I have 182 connections on Linkedin which is a modest number when I compare it with some of my connections. Mark and Rick for example, each have more than 500 connections. On the other hand a few of my connections are linked to fewer than 5 people. I think the number of connections you have might depend on how well you handle rejection. When you join Linkedin you put yourself out there. Sure, Linkedin allows you to click on something that says “Add so and so to your network” as if it’s a foregone conclusion that your invitation will be accepted. Not so, I’m afraid. You can be left high and dry. Right now there are 14 people who haven’t accepted my invitation to connect on Linkedin. Two of them were just invited in the last 48 hours. The other 12 were invited…let’s just say a while back. I have high hopes for the two prospects I just invited to link into. Those in the “while back” category are definitely long shots.
My failure rate stands at 7.69%. If that is a typical result, Mark and Rick have at least 38 people ignoring them. Is that a lot of people? I don’t know but Major League baseball teams have just 25 players on their roster during the season.
As I review the list of people who have ignored me, I am struck by the fact that two of them will surely be reading this post. You know who you are but please don’t feel any pressure to explain yourself. Get this: I talk to one of the refusniks regularly on the phone. We exchange emails too. Why the snub?
Life was so much easier when I was a kid and the boy sitting next to me could whisper “Ya’ wanna be friends?” while the teacher wrote something on the blackboard. It was nearly impossible to refuse a face to face request. And, if by some chance the answer was no, the turndown wasn’t recorded in my permanent record the way Linkedin refusals are.
Regardless of it’s shortcomings, I like Linkedin. It boosts my ego to know that the links of my 182 connections, connect me to almost two million people. Surely if the need arises one of them will have a job for me.
One application I’m not crazy about is “Who’s viewed your profile.” At first I thought it would be fun to see who is curious about me. Mostly though, it’s the people that only hours ago agreed to be a connection. I suppose they’re just eager to see who I know. Sadly, the “Who’s viewed your profile” thing is really about the same as the most likely to succeed, prom queen, best hair, high school popularity thing. My profile has been viewed by 5 people in the last 30 days. Some things never change. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not actually in the job market right now. I mean if I was in demand, thousands of professionals would be checking me out, right? If only one-tenth of one percent of the 2 million links I have gave my profile a gander that would be 2,000 people! Five out of 2,000 is a percentage too small to mention.
Linkedin encourages members to share an article, an idea or even an insight. Here is an insight recently shared by a member: “The first 90% of project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.” He’s right too. Yogi Berra couldn’t have said it better.
Although Linkedin doesn’t suggest telling fellow connections which city you’ll be visiting this week, what you’re reading or what kind of day you had, I notice a lot of members do just that. By the way, if you’re reading this post and you want to mention that fact to your connections I won’t object.
One thing I don’t fully understand is why people I’ve never met ask to connect with me. Is it possible that my network is that valuable? If that’s the case I wonder if I should charge a fee for the connection. Imagine what Mark and Rick could charge with their 500+ connections! I usually say yes when I’m invited because I don’t want to be rude and I don’t see the harm. Of course you never know what a stranger might be up to. I suppose I could go to Backgroundcheck.com to see whose invitation I’m accepting but I would feel a bit paranoid doing that. And, I’m not going to get to 500 saying no am I?
Copyright 2010, Len Serafino. All rights reserved.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Business Travel Excitement...Not!
I do a lot of business travel. Last week I was in San Francisco. Two weeks ago I went to St. Louis and the week before that I was in Florida. Next week I’ll be in New Jersey. I know, travel to places like New Jersey may seem glamorous to people that don’t travel very often, but the sad truth is this: travel can be very boring. Mind numbingly so. Driving through traffic to the airport, taking your shoes off and emptying your pockets through security, and waiting for your flight to leave, eats up a lot of time. Then there’s the actual flight plus more hours spent in hotel rooms staring at the four walls.
Between you and me, the only way to get thru the drudgery of business travel is to be creative. For example, did you know there are way more good looking women in America than men? I know this because while I’m sitting at the gate waiting for my plane to arrive or sitting in my assigned seat watching other passengers board the aircraft, I rate each and every man and woman I see on a scale of one to ten. The latest scores, which I hope will be released by Popular Mechanics next month, clearly reveal the difference in looks between men and women. The average score for women of all ages is 8.9. The average score for men? Negative 6. Actually the men’s score would have been lower had I not given out a couple of 9s early one morning. When I foolishly mentioned my pastime to a couple of needy co-workers, they demanded good scores.
