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Linked In Or Out?
Mr_Whoopass writes "I am the IT Administrator for a regional restaurant chain, and as of late I am noticing more and more people sending me invitations to sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc. Mother always taught me to be a skeptic, and, knowing more than the average Joe about how information can be used in this digital era, I am reticent to say the least about posting such personal details as my full name and where I work on the net for all to see. I have thus far managed to stay completely below the radar, and a search on Google has nothing on my real persona. However, now times are tough, and I see sales dropping in the industry I work in as it is a discretionary spending market to be sure. I wonder if I should loosen up on the paranoia a bit and start networking with some of these folks in case of the all too common layoff scenario that seems to be happening lately. What do other folks here think about this? I am specifically interested in what people who work in IT think (since I know that just about every moron who has 'Vice President' or sits on the 'Executive Team' is already on LinkedIn and has no clue about why they should be trying to protect their identity)."
What's your real name allready?
I know many people for whom LinkedIn was important in getting a new job. Not only can people see what you have done, but more importantly, LinkedIn shows potential employers who you know, which is valuable information to them. They can choose you above someone else because of the people they know, and will be incorporated in the company's network by hiring you.
-- Cheers!
The whole social network phenomenon is a lot like the lottery:
* You can't win if you don't play.
* You can't loose if you don't play.
The price of admission to the social network game is:
* Loss of privacy.
* You may meet new people. Some may be good and others may be bad.
* Get a new free email account because harvesting emails out of social networks is the new hotness for small time spamtrepreneurs.
It's a lot like real life. The more friends you have the less private life is, and the more people want you to sign up for their MLM.
-- $G
The only site I use is LinkedIn, because it is a good way to keep a thin attachment to people who are just contacts, but people I don't want to loose touch with entirely. That to me is far different than telling people misc details about my life that I consider to be private.
...but I am surprised you are an IT admin and unaware of how both social and professional networking websites actually work. About the only thing strangers can see is your name.
Why are you afraid to put honest professional information out there? Nothing says you have to post everything about you. My profiles on social websites is very controlled and only portrays what I want. The basic rule, for me, is to keep my professional and business aspects of my life separate.
Lastly, I use my name for professional networking and a variation of my name for social. So, if a potential client e-stalks me with "Ruthered B. Hayes" they will never get the social sites I have under "R. Brenticus Hayes"
Bottom line, you control your image, be careful with it, but do not be afraid.
I love this stuff... It is all optional. There is no requirement to do it. Oh, but if you don't opt in, your life will suck.
My favorite is medical privacy forms:
I, James T Victim, hereby give my consent to Dr. Scrupulous to share every facet of my every bodily function, my entire medical history (including incriminating stuff I have to reveal for medical purposes), and my entire credit record to whomever may request it for whatever reason. I understand that I can refuse to allow this sharing, but then the doctor may deny me medical care and I will likely die a horrible, painful death.
I was signed in to LinkedIn for a couple of years, and never had a single job offer (I'm MSc i Computer Science and have never been unemployed, just for the record). Neither have I heard of anyone else who has had any benefit from it. So it propably won't pay off. Or - has anyone got a job through LinkedIn?
It depends on how you use the sites and what you put on your profile. I have a lot of detail on my Facebook profile, but the only people who can see that information are the people on my friends list. My LinkedIn profile, which is geared for a more professional atmosphere, contains parts of my resume and my previous work history because I use it as a professional networking tool.
Facebook has really fine-grained privacy controls that allows you to restrict who in your networks can see your profile, what they can see, and when they can see it. You can even go as far as adding "friends" to limited profile lists that restricts what they can see or blocking them outright.
My Sysadmin Blog
Social networking sites can be one avenue in which you lose your privacy. However, there is another side to this coin. Namely, do you want to be able to make your identity online, or do you want others to determine your identity?
By using LinkedIN, Facebook and others, you can craft a very professional image that is put forth. In kind, you can be selective as to who you allow as a 'friend' or 'contact.' Therefor, your professional image retains intact.
