It was exhausting. But worth it.

Personally, I don't qualify it as a success, because I didn't cover all I'd intended to. The breadth of material was just too ambitious. We ran nearly an hour over and still didn't cover all material. Part of it had to do with too much variation in the needs and expectations.

I'm really glad I had them fill out evaluations. Most of it matched my personal evaluation, but wasn't as negative as I'd feared. Then again, I'm a perfectionist, and I wasn't happy about going off topic so much, but people needed a lot of individual attention.  Also, at the end of the second hour, I was pretty beat. Next time, I'll have lunch first!!

Only two people said it didn't exceed expectations, and all thought it was worthwhile. All liked the hands on experience, and personal attention. I've decided on splitting up future workshops into three distinct classes. Each class will be two hours. They will all be guided hands-on, and remain on topic. There will be corresponding handouts for each one. For those with their own laptops, I'll provide a zip file of the bookmarks being used in class, that will already be set up on the class computers (to prevent that from slowing those folks down). And hopefully, each class will also get a review of their profiles as well. That got a lot of positive feedback.

Getting Started with LinkedIn

Prerequisites: LinkedIn account, resume on floppy or CD

Topics: Step by step profile setup, Step by step account settings, basic linking

Getting Connected with LinkedIn

Prerequisites: LinkedIn Profile, web-based email account (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, AOL) containing contact list to import (5 or more), At least one recommendation read to send to an already connected friend.

Topics: Invitations (quick, and mail upload), Introductions, Recommendations, Groups, Services, Answers

Job Searching and Research with LinkedIn

Prerequisites: Complete LinkedIn profile, 20 connections or more, clear idea of target jobs/ job title/company

Topics: LinkedIn toolbar, Job Insider, reference checks on companies, finding out who's looking at you, using the dashboard and stats to help focus search, researching individuals with the company, finding connections related to targets, using other tools along with LinkedIn to research prospective employers.