Reconnecting

I am an avid user of Facebook.  I pretty much love it and think it is one of the best inventions ever.  I log on everyday because it is a way to keep in touch with those people I do not get to see very often just by taking a few moments to read through some posts on the internet.  Brilliant.

I have a LinkedIn account as well, although I am not such a heavy user of that (maybe because it is not as user friendly, or just not as fun … not really sure).  But, this has served for me a similar purpose as facebook – to remain connected with those who I have worked with or learned with the in past.  Excellent.

While I have participated in these sites for several years, their importance in my life has never been so prominent as it is now.  Recently, I have used both of these sites to reconnect with individuals who may be able to help me find a job.

I knew a couple of people who used to work at the firm that I worked for in Southern California.  Just before I went to law school they quit their jobs at the firm and moved up to the bay area.  I saw them a handful of times, but over the years we lost touch.  As far as I knew, both individuals still resided in the bay area, but I had none of their contact information – enter Facebook and LinkedIn.  I entered both names I had on both networking sites – one popped up on Facebook and the other on LinkedIn.  In a matter of minutes I had email addresses for both people. 

I drafted an email to one and sent it on its way.  Within a few days she replied.  We ended up having dinner and she provided me with several ideas on how to network, things to say at interviews, and places to submit my resume.  Not only did we get to catch up personally, but it was a professionally enriching dinner.

After several weeks of debating, I also recently sent an email to the other person I looked up.  He responded overnight and was more than willing to circulate my resume and meet with me to discuss potential opportunities (as it turns out his firm is hiring!).  We are supposed to meet up at the end of this week so hopefully this will turn into something great!

Using social media sites to reconnect with people from your past for professional reasons (or personal reasons) takes gumption!