When I first decided to join Precision Recruiting Services, I was introduced to LinkedIn. I know; had I been hiding under a rock or something? How is it possible that I hadn’t heard of this business social media tool before? Well, that is a whole other story. For now, let’s just accept the fact that LinkedIn was new to me.

Having joined LinkedIn back in October ’09, it was all about getting to 500 connections for me. It just seemed cool; I don’t know why it just did. As you get to know me better, you will understand that I can be amused by the weirdest things. I would send out the invites as fast as I could, waiting impatiently for people to accept my invitation and become a connection. So guess what? Just last week, while I was connecting with a recruiter, he pointed out that I was at 493. Instead of my normal celebrating and cheering that I usually do upon achieving a goal, I was shocked. Oddly enough, I had lost track of the number of connections I was making and no longer striving for that 500 mark. I had been more focused on the PEOPLE that I was connecting with, rather than to the NUMBER.

I am not writing this to let you know that I am at 500+ connections; although, I have since done my celebrating and cheering. I am writing this because somewhere along the way, my competitive nature took a backseat and I actually started to connect with the people behind the electronic profiles. Connecting on a level much higher than just pushing a few buttons. I will admit that there are a lot of people that I have connected with and I haven’t exchanged more than an email or two but there are many more that have sent the occasional ‘hey, I was just thinking about you’ or joke to me and there are even more people whom I have had great conversations with.

Not really knowing what to expect when I jumped into recruiting, specifically the Rec2Rec Industry, I learned that this is the best decision I have ever made. In my past roles I loved the sales and customer relations aspects but this is different. I have a real passion for my career now and it is primarily because of those that I have connected with. They have shown me that recruiting is more than just placements and earning a few bucks. They have shown me that it is possible to create genuine friendships while recruiting Recruiters. To those of you, I thank you. You know who you are!