Liann is really LinkedIn

My friend Natalie recently invited me to join her network in LinkedIn.com. I decided that as a woman soon to enter the job market, websites like this may be helpful in finding that perfect job for me. As I joined I downloaded the contacts from my Gmail account and carefully selected 60 or so contacts to link to (some old friends, a few BYU professors, a couple co-workers, even an ex-fiancé). I saved a few contacts so that I could add a personal note when inviting them to link up. Thinking I was clicking the “continue on to making my profile” button, I accidentally sent an invite to all of my Gmail contacts. That would be everyone I have ever emailed or who has emailed me. The total comes to 514 people—including a sociology professor at Harvard I emailed once, a few ex-boyfriends I don’t talk to anymore, people I only know as “byubabe,” and about 50 city clerks in Iowa I contacted for a research project once upon a time.

I'll admit I was laughing as I was sort of yelling "no, no!" to my computer while rapidly clicking again and again the STOP button at the top of the web browser. I did stay some of the damage and only invited 390 of my closest associates to join my network.

Well, if anything at least I'm very well LinkedIn.