Anyone not on LinkedIn? Is it possible to get by?
From what I’ve seen LinkedIn is epically useless. It’s more a platform for the perpetual circlejerk between the “Incoming Summer Analysts” and the motivational posters who seem to lack any self-awareness than for any actual recruiting, and there seems to be some toxic norm around it: Get into a target, immediately make a LinkedIn even if it has no bearing on your recruiting outcomes. I’m a private person; I’ve never felt the need to associate myself with that egotistical crowd and post all my information on the internet. For reference, I went to a target and now work at a BB--all my offers I’ve gotten without LinkedIn.
I've also noticed that LinkedIn’s reputation on WSO seems to consist predominantly of people's negative experiences with the platform. Has having a LinkedIn account actually helped any of you? Do you think having a LinkedIn account is essential in this day and age, and is it possible to earn the same opportunities without one? Thank you.
You absolutely don’t need it. And as you said, it simply isn’t for everyone.
With that said, my experience has been that it can add some value for virtually no effort. I’ve been contacted many times by recruiters for sell side & buy side roles. Roles that otherwise I wouldn’t have been contacted for if not for the visibility that linked in gave me.
And you don’t need to read all the BS. Just log in once every two weeks, check if any messages, maybe add a person or two to your network and that’s it.
I wish I could hide all the BS posts, it's easily the worst part of LinkedIn. I use it for networking and I've gotten some great contacts out of it (helps a lot more when you're an MBA/student since people are a lot more likely to grab coffee with a student). I think that's its best use, finding people and reaching out. Other than that, I have found some good industry articles posted, I don't like sifting through twelve newsletters every day but I'll scroll through for a few minutes once or twice a week to see if anything interested is out there. One of the good things is LinkedIn favors less frequent content so you don't need to be on all the time to get the relevant bits.
You can unfollow someone. Its not the easiest but if you go to their profile and then have to hit the settings you can unfollow and it stops giving notifications from them.
Honestly (and sadly), it’d be a pale red flag if any career-oriented person didn’t have one. The only reason for opting out that immediately comes to mind is that the person is trying to hide something - lapses in employment, lies on their resume, etc.
Maintain one as an online CV and ignore all of the odd, odd people who use it like it’s Facebook. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a colleague who didn’t have one at all.
I use LinkedIn constantly when job searching (looking up firms, their employees, their exits). Also tons of jobs posted there if you’re looking outside of corporate PE. Outside of that it’s useless
Just curious, how you landed the jobs? Applying directly on the firm website?
Probably OCR cuz OP said he went to a target.
Yeah that's what these target students don't get is they are naturally going to get access to a lot of doors that non-targets don't have unless they are connected.
Example - A super day my friend had from a big for one of the top BB was against a three people from H/P/Y and he was from School from the Big 10 ( not Michigan). He told me that all of the other students told him they got interviews through OCR, My friend networked his way into that interview.
Lol maybe just a clueless incoming FT here, but I don't have one and never thought it was even that important. All interviews and offers have been through my school's recruiting portal so I never thought about it much
It wouldn’t really be expected of someone who is still in school but 5-10 years down the line, you betcha
See this is the problem right here. As someone who did not go to a target the value is immense to be able to try and network with individual in different roles. My campuses recruit portal did not have access to front office roles and let alone they didn't even have every great firm on there. so yes outside the bubble of target schools LinkedIn and networking can be everything some students have to get ahead.
Really is a bit weird if you are 5 years in and do not have a profile at all mentioned. Every headhunters job is wayyy harder.
I did ask my friends in tech/product/sales why people circle-jerk so much on linkedin. So apparently MSFT is testing features out and more active/circle-jerk you do the easier it is for you to find and connect with people. Like if someone says “i got xyz internship” and gets likes, then that likes networks likes then etcc...Now someone searches in their region and very likely this profile beats other searches. For this reason, career coaches are pushing circle-jerking on there. Just an example...MSFT is trying to promote content creators on there.
