Job, How do you find one? Well, you only need 3 things to find the right Job. Network, Network and Network.
I came a Bangalore without a job in hand and took 6 months off after we landed. Well, I wanted some time off. Then during the end of my cooling period I got one offer and took it (Mid 2007). Well, things did not really work at the company, so I decided to quit it just after 4 months. All my friends and well wishers told me this was a career suicide, they asked to find one before I quit. But I still quit, classic American (e)stlye.
Again I was back hunting for a job, attending the same interviews, answering the same old lame interview questions. Had couple of interviews with some top tier companies but did not get any offers even after 3rd or 4th Interview. One thing I could not really understand was if I made it or not. Back in the US i had a very good indication if rocked the Interview or not. But here in India it was a different ballgame all together. I had a 2nd interview with a company which I didn't do really well, but I was called for the 3rd. I really did very well with the 3 rd (or at least that is what I thought) but didn't make it though. My Morale was totally down during these days.
Dec 2007: It had been little over a Year since we R2I'ed and I wasn't in a good shape career wise. There was this web-site called LinkedIn where I registered couple of months back. Somehow LinkedIn does a good job of networking. One fine day I saw the name of my Tech-Lead under "People You Might Know" section for whom I had worked about 12 years ago. I sent an Invite and he replied back after a week. His bio told me that he worked for this xyz company, browsing this company's web-site I came to know they had an office in Bangalore. WHAT A COINCIDENCE.
12/17: I called him early Monday morning, exchanged pleasantries, briefed him about my situation. He was kind of surprised that I had R2I'ed and he is also an Immigrant himself, not Indian though. He shot off an e-mail to me and cc'ed the VP of the Bangalore's office.
12/18: I too shot an e-mail to this guy and attached a copy of my resume. Around noon I got a call from him and at 4:00 I met him.
12/27: Needless to say I got the offer and I started working from Jan 1.
All I am trying to say here is "You need to think outside the box". Who would have guessed that I would have got this job through LinkedIn? I didn't. Anyway I read this nice article on forbes which really inspired me to write this post. I thought I would share it with you. Cheers.
How To Make The Most Of LinkedIn
pdev11,
professional networking via LinkedIn is so very useful at times like these - thanks for sharing your story.
I am actually surprised that this kind of networking really helped. But its encouraging to see it helped you. Thanks for sharing.
Dont be so surprised. LinkedIn has been quite a boon for me. Its amazing how you can work the system. You would be surprised at the amount of right people your old old old contacts know, for example.
Care to share an experience? It can be a good tip for all of us.Originally Posted by moneyIsNot_funny
I agree with that bit about Linked In. A wonderful place to connect and network - it has helped me immensely in my business, professional and charitable endeavors.
Administrator
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Can we have our own LinkedIn ?
Is there any off-the-shelf software available that can be installed for our forum ?
Or Any other way that we can utilize current tools, forum structure to have our own network that can be utilized to advance our careers..
I think the philosophy of this forum and LinkedIn are different. Here you are not revealing detailed information about your career history but in LinkedIn we reveal that. Since it is a total conflict I dont think we can have our own linkedin. Maybe in LinkedIn we can have R2IClub as a group and folks discussing about there career could join there.
There are already a few NRI, Return to India and Real Estate groups in LinkedIn. My advice is to start a group in LinkedIn and point them to this forum. It is just a way to attract membership from LinkedIn to this forum. Could do the same for Facebook and Orkut. Start a group and point the members to this site. Could post some teaser tips from here.
I would probably not say everything I think, but definitely think all I say - G.G.Marquez
LinkedIn works real good. I have heard from an HR Manager (with a MNC) that they have started posting jobs on LinkedIn and they prefer people who come with recommendations.
Like Boca mentioned above, there are plenty of groups on LinkedIn and R2Iclub can start a group on Linkedin as well. But, having all desis as your contacts is a big No NO! for networking in the US. So, guys keep that in mind.. don't just add all your desi friends and their wives/husbands to your LinkedIn network.. Keep it for professional contacts only! and join groups like R2I or your University/College Alumni Associations, etc.
