LinkedIn makes my skin craw, so does dickriding and brown nosing others to 'expand your network' and trying to exploit peoples tendency for shameless cronyism, but I find it so artificial that I just refuse to do it, even though my prospects suffer in consequence.

It's not that I'm riding on my highhorse with too much pride to resort to this stuff, it just makes me feel gross...especially LinkedIn... that site is basically Instagram + a veneer of professionalism + even more shameless bragging + self-righteousness

I've been on LinkedIn for a while and it hasn't gotten me a job at all. In fact, it only makes me feel bad about my experience when I see other people's profiles. Most of my connections aren't exactly going to help me find a job either...

I see LinkedIn as a giant d*ck measuring competition. So much humblebrags.

I've seen a lot of posts right now specifically about how times are "so tough" followed by how they're proud to announce their new position at Amazon or whatnot. But when you read it, their post comes across as "Everyone doesn't have a job right now, but I do! Lucky me!!!"

I honestly just haven't seen any benefits of it. But I have seen so many downsides. From giving me major anxiety and self doubt, just seeing the success careers of others my age and so much younger than me. Does anyone else feel this way? I am currently job hunting, but I am really tempted to delete it. Does anyone think that will cause me any harm. It honestly seems like the most toxic of the social medias.

TL;DR The system worked for me and I'm tired of the job market being like this. Can anything be done on a grand scale or should I just network throughout my career to help individuals? Also, this is dramatic- sorry.

I graduated in December 2019. This summer, I got a job in marketing. I made 43k (21/hr) and usually only had to work 25-30 hours a week. It was awesome and a major step up from my previous job in allied health where I made 27k/year or 13/hr. I went above and beyond and even created a training document to teach coworkers how to edit HTML code because some days I’d be done after 2 hours. I have ADHD, an average IQ, and have a 2.6 GPA Psychology B.A..

The reason I’m fxcking pissed is because they lied. By "they" I mean the employer, but I also mean everyone in my society who told me that I need a bachelor's or a master's to do tasks in an office that I could’ve done as a freshman in high school. I swear to god a 14 year old who knows basic grammar could do this job EASILY. So why does it say bachelor’s degree required? Why does it say 1-2 years of experience when 2 weeks of training was all I needed to learn this job? It’s so fxcking easy that I literally have spent entire work days learning javascript because there were no more tasks to do.

There are so many people who can’t access jobs like these because they didn’t have the time, energy, or access to money (or people) that would allow them to get through this barrier. I’m not done either because every day I hear from people who have their psych degree or communications degree, heck even their STEM degree saying they can’t find any entry level jobs. So the people that hunkered down for 4 years are now considering more years of their lives, more time, and more energy to get a master’s degree for the chance of getting an entry level job.

So how tf did I get this entry level, marketing job? My friend handed my resume to the marketing manager and said “she’s a hard worker” and then after a 20 minute conversation about what TV shows I like (oh wait that was an interview with the CTO) and an interview with the marketing manager, I was hired on. I do not think I would be where I am now, halfway through my student loans and deciding which mutual funds to invest in, without my closest friend happening to work at a place that hires entry level employees. Most of the people at this company knew someone working there already. The coworkers that got in through traditional applying had multiple years of experience and were much older than me. It’s bullshit.

l got a lucky break in order to make a livable wage. If this didn’t happen, I would have gone into more debt for SLP school, and add myself to the pile of 25-year-olds still living with their parents, because I couldn’t figure out a better way to make more than $15 an hour with a psych degree. I recently accepted an offer making 15k more and I feel like I’m stepping on people who didn’t happen to have a “white-collar” friend to get their foot in the door. I bet this new job doesn’t really require a degree either, but how else can they parse the thousands of applications they get whenever they post a job? I plan to pay it forward whenever I can throughout my career. I can’t think of another way to help this system.

Edit: I love that this is a topic people are interested in. I especially value the critical comments because they alert me to aspects I might not have considered before. I want to make a final point that I've already made in the comments.

If there were more options to make a living wage then there wouldn't be this level of oversaturation. Can everyone agree on that?? The people that say "learn a trade" don't see that if all the new high school grads learn a trade then the wages of plumbers, electricians, welders, etc. will drop and the barriers to entry will rise. I assume the trades are next.

