The Western New England College Alumni LinkedIn Group

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It’s no secret that networking is the key to finding a job, and it’s no secret that LinkedIn is the top professional networking site in the world, with 35 million members representing 150 industries.

Now Western New England College alumni have their own LinkedIn group with more than 1,000 members, thanks to the efforts of Paul Coushaine G’95, a vendor manager for the Enterprise Sourcing Office at The Hartford Financial Services Group. Coushaine started the group in early 2008, with the blessing of the Office of Alumni Relations. “In the past few months, the interest has increased quite a bit,” he says.

LinkedIn is fertile ground for job seekers because of its capacity to exponentially expand their networks in a short amount of time. Also, the service is free. Users create their own profiles of professional qualifications on LinkedIn and then they can then find colleagues, classmates, clients, and candidates. They can also post job listings and seek business opportunities.

“I’ve seen a lot more people join our group as the economy gets worse and people are looking to connect,” he says. “It’s been interesting to watch it grow.”

LinkedIn is a seven-year-old service that, after a slow start, doubled its membership in 2004 to 8 million. Now it’s adding a million accounts a month. “People are getting a lot out of it,” says Coushaine. “It’s reached that critical mass.”

To join the Western New England College Alumni group, you must be a member of LinkedIn. Members can click here. Not a member? Click here to join LinkedIn, and then type in “Western New England College Alumni” under “groups.” Coushaine typically checks requests every few days.

There are also separate LinkedIn groups for alumni of the Western New England College School of Law and School of Business.

Coushaine has found his involvement with LinkedIn to be a world-shrinking experience. At The Hartford, he worked with a handful of people for the last few years without knowing they were fellow alumni. “Then they joined LinkedIn and their profiles came up. I said, ‘Holy cow, you went to Western New England College?’”

Many LinkedIn users, when applying for a job, see who in their network may have a connection at the company.

“It’s a great way to access people you would never have had the opportunity to connect with otherwise,” he says.