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Comment by demosthanos | Hacker News Reader

For what it's worth, I think you're overestimating how important LinkedIn is today. I'm interviewing candidates this week and honestly haven't even noticed whether any of them had a LinkedIn profile in their resume, much less visited it. LinkedIn would love for all of us to think they're an essential part of the hiring process, but from my perspective on this side of it there's no value delivered, and pretty much everyone I talk to is sick of LinkedIn.

The only exception is that I know some companies use LinkedIn as essentially their job application process, but this isn't common—when I had to apply for hundreds of jobs after getting laid off at the end of 2022, I updated my LinkedIn profile but then never interacted with LinkedIn at all in the process of applying.

I half wonder if they're flagging behavior like yours as suspicious because most real humans have stopped interacting with their platform.

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Of the nearly 400 companies I've applied to over the past year, almost all of them have asked for my linkedin profile, and maybe 10 have actually had someone scope me out.

I would commend you for that. However, from past experiences, when you refuse to provide your LinkedIn profile, people often assume you are sketchy and have something to hide. But at this point, I have no choice but to figure out a way to work without LinkedIn

Our company requires you have a LinkedIn because we’ve been burned by multiple engineers who accepted our offer and (months later) never actually quit their previous job. The common thread between people who have had multiple jobs at once has been they hide their LinkedIn

Strange. It’s rather straightforward to create a (fake) linkedin profile with a couple of hundred of connections (I have one of such profiles, just for fun). I cannot understand companies that think having a linkedin profile makes you look more “legit”

The first time I heard about LinkedIn was when I was in university. A lot of students made profiles and would all “endorse” each other, even when they barely knew the other person. The whole thing seemed super silly to me and I didn’t bother to make a LinkedIn profile. Even after university I’ve stayed away from LinkedIn. The only time I see LinkedIn in my life is when people on Reddit are criticizing it. Of course, Reddit is an echo chamber of its own, so I’m not saying that this alone is reason to disregard LinkedIn.

I know that to some LinkedIn is very important. But to me, I’ve managed completely fine. Been able to get work and have jobs without ever having a LinkedIn profile.

When I apply for a job, I provide CV, cover letter and a link to my GitHub profile.

Maybe some of the places I’ve applied to in the past have passed on me for not having a LinkedIn profile included. I wouldn’t know. No one ever said anything about it to me. But they may have filtered out my application for it. Regardless, I have been able to get work and get jobs.

Up until a couple years ago in Germany (probably most of D/A/CH) many more people had an account on XING (ex OpenBC) and LinkedIn was relatively rare. I'd say 5-10% of my "business" contacts and endorsements are basically never used, even after 90% of the people switched to LinkedIn.

That said, I've also never been directly asked for such a profile, if it was a field in a form I don't remember it being mandatory and I don't even remember when I made my LI account, or when I actually started to input more than my name...

Just another counter-example, if it helps. I have never used LinkedIn once in 20 years in the industry, and I have never felt like I had a hard time finding, applying to, or getting good jobs that I was excited about.

If asked, I honestly said that I didn't want to associate myself with a site that made such heavy use of dark patterns and felt so very, very sketchy to use, and everyone respected that answer (at least to my face).

(I did have to create a LinkedIn account once, for the sake of a previous employer who wanted their small company to not look like it was just the founders who worked there, but I made it using the company email address and never updated it after creation, so I don't really count that as ME using LinkedIn, more my employer through me.)

What is your definition of a “good job”? Every single non solicited outreach I’ve gotten from the top paying companies in the industry came from LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn profile is not for the hiring manager. Why would you look at it? It’s just a regurgitation of what’s on your resume.

The purpose of LinkedIn for most people is to keep their business contacts and to look for jobs. Of course some use it to appear to be a “thought leader”.

Do you think just because you don’t use LinkedIn to apply for jobs no one does?

This is like the old Slashdot meme “I haven’t owned a TV in over a decade. Do people still watch TV”?

> Do you think just because you don’t use LinkedIn to apply for jobs no one does?

I think that because I don't it's not essential (if it were essential I wouldn't be able to avoid it), and I think that treating a social media platform as an essential part of your livelihood is unhealthy for reasons like this.

I'm not excusing LinkedIn from culpability here, just offering hope that there is life after LinkedIn.

I’m pointing out an extreme lack of self awareness that because you don’t use LinkedIn no one does. Every single non solicited outreach I’ve had has come from LinkedIn - including from most of the major BigTech companies (where I worked until the year before last) and the job I have now.

I’ve had 8 jobs since I’ve had a LinkedIn profile in 2012. Three have come from reaching out to companies on LinkedIn and 2 from companies reaching out to me. I

@scarface_74 and @demosthanos, please let us not drag this further. Both of you are trying to help and I sincerely appreciate your contribution. I would find a way to exist without LinkedIn. Thanks guys.

In the modern job market - you can’t. You can build a personal network without LinkedIn. But you won’t get the non solicited outreach without LinkedIn unless you are really good at building a “brand” and becoming a “thought leader”. Spoiler: you won’t

For me, SWE consultant, LinkedIn profile is a bait for recruiters. With proper SEO I can get steady inflow of roles. What other world-wide platform would work in such passive way?

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