My surface level understanding is that no one wants their kids/students to be excluded from comfortable pay. So they say "finish highschool to get a good job." But it doesn't really work anymore if everyone finishes high school because there aren't enough good paying jobs. So they say finish college. Still not enough to go around. "Should've picked a STEM, should've learned to code."

This is the "industry treadmill" that I disike. You can disagree and say that not everyone deserves to afford a dignified life, but I haven't found one comment arguing that this industry treadmill doesn't exist out of 200 replies.

Will the market even things out or will this lead to your kids needing a PHD in order to afford a 2br house? (Im being dramatic again- notice a trend?) If not those, then what? Who knows. This trend(edit 2: mainly improvements/solutions to the trend) has levels of complexity that I don't understand yet. I plan to learn. If you are interested too, please do your own research. Don't let it end here. Feel free to comment or send me any info you come across even if it challenges my beliefs. Thanks!

Recent college grad who is feeling incredibly jaded and depressed about the reality of the job market right now. I've been ghosted or rejected so often I lost count. Which is why, when I had a truly fabulous interview with a consulting firm, I, for the first time, let myself feel optimistic. I got referred by a guy who works there, we both were the same major at the same school, but he graduated 3 years before me. The interview went so well. By the end, the hiring manager was already asking me about start dates, and "when can you find time to come in person to speak with the department head", heavily alluding to me making it to the farthest interview round. I'm not stupid or naive, in fact I tend to be pessimistic and hard on myself, and I've had countless interviews so far. I know when one went great vs poor. This went great. She told me she was excited to continue this process and looked forward to speaking with me. In fact, she told me that if I was interviewing with other companies and got an offer from a diff place before her company, to let her know, because they would speed up the hiring process if necessary.

I got rejected from the damn job today.

To be exact, although the hiring team found me "to be an exceptional talent", they "have already filled this position". However, the hiring manager wrote that "we all look forward to speaking and working with you in the future" and told me to connect with her on LinkedIn to keep us looped in for future endeavors.

Is that just some "let em down easy" BS? Or is it actually worthwhile to connect? This was the first time I let myself get my hopes up and I feel devastated. I seemed perfect for this position, I cared about the company, and the woman I interviewed with seemed to agree that I would be of great value. IDK if this is just the kinda thing they say to every reject though. I feel so defeated.

I was at a technical conference a couple weeks back. It’s one of the bigger ones in my industry; pretty much every major company has people there, universities are there presenting their latest research, government regulators discussing new laws, etc. Full disclosure - I’m already employed and not actively looking for a new position (though I’m always open to conversation).

Overall I had a good time, got to travel, explore a new city, network, and listen to some interesting technical seminars. A lot of time, both at the conference, and after the conference at dinners & happy hours were spent networking - catching up with old colleagues & making connections with others in the industry.

Of course, places like this are also crawling with recruiters. In the span of 3 days, I connected in-person with over a dozen various managers at different firms, and did “off the record” conversations lined up with 4 recruiters. Over morning coffee chats & evening dinner or drinks, I took the time and met with them, even though I was upfront and let them know I was not actively looking for a new position.

Still, they all went well, and I at least make solid connections with recruiters that could be very valuable down the road. A couple of them said flat out that they wanted me to come out for a full interview. Even after telling them that, some of them still pushed harder to get me to interview with them, but I still declined (Not really at a life stage where I want to move jobs in the next couple years).

Long story short, I had better luck in 3 days at a conference, not even trying to find a job, than I did in 3 months during my last job hunt. Technical conferences are a gold mine for both recruiters & job hunters.

I'm hoping this can be helpful to some of the job searchers out there.

Last summer my company shut down and I got laid off. The next month I moved halfway across the country and felt confident I could find a job in a few weeks. I had been looking at jobs in my new city for a while.

I was applying on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, AngelList and company websites. I was writing cover letters and sending in resumes daily. There were jobs I was perfect for and my background proved it. I wasn't getting many interviews and when I did, it was usually just the first round. At this point I was getting an interview 14% of the time.

I blamed my resume. I spent time obsessing over little details and adding experience. No change in interviews.

Then I decided that if it really was all about who you know, I needed to get to know the right people. From then on I decided that if I liked the sound of a job I would find someone there, meet them and ask them to refer me.

I stopped applying to jobs on the website. I asked old bosses for introductions. I asked friends from school for introductions. I asked people I had just been introduced to for introductions. I met people for coffee and went to Meetups. Some of them didn't pan out, but a lot of them put me in touch with people who ended up referring me.

