Finally deleted my LinkedIn account!
After putting my account into “hibernation” for the past few weeks, I finally closed it. But I’m still looking for work. Thankfully I can still find positions (SRE and software dev) by just going directly to the company’s site and finding a Jobs page.
Good luck to everyone else out there looking for work!
I keep LinkedIn telling myself it’s necessary to find a job but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a job from LinkedIn, now that I think about it.
I got my current job through it, and it’s a great job I never would’ve found otherwise. So I think it’s absolutely worth keeping.
I keep forgetting about it though. I block all of their messages and only check it if I’m looking for a job.
I’ve never gotten a job from LinkedIn but I feel like that’s also one where potential employers might view not having one as a red flag? Like maybe it’s better to keep something up with a basic profile and job history matching your resume, but not actively using?
Where do you get jobs from?
I’ve usually found things on Indeed and am starting to have some success with freelance/contracts on Upwork. I’ve also had some personal network connections to jobs, but that’s never been through LinkedIn, just knowing someone at a company and then thinking I’d be a good fit for an opening.
I’m not really confident about starting out on Upwork. For someone who is a fresher, do you think it is apt to work as a freelancer?
I’m not sure what a fresher is? In general I think it depends on what field you work in. If you’re in something where you might have to compete with a lot of competent people from low cost of living countries you might find your potential wages kept lower. On the other hand, national laws might help you. For instance, I see a lot of jobs that specify U.S.-applicants only.
The hardest part I think is getting that first job. You have to really tailor your proposal to catch the eye of the hiring person. Once you get that first job and it shows you as a verified individual and you start showing earnings on your page I think that helps build confidence. Then if you can successfully complete some contracts you can get flagged as rising talent or a high job success score, which opens additional opportunities.
The 10% commission takes a bite out of the paycheck, so you need to factor that in when setting your rate. Of course, a contractor should have a much higher hourly rate than a direct employee.
Good to know, thanks, I’ll check out upwork. I just got laid off and they gave me basically no severance, so, I’d love to find something quick lol
Defiantly this.
Depends on your job and the industry though I guess.
My hope is that any future employers may understand where I’m coming from by not having an account there. Not sure whether that really works out in the real world, though. Only one way to find out, I guess!
Got an amazing one thanks to a fellow alumni who proactively reached out.
Well played on this one, Microsoft… got me locked in, for now.
Can’t wait for the day login to LI is required to purchase something. A price discriminator’s wet dream.
I’ve gotten almost all my jobs, and probably a handful of offers, and more messages from recruiters than I can count, through LinkedIn…it’s definitely the easiest way to find and get a job IME. I don’t think I’ve gone “job hunting” since I was fresh out of university looking for my first job.
Yeah that was it for me. I got loads of messages from recruiters but they were really low effort communication. I even put in things like “INCLUDE THE WORD
GLENDAIF YOU READ MY PROFILE” near the top of my profile/experience section. Out of the hundreds of messages, I’d say fewer than 10 actually wrote “GLENDA”!The conversations I did end up having were shitty anyway. Essentially I think the world got software fever over the past few years and it’s only just recently cooling down. People going into recruiting without any people skills, let alone industry knowledge. Companies desperate to hire people for no reason, including people who just did that “Quit your job and start coding!” nonsense.
Shit, I got almost half of my jobs through that site, though. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. 😆
I got recruits to buy me coffee while I ranted at them about the tech industry. That was cool, but wasn’t worth how much noise is in the inbox nor the privacy concerns of having your data & network stored Microsoft, so I deleted my account.
I’d love to delete all accounts associated with Microsoft, but we need to bully projects off of MS GitHub that refuse to acknowledge the privacy concerns (as well as the mental health issue caused as a result of turning a code forge into a social media platform that your job probably makes you uses).
Hold on… that’s awesome. Shit maybe I deleted my account too soon…
I mean, I get physically sick of the idea of the worst mindless parts of the corporate world being spammed around the genuinely amazing project that is the Internet. But paying for coffee sucks, too ;)
Haha. It was only 2–3 times, but when they learned how niche my skillset was/what tech I would actually work with, I think they realized it was a waste of their time (like how actively writing object-oriented code is a waste of time)