Part 1: Interviewees experience with Professional Networking

A young lady that I interviewed in Atlanta, Georgia has recently graduated from college with an accounting degree.  She has been actively looking for a job offline at college fares and events.  We had a brief conversation about her experience with online professional networking. I have the most important points outlined bellow?


Have you heard anything about online professional networking and what are your thoughts on it?

A: Surprisingly, she has never heard of professional networks like Linkedin (let alone XING.) She said at this point in her life she would prefer to find a job and worry about networking later.  (She percieved networking as a form of 'sucking up'.)


When I asked her about whether she believes connecting with recruiters online would be worth her time...

A: she believes meeting with recruiters or connecting with recruiters is a waist of time.  She wants to meet directly with the managers or executives doing the hiring.  Her reasoning for this is that when she connected with recruiters offline she developed a strong connection with them, but they lacked the authority to do the actual hiring, and many times they lacked the background to truly understand her qualifications and potential in the field she was applying to. 


What she thinks about the idea of online networking...

A: She believes its better to network offline than online.  Plus if she is having enough difficulty as it is offline to network (face to face) how would it be any better online, she claims.


If she could change one thing about online networking it would be this:

Provide a platform that would allow professionals to directly connect with business owners and employers rather then recruiters. 


What are your thoughts on this?  Disagree, agree? Please let us know.

Interview 1 Presentation feedback:

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/14VsmjaCwdZ3na