LinkedIn For Dummies, 5th Edition

Chapter 2

Signing Up and Creating Your Account

IN THIS CHAPTER

Joining LinkedIn with or without an invitation

Registering and setting your preferences

Connecting with people you already know on LinkedIn

When LinkedIn first launched, it grew primarily through invitations — you joined only if someone who was already a member invited you and encouraged you to join. However, membership is now open to anyone 14 years or older (as long as the user hasn’t previously been suspended or removed from LinkedIn, of course). You can have only one active account, but you can attach multiple email addresses, past and present, to your account so that people can more easily find you.

You’ll be presented with some configuration settings during the sign-up process that might confuse you until you’re more familiar with the system. Fortunately, you can customize all those settings later, but for now, I suggest some initial settings. In addition, based on your initial settings, LinkedIn recommends people to invite to your network. This chapter touches on the initial recommendation process; in Chapter 5, I discuss the ways you can grow your network more extensively.

Joining LinkedIn

Many people join ...