Is LinkedIn and LinkedIn Subscription Worth Investing My Time and Money in?

bargain huntress on 08/02/2021 - 17:46
Last edited 08/02/2021 - 17:55 by 1 other user

Are you on LinkedIn?
How much time have you spent on your profile?

When is a Premium subscription worthwhile?
What can you do with it?

When you do a course on there - can you add it to your profile?
What if you do the course for free via the library etc? (ozbargainers keep posting deals)

Should you put stuff on there that is possibly viewed negatively?
Trying to think of examples: Education that you didn't finish? Jobs where you got fired? ?

Would there be any point to someone with no employment history and no education using it?

Tips and Tricks?

Education & Work

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Comments

  • Muzeeb on 08/02/2021 - 17:48
    -2

    I joined LinkedIn to see how long a salad can be kept fresh for in a fridge.

    I think it is worthwhile.

  • SF3 on 08/02/2021 - 18:02
    +4

    In true OzB style, you go with the free option.

    • morse on 08/02/2021 - 20:13

      yep, use premium on trial for free then cancel before you have to pay.

      • deleted on 19/02/2021 - 12:23

        If you forget, they charge for a year at something like $800. I wouldn't bother with the 'free trail' that requires your credit card. It doesn't add much value unless you're actively looking for a new job.

  • [Deactivated] on 08/02/2021 - 18:13

    Its facebook for 'professionals', how often are you on the facey?

  • Hithere on 08/02/2021 - 18:27

    I think it is worthwhile.

    What is? Joining Linkedin or keeping a salad in the fridge?

    • Muzeeb on 08/02/2021 - 18:42

      The salad obviously

      • Hithere on 08/02/2021 - 18:43

        Thanks for clearing that up for me ;)

  • Sergeant Salami on 08/02/2021 - 18:40
    +2

    I had signed up for LI premium via the trial and a qantas debit card. It was okay but not worth the money to renew. I get Linkedin learning through work for free. The courses are okay. Once you complete it, you are able to add the "skills" to your profile and download a certificate of completion. For example, if you do an Azure course, it will ask you if you want to add Azure, cloud, etc to your profile. The certificates are useless as they are not real accredited certs. I think the course material is okay but I prefer A cloud guru or pluralsight as they are more in depth and thorough. LinkedIn is mainly for networking as you do with any other social network. I wouldn't bother with it to be honest. All I ever get is recruiters with crappy intros, no location, no salary range, no position descriptions and no replies after you write back to them. I have networked with some other people in my industry which is the only positive. I stay off the platform as it is plagued with marketing/ads and attention seeking posts copied from reddit to draw traffic. Invest in some sort of learning/certification platform rather than LI.

  • mskeggs on 08/02/2021 - 18:42
    +1

    It is useful to keep track of ex-colleagues who I wouldn’t otherwise maintain as friends.
    I’ve used it for things like asking somebody I used to work with who is now in another city if they can recommend a supplier. I’ve used it to help find staff, and ask a friend of a friend if somebody is a good person to work for.

    Sales people and recruitment people use it heavily to find leads/candidates, and this is the what the paid features are for.
    I also know some hustlers/self promoters who use it to boost their profile, but most people I know rate that behaviour as similar to a real estate agent/used car salesman type.

    If you were a business consultant or similar, I would suggest it would be worth including it in your marketing to post blog entries etc. but it isn’t a replacement for more personal networking.

  • pharkurnell on 08/02/2021 - 19:11

    knickers to paying for it.
    Check it once a month if that.

  • AndyC1 on 08/02/2021 - 20:01
    +2

    You can use LinkedIn in various ways, such as:
    1) Find a JOB
    2) Keep track of friends and where they work
    3) Find lost friends from previous companies.

    You should NOT IMHO use if for:
    A) Promoting a company
    B) Joining because management say you need to have a presence. (They have some sort of KPI or remunartion based on this if is occurs. Yes it HAS occured, been there seen it and it was a big suck job)….

    How to start:
    1) Take your existing resume and put it in.
    2) Ask friends to have al ook and see what they think. Take the feedback and adjust your resume and linked in profile.

    Whats next:
    1) Find friends and add them in.
    2) Once a week login and update your requests in you feel it's worthwhile

    Dubious:
    1) Head hunters - respond to them in some way

    Potential Waste of Time:
    1) Pay/free linked in extras, unless you NEED a JOB NOW.

  • morse on 08/02/2021 - 20:23
    +1

    Yes, on LinkedIn. I’ve used it to promote work I’m doing, connect with colleagues that I’m not friends with and to arrange to visit colleagues overseas/interstate in my field.

