Value of Linkedin

[Jim_CAK]

It's been that way for my whole career (29 years). I always seemed to join a company a year or two after they no longer offered the pension plan to new employees. I sure hope the stock market has value in a decade or so...

Same here. I have a small pension coming from a company that closed many years ago. It is not much. Everything else is the 401k/IRAs I contributed to. I have been with my current employer about 15 years and they eliminated the pension plan about a year before I started. Not having a defined benefit pension adds to the uncertainty when planning for retirement.

 

[nauga]

Highly dependent on your field. Through LI I've been approached by recruiters and landed interviews and offers, even accepted a couple of them.

That being said, a while back the company I worked for changed its name and started a hiring binge. I was a little slow in updating my profile and got more than a handful of emails from LinkedIn saying "<insert new company name> is hiring <insert my position at the time>. Find out the one critical skill you're missing!" If I paid LinkedIn they would tell me the critical skill I was missing to be hired into the position I already held.

Nauga,
who still doesn't know what he doesn't know

 

[zaitcev]

LinkedIn was not of any use to me... yet. But that is because I'm not desperate enough. If I were laid off, I'd start hitting it for real.

The transition from a job search site to a social network had some good and bad sides, mostly bad. Before, it was extremely useful for tracking what's up in your circle of acquaintances. Now - not so much. The feed is a complete garbage. However, some companies (such as Firefly Space), chose to post updates to LinkedIn exclusively, instead of more conventional Facebook.

 

[Ted]

I am amazed any young person stays in a job these days. I created a Linked in Profile in 2010 after a friend got laid off. He asked me to “endorse” the skill sets he listed. I was glad to do anything to help. I completed a minimal profile and I still get regular emails with job openings that match my title. If I was younger I am sure I would have looked into one of them by now. These days with no defined benefit pension plans, portable 401ks and negotiable vacation, there is not much keeping a young person with an employer for a long career.

That's why it becomes important for companies to compete on pay, other benefits, and general QOL. The end result is better for the employees.

In close to 13 years since graduating college I'm on my third "real" job in that time period. I've never managed to do better on vacation, but my reasons for leaving have generally been for work environment/QOL. If I'd been tied to a particular place or had to worry about losing my entire retirement because of pensions, etc., that would be a pretty rotten situation.

 

[LoneAspen]

When I started my first job out of college in the early 90s, I really thought I'd find a good place to work and stay there my whole career, because that's just kind of what I was brought up thinking, and how people in my family treated their careers. Took me six years years there before I figured out how the real world worked, and I left. In hindsight, I should have left three years earlier.

As time goes by, I've gotten more and more mercenary about my career. I think that with very rare exceptions, there is no loyalty anymore in corporate America, and you can be tapped on the shoulder and shown the door at any time no matter how hard you've worked. I learned that a long time ago, and that my employer really owes me nothing more than a paycheck for my work, nothing more. My employer is not out to further my career (which is why I think 99% of all performance reviews are BS and just paperwork). It's up to ME to look out for myself, nobody else, certainly nobody at work. As a result, I've always taken great pains to keep my skills up to date, which is doubly important in the IT field, where change is rapid and you can be outdated and irrelevant in a heartbeat.

If I could give one piece of advice to people just starting their careers it would be...always look out for yourself. Your company is NOT there to further your career. That's your job. Keep your skills current, network, be aware of where the next opportunity might be, and don't be afraid to jump ship to further yourself. Seems pretty basic, but I'm amazed at how many people I see who just sit back on autopilot and expect their employers to look out for them.

 

[Ted]

When I started my first job out of college in the early 90s, I really thought I'd find a good place to work and stay there my whole career, because that's just kind of what I was brought up thinking, and how people in my family treated their careers. Took me six years years there before I figured out how the real world worked, and I left. In hindsight, I should have left three years earlier.

As time goes by, I've gotten more and more mercenary about my career. I think that with very rare exceptions, there is no loyalty anymore in corporate America, and you can be tapped on the shoulder and shown the door at any time no matter how hard you've worked. I learned that a long time ago, and that my employer really owes me nothing more than a paycheck for my work, nothing more. My employer is not out to further my career (which is why I think 99% of all performance reviews are BS and just paperwork). It's up to ME to look out for myself, nobody else, certainly nobody at work. As a result, I've always taken great pains to keep my skills up to date, which is doubly important in the IT field, where change is rapid and you can be outdated and irrelevant in a heartbeat.

If I could give one piece of advice to people just starting their careers it would be...always look out for yourself. Your company is NOT there to further your career. That's your job. Keep your skills current, network, be aware of where the next opportunity might be, and don't be afraid to jump ship to further yourself. Seems pretty basic, but I'm amazed at how many people I see who just sit back on autopilot and expect their employers to look out for them.

Agreed, and that's a lot of why I left the last company. They put a lot of effort into trying to scare employees into thinking there was no world outside of that building.

 

[Jim_CAK]

. . . If I could give one piece of advice to people just starting their careers it would be...always look out for yourself. Your company is NOT there to further your career. That's your job. Keep your skills current, network, be aware of where the next opportunity might be, and don't be afraid to jump ship to further yourself. Seems pretty basic, but I'm amazed at how many people I see who just sit back on autopilot and expect their employers to look out for them.

After nearly 40 years in my career, I would definitely say that is good advice. I have worked for several companies that have closed or dwindled to nearly nothing through no fault of most of the employees. My advice is to constantly keep learning new skills and how to solve problems and you will have plenty of opportunities. And like Ted mentioned above - if you find yourself in bad situation, just move on.

 

[Gerhardt]

I have a small pension...

*sigh* me too.

Oh, PENSION. never mind.

 

[Sam D]

LinkedIn has been useful to me as a sort of evergreen rolodex. After 20 years in accounting and consulting, I had crossed paths with a bunch of people. Now that I'm in private industry, I periodically have need to connect back with certain people. It's very helpful to connect with them (since they have usually changed jobs a couple of times since I last worked with them).

 

[Shepherd]

I get a couple/three interview/job offers a month through Linkedin, but I won't relocate and I won't commutes, so the value is on the low side.