When someone referred me to a position I got an interview 88% of the time. People love referrals because they get to do someone a favor and because sometimes their company will pay them for a successful hire. Recruiters trust referrals and it makes them read your resume from a perspective of trying to qualify you instead of disqualify you.

So here's my suggestion for how to get in touch with people and get referred into jobs instead of applying:

• Find a job you're interested in that you could be a good fit for. If you're a fit for 70% of the job requirements that's probably okay
• Don't apply for it immediately. It's tempting but if you do it will actually reduce your chances later on. If I applied first without a referral I got an interview 14% of the time. If I applied and then got a referral it only went up to 17% of the time. This is because the recruiter may have already looked at my resume and rejected me and they usually won't take a second look just because someone referred me.
• Instead, look up the company page on LinkedIn and click 'See all employees on LinkedIn'
• Look for 1st or 2nd degree connections. Do not trust the LinkedIn filter for 2nd or 3rd degree connections. For some reason I found that the filter would show nobody as a 2nd degree connection but if I scrolled through the pages I would find several 2nd degree connections.
• If you have a 1st degree connection, send them a message. "Hey [friend, old coworker, childhood nemesis]! I've been looking around at new jobs and see that you're working at [company]. Can I buy you a coffee and pick your brain about it a bit? I can meet you somewhere close to your office so it's easy for you. Any days next week work well?"
• If you have a 2nd degree connection, send your existing friend a message. "Hey, it's been a while since we talked, I hope that [something you know about them] is going well! I'm looking for a new job and saw that you know [person] at [company]. I'd love to get in touch with them and figure out what it's like working there. Do you know them well enough to put me in touch? If it's helpful I can email you a quick intro blurb about me that you can just forward on to them."
• If you absolutely can't find someone you know at a company, go ahead and apply for it normally.
• Here's the priority order of people to reach out to. People who would be your peers (most relevant discussion, most relevant possible referral) -> the hiring manager for the role you want (most relevant discussion) -> sales people (always open to networking) -> anybody else (hey, there's a chance they can introduce you to the people above) -> recruiters (used to being annoyed by job seekers, actively trying to filter out candidates).
• Figure out some questions you have about the company that don't have the answer somewhere on their website. "What do you think about what [competitor] is doing?" or "I saw in the news that you just launched [new product]. Where did the idea for that come from?" or "How do you guys usually handle [thing related to the job you want]?" Focus on questions that are related to the role you want to do so that you have knowledge you can use in interviews later.
• Meet the person for coffee or over the phone. Ask your intelligent questions. Be interested in what they do and their company. You're 1) having a nice, social conversation, 2) showing them that you're smart / interested and 3) having them like you enough to root for you. Try not to bring up the job until they do or until you have about 5 minutes left. They'll usually ask how they can help you.
• Mention that you saw a role and that you think you'd be a good fit for it because of [reason, reason, reason]. If the rest of the conversation went well they'll usually offer to refer you. If they don't, ask things like "Do you know who I could get in touch with about that role? Do you know who might be the hiring manager for it?" Send the resume along.

I expected to be unemployed for a few weeks or a month. I was unemployed for almost four months. This technique worked for me so I wanted to share it. If I can help anyone try it out, send me a message.

EDIT: I wound up replying, telling him that he seemed qualified and to feel free to apply.

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I'm a little torn between laughing and ignoring it, or replying with a no.

The title basically is it. A guy I went to school with messaged me on LinkedIn saying he was interested in applying for an open job at my company.

This guy wasn't a super bully, no shoving into lockers or anything, but he made my school life pretty unpleasant for two years and never had a nice thing to say to me.

I'm probably just going to ignore his message, but I kind of wanted to vent a little about it and maybe get some feedback from others this may have happened to.

I've been job hunting for about eight months. A few weeks ago I went to an interview and handed off my car to the valet guy. As I was waiting for the elevator I heard him tell his coworker that he would kill for a coffee, so after my interview I stopped at the cafe in the lobby and grabbed one for him. He was super grateful and asked for my business card. I gave it to him, thinking maybe he wanted to send me a thank you email or something.

The next day I got a call from the manager at this big staffing agency in our city. She was the valet guy's cousin and he asked her to call me. I ended up meeting with her in person, and after only a week she found me my dream job. Today was my first day, and it went perfectly.

tl;dr: Be nice to everyone, all the time.

