I like the fact that opportunities exist and LinkedIn provides a way to find or stumble upon them. My headlong dive into LinkedIn was in response to another member viewing my profile and deciding that I could help some of her clients.
Many current clients contacted me after seeing my profile, seeing a status update, or finding me in a group. I’ve connected with others who have provided value by sharing information. I spoke with Chris Rollyson who is in Chicago based on a connection,Vincent Wright, who is in Connecticut. Or maybe it was the other way around.
The fact is , that when you start connecting you never know where it’s going to lead.
I was recently asked to speak at a Church Job Search group about LinkedIn. The last time I conducted a job search was back in 2001. My first thought was how am I going to be of value if I have not gone through the job search experience in 8 years.
Interestingly enough I stumbled upon Michael Korn, who writes a blog, http://mjkorn.wordpress.com about his job search. Michael is a contractor who works on 6 month or 12 month long projects. So every year he is looking for a new consulting gig, or job. Definitely someone that could provide value to the job search group.
Michael is an open networker, so I sent him a connection invitation asking him if he would be interested in presenting with me to the group. A few conversations, a couple of emails and a lunch meeting and we were set up to do a joint presentation.
Without LinkedIn I would not have been able to find such a valuable resource to share the stage. (Of course without LinkedIn I wouldn’t have been doing a presentation). Michael brought a tremendous amount of value to the presentation that I could have never put together.
If you find yourself in the middle of a job search or simply want to be prepared, check out his blog. If you want to add a connection that will be a valuable resource if ever needed, Michael (mkorn@sagelight.com) is open to connecting. Not because you’re another notch in his connections belt, but because just maybe there is an opportunity for a value exchange. You’ll likely get the better end of the deal and that’s OK with Michael.
I like the fact that each day I never know what opportunities that I will discover on LinkedIn. Or what opportunities will discover me. What opportunites have you found?
