There are over 80,000,000 people on LinkedIn. I’ve been an active LI user for about 4 years – by active I mean I’m on it every day. That’s why I found it puzzling when I was asked by an executive in job search if I thought having a LinkedIn profile was a bad idea.

For me it’s a no brainer; of course you should have a profile on Linked In. The ability to find and be found is amazing. But rather than jump up and say to him “YES, get your profile on there immediately”, I first probed a bit. The exec I was speaking with explained, “well when I apply for a position, I always tailor my resume so that my experiences best reflects the position, company and industry. If I have a profile on LinkedIn, couldn’t it actually eliminate me from potential positions because I have to keep it more general? If my profile is different from my resume, wouldn’t it raise a red flag to a potential employer?”

Both are very fair questions. But provided you spend the time to carefully craft your profile, the answers are no and no. LinkedIn has become to individuals what web sites are to businesses. You have to have one. And you have to be smart about how it represents the brand. The goal for your LinkedIn profile is to get someone’s attention and get a dialog started. There is tons of info out there on how to build your profile. Here’s a link to a good starting place: http://tinyurl.com/2d55f6v