Recently I had a meeting with someone from my government’s job seeker assistance program, who recommended I make better used of LinkedIn in looking for a job.
Specifically, she recommended that, if I find a job posting anywhere, I look the company up on LinkedIn, find someone who already works there, and message them directly to get the name of whomever is in charge of hiring, and even to ask if they’d be willing to give me a referral (which can be especially enticing if the company offers referral bonuses).
I hate doing this sort of “networking,” where every interpersonal interaction is a veneer of courtesy in order to maximize returns, even though I know it’s a necessity in today’s professional world. It does not sit well with my particular brand of neurodivergence.
Since Hexbear is the most based community I know, even when it comes to professional bullshit of this sort, I was hoping someone here could sanity-check this approach. Maybe I just don’t want to start hassling someone on social media without someone else telling me it’s okay (besides a civil servant).
A little more background:
- I was laid off last September from an unfulfilling but steady job with a video game publisher.
- I have several years of experience in entry-level tech support jobs, with a bit of work on things like databases and scripting. I prefer the latter sort of work because people are confusing and frightening, but my last employer wouldn’t even let me do minor work on that stuff, and the ones who do work on it are very defensive of their positions so they didn’t offer any help either.
- I know the tech sector is kind of fucked right now but that’s all I have to work with.
- I studied computer science in university but I had to settle for a degree in general studies because I failed integral calculus four times. This was before I was diagnosed with ADHD.
- I don’t have any certifications.
- I don’t have much of a code portfolio. I try to keep working on it but it’s already all I can do to stay motivated with the job hunt.
- I consistently get good feedback on my resume and I’ve always been a stand-out employee when I am working.
Now that I’ve written all this out I realize that my position is pretty envious compared to a lot of people. Still, after months of applications without so much as a callback, I’ve completely lost faith in my own judgment. So any feedback is appreciated. Thank you, comrades.
Just write your profile as though it’s a resume, talk yourself up to the point of lying while you do it, then maybe browse the jobs section or just include a link to your profile in your actual resume.
Also you could make a GitHub and fork several open source projects and then like once a week merge changes from upstream into your fork and make the impression your actively envolved in open source to anyone who doesn’t look too deeply.
I refuse to use it, hasn’t been a problem so far
Then how to look and once found what if they look for who I am in it? I really don’t want to use it but I feel I am kind of forced to.
I use LinkedIn to collect two lists of people:
People who are great so I can track their careers and offer them jobs
People who are shit
LinkedIn is of course garbage when it comes to the actual content that’s posted on there, but it’s possibly even more garbage when it comes to usability. To make your profile actually useful, you need to add skills on there if you haven’t already, like in your case Database Management/Administration, Scripting, Tech Support or something.
I mostly use it to keep in touch with former coworkers. My industry involves a lot of the same people moving between a small selection companies, so it’s how I’m able to keep track of who’s working where as well as get a feel for which company has the best package.
Beyond that, it seems there’s a lot of wannabe business-people who keep posting motivational facebook tier crap, in the hopes that they can some day finally unironically refer to themselves as “thought leaders” instead of “workplace wannabe influencer” or “corporate shill”.
Oh, and I use it to see what my various vendors are up to. From time to time they use it to promote something interesting and useful for my work.
Thank you. Do you ever post stuff to your feed, like other social media, to make yourself look “active”? Or is that sort of thing inconsequential?
I pretty much never post. Sometimes I might reply/comment on posts from people I know, that’s all. And when I do, I always keep it professional.
Yea you should get it and DM random people for referrals. A lot of people get them all the time and they’ll either just ignore it or refer you in hopes of getting a couple extra thousand, it’s nbd
Add people with big accounts in your industry. LinkedIn is just another social network to them so they’ll accept your request.
I did that with a few big figures and now I’m 3rd connections with almost everyone. LinkedIn will hide details of people you have no connection with so this is a great way to see who works where and who is worth contacting in your job hunt.
Fuck, DM me and I’ll connect with you
On paper I don’t think LinkedIn is a bad idea. a modern take on the classified jobseekers section of a newspaper doesn’t sound like a bad thing. However, due to the current state of social media and the Internet in general, it become a nightmare.
I am trying to navigate LinkedIn, but seem completely unable to use it effectively because I don’t believe it’s designed to be used effectively. It is such a mess of ads and weird influencer content and corporate Schilling.
The job hunt these days is terrible. Even if you’re still currently employed, I cannot imagine how it’s for comrades who are also navigating the chaotic seas of unemployment.
Best of luck comrade.
