Without LinkedIn account I won't get a job in US?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9744144

by redcat7 • 11 years ago

30 55 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Is it true that in US you have to have linkedIn account to get a job? Such gossip is circling in Poland among HR people.

mattkrea• 11 years ago

I wouldn't believe that. LinkedIn is worse than Facebook these days in its uselessness.

MichaelCrawford3• 11 years ago

http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/

I don't find much value in LinkedIn. I did at first, but then it was overrun by recruiters.

MichaelCrawford3• 11 years ago

the work is just barely started. I'm working on ways to automate it but so far it's been quite painstakingly manual.

Forgive me if I don't list any companies for a city you'd like to work in. However I encourage specific requests - mail them to mdcrawford@gmail.com

josephmx• 11 years ago

Having so many recruiters is the value. I get multiple recruiters a week messaging me on LinkedIn, and it's growing constantly. By the time I'm job hunting I'll be able to message a lot of recruiters all at once.

MichaelCrawford3• 11 years ago

I don't find that recruiter contacts don't result in actual job offers. I do a lot better when I find my own work.

anvildoc• 11 years ago

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.

dagw• 11 years ago

Did the content of their LinkedIn account in any way cause or influence their hiring, or was it just incidental?

Because while almost everybody I know has a LinkedIn account, few people bother to regularly updated, and no one I know has gotten a job because of it.

kitcar• 11 years ago

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.

dragontamer• 11 years ago

Or not. My current job has nothing to do with Github / Stackoverflow presence.

I do know people who have made connections through Github / LinkedIn / StackOverflow. But I personally don't have an active account on any of those three.

kasey_junk• 11 years ago

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.

300bps• 11 years ago

I've had a LinkedIn account for over 11 years now. Pretty much the only thing that it has done for me is caused a few hundred salespeople to look up my contact information and try to sell me something.

nklas• 11 years ago

Why do you keep it then?

colinbartlett• 11 years ago

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.

JoeAltmaier• 11 years ago

But sounds like you might be well-connected (friends in the business). That's huge. A Polish immigrant would be a different deal.

redcat7• 11 years ago

It's not about immigration. HR people are talking things like that on seminars for people looking job in Poland :) And they're using such argument so people would create accounts there. So, by reading your comments it's more BS of hr people for theire on benefit.

mhurron• 11 years ago

I have almost always got jobs by sending resumes out, I have no social network to fall back on. I have a job, I will not start a linkedin profile.

Sending resumes will get you jobs, knowing people is not the only way.

solomatov• 11 years ago

We hire people via linkedin and always check people profiles there. It's very useful for this purpose. However, it's not a requirement.

pacquiao882• 11 years ago

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.

deadmik32• 11 years ago

This seems like a pretty paranoid generalization. In my experience linkedin is more of a way for recruiters to just mass-email people that fit keywords so they can keep their numbers up. I don't put much about my socioeconomic status or race on my linkedin....

larrik• 11 years ago

I think it's untrue, but more true for middle management positions.

deadmik32• 11 years ago

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.

theklub• 11 years ago

No, this is not true at all. LinkdIn is pretty much a joke at this point.

gumby• 11 years ago

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.

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.

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.

You will get recruiter and other spam. But then again the whole point of it is to connect people professionally, so...

socket0• 11 years ago

I like looking people up before a meeting as well, just to get a measure of how technical they are, what their backgrounds are, etc. But I hate that LinkedIn tells them I've been looking, at least when I use the free version. It sounds reasonable to do some prep work before a meeting, but gets decidedly more creepy when you get e-mail to tell you that someone was checking up on you.

jonathankoren• 11 years ago

Its a reciprocal setting. If you want to know who looks at you, you have to show who you are.

Why is it creepy that someone you're having a meeting with looks you up? Sounds perfectly appropriate to me.

Turing_Machine• 11 years ago

"It generates too many messages and basically just sucks."

