The Value of a LinkedIn Connection

by Kris Minkel, Recruiting Manager

Often, when we receive requests for connections on LinkedIn we tend to just accept or decline that person with a quick glance or thought. However, when you are connecting with someone on LinkedIn, you are gathering a person’s contact information and access to them for professional related inquiries, and vice versa.

How often do you stop and consider if you can work with that person? Is this someone who has an established positive reputation? Is this someone who is connected to people you know and would be recommended by them? Those are just a few things that should cross into our minds. What about removing a connection? LinkedIn is not Facebook although it seems like the two parallel sometimes. People “delete” friends on Facebook for any reason possible. For some of us business is personal but on the LinkedIn platform it’s all about business and should stay that way. 

As a Recruiter I can only think of a few times where I have removed someone who was a connection. One example is recent: I reached out to a person who I connected with and who confirmed an interview with me and my client. But once the interview was scheduled the candidate didn’t show up for the accepted meeting. I called, texted, and e-mailed the person – but no response. The human side of me was worried about their wellbeing. I never heard back and the client decided to pass.

A few weeks later, I received a notification on LinkedIn that this person had accepted a new position. I made the quick decision not to connect with them. Why? Based on the questions posed earlier in this article, this person does not have a positive reputation and they are not someone I can trust or work with. All would be fine if they had simply communicated what happened or what the reason was that they missed the interview, I could understand and work with them in the future. I get that plans change and opportunities arise and people need to go with the best scenario that fits their lives; but communication is key. I simply cannot recommend a person for my professional network that isn’t straightforward and open.

I work hard to create real new connections and to keep people with great reputations and people I have worked with in the past as connections. At its greatest LinkedIn enables our networks share new opportunities or help point us in a positive direction. These connections often recommend your work and your professionalism and if you have a recommendation from a Director, high-level executive or even your prior manager that goes a long way for your reputation.

Most recruiters will view your LinkedIn profile to see who you are connected with, review your work history, education, and any recommendations and then reach out for opportunities that may be a match for you. It is truly a great tool that you can take with you anywhere.

To connect with Quardev on LinkedIn click here.

July 2017 QASIG – Lightning Talks

At July’s QASIG Meeting, Wednesday, July 12th at 6:30 PM, we’ll be doing the Lightning Talk format – 4-5 short presentations (5 minutes each) on various subjects and with different presenters.

Confirmed Speakers:

Ian King, Hardware/Software Simulation Engineer, Flight Sciences, Blue Origin – Hardware-In-Loop Testing

Matt Griscom, MetaAutomation – Logs are the wrong tool for quality automation. Here’s what actually works

Satyajit Malugu, SDET4, GoDaddy – Robust and reliable Android app automation with Espresso

Srilu Balla, SDET, Holland-America Lines, SDET vs. Product Owner in Test

Michael R. Wolf, Scrum Master & Agile Team Coach, Independent – “Using the Agile Mindset (as Exploratory Testing) on the Agile Mindset”

Hope you can join us! Register here.

January QASIG

The Future of QA Panel Discussion, January 11, 2017, 6:30 PM

In January, and all year, we’ll be focusing on the future of QA – where the industry is heading, how can we best add value, what skills should be developing and refining, and what software, tools and/or code should we learn?

We are excited to have a great panel – QA representatives from local companies who will help us answer some of these questions. We are happy to welcome to the following colleagues:

  • Brian Gaudreau, Software Quality Professional
  • Matt Pina, IT Security Consultant, UW Medicine IT
  • Joy Shafer, Software Developer in Test, The Climate Corp
  • Jamie Campbell, Senior Manager Engineering, Tableau Software

Moderated by Andy Fox, Software Design Engineer in Test, Quardev

Let us know if you can join us by registering and get your questions ready (we’ll be taking a few audience questions as time allows – you are welcome to submit questions in advance as well!).

Check out the QASIG Events page to learn more and to register.

Killswitch screens Friday at the Social Justice Film Festival

This Friday, Oct. 21, the Social Justice Film Festival will screen the award-winning documentary Killswitch: The battle to control the internet. The film is an award-winning documentary about efforts to privatize the Web and conquer access to information, featuring the stories of Edward Snowden and Aaron Swartz. Watch the trailer here.

Director Ali Akbarzadeh will join us for a Q&A following the film. Tickets and details at: https://www.strangertickets.com/events/37572593/social-justice-film-festival-killswitch.

Date: Friday, Oct. 21
Location: UW Ethnic Cultural Theatre

Tickets: $7-10

Visit the Social Justice Film Festival for more bold and creative films that shape our humanity.

 

The Seattle Testing Community

You know about Silicon Valley, but up here, we’re just as much a software community.

We have Starbucks and Boeing, Microsoft and Google, RealNetworks and F5 Networks, Getty Images and Corbis, Safeco and Washington Mutual, T-Mobile and Verizon, Amazon and Adobe…

With all of these big name technology companies, there’s lots of room to discuss software testing.

Here’s a sample:

  1. QASIG www.qasig.org – this is the group that Quardev sponsors that meets on the second Wednesday of every odd month here at the lab – see the site for past speakers, all of which were booked because of their innovative topics
  2. SASQAG www.sasqag.org – meets on the third Thursday of every month.
  3. Sea-SPIN www.seaspin.org – Seattle Eastside Area Software Process Improvement Network – small group devoted to meeting monthly about process issues – meets at Construx in Bellevue on the third Monday of every month.
  4. OWASP Open Web Application Security Project – https://lists.owasp.org/mailman/listinfo/owasp-seattle – Mike de Libero, OWASP Seattle chapter co-leader.
  5. ASQ American Society for Quality (Seattle chapter) – https://www.asq-seattle.org/
  6. PNSQC Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference – https://www.pnsqc.org – Now in their 25th year! A three-day conference held in Portland in October.

If you know of something that is not on this list, email me!

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