Have you joined LinkedIn® yet? 

LinkedIn® professional networking services is “an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries and 200 countries.”  They indicate that “you can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.”  Best of all – LinkedIn is free to join!

When you join, you create what they call a “profile” that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can then form potentially long-lasting connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. What they call your “network” consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts.

One beneficial thing you can do on LinkedIN is join a “group”.  TheProfessionalEngineer.com would encourage you to join the PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER group (navigate to the “Group Directory” and search for “professional engineer” and look for the yellow P.Eng logo).

The profile of this group is, “This group opens to all Professional Engineers (P.E. P.Eng. Eng. Ing. CEng… ) and those who is working in the process of getting it. “  This group was created on December 17, 2008 and currently has over 1,400 members.  The owner is Mr. John Cheng PMP, P.Eng.  In this group you can join in on discussions, look at the job board, or read news items posted by members.

Overall this group provides an excellent way to network with fellow licensed professional engineers.

Additionally, LinkedIn lists the following things that can be accomplished through using your network:

• Manage the information that’s publicly available about you as professional
• Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts who come recommended
• Create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems
• Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners
• Gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Professional Organizations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.