There are, of course other ways to beat back boredom, eating for example. Every airport has plenty of fast food restaurants and candy racks plus a store dedicated to local specialties. In Nashville, they offer Moon Pies and Goo Goo Clusters, delicious but not necessarily good for you. Apparently, not one city in America is known for its salads. Why is it we have such strict security forces in airports to protect us from terrorism in the skies but no nutrition police to protect us from too many calories in the food court? Judging by the food available in airports it’s probably better to be pulled out of line as a suspected terrorist so you can spend a few nights in jail. The food is better for you.
Sometimes when I’m really desperate, I roll the dice and engage a seatmate in conversation. Over the years I’ve calculated the odds of being held conversational hostage during a flight lasting 2 hours. Its even money you’ll be forced to pretend you’re listening to some guy named Len describing the novel he’s written in excruciating detail. And, by the way, if you happen to be seated next to a guy you rated a 2, don’t be surprised when he leans over to you after his third beer and makes a confession. “One of these days I’m gonna open the emergency exit door at 37,000 feet. Man that’d be cool” Hey, if the flight still has an hour or more to go I’d consider egging him on.
Of course if you’re a guy seated next to a woman you rated a 10 it doesn’t matter what she talks about. She says, “Oh I just love my cats! I have 74 of them. Would you like to know their names? There’s Fancy girl, Fluffy and Clytemnestra, so many! Trust me on this: A guy could be so allergic that a mere picture of a cat sends him to the emergency room, and he would say, “Wow, I love cats. Imagine 74 cats. I would love to meet them, especially Clytemnestra.”
Sadly it’s not that easy to engage people in conversation during a flight anymore. People travel today with all kinds of boredom suppression gadgets, Kindles I-pads. I love people who carry these tiny I-pods connected to Bose head sets the size of Minneapolis. Any bigger and they would have to buy two seats. In fact looking at what people bring on board these days is another way to fight tedium. The stuff people carry on board is getting really big and harder to cram into the overhead compartment. A couple of weeks a go I saw a guy try to board with his own single engine Cessna. He got turned down but only because the lady in the seat next to him brought her cats with her.
Copyright Len Serafino 2010. All rights reserved.
Between you and me, the only way to get thru the drudgery of business travel is to be creative. For example, did you know there are way more good looking women in America than men? I know this because while I’m sitting at the gate waiting for my plane to arrive or sitting in my assigned seat watching other passengers board the aircraft, I rate each and every man and woman I see on a scale of one to ten. The latest scores, which I hope will be released by Popular Mechanics next month, clearly reveal the difference in looks between men and women. The average score for women of all ages is 8.9. The average score for men? Negative 6. Actually the men’s score would have been lower had I not given out a couple of 9s early one morning. When I foolishly mentioned my pastime to a couple of needy co-workers, they demanded good scores.
There are, of course other ways to beat back boredom, eating for example. Every airport has plenty of fast food restaurants and candy racks plus a store dedicated to local specialties. In Nashville, they offer Moon Pies and Goo Goo Clusters, delicious but not necessarily good for you. Apparently, not one city in America is known for its salads. Why is it we have such strict security forces in airports to protect us from terrorism in the skies but no nutrition police to protect us from too many calories in the food court? Judging by the food available in airports it’s probably better to be pulled out of line as a suspected terrorist so you can spend a few nights in jail. The food is better for you.
Sometimes when I’m really desperate, I roll the dice and engage a seatmate in conversation. Over the years I’ve calculated the odds of being held conversational hostage during a flight lasting 2 hours. Its even money you’ll be forced to pretend you’re listening to some guy named Len describing the novel he’s written in excruciating detail. And, by the way, if you happen to be seated next to a guy you rated a 2, don’t be surprised when he leans over to you after his third beer and makes a confession. “One of these days I’m gonna open the emergency exit door at 37,000 feet. Man that’d be cool” Hey, if the flight still has an hour or more to go I’d consider egging him on.
Of course if you’re a guy seated next to a woman you rated a 10 it doesn’t matter what she talks about. She says, “Oh I just love my cats! I have 74 of them. Would you like to know their names? There’s Fancy girl, Fluffy and Clytemnestra, so many! Trust me on this: A guy could be so allergic that a mere picture of a cat sends him to the emergency room, and he would say, “Wow, I love cats. Imagine 74 cats. I would love to meet them, especially Clytemnestra.”
Sadly it’s not that easy to engage people in conversation during a flight anymore. People travel today with all kinds of boredom suppression gadgets, Kindles I-pads. I love people who carry these tiny I-pods connected to Bose head sets the size of Minneapolis. Any bigger and they would have to buy two seats. In fact looking at what people bring on board these days is another way to fight tedium. The stuff people carry on board is getting really big and harder to cram into the overhead compartment. A couple of weeks a go I saw a guy try to board with his own single engine Cessna. He got turned down but only because the lady in the seat next to him brought her cats with her.
Copyright Len Serafino 2010. All rights reserved.
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