For Ex: I don't have my wife and my siblings in my LinkedIn network (although they have their own prof networks). They will utilize their professional networks (for me) in time of need, anyway.
I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. - Dr.Seuss.
I agree with cyberabadi. I would be reluctant to include our fellow forummers as my LinkedIn professional contacts because I haven't worked alongside or don't share any professional connection with anyone on this forum.
LinkedIn group for R2IClub will be one way to go about or perhaps a really cool LinkedIn-Application for R2IClub members.
RRK, Marina, Boca2blr,
There is already a group called "R2I Club" in LinkedIn but not much is happening. Instead of starting a new Linkedin why don't we join this group. I think that is good in a long run.
No. Never join a group that is dead. The Owner/Manager of the group might have already lost interest in managing that.
I see nothing wrong in someone starting another group related to R2I. But, the person (Owner/Manager) of that group should be committed to that and willing to filter away the contacts and restrict that to people R2I'ing or those who have R2I'ed.. If its membership is open to all, like on this forum, it would not work for professional networking. If its for Social networking... We can as well do that here on this forum.
My 2c
I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. - Dr.Seuss.
Administrator
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We can have our own private forum in this website if we wish.
But it may not be have the tools of LinkedIn. It will be private, though.
I am not sure if that can help as much as LinkedIn.
I joined very recently and within 2 months got almost all of my collegemates.. It is quite powerful..
RRK,
I am not sure how many would want to share their identities (with all) on the same forum that they have been discussing varied topics in an anonymous mode. I personally would not want to.
My suggestion would be for you (or someone who is committed like you) to start a R2IClub group on LinkedIn that members (of this forum & others) can join and keep their identities from this forum separate.
When the LinkedIn members ask for membership to the R2IClub group on LinkedIn you can view their background and approve membership only for those that fit a minimum requirement (Education or Work exp abroad and a min number of existing connections).
Someone who have experience with starting groups on LinkedIn might want to chime in..
My 2c
I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. - Dr.Seuss.
I totally agree with you RRK. A professional network like LinkedIn and our Fourm are totally different and should be left that way.
LinkedIn is good. I was able to reach out to many of old colleagues and classmates.
If any one on this forum wants to get connected on LinkedIn they can do so by exchanging private messages.
Why try to replicate something like LinkedIn locally on this website?
Administrator
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#15, cyberabadi, Seems to balance out.
How about this ?
1) I create a new group in LinkedIn
2) Post the group name here
3) If you like to join that group, you login in LinkedIn and send a request to join with your member id in this forum
4) I guess I will be the only person who would know the link and you got to trust me that this info will remain only with me.
5) Based on the userid verification, group admission can be approved.
I think this scheme is possible.
question:
But few members may still like to know who is who, within that group, how can we handle that ? They may like to disclose their id and like to see others who disclosed their id. I see some members like to tell all and some may like to hide this info.
Do we have that flexibility ?
Groups on linkedin are pretty worthless in their current form. The only advantage of a linkedin group is that you can find people with similar interests, and can actually see their detailed profile. IMO the current forum does that task in a pretty remarkable way, with an added advantage of anonymity.
I am member of several linkedin groups that have over 10,000 members. But there are no discussions, or very few people actually bother to do public discussion (prime reason being, people don't like to ask questions with their profiles public). Moreover, the groups you are enrolled in shows up in your list. So imagine you don't want to tell your boss about your R2I plans, but you are member of a R2I club on linkedin (to which your boss is also a member of) and you are asking questions about which month is best to R2I. Wouldn't that be a weird scenario? Then there is a feature of jobs (which too is poorly designed), News, and Discussions. For the last two, current forum is eons ahead in capabilities.
If members are so willing to share their linkedin identities and network, then whoever is interested may put their linkedin url in their signature. Otherwise, the current forum is more than sufficient.
