Working the electronic grapevine

Staffan Sandberg will soon be hopping a plane from Sweden to Boston to see someone he's only met online. But it's not a romantic rendezvous; it's a job interview he's coming for.

After seven years abroad producing television programs and helping some high-tech start-ups, Mr. Sandberg has decided to come back to the United States. And making contacts for jobs got a whole lot easier recently when a friend invited him to join LinkedIn, an online networking site.

By connecting him to friends of friends of friends, LinkedIn has given Sandberg access to companies he hadn't even heard of before. So far, "every one of my requests [for referrals] has led to either a meeting, an interview, or ... new contacts," he writes in an e-mail interview. Compared with the old way of networking, "this is a lot more efficient and discreet."

Networking sites are quickly becoming a mainstream way to find jobs or employees, make deals, and meet mentors. Several million people have raced to link up everyone in their little black books on the Internet. But as the technology evolves, others are hesitant, wondering whether these virtual webs will sufficiently protect against a flood of e-mails or a loss of privacy. Some think the quality of their relationships will be diluted by being digitized. And it's not clear whether the chasm between the haves and have-nots - in terms of the advantages of networking skills - will narrow or widen.

The other unknown is whether sites will continue to attract users as they start adding charges for certain services. But online networking has come a long way since SixDegrees.com tried it in the mid-1990s and folded a few years later. Now the Internet is faster and offers more sophisticated functions, and the popularity of other online activities has wrought a massive change in attitudes: Buyers and sellers have been connected through eBay, boyfriends and girlfriends through Friendster, and Deaniacs through assorted blogs.

"We have become convinced as a society, reluctantly ... that if people can build a close enough relationship to propose marriage without having met face to face ... then surely we can build the kind of relationships that allow us to hire someone for a six-figure position," says Scott Allen, coauthor of the forthcoming book "The Virtual Handshake."

The concept raises a classic dilemma: quality versus quantity. "With face-to-face networking, you get much greater depth to your relationships, but it takes so much longer, so your circle cannot be as great," says Steven Rothberg, president of CollegeRecruiter.com in Minneapolis. "My concern is, if each of those hundreds of relationships [created online] aren't meaningful individually, why would any one of [those people] be inclined to stick their neck out to help you?"

Founders and users of the sites say they supplement face-to-face interactions, revealing new layers of connections. Online introductions are typically followed by in-person meetings, says Margarita Quihuis. As founding director of the Women's Technology Cluster in San Francisco, she's part of the networking circles in Silicon Valley. After posting her profile on LinkedIn, she was discovered by another member whose organization named Ms. Quihuis one of the 21 leaders for the 21st century.

Online networking doesn't diminish the quality of relationships, Quihuis says. "It's kind of like living in a really small town, where old-fashioned notions like reputation and character really come to the forefront. We're kind of moving away from this urban anonymity where what we do doesn't matter."

On Ryze.com, another networking site, one member threatened to tell others about a fellow member who didn't pay her promptly for a project. During a panel discussion in February, Ryze founder Adrian Scott also told of a hiring manager who checked with other "Ryzers" who knew a job candidate. Negative feedback led the manager to hire someone else.

When people say they're worried about their privacy, Mr. Allen tries to inform them gently that the train has already left the station. He tells of a man who thought that very little information about him was available online. In a 15-minute Internet search, Allen found the man's home address, phone number, income, two former employers, and one activity he pursued outside work. "Simply being online is not likely to make you a target," he says.

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