Anyone concerned about having their profile on LinkedIn?

Question

Dukes actually raised this point in the thread about that Chicago admit who broke in to change his grades. Are people concerned about the personal and professional information in their LinkedIn profiles that is readily available to just about anyone? I don't have a Facebook or Myspace account, but I recently added my profile to LinkedIn in response to a request from a college buddy. Within a day of adding my profile, I received several requests from other "linked" members asking me to add them. Now I'm having second thoughts about having my info just out there, but I can't really articulate why I should be concerned. Any thoughts?

dukes · Answer

I think LinkedIn is okay. Just make sure not to make your profile public. The only people who can see your info then are your contacts and their contacts. I also don't get too detailed with the info I have on there - just the basics. Also, there are people who invite anyone who they shared a school or company with. I usually "ding" people if I've never met them or just met them in passing.

I'm more worried about my Doostang profile which everyone on that site can see. During the b-school application process I also deleted my profiles from some of the social networking sites.

lepium · Answer

Well, you can show as little as only your name in your public profile. I found my confort level at showing a very brief outline of my experience and interests. But I guess each one of us needs to find his or her own confort level and learn from experience. 

In my case, the only unwanted contacts I've had has been from Vista, trying to recruit me as a part time consultant and from a random guy whom I chose to ignore.

I think it's like when browsing the Internet: if you set up your security settings too high, you won't be able to browse at all, if you set them too low, you will be hijacked by spyware and viruses.

L.

riverripper · Answer

I have accounts on several sites, I never even go on linkedin though and have never really built much of a profile. I have had a myspace account for years. I got invited by a cousin who went to school with Tom, the founder, when it first started. During my research for schools I looked up profiles of current students and alumni from schools I was interested in. Amazingly most of the profiles I would describe as very unprofessional and pretty much stereotypical frat boyish in their content. 

I do have a friend who works in HR for a major company and they do check people out on myspace since it can be much more telling than an interview. So with that knowledge I wouldn't put anything on there you wouldn't show your boss or your mom without being embarrassed.

I keep mine since its a great way to get back in touch with people and stay in touch. I have reconnected with people I went to high school with and haven't talked to in a decade. One of my friends actually met back up with his first childhood girlfriend and they are married now. So it has its good points but then again I am not going to post pictures of myself doing something compromising to be funny and I would write anything about myself that I wouldnt tell other people. I dont add people I dont know or that I wouldnt want to know. I delete comments that are in poor taste. Its what you make of it, in reality a Linkedin account could be a usefull tool in school to maintain a network and connect with alumni.

09App · Answer

I really like LinkedIn, but made sure to keep the profile private. There's just too much down side to putting that much information out for public viewing. All of my contacts and their contacts can view it though, which is fine. It's already been helpful, because I found Chicago headhunters for my wife through some of the contacts in there.

GMATT73 · Answer

Nope, not too comfortable either with how the internet has become the new personal white pages. I prefer to remain unlisted.

Anyone concerned about having their profile on LinkedIn?

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