Obviously you want to avoid posting pictures of you doing your last beer bong, or wearing a lampshade on your head, whilst posting white papers, and pictures of you presenting at conferences.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I don't want to linked into to any club that will have me as a member.
He thinks he's smart, hiding from us, but I googled Whoopass and found 1,180,000 hits.
Privacy Is Dead, Get Over It with Steve Rambam: This is the first part of Rambam's essential lecture, presented in five-minute snippets. It's like a good book that you don't want to put down, you'll keep viewing the snippets (or search for the entire lecture if you have time to view it all at once). Nobody who uses LinkedIn or any other of what Rambam calls "self-contributed data sites" should miss this.
Oops, dawned on me that's just his surname, so I googled his whole name (Mr. Whoopass) and got 951,000 hits. This link is proof that we have access to much of his personal information, including links to his girlfriend, WhiteTrash. http://people.paltalk.com/people/users/Mr%20WhoopAss/index.wmt
Wait... so you're afraid to post your resume online?
Who cares what your name is and where you work? The Yellow Pages are more invasive. They give your home address and name.
When you meet someone at an informal function do you keep you name and place of employment secret as well? Just what exactly are you afraid someone would do with this information?
When you send out a resume do you just list "'Company A', 'Company B', and 'Company C'" on your empoyment history? Or do you write it out and then black it all out with a marker like a top secret intelligence report?
Stop waffling and start getting noticed online. I've gotten numerous job interviews that I didn't even apply for because people were reading forums and thought I sounded competant and knowledgable. In fact so far I've never needed to even apply for a job.
If the only people who know about you work in your server room that's as far as your reputation extends. If they google your name which would you rather them find: Nothing or an insightful blog on proper network security procedures and a list of glowing praise from your superiors and coworkers?
You are your name. That's your brand. Sell it! Make it famous!
Most jobs are found through networking and friends. Only the worst, lowes-end jobs are in the paper. That's plain fact. I've started over a few times, and I'm not interested in having to do it again.
I dunno if LinkedIn is the best place to grow your networking, but it's an avenue. If you're careful with it, I think it could be a valuable tool. I haven't yet had to put it to the test, and I hope I don't have to any time soon. But it's something that you need to build while you have a job, and not wait until you're already out of work.
I agree with another poster--of the networking social sites out there, Linked In appears to be the only one that has career value.
--
$tar -xvf
I heart facebook & linkedin. Used to be hard to find high-value debtors once they left the country, now linkedin tells me where they are and who they work for. I work in Melbourne, and every week I lovate people in Istanbul, Dubai, Honh Kong, LA, Brussels....once facebook or linkedin gives me a bunch of info to start with, the rest is easy. Like other posters have noted, some people cannot afford not to have a presence on these sites. Works for me...KA-CHING
In a word, yes, you're being excessively paranoid. To be sure, there are bits of information you don't publicize. but I don't think your name and where you work, just by themselves, meet that criteria unless you're in the CIA or something. Your social, your credit card numbers, address, home phone number, and all that, sure. Keep those to yourself. I don't understand why your name and where you work is such a great secret. I think you vastly overestimate the value of knowing the John Doe works for Regional Restaurant Chain.
It's rare that I say this in a security context, but loosen up a little. :)
I actually have the opposite problem: my first and last name combination is so common that I doubt I actually appear anywhere in the first 50 pages of Google Results. Adding my middle name gets nothing. It's only when you add my university that you start getting hits that are me.
I used to think this was a cute benefit. However, with more and more employers doing searches, and my work being all about the web, I realized that having no results related to me could actually be negative. While I don't go out search for them, this insight has caused me to be much more lenient towards any site that is recommended to me, such as LinkedIn, or even an account on a career/job site. I still keep them fairly sparse, but it's better that I have something to point to ("No, that's some other FirstName RyoShin, I'm FirstName M. RyoShin, and THIS is my account on that site") to help ease any confusion.
