interested in advertising themselves or their services
> shouldn't join.

    You are quite right.  Further, LinkedIn is an excellent concept.  I 
just wish that a non-profit, service-oriented organization was behind 
it.

    For any professionals not put off by the almost guaranteed email 
barrage, I heartily recommend joining LinkedIn.  Virtually all of the 
professional work I have gotten in 37 years in the engineering business 
has been through personal recommendations.  For the first 30 years, I 
did no advertising at all.  I should add that the work came from dozens 
of companies and government organizations.

    As LinkedIn asserts, the contacts are often indirect.  I distinctly 
remember one call from California, "I'm <*>, you don't know me, I have 
been talking to <*> who you don't know either, but he is working with 
<*> who saw the work you did on <*>, I have a friend in Massachusetts 
looking for...".

    So links (or the Ol' Boy Network, as it is unfairly tagged), are 
very effective in connecting professionals with jobs.

    Incidently, my government file is also extensive.  The military 
files on "free-thinkers" (less flatteringly "loose cannons") get 
particularly long, but they tolerate them to get the unusual solutions 
they generate.  I can't do anything about the government's dossier, but 
I like the commercial info kept to a minimum.

Jim Kuzdrall