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Why I don't use LinkedIn

Published
4 minutes read

I created my LinkedIn-profile back in 2013-2014, back when I actually didn't have any job experience other than my part-time holiday job at Vest Kontakt (same place I'm the IT manager today). I cannot remember why I decided to join so early, but I guess it had to do with the FOMO, especially since I was 16-18 years old back then.

I also want to add that not everything with LinkedIn is necessarily a bad thing, but I believe everyone is able to live without any need for social network where the primary focus is "work". I've had a few interesting interaction on the platform myself, but nothing ever came of it.

My interactions

Back in 2016, when I still didn't have any real experience nor a education higher than senior high school, I was contacted by a recruiting agency by phone. They were looking for developers for a local startup, and asked if they could interview me because of my relevant profile on LinkedIn. I remember back then, I was really stoked that someone found my profile and actually wanted to interview for an actual job... but how did they conclude that a teenager without a degree was a good fit? I remember I asked them that, and they replied that they might have misunderstood my profile or something along those lines. But I told them straight up that I was not qualified for a job like that, even though I really wanted to get a job as a developer.

In 2018, a week after I updated my profile with my part-time job as an IT-assistant at the University of Bergen, I received a message from an IT company that needed some assistance in Bergen. It was from a young lady, working in Abu Dabi, working for a company I'd never heard of before. She said they needed someone on-site to verify some IT supplies arriving at a mall just outside of Bergen. I remember, that I found it very odd that they contacted me, of all people... and I asked them why can't they ask someone from their company? They told me that everyone was located in Oslo, therefore they couldn't do the job. I told them I thought everything sounded very sketchy, and they asked me if I wanted to talk to the IT manager from the company, and I said yes. They gave me his WhatsApp details, and he called me after I made first contact. He told me that this was "standard procedure" at their company... ehm, wtf, it's normal to ask complete strangers to do their biddings? I told him that I still thought it sounded sketchy, and he said he would be able to pay me 100 USD for the job, if I could do it the next day. Long story short, I never did the job for them, I didn't trust them at all. I even contacted the "real" company via email to find out if this was legit, and to my suprise, the same lady that messaged me on LinkedIn replied to my email, even though she was not listed on their website.

The last two years, 2019-2020, I received a few more short messages, from recuriters who didn't bother to read my profile, asking me if I wanted to attend their courses, seminars and even a few interviews. But none of them was ever relevant to anything on my profile, and when I asked them about it, they simply said "Sorry, have a nice day".

Why I deleted my account

Most of my interactions, got me nowhere. They added more anxiety and stress to my life, by showing an interest in me, when they really didn't, because they didn't pay attention to the people they contacted.

Earlier, I always hoped that someone would notice me on the internet, and realize that I had potential just by looking at my LinkedIn-profile... but this is just an odd thing to hope for. My work experience might stand out a bit, with the varied background that I have, but there world is probably filled with people with more relevant experience on their LinkedIn for the kind of work I'm looking for.

When I realized this in 2020, I thought to myself, it would be much cooler to have my own custom-built resume on my website, that is also a printable PDF without any tweaking. It would also put my skills on display, because everyone can create a LinkedIn-profile, but not everyone can create an auto-generating resume on their personal website.

The effect of deleting my account

Since I deleted my LinkedIn account, I've been to 4 job interviews, 3 of which I used my auto-generated resume from my website. I'm not going into details about wether I've gotten a job from these interviews or not, but it demostrates it entirely possible to go without a LinkedIn-profile in the IT industry.

I don't have a compulsive need to check if someone has messaged me or tried to connect with me anymore, because I removed the ability and I feel relieved. Next up is Facebook, wish me luck.

Now, if someone reaches out to me, because of some work-related matter, they have most likely looked at my website/resume and have done a proper job beforehand, instead of just including me in a mass-message chain.

Sidenote

My website (including my resume) is open source, feel free to fork it on GitHub and create something awesome!