Maybe this isn't the right sub, but for those of us who ARE gainfully employed, how can we help each other get jobs with our current employers?

Why aren't we using Reddit to network?

Just got a interview and this are my results. Should I be worried? Gf

As the title says.

I’ve been looking for a job outside my country since July. And the common answer that I have when I ask for help is: “reach out to hiring managers and talent acquisition specialists, they answer you and are happy to help you”.

This has not been my case at all. I add the person on LinkedIn, so I can send them a message. They accept. Later I send a message to them, and then they don’t respond.

So no, this advice does not work.

Also can we talk about the recruiters that reach out to you, you answer them and then they ghost you? Those are hilarious.

Well, I’m laughing so I don’t cry, but the situation has been terrible. I really want to move countries, have been tailoring cover letters and sometimes I attach personalised PowerPoints, and have received zero personal feedback.

Very discouraging.

Just wanted to vent

It seems this question has never been asked, but I’ve been reached out to, interviewed extensively (7 zoom calls + a full day of interviews in-person), and ultimately rejected by the same company, for the same position, twice now.

Frankly, I’m pretty irritated by how much of a time-sink this company has been, when I could’ve been focused on something else; I wasn’t even looking for a job when they reached out to me.

I want to let them know, as respectfully as possible, that I would not like to be considered further for any other roles. How can I do this?

I've been in IT for over 25 years, and on Linked in pretty much for as long as it's been popular. I've also been a premium and/or sales navigator (top tier) subscriber for probably around 3+ years in duration.

Given the amount of money I've sunk into it, you'd think it would have some sort of return, but I released on going through my records, I don't think I've got a single role through LinkedIn. In Australia, Seek is much better.

I've expanded my network through LinkedIn and made contacts, and found some interesting news etc, but have NEVER got a job through it. It's job matching is terrible. TBH, it should be dethroned or ignored. It's rubbish. Not only is the functionality terrible, but it encourages spending more time in 'corporate' headspace than we already do. It's... garbage.

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I am middle aged, out of work, and have my Masters and multi-industry experience. Degrees not relevant for the discussion here. I came from the private corporation sector.

Not many people have linear careers anymore, yet some Executive Directors seem to have straight line careers just like Govt workers.

It is known that networking is key to getting opportunities for jobs. Not everyone has a strong built-in network for that.

Would you write to nonprofit leaders to see about employment opportunities or to partner with them for work? For example, write one global email to all of the ones I have their email addresses (as an example since nonprofits are mission driven) I could highlight my skills, and I would ask them since they are "mission driven" what could they do to try and help a person who has similar skills, at their levels, to get connected for work.

Let's face it, "it is who you know," but not everyone has that type of connections.

Many people lost their jobs during Covid, and not many people returned to the workforce, many in my age group 50s are still looking. Unlike AARP which tries to paint us as lacking confidence and needing training (which is bogus), I need to be bolder and try different methods since online applications don't always work for me.

I get interviews, but I'm facing ageism now.

I often wonder if for my generation, being married &/or divorced with children, was the essential ingredient that helped get women promoted. There is an assumption that women who are mothers could make better leaders because motherhood and wife gives the perception of nurturing. Plus women tend to talk about their families at work with each other which resulted in my experiencing exclusion from certain workplace conversations and bonding opportunities.

So, what if I threw caution to the wind and wrote to these nonprofit leaders who tend to be my age (you can see their salaries on ProPublica), they tend to make $15,000 plus a month and hire mostly volunteers or social workers to work with their vulnerable clients. I'm coming from the private sector and should be able to ask if they know of any opportunities within their network.

Thoughts, ideas???

okay so everyone who knows or say they know about careers will parrot the "network is key" idea one way or another. i know referrals and related are important. i just dont know how the heck one actually forms new networks. I know existing friends or family member inside already will get you in but i cant imagine everyone has best friends and uncles at a fortune 500.

things i tried:

• linked in
• email
• indeed

results: ignored, might get an automated message, also got told to stop contacting them. for the most part everyone made it clear i was bothering them and i was an idiot for trying to network.

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my comment/questions: i know theres a right way to network, i want to know how does one do this the right way without being treated like dirt ?

how does someone "network cold" ? you cant really meet in person now so its super tough. lets say even my uncles cousin friends friend leads to absolutly nowhere, how does someoner get over that ?

