It can be called the Facebook for adults. LinkedIn provides easy access to internships, potential employers and networking opportunities. After all, it is not always what you know, but who you know.  

LinkedIn, which has been around for about six years, is a site for people to create a personal profile summarizing professional expertise and accomplishments.

It is a resourceful way to be introduced to potential clients or employers. 

“It is social networking designed for the professional world,” Kevin McCarthy, professor and chair of business and economics department, said. “It is all about careers, professional life, building networks and interacting with former students.”

Susan Wade, director of the Career Development Center, has been using LinkedIn to help students look for prospective jobs or internships for more than two years.

“Most students get serious senior and junior year about internships,” Wade said. “It is never too early to start following people or a certain business, and start thinking about networking and connecting with people.”

The site is open to anyone, and individuals may join networking groups in order to expand social networking connections or to just to be affiliated with more possible contacts.

An application also is  available that allows viewers to search for available job and internship postings.

“It does have a job search by geography, and you can search for key words for just some interesting topics,” McCarthy said.

Alumnus Josh McDaniel, who graduated from Baker in 2007, first heard about the site in school and created one during his time at graduate school.

However, he never really used it until he entered the work force, and now he uses it daily in his line of work as a professional employment recruiter.

“It is helpful because my job is based heavily on networking and headhunting to connect with people we would not normally connect to,” McDaniel said. “It is a way to find people who we may have lost in the database and who are searching for a job.”

Because of the accessibility of potential employers, students who are potentially looking into a job or internship should be cautious about what they are putting on their profiles.

“Students should be aware employers will look at everything,” Wade sad. “They are interested in these social networking sites.”

With more and more employers flocking to the Internet to check up on future employees, there is something to be said about the new wave of meeting people.

“This is a new way of interacting without ever having to be face to face,” McCarthy said. “It is what the world is now extending into.”