I'm not gaining any privacy by doing this, but I don't think I'm losing any, either. Furthermore, I am gaining recognition and a firm reputation.
* Loss of privacy.
Yes, but in general you shouldn't share information on facebook, twitter, you blog, website or anywhere else online that you don't want everybody else in the world to know about you. :))...
That's as simple as it gets... Now really is your full name something you don't want to share with everybody else?
Also it's okay to be critical about what pictures you accept being associated to on facebook... And it's okay to censor your blog for comments you don't want people posting on it...
Personally, I've linked my slashdot account to my website, on which my name, address, email and phone number can be found. And so to the extent possible I try to only post stuff that I'd stand by (yes, sometimes I'll stand by for some bad comments too
And if I absolutely must say something I don't want put my name on, then I'll consider if I really ought to post it anyway, and I must AC is always an option.
It's a lot like real life.
It that a metaphor people on slashdot understand? How about a car analogy. :) )
(Sorry, couldn't help but wondering
...the only people who can see that information are the people on my friends list.
So can anybody with a subpoena. Or even without one nowadays.
What?
Consider this: your name, address and who you work for are hardly personal, private information (in most cases, at least). The first two anybody can find by opening the phone book. The last probably isn't instantly available to J. Random Passerby but generally isn't something you keep too private. I'd guess most of your friends know where you work, as does anybody they talk to about you. So I'm personally not too concerned about that information being on places like Facebook, Linkedin and the like. I actually put it up there myself so somebody else doesn't impersonate me or get mistaken for me (or if they do, I can point whoever's making the mistake at my page and point out that their mistake wasn't for my lack of having the correct entry up there).
Now, I'm not going to put details of my personal life up on those sites. It's strictly name, address, current employer, and a pointer to my Web site and resume. More than that, is not those social-networking sites are for as far as I'm concerned.
I created a Facebook account solely because somebody with the same name as I already had one, and people were assuming his profile was mine. So by creating a minimal profile on that social networking site, I took better control over my identity.
Linkedin has definite professional benefits, allows you to maintain limited contact with former co-workers, people who you might later find working in the same city as you've just moved to, or the firm where you are thinking of applying for a job.
If you refuse to voluntarily publish positive information about yourself, what will potential employers find? If nothing at all, they may tend to assume the worst, or at least assume you have no notable skills, hobbies, friends or publications.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
Alot of time when going through resumes, if we try to Google the person, do a usenet lookup or other such things and can't find them anywhere, to us (when evaluating resumes), it means you are lying on your resume or have very little work experience. Mainly because people in IT use the internet day in and day out to communicate, ask the community how to do something and so on.
If you aren't communicating, it doesn't tell me that you just aren't communicating, it tells me you have little experience. And in a sense, because you aren't using this resource for what it is for, it is somewhat true. Start posting questions in forums, and creating an online identity. Some online identity is better than NONE.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
I use LinkedIn in the same way that I would keep a business card that someone gives me. However, the advantages of LinkedIn are:
There are probably more. If I was forced to drop Facebook or LinkedIn, I'd drop Facebook as LinkedIn is significantly more useful to me.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Having some sort of online presence is a great way to control (or at least influence) the image about you online. There's a heap of stuff on google about personal brand management. This one looked like it had a lot of relevant points regarding why you should consider this to be important: http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2008/04/building_personal_brand.html
My business: Farstrider Studios.
Basic information such as name, address, phone number, spouse's name, employer and so on are (usually) publicly available and trivial to find, e.g. from the electoral roll. I can't see any point in hiding them and personally I make no attempt - they're right there on my web page.
Having used online employment agencies, my CV is also pretty much public information and I have put that on my web page as well. I've found at least one permanent job and a contract as a result.
It may still be prudent not to broadcast your birthdate and mother's maiden name because they're unfortunately sometimes used as security questions, but it's barely worth it because they're pretty easy to discover as well. Maybe it just gives a false sense of security, in fact.