Yep. That's why I closed my LI account -- it was part of a process aimed at reducing my inbox load. Yes, I had them filtered into their own folder, but it still used up space and increased cognitive load to deal with them...and if you're not going to deal with them (say, by sending them directly to the trash), what's the point?

bovermyer• 11 years ago

This is not true.

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.

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.

ionised2• 11 years ago

Wouldn't a back end engineer most likely have been working on proprietary source code for their time with the previous company?

Or are you talking about code they've written out of work hours? If so, that's never going to be indicative of the kind of code they can and normally do write is it?

* To clarify, I'm asking because I'm nearing the end of my third year at my first dev job at an engineering consultancy as an enterprise Java/Spring/Hibernate/Gradle developer and am planning to leave in the next few months but the question of how to demonstrate code to a potential employer is one that worries me.

I cannot show anything I have been working on here as it is wholly proprietary and my development outside of work is not at all comparative.

stickfigure• 11 years ago

While likelihood is something for debate, it is true that there are plenty of people who have no public code, or no public code worth looking at. Those people have made a grave career mistake.

This really isn't any different from hiring an artist. What would you say to someone who walked in your door and says: "I'm a great painter; look at all these people I have painted for" but can't/won't show you any examples of their work? Hiring this way is basically a random chance that you'll like the work product.

noelsusman• 11 years ago

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.

salibhai• 11 years ago

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.

fredkbloggs2• 11 years ago

No, there is no truth to this whatever.

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.

thrillgore• 11 years ago

This is 100% false. LinkedIn will do nothing for you but make you a target for recruiters who are full of shit.

pepijndevos• 11 years ago

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?

briandear• 11 years ago

It's keyword based. I live in Avignon and I get dozens of messages per week from US tech recruiters. It also may have something to do with how many connections you have (or actually who those connections are.) I am not sure exactly, but it's possible your profile does not suck, it just may be somewhat thin in the particular keywords and former job titles upon which they are searching. Add "lead Ruby engineer" or something similar and let the spam begin! Through the world Java and iOS in your profile for even more glorious recruiter contact!

PaulHoule• 11 years ago

I don't think you need it, but it is useful, particularly if you are doing any kind of sales.

eitally2• 11 years ago

You don't have to have a LinkedIn profile to get a job.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elliottally

KingMob• 11 years ago

Recommendations are actually way more important than you think, so be sure to solicit them. When a non-technical person looks at a technical person's body of work, they can't really evaluate the quality of your code, so recommendations help a lot. It's been very helpful in the past in landing consulting gigs with small companies.

eitally2• 11 years ago

Thanks for the tip!

code4tee• 11 years ago

Definitely not true. While many people have profiles, most everyone I know barely uses the site. It's become mostly a wasteland full of spam.

RockyMcNuts2• 11 years ago

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.

gkya• 11 years ago

So if somehow LinkedIn collapsed the people in the industry would cease to be interconnected? LinkedIn to me, seems unnecessary and silly. A web page with a link to a CV and a mailto: link would be enough. A tech/IT person w/o a website somewhere, that would make me dubious if I was hiring.

RockyMcNuts2• 11 years ago

if I was hiring a business development guy and one guy was connected to all the senior people I wanted to do business with and another guy didn't have a LinkedIn, I would favor the first one. For some things it's an important signal, if not a red flag that someone isn't switched on and plugged in.

If someone wanted to be my social media guy and wasn't on social media/Twitter, that would be a red flag too!

Just like there are jobs where one should probably have a Github or public portfolio, there are jobs where one should be on LinkedIn. It's a tool one should know how to use, not the sum of one's identity.

theGREENsuit• 11 years ago

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.

abathur• 11 years ago

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.

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.

neurotixz• 11 years ago

I am in Canada, but I think it can also apply in the US:

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.

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.

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.

alansmitheebk• 11 years ago

Definitely not true.

dwarman• 11 years ago

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.

So, YMMV.

BraveNewCurency• 11 years ago

Not true.

LI is slightly 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?)

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?

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.

owly• 11 years ago

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.

Without LinkedIn account I won't get a job in US?

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