Career Paths

Stephen Baker, former BusinessWeek editor and author of the book The Numerati, has an interesting post about what LinkedIn has in store:

The company has some 70 million members. That's data on 70 million careers. Conceivably, the company could provide a service showing each one of us the paths that others took when they were in the same position we're in now. It could diagram where those choices led. ... "Maybe he ends up deciding to be a high school math teacher,..." Nishar [Vice President of Products and Services at LinkedIn] says. In that case, he could find current math teachers who have followed that path and debrief them.

The information in and of itself is not that valuable probably, but when combined with the ability to connect with folks that have followed a path that seems interesting sounds exciting. Of course, you'd need those people to respond to your request for advice, though, in my experience, that's actually easier than most folks think it is.