What is the best website to use when searching for a job?

What is the best way to use LinkedIn if you're not job searching?

• As a PhD student, I won't be actively looking for a job for another 18-24 months but would like to make better use of LinkedIn. However, given I can't really accept job offers while I'm still in the process of doing a PhD, what is the best way to use it?

• Answer:

  I'm going to suggest a slightly different angle to using LinkedIn outside of job searching or networking (both valid and valuable uses of LinkedIn) -- establish the following for yourself: Expertise --> Credibility --> "Personal Brand" Right now you have the ability to proactively consider what is the particular expertise you want to be recognized for. I realize the answer may be "chemical engineering" but that's too broad and general. You can be in a room with 100 other chemical engineering PhDs. What will make you stand out to me, if I were an employer / potential business opportunity / future colleague? You can start by filling out the blank -- "I am the chemical engineer who ________ better than 99% of the population."Whatever you fill in the blank, use LinkedIn discussion groups and occasionally "Answers" (I don't really like those but some have found those useful for this purpose) to establish not only your expertise but your unique "flavor" or "value" of expertise to both a niche (your future employers) and wider (your future business colleagues including ones you'd never imagine could offer you jobs) audience. Credibility and personal brands are natural outgrowths of your demonstration of expertise, based on your unique style and value, to your audience. Here's a list of specific actions I've taken via LinkedIn (keep in mind that I do not use it for employment and I don't even use it for "networking", I use it specifically for establishing subject matter/process expertise-driven personal brands, in the order of effectiveness: Participate in topic specific discussion groups [learn to ask engaging questions, the kind that gets you dozens of comments, it's an important skill to have in general] Create your own group if and only if you have a vision for what existing groups cannot fill and you have a plan of action to make it successful. For example, I created an alternative PhD careers group when I decided that I have something unique to offer that remains a largely unmet need even when there are many such career groups, and within 2 years the group attracted over 800 members. In addition, the group discussion topics are not a series of "check out my blog" links but substantive, advice-driven discussions. That's the value and that becomes a differentiating trait in my personal brand. Engage in specific conversations via LinkedIn mail/email with those whose comments make you want to get to know them better. I've made the most solid relationship contacts this way. Engage in polls asking questions relating to your expertise/interests -- create polls [I've only done this 3-5 times] Participate in LinkedIn "Answers", although if you ask me, I'd rather spend the time here answering Quora questions like this one. I've tested using this and found too many fake/spammy questions and haven't spent much time pursuing this feature. By the way I'm going to use this answer as part of a career seminar I'm going to be giving in August to an audience of PhDs... how did they find me to invite me to speak? Through my LinkedIn group.