    Good: learn about relevant courses, conferences, job or funding opportunities, interesting projects etc.

    Bad: lots of irrelevant content, people trying to recruit you to jobs you don’t want or sell you things you don’t want

    Premium is probably not worth it for most people.there are free trials, so you can try before you buy.

  • [Deactivated] on 08/02/2021 - 20:49
    +1

    I've used LinkedIn from nearly the beginning to keep loose affiliations with quality colleagues I've worked with in the past.

    I avoid making comments in generic posts and keep a moderately low profile.

    I've noticed in the last 5 years or so ex colleagues becoming increasingly more polarising and political in their posts - something I consider to be unprofessional - and have lately been culling more contacts than I've added as a result.

    It seems people have forgotten that we go to work to do a job, now some have decided that your personal opinions should determine your eligibility for employment over your skill and work ethic.

    I don't know what the future is for LinkedIn but I think your participation on the site, like in real life, should be professional. Maintain those contacts, and keep the discussion to talking shop. It might just help secure another role in the future.

  • Mechz on 08/02/2021 - 22:23
    +1

    Definitely prefer it to fb for keeping track and in contact with colleagues.

  • conan2000 on 08/02/2021 - 23:17
    +1

    It's definitely worthwhile being on there if for nothing else than you can get job opportunities via recruiters who use it to find candidates.

    I've had a couple of free trials of Premium, definitely not worth it. Wait long enough and you'll get another free trial offer, and just save those up for when you are actively looking for a job.

    For stuff that can be viewed negatively, really depends what it is…for instance I did one year of a uni degree, hated it then started an entirely different degree. I still put it on there (it's actually more relevant to my job than the degree I ended up with).

  • astrotrain on 09/02/2021 - 12:55
    +1

    I am a freelance designer so i sometimes post new projects i have been working on to let former colleagues know i am always out there looking for work.

  • ilikeradiohead on 09/02/2021 - 14:49
    +2

    Premium is not worth what it costs, all you really get is the ability to see who looked at your profile while being hidden, some extra job Insights (totally worthless, see below) and a few other pointless perks, and it's like $30/month.

    Overall LinkedIn is not that great, but it's more like a necessary evil that you need in job hunting.

    I was on the job hunt from the start of the year through about mid October. It might be different in Aus, but in the US applying for jobs on LinkedIn was completely pointless (even with 'extra insight'), the meaningful opportunities I got were through people I knew 'outside' of LinkedIn.

    Long story short I hate LinkedIn but feel like I need it to be able to advance in my career.

  • fatal on 09/02/2021 - 17:54
    +1

    Depends on the industry and what you want to do.
    In the IT/SaaS world, LinkedIn is pretty much a requirement for networking, looking for jobs and self promotion.

    Don't need to pay for it continuously, only when you need a desired outcome aka looking for new roles or selling (if for some reason your work doesn't pay for it).

  • freefall101 on 11/02/2021 - 10:14
    +3

    I used to do the recruiting data analytics for a few big companies, so I've had the joy of seeing all the stats on this stuff.

    Linkedin premium is completely worthless for the average Joe. I've pretty much always gotten it for free through work, can't see the value at all. Linkedin learning isn't worth the bits to store it - if someone doesn't have experience doing a think no level of cheap certifications will ever help. It might help if you want to start doing something where you already work, but then your company should already be paying for your linkedin learning license for that to work.

    Recruiters love linkedin. We couldn't ever get them to use anything else, no matter how good the alternatives are, no matter how cheap it was, no matter how many times we pushed them to do it. They just go back to doing linkedin searches because it has everyone and they always get success. Which makes it absolutely a necessary evil for any job seeker to have an account on because even if you apply through seek, they'll go look you up on linkedin. From their mindset, Linkedin is the entire world, they engage in it like Facebook addicts and don't understand why everyone else sees it differently.

    Best way to get a job is a referral from someone inside the company, especially the manager who is hiring, always. Most companies just run ads on multiple platforms and they all flow into the one platform and no one looks at where they applied from unless it's internal (there's usually different processes for internals) or a referral from someone important. Otherwise seek, linkedin, jora, indeed, it's all the same. But the recruiters also do searches on linkedin to headhunt people a lot (this is often where 25% of externals come from) so having a good page can be helpful.

  • pharkurnell on 18/02/2021 - 14:15
    +1

    What about the training courses through there?

    eg: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/paths/prepare-for-the-mcsa…

  • [Deactivated] on 02/03/2021 - 11:02

    Depends on the work culture. Some work places it was useless and other where everyone was on it, I kinda needed it to avoid them adding me on personal social media.

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