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Why I don't use LinkedIn and Why you should also!

Mohammed Nadeem Shareef on May 05, 2022

Hello Developers 🖐🖐 In this article, I'm discussing why I don't use LinkedIn much and why you should also stop using it. LinkedIn is used by milli...
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Shai Almog

I use LinkedIn a lot as part of my job as developer advocate. I did hire once through LinkeIn. I do get a lot of job offers through LinkedIn which I probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
I use Twitter a lot too and I'm not sure if it's any better though.

Social networks are marketing apps where you are the product. If you fully understand that and take everything said there with a huge salt mountain... Then it's good.

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Key

It's the huge salt mountain that always get's me. You're totally right of course Shai it's a marketing app and at that it's great at what it does.

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Yeah!
Thanks for sharing your view. 😊

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Ahmed Chakhoum

When it comes to programming and IT field, linkedin + github is a great combination
despite the cringe social media features of linkedin, it's one of the best websites to find job offers you probably won't know about otherwise

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Dimitar Stoev

I kind of agree with your point. LinkedIn is fake. But all platforms are.

I tried using Twitter, but I don't have words to describe how horrible it is. So much fake people and posts. This threads are incredibly annoying and everything feels like robotic and without soul. Also so many people without opinion and just riding the wave..

Don't get me wrong.. I am not hating Twitter only, I am hating all of them - Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram.. I have accounts, but don't really use them and I don't see how someone can make a meaningful connection there.

I started using blogging site, as u mentioned and find this one- Dev.to the best one.

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Key

Is it the platform that is fake or the cultures? There are certainly real people, posting real things on social platforms and the platform does not somehow make their content fake?

I doubt you meant it that way! But great to ensure we're framing shit the way it really is. As cultures we follow and express the fact that personally we all often forego our authenticity for perceived gain.

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

I agree with you and Dev is the best of all.

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Yogini Bende • Edited

I can relate with all the points here. LinkedIn was a good platform but now all we see there is some sort of chaos!

Pardon me for my shameless plug here, but there is something we started a year back because of these issues only! You should once try peerlist.io

We are building this platform specifically for the people in tech!
On a side note, loved every animation on your portfolio site. You made them flawless 🙌

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

I haven't heard about peerlist. Will give it a try in the near future. Thanks for the review. 😊

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JoelBonetR 🥇 • Edited

So am I worng or you are suggesting people to stop using LinkedIn and to use Twitter instead? 😂😂😂

Enough internet for today.

Now being serious, LinkedIn is the biggest platform to be in order to get job alerts to jump to a new job.
I simply disabled all the notifications but messages on LinkedIn, still check it once a week to politely reject any job request and that's all.

If I suddenly want to jump to a different company it's easier going to LinkedIn and check the inbox or already known recruiters.

Twitter only makes some sense if you are selling any product, i.e. if you are an indie game dev. The rest is a fake parallel reality.

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nickbarrow • Edited

You make valid points in that there are no legitimacy checks on LinkedIn, and how these days it's quickly becoming "professional Facebook", which is undeniably aggravating considering the platform should be focused on career-related matters and not personal affairs.

However, I think you are incorrect in saying ANY of those sites serve as a real alternative to LinkedIn. If used properly, LinkedIn can be the only tool you need to find your next job. You don't have to follow LinkedIn influencers, just like you don't have to post your wedding pics on LinkedIn; It's all about how you use it, and honestly falsely claiming to work at Google is just contributing to the problem.

It is a disservice to your readers to suggest Twitter is a feasible option for the average person to find a job, and is likely far more hindering to their search than having to filter through the occasional JS meme or personal post on LinkedIn.

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

You have made a good point.

If used properly, LinkedIn can be the only tool you need to find your next job. You don't have to follow LinkedIn influencers, just like you don't have to post your wedding pics on LinkedIn.

Yeah, I know Twitter is not a perfect alternative to LinkedIn.
I got offers from my Dev and GitHub profiles.

Thanks for sharing your views 😊.

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GP

I agree with you on all the points above and LinkedIn is the new "Facebook", lots of crap and the new trend is posting course completion certificate which indirectly saying "I'm open for new opportunity".

I never look into my notifications as I know all it has is "someone viewed your profile", "congratulate someone for work anniversary", "changing jobs" "blab..."

I get lots of job offers on LinkedIn message from recruiters and all of them are for the roles that I don't play anymore.

Job search is not useful for me as it does not mention salary range and the skills expectation is so much that only one who is next/close to GOD may have it.

Sooner or later I will be deleting my LinkedIn profile!

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Thanks for sharing your view 😀 ☺

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Heath Daniel

I'm not sure if this is intentional (hey, it got me to click) but I feel like the title of this article is worded a bit confusingly. Do you mean to say "Why I don't use LinkedIn and Why you Shouldn't Either"?

