Don't Call it a Comeback

Apparently Silicon Alley is making a comeback. Frisket takes the news in stride.

LinkedIn Tip: Break Out Your Jobs

My use of LinkedIn waxes and wanes, though it seems to be on the upswing the past few weeks. I have gotten a couple of interesting leads, connected with a number of past colleagues, friends and acquaintances and with one exception have no serious complaints. I even pay for one of the "pro" levels of service though I'm not quite sure which one I'm on.

A bit of advice to anyone who's getting started with LinkedIn or has a renewed interest due to the routine spring time cleaning that occurs in Corporate America: do not just list the companies you've worked at, list the distinct individual roles.

My reasoning is this: by listing individual jobs you've had you increase the weight of your profile. There will be more words which can get indexed by a search on LinkedIn, you will appear to have more experience (it's just perception), and it give more opportunities to request and receive endorsements.

LinkedIn do not offer a lot of space for an endorsement, only a few sentences worth, maybe 500 characters at the most (but I think that's high, it may be as low as 255 characters for some VARCHAR(255) reason).

If I've worked with you at multiple distinct roles, I'd want to write separate endorsements for each role, especially since you may have different skills or experiences to highlight with each role.

Keep the roles within reason, if you've worked somewhere for five years and list ten jobs you may give the wrong impression. List major roles, roles which resulted in or from a promotion, which you received an award for, or which you received some public recognition for.

So if you have a LinkedIn profile, break up your experience at Incredibly Böring Manatees or wherever you work and then ask people you've worked with for endorsements.

That Silver Chalice award you received for most consecutive 25 hour days only has meaning inside the cube farm (and even there you'll find it has little value).