In a Wi-Fi world, exchanging business cards at corporate dos sounds so last century. The Net has spawned business networking sites where professionals and entrepreneurs meet, exchange ideas, give advice, offer jobs, check out new openings, upload CVs, cross-check references, negotiate terms and generally do things to further their career prospects. Ah, yes… they also chat. Sometimes.
LinkedIn, with 13 million members across 150 countries, is one of the most popular networking sites.
Headhunters trawling the Net for CVs for specialist jobs often stop by. Xing is for the academically oriented. Its mobile portal allows anytime access. Brijj, the brainchild of Info Edge India, the company that runs Naukri.com, helps you discover new job openings. Then there’s Ryze, which keeps its members updated on workshops and seminars for improving professional skills.
These sites are more than just drop boxes for biodatas. You develop contacts when you interact with other professionals, which will give you information about job opportunities even before they emerge. You can even download a toolbar from LinkedIn, which acts as a ready reckoner of the portal’s members and their connections.
Three degrees of separation ensure that you would almost always know somebody who knows somebody who is the human resources head of the company you intend to join. Xing allows you to make an online business card which includes your resume and details of your skill set.
These networking sites are particularly useful if you are a freelancer. A glowing recommendation can get you lot of work. Anybody can join. Registration is free and so is the basic content, but you need to shell out money if you want detailed information and premium services.
Some of these sites have memberships runnings into millions. But you can avoid the jumble of such large numbers by joining smaller sub-groups that cater to your area of interest.
A caveat: don’t fudge anything in your resume. If an acquaintance comes across a falsehood or tall claim, he could point out the discrepancy to a potential employer or client.