Just a heads up. Feel free to let me know and I'll delete my comment if it's not helpful :0)

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Yeah! You have a point. I think it is a mistake made because of my poor grammar 😕.

Thanks for pointing it out

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Heath Daniel

Not a big deal. People understood it anyway ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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Dzintars Klavins

Constant feed of success stories and requiters spamming without even looking into my About section.
I feel sick of it and considering to #DeleteLinkedin.
Last year I did #DeleteFacebook and guess what... I don't feel I am missing something. Should be the same with #DeleteLinkedin. :)

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Yeah! Totally agree with you. ☺

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John Peters

LinkedIn help me find 5 successive jobs in past 10 years. Each time my salary went up minimum of 10%q

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

😮😮😮
Good for you.
Thanks for sharing that info.

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Andrew Baisden

I sort of agree but I also believe that it depends on your network. I used to hate my LinkedIn but now it feels much closer to tech Twitter because I have so many developer connections. It was much worse when it was like 95% recruiters because I could not relate with all of the content they were putting out 😅

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Savvina Drougouti • Edited

I agree with most of your points. The "inspirational" trend on LinkedIn is getting too much lately. But still, LinkedIn is one of the most efficient tools for looking for a job or getting contacted by recruiters and potential employers. Similar to all the other social media, LinkedIn it's all about marketing and branding. You need to attract and engage your followers to increase visibility and promote yourself.

About the job descriptions, you're right. As an IT recruiter myself, I struggle with clients who don't want to share detailed info about the required roles, so I usually avoid them. Sloppy and unclear job descriptions are just a waste of time, both for candidates and employers.

👉 Follow and connect with me for future open remote positions and quality content

Savvina Drougouti
IT Recruiter & Project Manager
LinkedIn

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Jesus Guerrero

Sometimes you got to play the game, use what the tool provides but don't let them consume you.

What I mean? LinkedIn is probably the best tool to get jobs and attract recruiters. You don't need to enter everyday or check people updates because I have selected connections.

With that said LinkedIn works just like any social network. Notifications, what other people are doing, liers (anyone can lie every where we can put we are developers at CERN and created HTML but you would have to to prove with your skills in an interview)

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Charles F. Munat

Spot on until you got to the part about Twitter. Twitter is an utter abomination that is killing humanity. Few people I know are capable of serious, in-depth thought or discussion anymore. It's just people tweeting at each other but not really caring what the other person tweets except as a launching pad for their own. In short, each shouting his or her own views without let up.

LinkedIn is awful. It used to be about putting up your CV so you could stop rewriting it over and over again, and maybe someone might see it. Now it's just more Facegoop. Dozens of posts every day about nonsense I have zero interest in, and virtually all the "connections" I get are people trying to sell me something or recruiters who didn't even bother to read my profile, not that they would know what any of it meant anyway.

I've almost given up on it entirely. But I'm too lazy to put up my own site, so...

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Arun Kumar

i hate LinkedIn because all i see in my feed is "like for mom comment for dad" or "like for Ferrari comment for Lamborghini" ... like, motivational quotes is far better than what i get on my feed lol

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Totally relatable!

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Muhammad Uzair

I want a way to block "thrilled to announce...." type of posts on LinkedIn.

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Bernd Wechner

You lost me when you recommended Twiiter! Sorry. That's the rock bottom of [whatever category it falls in].

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Apart from that you agree with most of the things.

I don't recommend Twitter on the first hand, after dev and github.

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Tapas Adhikary

Check out: showwcase.com/

It's emerging as a community driven platform.

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Saeed

i like your Protfolio

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Thanks

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Himanshupal0001

My friend just made 60k$ within a year using linkedIn. Can't argue with that.

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

I think many of us would love to hear how he did it. Or anything which can show us how to do that.

btw thanks for sharing it. 😊

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Kathleen Simpson

Omg, you read my mind!! People tell me I’m nuts because I truly hate LinkedIn. Let’s face it, it’s Facebook with a theme. Both are useless and do nothing but waste my time.

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

Totally agree with you!

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Lou Willoughby • Edited

This feels like quite an angry post against LinkedIn.
I completely respect your opinion and it’s a shame you don’t feel you got the most out of it. As someone below said I believe it’s more about who you follow and how you use it to get the most out of it.

I follow a lot of tech groups and so the majority of posts I see are relatable to me and so I don’t mind that. I never post about my personal life as that’s what Facebook or Instagram is for. Also I enjoy celebrating others achievements because sometimes people are just proud of stuff they’ve accomplished in their careers and so they’re free to celebrate that.

I never used LinkedIn much until recently but now I post regularly and network with other likeminded developers. If I get a recruiter in my dms I just politely decline.

It’s all just perspective. I do personally enjoy using this platform too for writing my thoughts and learning things from others and I have my GitHub account attached but I don’t use my GitHub to be social that’s just for my projects.

I don’t see however how saying you work for google when you don’t on LinkedIn is any different to writing that on a CV, your portfolio or anywhere for that matter.

