[This post has been updated here]
Once upon a time, LinkedIn would allow you to filter your first degree connections list of connections. Here’s a blog post I wrote about this back in 2013.
Free account users lost this ability during one of LinkedIn’s redesigns. Now it’s back, making it easy to check out your connections connections.
So why would you want to filter through your connection’s connections? One reason is to improve the efficiency of your networking.
Rather than asking “do you know anyone who needs what I do?”, you can ask “Do you know Bob at XYZ company well enough to ask if he’ll take a phone call from me?”.
The more specific you can be in your request, the greater your chances of success.
Start by visiting the profile of one of your first degree connections. Then, click on the “See Connections” link at the top-right of the page.
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[Note – if your connection has changed his settings to hide his connections, you won’t be able to do this. However, I find that most people do not hide their connections]
That will take you to the search results page. From there, you can use the different filters in the right hand column to filter through this list of connections to find the people you want.
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Here is a short video showing how to use this feature.
P.S. – LinkedIn is currently rolling this change out. I received my update today, so if you don’t see the change in your account, try again in a few days.
