Screen By Screen: Getting Started with LinkedIn

Now what?

Recommend, and be recommended. Here's one of the most powerful features of LinkedIn. Ask your colleagues for recommendations. A good way to convince them to recommend you is to recommend them first. Yeah, it's called "logrolling," but so what? Recommending someone is easy. LinkedIn gives you a drop-down box that where you choose how you know this person, called "basis of recommendation." Choose one of those listings, and then the next drop-down box will ask what the person's title was when you worked with him or her.  The drop-down box shows all of the positions that person has listed, but if you don't see the appropriate one on that list, choose the selection at the bottom, called "position not listed in the profile."

Once you've recommended people, they're more likely to recommend you. Ideally, you want to have a glowing recommendation for each one of your past positions in your profile. This is a fun way to reconnect with your old buddies, as well as an excellent ego booster. And don't worry, if someone writes a nasty "recommendation," you have the power to reject it.