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Maddy • Edited

I don't really agree with this, and yes, probably I'm biased because LinkedIn is the social media platform that I use the most. More than Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

It is true that it's full of motivational quotes (which I like anyway, they inspire me to do better).

LinkedIn is a great platform because:

  1. It makes it super easy to find a job.
  2. It's probably the only social media platform that rewards failures more than winnings.
  3. Depending on who you follow, you can learn so much, and for free.
  4. Your posts can stay at the top of the news feed for weeks. Sometimes even MONTHS.
  5. You don't have to post about your personal life. Many people choose to do that. But you don't have to.

A friend of mine who graduated from uni managed to get a role at a tech company just because I liked a post published by the recruiter from that same company.

To me, it's underrated.

Perhaps you need to clean up your news feed and follow people who execute and not just talk.

One thing that LinkedIn definitely should improve it's LinkedIn groups.

Still, I believe it's a great platform.

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Damian Cyrus

It is a tool like any other, specific for business related topics.

You need some fast overview how the market is searching for a Dev or salaries statistics without moving your fingers too much? Activate open for job search in your profile. People will start to inform you after one night.

You want to stand out with fun? Update your skills with some additional flavour: tech stack, soft and hard skills, words from different language that might be some real skill but you know are not. And don't forget the Pokemon. Hint: Take the more unkown.

You most likely get a optional quest event with that: headhunter fun games. Let them praise all your skills, and then ask how many of these Pokemon they themselves catched.

Of course, not all the time is for entertainment. Sometimes I get in contact then with people who know this game play. Then it gets interesting.

When it is time to ditch the tool, just remove yourself form it and use a new one.

I think it has some benefits, but that is like with every tool: you use it more when needed, else you use it less or don't. The choice is yours.

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Dekstur

There are more people wanting to motivate than the number of people who want to get motivated.

If you are one of the people who don't want to get motivated, then unfollow the influencer.

However, you said that the number of people wanting to motivate is greater than people who want to get motivated. You also said LinkedIn don't assess the authenticity of your work experience, even if you put a fake one it will still be included in your profile. But, aren't you doing the same? You stated a conclusion that compares the no. of people on this and that, without conducting surveys, or other supporting methods. Is it just a tantrum then?

LinkedIn lets you add work experience, and they will accept it right away. However, you can take some skill assessments directly in the app to at least support your posted work experience. Recruiters might skip your profile if you don't have these supporting assessment, or they will contact you to take their own assessment.

LinkedIn showcases your profile to recruiters, and let's you be updated with your connections. It does not serve as a measure of your real capability or if you are fit t o a certain position. That is the job of recruiters.

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tq-bit

Starting with

Why I don't use LinkedIn and Why you should also!

& ending with

  • Twitter ShareefBhai99
  • Linkedin

seems a bit akward to me.

I personally use Linkedin to stay in touch with former colleagues and fellow students from my university time. It's a swiss army knife for professional networking. What you make of it (or it makes of you) is up to you.

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Mohammed Nadeem Shareef

😅
It ends like that because recruiters want to see my LinkedIn profile.

It's a Swiss army knife for professional networking. What you make of it (or it makes of you) is up to you.

It's a good point btw.

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Khang

There is nothing wrong with any of the social platforms. They are all made with good intentions at the beginning. If anything, it is the way you see them, use them. If you only look at the negative side, they are bad, if you use them wisely, they are good. Stay positive and live life 🙂 Cheers.

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Meqdad Darwish • Edited

I agree with some points about the difference between the expected output and the actual output. There is a chaos and random posts there, and there are some great posts and blogs from experts in the industry too. In addition to that, LinkedIn learning platform is offering some good learning resources.
I think we need to be balanced in this point, as a developer; (GitHub + Twitter + Blog site [Dev.to/Hashnode/Medium...etc.] + LinkedIn) is a good combination.
LinkedIn is overrated, especially by the HR guys.

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Marcelloh

It's just facebook for companies, and you do what you want with it, I do my bit ;-)

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SUCHINTAN DAS

I don't agree with your point over LinkedIn.

It's completely natural that some people scatter the platform with some useless memes or selfies. ( I faced it on LinkedIn , never saw any fake motivation though )

But that doesn't make the platform less worthy than other platforms that we use in our day-to-day life.💁🏻‍♂️

I have seen many people using LinkedIn in the right way to land themselves on their dream jobs. Your profile on LinkedIn is your portfolio where recruiters or other professional people can assess you. 🤔

It's important that you understand the use of the platform, try to make-

➡️ good connections or networks
➡️ try to enhance your profile in a professional way ( it matters )
➡️ try to learn from others mistake , they are not fake motivation till they are sharing their failures and mistakes from which you can learn from.
➡️ try to keep yourself updated with the current need of market and upskill
➡️ sharing your achievements is ok ! You have earned something fruitful.

That's what my take would be over this...open to know others views as well !