You mean you look on Linkedin??
I was chatting to someone recently about networking and searching for senior talent. 'You mean you look on Linkedin?' they said. On the one hand I was a little offended and on the other, this person was right. To a degree. However, networking and searching is so much more than spending days glued to a list of profiles on screen.
Skip forward a few days……I am out of town and in a shop waiting for an assistant to find an item for me. Lady comes out of the changing-room in a dodgy blouse. I say nothing. She comes out again, this time in a really nice jacket. It suits her so I tell her so. We get chatting and by the time said item has been found, I know where this lady resides (town not her home address), who she works for, what she does and the rubbish week she has had. Turns out, she looks good for a role I have on. She is not on Linkedin. We swap contact details and she is now at interview stage.
So yes, Linkedin is useful but even more useful is a genuine interest in people, being bold about engaging, knowing your market, an ability to ask open questions and to understand what to do with the answers and even in these days of AI, CRM, ATS etc, the old Little Black Book doesn't do any harm either.
Bet my lady didn't think a compliment about a jacket was going to lead to a new career challenge. Would you engage??
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