Nine Down

As I posted earlier, Carol got on LinkedIn this week with help from Boly:Welch, a recruiting company in Portland that heard about her through this experiment. Just checked in with her - she's up to nine connections. Here's the best so far: her old boss at the paper mill wasn't on LinkedIn, but she emailed him to invite him and he's now joined.

Her plan now is to get him to post a recommendation of her on LinkedIn (because he'd write a glowing one!" she says.) I asked her what she thought of LinkedIn with the small glimpse she's had.

She said: "It's very interesting. If this is a way professionals are keeping in touch and looking for new employees, it will be a good way to get exposure."

That's still a big if in her mind. If people are looking for new employees this way. Remember, she got her 99th, and last, unemployment benefit check this week.  And while getting a job ASAP may in reality take the same digital networking approach as plotting an eventual career move, it seems to feel different.

But when I suggested she could now ask one of her new connections, my friend Anna, who responded to the first Facebook post I put up about this, to connect her directly to the person at Anna's company who may be soon hiring some temporary workers, Carol laughed and said this: "It's all so foreign to me. Getting in touch with people who you don't know."

But she's starting to get it. She is a bit amazed there have been any concrete responses the little exposure to her situation Alexis and I have done on our networks. Next on her to do list:  improve her resume (Boly had advice on that too), get on Facebook, follow up with a friend whose husband might have some temp work, finish up a yard sale she and her mother are holding, sell her car and get a cheap clunker.

My take two weeks into this experiment: there are infinite ways Carol could push herself deep into online networking. But will be a slow process to make it her habit. There are more ways I can try to bridge the divide too. How about you?