I always look someone up by LinkedIn before meeting them. Usually people do the same for me. It's a good way to see who you know in common (better than Facebook on a business level) and in general saves a lot of time. Almost everyone I meet for work has a linkedin profile -- though literally just yesterday I (independently) met two people without a linkedin profile: one a quasi-celeb and the other someone simply so specialized in skill and so appropriately connected that it just didn't add value for him.<p>Now there are drawbacks to linkedin. For example some people will link to just anyone. I only link to people whom I actually know well enough personally to have a good opinion about them.<p>The linked in interface is terrible. It generates too many messages and basically just sucks. They know, and it sometimes improves, but there you are.<p>You will get recruiter and other spam. But then again the whole point of it is to connect people professionally, so...
No. I've never seen the LinkedIn profile of anyone who I've been involved with hiring & do not have one myself. It's never been mentioned.
This is not true.<p>I've been part of the hiring process repeatedly throughout my career, and while it's nice to find a candidate's LinkedIn profile, it's far from necessary.<p>In terms of hiring front end engineers, I want to see a portfolio. For back end engineers, I want to see source code - preferably on Github. But LinkedIn? That's a nice-to-have, nothing more.
No, there is no truth to this whatever.<p>Having a professional network is enormously helpful but not (as of this minute) strictly necessary. LinkedIn offers a representation of that network, not the network itself. It isn't a relationship-creating tool, and whether you have an account there is not relevant to the hiring process. At the very most, it might offer you a way to contact someone you've worked with in the past who might help you get an interview. Just like email or your phone's contact list or that group of people you drink beer with on Fridays.
Of course this is just anecdotal, but I haven't had a LinkedIn account in 5 years and have had many job offers. I have never heard of this being a prerequisite or even a contributing factor.
I've never hired or seen anyone hired in the past 5 years at least that did not have a LinkedIn account. I don't think it's a prerequisite but pretty much everyone has one. I worked with a U.S. company with an office in Poland all of the devs there had LinkedIn accounts if that's any indication.
Not true in the slightest. It can be helpful (recruiters seem to peruse LinkedIn for a living) but I've never had one and I'm doing fine so far.
Not true.<p>LI is <i>slightly</i> useful for finding a job (at the expense of getting lots of recruiter spam). But it won't get you a job, and won't prevent you from getting a job. If it ever does prevent you from getting a job, trust me, you didn't want to work at that company anyway. (It's like companies that ask for your Facebook account and/or password. WTF?)<p>LI is also useful if you have no other web presence. But if you are a technology guy, what better way to say it than a custom domain name?<p>As a hiring manager, I find LinkedIn worse than useless for evaluating candidates. It's much simpler and easier to read their experience via their Resume compared the the kinda ugly LI formatting. Trying to glean info from their "connections" is useless, since many people connect at the drop of a hat. (i.e. being 2 links away from Bill Gates doesn't tell me anything about your coding ability.) The "recommendations" are also useless, because it's just one random internet user you don't trust vouching for another random internet user that you don't trust. Even the "skills" listing is broken: There is no "meaning" to +1 a skill, so people +1 skills they THINK their connections are good at and there's not objectivity to it.
It's not a major benefit, but it doesn't hurt. It's just an online resume, and you'll occasionally get spam from recruiters. I did work at one marketing agency that would, every week, send out an email to every employee (~40) saying who needed to get X more connections on linkedin that week. So I guess some people are crazy about it.