Apparently this is very important in tech/fintech type world.
So no need to be active on it but for now the MSFT algos promote this stuff you hate on there .
I left all personal social media in 2020 and just recently deactivated my LinkedIn. I don't recommend this for everyone, but here are my reasons
it has little value in terms of market commentary (I have most of this stuff pushed to me via email or just search for the authors I want to read)
it has no value in generating new business unless it's your sole focus and you want to work with people who get arousal out of narcissistic posts
since I'm not looking for a job, I fail to see the value
if someone is looking for me, the first 4 results on google are me, so I'm not that hard to find if you knew my name. and 100% of the time, the inbound contacts I got were not potential clients. it was people looking for jobs, people looking to poach me, or someone who wanted to sell me something.
that said, if I wasn't set in my career, I'd keep the profile up to date but probably never check it, mute everyone, and just leave it up there for recruiters to find me. as a social media, it's dogshit. but since it's where recruiters hang out, I'd keep it until you don't want to look for jobs anymore
It's useful as an online CV and to keep oneself connected to previous coworkers. Outside of that it's really annoying. The only reason I haven't deleted it yet is because I'm not a millionaire. Once I get to that, I'm leaving ASAP.
I am not on LI, however I do have a profile. A long time ago I signed up and lost my password, wasn't able to recover it and emailed the customer support team. Based on the data I have submitted they came to the conclusion I am trying to impersonate another person and disabled the entire profile. So the account exists, but the profile is not visible, searchable or editable.
Never signed up again afterwards.
I'm just starting off my career but I'm making it a point to make as many personal connections as I can with people in my network so I don't need a LinkedIn people can just call me or I'll be able to call them. In the long term relationships like that will always win out over people that connected with the recruiter or a person they don't know on LinkedIn.
I also hope to ditch my cell phone for a satellite phone where only 4-5 people have my number as my day to day communication device. I'd keep a cell phone on the side but I'd only check it once or twice a week.
u dont have a job until u post u have one on ur linkedin profile my man
LinkedIn is fuckin comedy tho. So much absolutely goated content on there. From humble bragging to straight up bragging to complete lies about inspirational experiences, they have it all. How else am I gonna see people talk about how life changing a spring week at a bank was or how they got accepted into HBX Core?
Getting way past early career issues, LI is very helpful throughout your career if you know how to use it as a networking tool. I have been connected / referred to and have connected / referred many meaningful people over the years. It's not a solicitation tool and yes I find those massive number of posts annoying but easy enough to ignore. I've not found an easier way (logistically and familiarity) to start a dialog with someone. Getting to know a client, a prospect, a mutual friend. Once your career matures (say 10 yrs +) , it's a great way to people who can refer you to others. I'll get referred to someone and I'll ask the referrer if he would connect us. He'll typically send a group message to both of us with a brief intro , "Hey thought you guys should connect. X is active with ABC and knows a lot about 123. Y is really strong with 567. You guys can probably help one another." Then we'll connect and usually set up a phone meeting and it goes where it goes. Very painless way of getting in front of an influential person. That's been my experience.
I don't post things or look at most posts. Don't care about that stuff.
First, I agree with just about anything negative said about LI. It makes its money from companies that post jobs and from subscriptions - which means everything it does is focused on driving job postings and subscriptions, not to be a networking platform other than for sales people that pay for subscriptions.
Having said that, once you are in your career, LI becomes one's rolodex, it is where you keep track of your contacts. Yes, there are other ways to do that - BUT, when you leave a company, your contacts are arguably the company's contacts - don't take a client list with you, that is criminally punishable - have fun getting all your emails out of Outook. But that company can't take away your LI connections.
There are tons of professionals that would have zero web presence but for LI. Lawyers all have their contact info on the firm website - but BCG, e.g., has a 'contact us' form. Think of LI profiles as what you would put on the web so someone knows what you are when your employer is not gonna put any info up. Going to negotiate with someone, don't know jack about them? Look them up on LI, and assume they have done the same.
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