It's possibly still worth making some effort to conceal email addresses from spambots, but that battle is pretty much lost as well.
Bank account details are on every cheque you write (and every electronic payment) so any security based on criminals not knowing them is shaky at best. They're not really secret. Credit card numbers (and even the CVV) are pretty easily read by any waiter or shopkeeper.
My point is, a lot of personal information people think is private or obscure isn't really hard to find at all. It's safest to assume it's all known and concentrate on other security measures (encryption, effective passwords...) for the important stuff.
Phil McKerracher
A web presence connected me with one founder who hired me as first technical employee in his startup (which was fun until we went out of business) and a big corporation with a six figure bonus + relocation package (but no interesting work to go with it).
I get a lot of traffic from recruiters from my linkedin account, some of which I'd entertain if I was looking for a job.
Once you reach the limits of your real-life social network, you really need another marketting strategy for career growth. While not ideal (there's a lot of noise) linkedin is worth the hassle.
By the way, what happens when you click "I don't know this person" on somebody's invitation? Do they receive any answer or simply get blocked from inviting you again?
It seems it's visible from invitation status in the outbox, as explained here.
Apparently, receiving five "I don't know" responses to invitations will introduce restrictions to your account. For example, you won't be able to invite anybody without knowing her email address.
The Yellow Pages are more invasive. They give your home address and name.
That's assuming you have a name like "Dominos Pizza" or "Allstate Insurance".
For the rest of us with people names, we're generally more concerned about the White Pages.
I'm a big tall mofo.
There is some merit to LinkedIn. Keeping in touch with old business contacts, making new ones, whatever. It's pretty profession and despite a recruiter or two being an annoyance overall no biggie. Good place to showcase your experience. Facebook IMHO has no real business use. It's too difficult to separate business and personal. Your inviting people to judge you based on your high school buddy with a profile pic you'd rather your boss not see. There's really no good way to handle Facebook. Dual profiles are discouraged too. As a result my profile for years has been pretty empty, no friends and privacy settings turned up. Most people in your network are viewable provided you hookup your work address. Good way to look in on the facebook world without a care.
I haven't heard of anyone's career destroyed because of stuff that got posted on LinkedIn.
When I was laid off Dec. 31 I immediately announced my freelance availability on LinkedIn, Facebook, and a private journalists' email list I'm on. I've been busy ever since. LinkedIn has gotten me the most/best leads, but I've gotten some nice local ones through Facebook and a few from colleagues through the journo list.
The most interesting project I've landed came from a LinkedIn contact in Austin, TX, who hooked me up with someone in Raleigh, NC, who was doing a health care IT startup and needed writing/PR/marketing help. So I have a nice freelance account doing socially useful work for good people, all arranged over the Internet (although we've met F2F since).
Don't knock networking. It's the best way to get jobs you might actually like, with people you might like -- and who might like YOU. :)
LOL!
I love your type, putting on airs and strutting around saying that you wouldn't work for me because you feel my online presence is inadequate.
I have the money that you want. Dance Monkey Boy, dance!
You can say that you weren't forced and you can convince yourself that you really wanted to dance, on your own time.
Bitch! Thy name is Owned!
I work for one of the top executive search companies in the world and LinkedIn is an indispensable tool.
In the past, headhunting was very much about who you knew, the company's own database, thrashing through newsfeeds, list of associations, etc., and a lot of cold calling. LinkedIn has, in a very short time, topped them all.
LinkedIn provides a headhunter with a database that updates itself and that constantly grows without much effort (each connection who adds a connection "expands" my network). It also gives direct access to top executives and allows the headhunter to read the executive's profile before speaking with him/her.
Through the eyes of the user, indeed, the entry price is a little loss of privacy, but I believe the gains outweigh the losses. A LinkedIn user enters the radar screen of headhunters, allows you to stay in touch with former colleagues and friends, and, who knows?!, lands you a job.