You don't have to have a LinkedIn profile to get a job.<p>That said, having a LinkedIn account and using it can be beneficial in finding a job, in several ways that I suspect most technical individual contributors don't typically use or gain value from.<p>1) Online rolodex: It's a convenient way to maintain and grow a professional network, and it's a place where most participants actively endeavor to keep their contact information & job information current.<p>2) Groups: LinkedIn groups are the equivalent of G+ Communities or FB Groups, but with a professional bent. Participating in groups is an excellent way to get noticed by people you want to notice you.<p>3) Publishing: LinkedIn added a sort of blogging platform last year that lets individuals publish longer form posts. These can be used for whatever purpose you choose: project details, topical thoughts, career learnings, whatever. They're all then associated with your profile.<p>4) Projects & documents: Most programmers these days have a Github account or similar, where a portfolio is pretty easily visible, but if you're not in that kind of a role it's not always obvious how to present your work. LinkedIn lets you upload documents & video, and lets you associate projects with your job history (as well as letting you tag colleagues so they show up in your projects, too).<p>5) Recommendations. Endorsements are bollocks, but recommendations can be helpful, especially from previous or current managers. This is still iffy and I doubt many recruiters or hiring managers actually read them, but they fall under the "can't hurt" category, especially since you have to vet and manually approve any recommendations before they appear on your profile.<p>6) Job applications & recruiter contact. Say you find a job listing, perhaps on LinkedIn or perhaps not. The odds are good that the company also listed it there. The odds seem (in my experience) to be about 50/50 that the job listing on LinkedIn has the recruiter's name & contact info (LinkedIn profile) associated with it. This makes it SOOOOOO much easier to proactively go after jobs that look interesting, and as well to subsequently make direct contact with interviewers & hiring managers.<p>Take all this with a shaker of salt, because it may not actually be useful for you at all, but it has been extremely helpful for me. I've spent quite a bit of time cultivating my account and working on my profile the past few year and it's reaped benefits. If you're interested, take a look: <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/elliottally" rel="nofollow">http://www.linkedin.com/in/elliottally</a>
I am in Canada, but I think it can also apply in the US:<p>I am working in security , which is a small world where I am. I usually take a look at a LinkedIn profile to know who an applicant knows that I know as well, that way I can get more insight from people I know and trust if I feel the need. I had a few people call me as well to confirm a suspicion or get a bit of insight into someone's personality. Lots of people can sail an interview but are lacking in person. It saved me a few bad experiences i<m sure, and I know a few other people that hired anyway and regretted it later.<p>Hope that helps a little. Obviously it does not apply for international candidates or people new to the country/region, which is a profile we see often at the moment.<p>Also, I decided to change job a few years ago, getting LinkedIn alerts on jobs helped me target decent recruiters that really know the specific field, and it landed me 3 interviews and job offers.
It's just an easy way for HR to indirectly socioeconomically or racially profile you. Have a clean cut picture of yourself on any easy to find US-based social media site to help stay near the top of the pile.
I see a lot of people complain about recruiter spam on LinkedIn. This never happens to me. Is this because I'm not in a major tech hub, or does my profile simply suck?
None of the jobs I've had over the last few years have made it mandatory to have a LinkedIn account. I don't see how that would make sense and why employers would require you to have it.
Do Polish employers require you to have a GoldenLine account? I have both, just to see if it leads to any solid opportunities. It hasn't yet.
Depends on where you want to work / what you want to do - If you are a software engineer, a strong Github/Stackoverflow presence which demonstrates your technical competency (and that you can draw attention to early in a cover letter) would likely help you stand out more than a standard linkedin profile IMHO.
Just a general thank-you to the OP for bringing this up, and for all participants. I've resisted creating a LinkedIn account on principle(s) despite the invitations.<p>I'm sure there's some selection bias from the title, but the comments help address the nagging fear that I'm shooting myself in the foot.
You don't need LinkedIn to find a job any more than you need OkCupid to find a girlfriend. I don't need pushy recruiters bugging me. If I was looking for a job, I wouldn't find it on LinkedIn, I'd find it in the real world through friends, family, former coworkers, meet ups, etc.
In Canada, I used to get a lot of recruiters contact me from Monster and Workopolis, but now I get a lot from LinkedIn. Just a few days ago a manager at Amazon reached out to me on LinkedIn. So it's definitely helpful, I wouldn't discount it.
Seems the answer is all the above. In my case, I got two major jobs via LinkedIn. And I've never got one by sending resumes out. Most of my career has been via personal network.<p>So, YMMV.
If you have a position where part of the job is to be connected to other people in the industry, then yes. If you didn't have a LinkedIn account it would suggest you weren't too serious about building and staying in touch with your network. If it's not a client or industry-facing position then no. Doesn't hurt if you're looking, especially if you want headhunters to contact you.
<a href="http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/" rel="nofollow">http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/</a><p>I don't find much value in LinkedIn. I did at first, but then it was overrun by recruiters.