As promised, although a little later than expected, I offer my thoughts from the teleseminar I participated in with Netshare, Jigsaw, and Ecademy.
In the event you aren’t familiar with Netshare, it was named as "best site for $100,000 executive jobs" by Forbes and Fortune magazines. Because it is a subscription-based job site, these are positions not found in public boards. What Netshare has done a great job of … and built a brand around … is building strong communities. These groups of people share … job leads, challenges, resources, and yes, even what works as those who find jobs stay connected and engaged. I highly recommend this site to my clients as one strategy that needs to be in their job search plan.
I came into the teleseminar with very strong opinions about Jigsaw. After listening to Jim Fowler, my opinions have changed somewhat. I still dislike the fact that someone who has my business card could enter that contact information into a public database in exchange for points to gain access to contact information for someone they are trying to find. Further, the inability of someone whose contact information was put in their database cannot remove the information is bothersome. Yes, yes. I know. My information is out there and accessible anyway, however, there is still something that seems to me to border on unethical. That said, it is a great resource for job search candidates to find decision makers at companies. Can I have my cake and eat it too?
The other speaker was Ron Bates, "the most connected person in the world," advocating Ecademy. I visited Ecademy when I knew I was going to be a panelist with Ron, and found the fromt page very busy and not as "professional" appearing as Linked In. Meaning, there was much more personal information available beyond just professional and career information. That, however, should be balanced against Ecademy’s ability to get great Google ratings. I will be trying out Ecademy, and perhaps it is a good tool for you as well. I would simply encourage you to be prudent in what and how much personal information you post. If you are building a visible online presence, Ecademy could help you do it faster.