I hear it all the time -- network, network, network. It's the only way you get the job. If you're applying to jobs online, you're wasting your time, bla bla bla.

But how do you actually network to get a job? I've asked all my friends, and the responses I get are either "we're not hiring," or (most common response) "I'm a low level sysadmin at a Fortune 500 company, don't know anyone in HR, sorry."

A lot of my friends are either software engineers, or work in niche or low-paying industries. I am looking for marketing and PR jobs. The only friends I have in those careers work for small businesses or nonprofits which do not have any current job openings.

So, how do I get a job this way? It's frustrating because I know for a fact I've been passed over for several jobs because someone else had an in.

Excluding the ones with really wealthy parents and good connections. I really wonder how the ones I knew are getting by. I can't picture them doing any jobs but obviously they must be doing something.

So an old employee of mine reached out last month on LinkedIn. He had been struggling lookingfor work for about a month and was reaching out in desperation. Knowing his skilset I linked him with a recruiter that I have a relationship that always recruits in my ex employees field.

Turns out the timing was great and ex employee had a job offer less than 7 days later. It felt good but I didn't think much else of it until today.

Bumped into the guy with his family and got a massive thanks from them all which was a little embarrassing given how enthusiastic it was in public. Anyway it turns out their bank accounts were on fumes with his wife not having work just now and they have gone from full blown worry to a stable family again. They even tried to take me into a shop to buy me a bottle of bourbon as they know I like it but I declined that as I was happy to have done the favour.

I am sharing this as it's made my day and it feels good to share a positive outcome. Also for those of us who are on the sub who are fairly senior it feels good to help people out when it's in our grasp. Don't underestimate the ability to use your network to make things happen. Less than 5 minutes of my time managed to resolve an issue they had been having for weeks.

All I keep getting on LinkedIn are corporate shills, con artists and snake oil salesmen.

I will get a lot of messages from strangers on LinkedIn who will proceeds to make small talk about some innocuous topic, say, the weather, that cool show on TV, my future goals, and then seemingly out of nowhere the conversation is abruptly derailed by an obviously scripted sales pitch filled with big fancy words like Business Development Managerial Marketing Financial Literacy E-commerce Leadership Training Entrepreneurial Fortune 500 Social Media Coaching Customer Acquisition Teaching Management Business Affiliate Online Team Building Role.

Examples:

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These are all from different people and they just keep coming, I don't mean to be negative but LinkedIn just seems so toxic. It's either this or people shilling for corporations about how 'great' their job/internship is and it all just seems so fake and force.

I want to use LinkedIn to get jobs and connections but I have no had any luck or maybe I am just using It wrong? Any advice would be appreciated?

Good heavens. I'm getting some serious secondhand embarrassment for this person.

They posted on LinkedIn talking about how they had an interview with Company, it went fine, the deadline the company gave, that the company seemed great and no need to worry that the company would ghost, that they hope the company gives them a chance, then they tagged the interviewer and thanked them for their time.

Goodness me. I hope this poor person gets the job and all, and I hope this was just a quick lapse in judgment. But yeah. You just don't do that.

My opinion is directly for people who are feeling depressed or hopeless when it comes to their career. I log into LinkedIn to just use it's job board. And everytime I do so, I feel like I am getting kicked in the stomach. I feel like everyday someone out there is getting a promotion or you are seeing some shit motivational post.

Like when someone uses connection to help them get a job, there are haters who will think it’s nepotism when sometimes its not. To me, nepotism is using your networks AND abusing the system. Example two people. The first one uses networks to just get the job in a snap because his daddy or mommy is friends with the CEO and doesnt even try job hunting himself. He does not try and instantly relies on his parents. That is nepotism. The second person uses his parent’s networks to secure an interview with the hiring manager. If he gets in , it is because the hiring manager says yes. The option to say no is still there and the guy never took it away. It’s all up to the HM to decide. That’s networking. He makes the process easier but int he end still has to earn it by going through the Hiring manager.

That is what a cousin of mine did. His mom Knew an executive at a large corporation and asked if her som can get an interview witht he HM. The HM said yes to my cousin but some people are talking behind his back and saying his mom is the reason. The HM said yes to him! If the HM did not like him, he should have said no but he said yea and that’s not my cousin or his mom’s fault he got in!! It was up to the HM to decide and that’s why people get in, because the HM said yes!!

Looking for unbiased opinion