Crazy Busy

The other day, I got a message from my team lead. When he is out, I usually take over. Been busy with my current task. Now I got lots of tasks. A manger had asked for an investigation on a trouble ticket. Now that investigation was due.

I reached out to a senior developer on the team. Turns out he got loaned out to another project. And he was working on high priority problems there. Another junior developer was still on vacation. We have another developer on the team, but she is too new to figure out trouble tickets fast.

So I had to put my work on hold and do the research. Then there were some deliveries with incorrect documentation. I had to attend to those too. I tried to go out to lunch. But my cell phone kept ringing. When it rains, it pours.

Eventually the junior guy came off vacation. And the senior developer was back from rotation on the other project. And my team lead returned. Whew. It is good to have a team.

Getting LinkkedIn

I read somewhere that if you want to get a job in software development, and you are "old", then you had better have a LinkedIn profile. Now I have received invites to join LinkedIn from colleagues. But I never joined. Now that I am looking for my next gig, I thought I better get with the program.

Did all the normal stuff. Put in details from my job and prior job. Added my college education. But that "0 connections" in the bottom right hand corner was bugging me. It was time to make some connections on LinkedIn. I figure I should just connect up with people I know.

I started with another guy from my last job who said he had to create a LinkedIn account during his job hunt. Then I started asking people whether they had LinkedIn accounts. Most of my colleagues are older. They are not connected with social media. But some had account. They usually added me as a connection.

It was going too slow. Then I figure I could just search for people on LinkedIn, and make connection requests from there. That is also hit or miss. I think some people put email addresses they don't check very often. So it might take a while for them to get back to me.

I have been checking out people I know on LinkedIn. Not people I want to make a connection with. Just people I want to check up on. I noticed that when people have over 500 connections on LinkedIn, their profile just shows 500+ in the lower right hand corner.

I also started looking for trends on how many connections people have. Those managers who are a few levels above me all seem to have around 500 connections, or 500+. It figures as much. People who have risen up that high must have a lot of contacts. However I noticed another curious trend. Those people at the very top, such as CEOs, seem to not have as many connections.

The real question is how many connections do I need to be able to impress potential employers? I want to signal the correct information to them. 500+ connections might mean I spend too much time on LinkedIn. Too few might signal I am not well connected. So what am I shooting for? Maybe 100 connections? Or perhaps a little more? We shall see.