LinkedIn: There is More to it Than Meets the Eye

     Prior to enrolling in an MBA program, i'd placed a very small amount of effort into completing my LinkedIn profile.  Once my MBA program began however, I made a conscious effort to thoroughly complete my profile in hopes of growing my business connections.  After all, I kept hearing from career advisers that it was important to develop ones LinkedIn network while in business school.  Once my profile appeared to be complete, I began focusing my attention on searching for possible business connections.

     As time went by, my LinkedIn network began to grow.  This process seemed to be slow at first, but it began picking up little by little, and before I knew it, I had a sizable amount of connections.  I periodically checked in with various connections I had made, but I was still somewhat unsure as to how I could most effectively use the platform.

     This changed one day when I received an email from LinkedIn informing me that they had a list of jobs that would likely interest me.  I clicked on the email, and it took me to a list of jobs that strongly correlated with my interests, and it also had pictures of certain network connections that were also connected to hiring company in some capacity.  The format and layout of the page piqued my interest, so I later clicked on the job tab at the top of my LinkedIn page.  I was immediately taken to a screen that had numerous jobs already listed, and it also had a search bar that allowed me to search for jobs at specific companies. These job results again displayed my connections that were also connected to the hiring companies being searched.

This image depicts the jobs screen that can be accessed on LinkedIn

The moral of the story is that I was pleasantly surprised to learn of a new way to utilize and benefit from a social media site I had used for years.  Have any of you had the fortune to learn of new ways LinkedIn can benefit you?  Have you come across a situation in which you have been using a certain social media platform for quite some time,  only to learn of new ways in which it could benefit you?