My 2 aane!
The night is darkest just before the dawn. I promise you, the dawn is coming.
I am also a member of linkedin, albeit forced.
I see no need for our forum to convert to something like that. It is an excellent forum in the present form. People are free to share their profile with people they want to. Couple of members know more about me than most including admin. We know a lot about Desi, though never having met him or asked for information. Let people decide what they want others to know and hang it all out if they want to.
It allows us to say things we may not want to be identified with. It is working well.
Just my 2 kauri(preceeds the anna)
Linkedin is a bit like Amway. You get accosted by someone or the other with invites popping up in your inbox.
LinkedIn is quite powerful in expanding your professional network. I agree that their groups lack many features and are a bit dormant in terms of discussion because of the points you mentioned. But the objective of a LinkedIn group is a lot different from forums here and can really complement each other. If someone wants to discuss anonymoulsy about R2I specifics or anything else that is somewhat personal in nature, they can always do that here; the R2I group on the LinkedIn will bring us together "professionally".
I started and managing a LinkedIn group - its a alumni group - in a way its similar to R2i group in the sense that many members dont know other members (people who graduated much earlier than us). While starting, the simple objective was to connect to former friends but it later expanded and now I came to know quite a few people who had similar experiences as me and work in the same industry. What is the use? - when you are looking for a job in a particular company, you know which other members in the group are in that company and can try to reach out (if you want to get any more info) or if you dont prefer that, you can atleast make friends with a new collegue who has similar interests. You can use an R2I group in a similar way - you dont have to reveal your R2I forum identity to make friends but rather a simple revelation that you are also member and have similar interests.
Note that you dont have to connect to members in the linkedin group, by being in the same group you can can get a bit more access to him/her and can reach out if/when you want. That certainly increases networking possibilities. I think it will be useful.
Note: you can edit linkedin profile to only show only shared groups with others rather than all the groups you are a member of. This way you will only show R2I group membership on the linkedin profile to other members only (if that is what desired).
LinkedIn connect request is an email invite which you can always ignore if you dont like it. I wish Amway requests are so gentlemsmile:.
Obviously I am a fan of LinkedIn especially since I got my last job using it. I was a member since its early days but didnt had a big network, a few years ago when I was about to change a job, I networked a bit more and used its tools to my advantage to land the job which I liked so much then.
RRK - I am all for a LinkedIn group for professional networking. But, I am unable to understand the reason for collecting unneeded info (linking this userid with the LinkedIn group membership) - even if that info is to be handled only by you.
I think people should have the flexibility to share or not share. LinkedIn group membership should have a different set of requirements like Work Exp, Education abroad, etc...
Like Nk2006 mentioned above... A person can just be a member of this group to network and connect with other people in the group on a professional level for help with a position in their firm, etc.
Sid - We have a great forum for discussions here. This LinkedIn group can just be for sharing identities, work exp, etc.. Which, you can tap into as and when needed. I don't know if you have utilized LinkedIn, yet... But, its a monster for connecting unknown and unrelated people professionally.
I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. - Dr.Seuss.
Cyberabadi, I have been using linkedin for a very long time. And its an awesome tool. The day this company goes public, I'm gonna buy a bunch of its stock. My only peeve was for its groups feature, and loss of anonymity.
By all means, RRK or other interested people should start a linkedin group independent of this forum. That social group should remain different from the current forum. Though, publicity for this forum could be done on the linkedin group, and vice versa.
But the fundamental thing I fail to understand is that once you have created a group of 10,000+ people on a R2I linkedin group, what would you do next? It would be just another hunting ground for HR people spread all across linkedin. For professional networking, you might be better off joining the linkedin group of the field that you are in, or one that you want to pursue. For example, CleanTech group, Solar Energy group, Chemical Engineers group.
If the group owner is interested in starting an HR agency with a huge database of talented returning NRIs, then this group might work. Otherwise, I fail to see the benefit.
The night is darkest just before the dawn. I promise you, the dawn is coming.
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