In Response to Chris Cheever

Now my question is are these corporate and technological geniuses over idolized? Or are people not looking past the face of these companies?

My answer to this question is... YES! They are over-idolized. I think that even technological "geniuses" are people, too. Sometimes they're a little over the top in their actions and attitude. Should we idolize them? Well, should we idolize anyone? I do think that it's important to have role models, but putting people on a pedestal means that it will lead to some kind of disappointment, and I don't mean to be cynical, but look at Steve Jobs now and his place in Apple. When Steve Jobs leaves Apple (and that seems to be in the near future), the company will suffer unless they can find another person like him, not just because of his genius, but because of his ties to the company and his image within Apple.

What other companies might have this problem? How many other CEO's do you know the name of?

Is LinkedIn the way to market yourself?

First off, here's my LinkedIn account: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=73233958&locale=en_US&trk=tab_pro I use it and I like it for networking, but thus far I haven't had much action on it.

First of all, why do we need to utilize networking to find the right people? I think it's because when we network, we hope that all parties are happy with the end results, and there is almost a guarantee of that. When we're recommended for a job by a friend, it builds our own confidence and makes us more comfortable. LinkedIn, which is basically made for networking, is a way of marketing yourself and being proactive about your career.

When you market yourself, you have to think about place, price, promotion and of course the product. The product is you, and LinkedIn gives users tons of space to basically fill in a brag sheet about themselves. As a user, you're able to talk about your experiences, download your resume... which brings me to promotion. You're marketing yourself and you want to look good. LinkedIn allows you to do that with your own personal expression on your resume but also in your profile. The place is important and LinkedIn has a section for that. One thing that I could never imagine is someone marketing themselves using their "price" or pay expectations from employers.

Is there anything that fulfills every part of the 4 P's when you are the product as the employee to be? How do consumers (or, in this case, employers) use LinkedIn to find that perfect candidate and how does marketing yourself play into that?