LinkedIn

[IceandIndigo]

I'm in the position of needing to look for new employment, after having been in the same job for nearly 10 years.

I've never been a member of LinkedIn. I'm a private person and I dislike social media in general. However I'm aware that LinkedIn has become very popular with professional people and I'm worried not having a profile could harm my prospects of finding a new role. My current role is quite specialised and a number of my immediate colleagues don't use LinkedIn either, but I'm interested in exploring opportunities in related fields where it's pretty standard.

If I'm honest I also feel a bit embarrassed to set up a profile at this stage of my career (I'm early 40s) and presumably prospective employers would see that I only have a limited number of connections, which might also create a negative impression?

Interested to know what people think. How important is LinkedIn and what advice would you give to someone in my situation?

It’s also a really good way of scoping out companies you’re interviewing with. For example, looking at what they’ve been posting about recently or how long their current employees have worked there. I’ve frequently used it in interviews to ask questions like “I noticed that a lot of the team have been with the company a long time, what is it that makes them stay?” Or the opposite if the team is all very new!

I work in the type of role where I get multiple messages a week from recruiters. I always reply with a short message saying I’m not looking right now but if I were to move I’d be interested in roles like X with X salary etc. Then when I am looking for a new role, I’ll go back to the ones who had interesting sounding roles and ask if they have anything I might be interested in.

Personally I work in sales so it’s an invaluable tool for me to create relationships and connect with prospective clients who might take notice of us if they see my content on LinkedIn.

A good quality, recent photo of myself?

It's not mandated (or indeed checked). However a really smart professional picture does more good than harm, I feel.

My last employer hired a professional photographer (who came with a make up specialist) for their AGM and got some studio quality headshots that looked great on their website, and which we were given for our own use.

Alternatively you can use a badge or something to make a statement.

Or just leave it blank.

I don't have it. I've always says I don't do social media and not had a problem. However I am aware there are job posted on there and use my dh account to find them.
If someone said I wasn't ambitious because I didn't have it I'd shrug and move on. My career history should show I am. However I'm not in tech or anything that would look weird if I wasn't on SM.

I’ve been actively looking for a new job so have begun to use LinkedIn more recently. It definitely has become more of a Facebook style place than somewhere you put your cv however I have managed to secure a job from the jobs boards recently. I’ve also found that recruiting agencies almost exclusively used LinkedIn as their database in my sector nowadays. I don’t have a photo or care to share my preferred pronouns on there. Once you start expanding your network you’ll be surprised at the connections you can make very quickly.

My dh hardly used SM but he is on Linkedin for work. As soon as he joined he got loads of requests from others, people he worked with in the past and other colleagues. He says it is useful now.