The question is simple, why use Linkedin? Whether searching for a job or not, there are a few key advantages that this website offers . Having a purely professional conduit through which you can tell who exactly you are and demonstrating actual work examples certainly offers benefits when searching for opportunities.

In addition to the benefits of offering the benefits of a professional face in whatever industry you may be in, Linkedin creates an area where you can instantly jack into the accomplishments of past colleagues and see what these people have been up to. When logging into Linkedin this weekend, and deciding to update my profile with the latest information, I went on a bit of a…connection spree? The two primary people who I connected with where people who I respect for their quality of work, and ability to deliver successful results. These two individuals were Steven Gole and Raj Mani who I work with at my current company.

With this wealth of information about who worked where and how people’s careers have advanced, there is one big question…how do I get my dream job at a company I would love to work for? Well, thankfully Troy was here to help. The career path that Troy took mirrors similar stories to what I have heard from other managers and directors. In order to progress up the corporate ladder, especially in the tech sector requires the ability to wear many different hats. Troy progressed through Google by bouncing through different roles, mostly at Google, and as of now is a Technical Program Manager. Google seems to require a technical background in software or electrical engineering, or similar technical backgrounds…although Google claims that college education and grades have little bearing on their hiring.

The groups that I chose to be a part of are centered around my professional interests. The focus of these groups are around Enterprise Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence, with the most active group being Big Data and Analytics. These groups have already provided insights into what other companies are doing and where the data industry is going before the knowledge is published regularly in articles. The saying “everything that can be invented has been invented.” seems to hold true in the data warehousing industry, and hopefully I can build upon the experiences of others.