My last job ended at December 31, 2008. I’m now unemployed, but I doubt it’ll be that way for long, even in this economy. I’m here to tell you that Linkedin really does work. It’s worth investing your time in.  Really.

Here’s my story (As i first posted this to a Linkedin group, Web 2.0 Jobs):

At the time I had finished a position working on a project for the Department of Homeland Security/Cargo & Border Patrol. I felt like I really needed to energize my search. I had found positions by networking on occasion, but mostly through recruiters. Someone I know always seems to call me with something going on. I’ll interview and get the position if I wanted it. This time around I needed to be working — quite quickly. I wasn’t sure if I could be picky.
So I took a closer look at Linkedin.

I read the ubiquitous Guy Kawasaki article. I followed some of his advice, but it came down to simply asking people I knew, and previously worked with to become a first-order contact, even if I hadn’t known them for very long. I had maybe a little over 100 contacts, and I wasn’t working very hard at it. I felt that Linkedin’s rules were a little restrictive (I still do on occasion but they’ve fixed a few things by having groups and associations to work with) but I decided to take a risk and reach out to pretty much everyone I had any relation to from my personal mail account. People I had spoken with on various topics of interest, people I worked with in as many jobs as I could think of… I asked for recommendations, I asked for anything that could fill out and enhance my reach, my resume and my focus on the next job that I wanted.

In my first round of reaching out, I picked up maybe 250 contacts. That was in a little over 15 days of time. I hadn’t realized I knew that many people, but yet I was actually dealing with that many on a fairly regular basis. I wanted to get more, but I didn’t want to be a LION (Linked-In Open Networker, meaning you expose your email address and anyone wanting a connection pings you for one) — and I still don’t, because A) I don’t want to deal with that kind of a flood on a regular basis, and B) I do like to keep a fairly personal, friendly approach to a lot of my contacts. I like to get to know them, and figure out how we can help each other, or at the very least share a little friendship or knowledge. I ask first (as many LIONS have been doing) when someone I don’t know approaches me how he or she think we can help each other if I happen to get the standard “I’d like to add you…” and nothing else. Still, I was persistent and got to 500+ contacts fairly quickly after that. Maybe it took another 15 or so days total to reach my current levels.

But with that said none of those basic strategies have gotten me the job. What got me the job was actually just being sociable. I was reading some of the Q&A’s and I ran into some people with similar thoughts on certain subjects and we made each other think. One particular person remembered me from a question I answered and the next thing I knew, a few months later I get a call from the guy (who I had had a previous fleeting phone conversation with where he had wanted to know what kind of work I wanted to do and what I was interested in.), and he tells me about a project he doesn’t have time for, and would I be willing to consider (among the job offers I was acquiring at the time) a consulting project that could be relatively lucrative?

So began a relationship that began as what was to be a consulting job – and before the initial interviews were over I was already being considered for a full time position. I signed on at full time, not a consultant. So bottom line is that this social experiment called Linkedin does work – and really you just have to participate, be yourself and be persistent. Let people know when you need help and/or just communicate. I have been helped considerably by having a lot of recommendations, being active in discussions where I felt I could be of assistance, and network, network, network. I tell everyone I meet that I’m on linkedin and would they mind if I connected with them. It works. Especially now that people want and need safety nets in this economy.