Linkedin Blog

By now, you’ve heard about LinkedIn’s company status updates, an exciting new feature that allows companies to engage directly with their LinkedIn Followers.

This powerful new tool isn’t just a way for companies to recruit talent, market goods or sell stuff; but think of it also as an engagement channel to build long-term relationships with your Followers — whether they are potential customers, employees or advocates who can help your business succeed.

Ed. note: New York Times Columnist and renowned author, Thomas Friedman, made his second appearance at our LinkedIn Speaker series this past week. Here are some personal thoughts from Jagan, one of our colleagues who attended the event, as he recaps Tom’s presentation.  

One of the truly great things about working at LinkedIn is being able to interact with some of the world’s most transformational thinkers who visit us during the LinkedIn Speaker Series. Last week, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and famed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman came in to talk about his latest book “That Used to Be Us.”

Update: Check out a welcome video to our Japanese users from our CEO, Jeff, here. – Ed

I joined LinkedIn almost 18 months ago because I wanted to work with smart people, to solve problems in a collaborative way, and to share in a culture that believes in leadership and fun. LinkedIn offered all that to me when I joined, and it’s been true every day since.

It may not surprise you, but LinkedIn’s latest study found (in a survey of nearly 1,000 female professionals in the U.S.) that 82 percent of women agree that having a mentor is important.  But what will knock your socks off is that considering the competitive employment landscape, and the universal belief that mentorship is a critical component to career success, 19 percent (that’s nearly one out of every five women) have NEVER had a mentor.