How many of you have wasted hours upon hours updating your MySpace page or your Facebook status while you should be cramming for that big test or finishing that term paper?
If you are like me, then you have a serious problem thanks to Twitter, Facebook and MySpace taking up all your time. But do not worry! I recently discovered a new Web site that might actually help us!
A relatively new site, Linkedin.com, is social networking for the professional world. Think of it as Facebook for the working class. Picture this: all of your Facebook friends are actually people in the professional world in the field of work that you are looking to enter.
On this site, your homepage can act as a kind of resume/business card where you can list your skills, job experience, education and specialties, etc. From there you can “link in” with other people in the industry. The site is perfect for potential job offers. I guarantee that it’s the one page that you won’t feel guilty about updating constantly. And it’s super easy to use.
When you log in for the first time, and if you are using some kind of Web e-mail like Gmail or Yahoo, it will ask you if you want to transfer over your contacts so you can invite friends. It also shows you who already has a Linkedin page from your address book. When I checked mine, I was surprised to see a few friends were already on the Web site, which left me feeling behind the times. Besides some friends, I also found a family member, my own mom. I found my own my mom on a social networking site. I wasn’t sure if I was more shocked or impressed by the fact that she was using this site for her own benefits or that she had already beaten me to the punch!
After getting over that little surprise, I started to build up my page with incredible ease. If you are familiar with any other social networking site, you will feel right at home with this one. After about half an hour I started sending out some “network invites,” which is the equivalent to friend request. One of the cool things about this site is that once you have a few friends you can browse their connections to see what kind of connections they have. If there is someone important that you want to be friends with, then go ahead an add them. This site really encourages sharing friends.
Teachers have told me in the past that it’s all about who you know and that everyone knows everyone. Well, with this site I can finally see that everyone truly does know everyone.
I can see this being such a helpful tool for all students. In today’s struggling economy, no one really knows what the future will hold for them. Jobs will be harder to get and with a tool like this we all should be taking advantage of it and putting ourselves out there for everyone to see. You never know who might stumble across it and see you.
