One of the best engineers I ever worked with didn’t have a LinkedIn profile fifteen years ago. And still doesn’t. I’ve checked. Nope.
Not that he hasn’t switched jobs; he has. And I know he has made a promotion through senior software engineer to architect. But as far as I know, he has been working with the same team of three or four men all that time. When the company he was working for was acquired back then, and management changed and some things happened, the member of their team who is highest in openness, extraverted and outgoing was offered a new opportunity. He decided to go for it and, after a while, started to reach out to his old team to apply for vacancies. No digital networking. In fact, hardly any intentional networking at all: All long-term personal relationships that weren’t cultivated for their utility but for their enjoyment.
Contrast this with what happened to me before the new year. I was at a software event and after the speaker had finished their presentation there was an “opportunity for networking”. All utilitarian mindsets: harvest email addresses and LinkedIn connections!
A young guy asked what I did. I have my own company, but revenue isn’t where it should be. The next thing he said was that he was looking for a new assignment and if he could add me to his LinkedIn connections.
I wish I would have said “No” instead of the evasive “My network is of no use to you”. But I guess he figured that out himself, because I never saw the connection invite. Look, my network is really stale. I haven’t posted since forever, I don’t enjoy “networking” for networking’s sake. It just feels icky. I don’t want to collect people like Pokemon cards. For the longest time I resisted adding anyone I haven’t met in person. And still there are people in my list I don’t know. I haven’t met them or it was a one-off. What’s the use?
Well, LinkedIn is a website that is like the window of a shop. On sale are people. That’s just one way to look at it of course, there are plenty of opinionated posts and opportunity to see what an old coworker is doing now. But if it wasn’t for the recruiters paying, the website wouldn’t exist.
If you’re not the one paying, you’re the product. Same goes with the networking event I attended. The company that paid for the event is the customer. They get visibility and a pool of candidate hires in return. For me, it mostly was a nice evening out with an old coworker. Next time, I’ll skip the networking afterwards. Unless by that time, I’m hiring for my new business, if I can get that off the ground.