Career benefits

The benefits depend on the career stage you are at:

• You have few skills, and are looking for a job
• You have many marketable skills, and are looking for a job
• You have an okay job, but you are looking for a better job
• You have a horrible job (or boss), and are looking for a better job (or boss)
• You are an unemployed consultant, and are looking for contracts
• You are a fully employed consultant, and are looking for extra contracts to develop new skills and knowledge
• Etc.

The above is only a partial list of the likely career situations of most people. Depending on your career priority at this particular point in your life, your LinkedIn strategy (which determines everything from what you write on your profile to how you invite people to join your network, etc.) will be different.

But regardless of which specific strategy you adopt, the key career benefits are:

• exposure
• opportunity to develop and refine your self-marketing skills
• opportunity to meet people with complementary skills
• new friendships
• intelligence on potential employers (and emerging job opportunities)
• etc.