Thing 13 :Professional networks

To understand the benefits of Linkedin I began by reading the article at  https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-linkedin-3486382 and then I signed up for my own account. My account can be found here at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryanne-neil-4412b319b/

I enjoy Facebook and Linkedin is explained as Facebook for professionals so I thought I would enjoy it. After easily setting up my account I asked my husband how to get in contact with people that I may work with so he showed me how to search for colleagues and I was surprised to see very little people in my work actually use this social platform. I looked at the 5 people that work or had previously worked at the centre to see what information they had added. All of the staff had actually only added places that they had worked and less than half of them had added a profile picture. I connected with two people at work and read a sample of random other Early Years Practitioners profiles to see what they had added. There really was nothing that I noticed that would make me want to use this website on a regular basis.
So what  can you use Linkedin for:

Searching for a job:
I have my resume as a digital file saved and I wouldn't want to put that online to be head hunted.If I wanted to apply for a job I could easily upload it for each specific job. I can see the advantages of putting your resume online in say a sales job or for a management position but I feel that the level I am at and the role I do the good old search for a role and apply for yourself would suit me much better.

Get back in touch with old colleagues.
I don't feel that Linkedin offers anything that Facebook doesn't here. As I said there were very little people that I knew/know using Linkedin so I would probably have more success finding old colleagues on other social media sites. I would never be asking old colleagues for a job so Facebook would be an ok social media site to contact them on.

Participate in relevant groups:
I have an active account at Twitter where I participate in many work groups such as learning new Makaton signs or reading what SSSC courses are available. So I feel that I know what is  happening in the social care world both local and further afield so I don't feel that Linkedin offers anything different here.

Blog about what you know:
I only began writing blogs when I started to take part in the SSSC badges. I feel that if I was to write any work blogs I would write them here using blogger.com and publish them on Twitter. My reason for this is Twitter is where I know more people and would be more comfortable sharing my work there.

Although I have only had my account for a month and tried it various times I really don't think that I will use it in the future. I feel that it could be a very good site for networking (depending what profession you are in) but I am not looking for a new job or a career change at the moment so maybe if I was I would feel differently about it. Any information that I received from using Linkedin I also saw on Twitter so maybe if I was to use it more I would need to widen my interests in companies pages to cover more ground. 

Out of all the SSSC badges that I have done I have to say that I gained nothing from doing this one except a understanding that Linkein is not for me. I even discussed with the other staff in my centre that have an account and they also agree that although they have an account they very rarely use it.