You have to be on Linked In. No ifs, ands or buts.
It is not just for job seekers--in fact, I don't recommend using the Looking for Work button.
The listing should match your resume and the photo headshot should be good.
Anyone who hears your name for any reason may look you up there.
Prospective speaking engagements, job inquiries, will all use LinkedIn, too.

You don't have to like, to comment, to write for LinkedIn-you just have to be listed on it.

I haven’t updated my profile in over 10 years and it is obvious. I’m not letting sm into my professional life.

My previous boss was obsessed with his LinkedIn, to the detriment of any actual work we tried to accomplish.

I use it to connect with former colleagues and old friends. I almost never post. I do check job openings sometimes, though.

Oh, and I should say I found my current job there which is a pretty desirable position. So the job search function works pretty well, too.

I think there are three functions to LinkedIn.

First, as a rolodex. It's pretty handy this way, though their search function is absolute shit.

Second, as a way to connect with new people. Again, pretty useful, though it's annoying to be on the receiving end of a flood of connection requests from seemingly random people without context.

Finally as a social media platform.

On the consumption side the noise:signal ratio is pretty bad. There's a ton of self-aggrandizing BS, an increasing amount of politics, and just low-quality garbage. I scroll through it most days for a bit and usually find something of use about an emerging topic in my field. That said, I work in a highly dynamic field (cyber). If I worked in something more static, I'd find the feed far less useful.

On the production side, it's a convenient platform. I just recently posted an article I had published elsewhere (read: not a #deepthoughts twitter regurgitation). I got pretty decent engagement and some feedback that made me smarter on the topic I wrote about. I also got a bunch of additional connection requests for whatever that's worth. And my company is happy for the exposure.


So... use it for it's strengths, but don't expect every aspect of it to be brilliant.

I hate it and think people who try to appear as some kind of thought leaders on there are ridiculous. But I did find my most recent job there, so there’s some value, I guess. I don’t put my photo on there, though, or anything but my job title.

Rolodex for old colleagues. That’s it.

It has deteriorated significantly in the past year or two. I deactivated mine.

Too many creeps on there.

It's kind of toxic in that it leads you to think that everyone has wonderful jobs with wonderful bosses, while also achieving perfect work-life balance. I found it to be really fake and awful and deleted it. Didn't at all impact my ability to get a new, much better job a couple years ago.

I use it to recruit for positions and have built 1000s of connections, i have so many connections that I don't use recruiters even for my fortune 500 company. I only post job postings and promote my company.

My son got his first job out of college via LinkedIn. A recruiter reached out to him after seeing his profile. Son was skeptical at first, but he now has a well paying job with a legit company, all because he had a complete, updated LinkedIn profile.

I really hate the pressure to use it.
Not useful.

I use it to read the unhinged "thought leader" posts by colleagues and laugh at them.

How do you use it (if you do), what benefits you've gotten from it, what tips do you have, if you're successful what do I need to know?