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...
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?
Why is it creepy that someone you're having a meeting with looks you up? Sounds perfectly appropriate to me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sending resumes will get you jobs, knowing people is not the only way.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
So, YMMV.
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.
I don't find much value in LinkedIn. I did at first, but then it was overrun by recruiters.
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
