Area man actually finds job through LinkedIn

Another in my very occasional series of public auditions for The Onion:

BOSTON -- Dorchester resident Sean Kelly spent Friday celebrating the end of his lengthy job search after he accepted an offer from a local publishing company, an offer he actually insists he would not have received without LinkedIn.

Kelly said the online professional networking site connected him with a current employee at the company, Brown & Reed Publishing, where Kelly will begin working as an editorial assistant Monday. The employee offered Kelly advice on how to handle the interview process.

"I am connected to a former college roommate on LinkedIn, though I never actually worked with him," Kelly said. "Anyway, he's connected to a woman who is connected to a guy who is connected to a guy who works at Brown & Reed. So I wrote to the guy, Tim I think his name is, who wrote back, 'The hiring manager, Vince, is a real asshole. He will try to knock you off balance with bullshit questions like what kind of tree would you be and why. It's a real power-trip thing. But stroke his ego a little and you should be fine.'

"And Tim was right," Kelly added. "Vince is a real asshole."

Kelly said his looking beyond his group of connections to the connections of others made the difference in landing the job.

"The people I am connected to are mostly former co-workers," he said. "What are they going to do, get me some old, lousy job back? And many of them are laid off anyway. I just connect to them ... well, I don't know why. To be friendly, I guess."

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, reacting to the news of LinkedIn's role in Kelly's hiring, said, "Really?"

"People always say, 'LinkedIn is just Facebook for people whose self-worth is tied to their jobs,'" said Hoffman. "But, like I have said all along, LinkedIn connects professionals in a meaningful way to enhance networking opportunities and help people achieve greater success in the job-seeking process.

"No, really, you're fucking with me, right?" he added. "Someone actually found a job using LinkedIn? A job job? Wow."

Kelly certainly is convinced that LinkedIn helped him.

"I wouldn't have this job without LinkedIn," he said. "Sure, it's well beneath my level of qualifications and experience, and the pay is a fraction of what I made before I was laid off. But, hey, it's a job."