Need? No, but it does make recruitment easier as people take LinkedIn profiles as a source of truth when it is so easy to lie about where you have worked.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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Thats a fair point, I do wonder though how long it would take for company to realize though, cause afaik you can make shit up on linkedin as well. Not sure if the companies get notified about that and if they can revoke such a claim.
I got a message from an old employer asking me to remove their name from my current employment in LinkedIn because I haven't updated it in like 5 years. That leads me to believe companies can not remove employment history from a profile.
Just say you worked for some company that went bankrupt.
Yeah, I was a senior manager at Lehman Brothers from 2000 to 2008, trust me bro
... and it was your fault!
Depending on the industry/role, companies do background checks or might ask for references from previous employers, so it's fine unless you get caught
None of my jobs ever came from LinkedIn.
Just got a whole bunch of shitty offers from them.
The more "corporate" the job is, the more the hiring team will expect a LinkedIn.
My last dev role was like that. My current role is one I found through a personal connection where the 'interview' was a chat over some lunch - and they wouldn't give two hoots if I had a LinkedIn or not.
So yeah, it depends. If you want to play the corporate game, you have to play more by the corporate rules.
A few years ago LinkedIn was a must have. Recruiters and sourcers would scour LinkedIn for their candidates.
Now it is just trash. Ghost and fake job opportunities, AI slop, and bots have turned LinkedIn to a cesspool.
I work with companies who pull LinkedIn data for B2B leads and 99% of them stopped because it is ineffective and a waste of time.
If you have a profile that’s great. If you don’t have one, there is no need to make one unless someone specifically tells you they need it.
You are fine.
I have a profile on it but haven't updated it in over 5 years. Probably worth just burning it
I think it depends on your industry.
I actually just got a new job. Went through the usual, job boards, linkedin, friends and family. Nothing worked for 3 months. Longest Ive ever been out of work.
what actually got me a job was a cold email I sent to a local company, explaining that I was new in the area and looking for work.
I picked that company to "cold call" simply because I had bought something of theirs in the past and remembered the name when I was learning the local maps.
I pretty much only get work my accepting messages from recruiters on linked in. In 2018 might be the only time in the last 15 years I've applied to a job through a website, gotten an interview, and was accepted.
That said... I'm a technical lead without a 4 year degree in a field where pretty much everyone I work with from mid-developer on up has one. It wouldn't surprise me if that hurts me specifically in applications other than through recruiters.
I'm also too old to go back and spend years getting a piece of paper that says I can do the job I've been doing for 30 years. So... I guess I'm just saying that my experience may not map well to people in a different stage of their career.
Not nescessary, but formed in an application form yesterday that just asked for name, cv and linkedin. No motivation or anything. I don't have much hope for that particular application, but it shows that it is a part of the general application process in some places.
For applications that have a required a LinkedIn url field, most of the time they will accept just “https://www.linkedin.com/%E2%80%9C as a valid url. I have never had a LinkedIn profile and have been called for an interview after doing that. Maybe it’s a standard template for some job application forms and/or the employer doesn’t care about it too much.
Why specifically that URL? I've never used the site, is it the template for a link to a real profile?
It’s the beginning of the url to any real LinkedIn profile, which I guess is all the application form validates for. It wouldn’t allow me to submit the application when I tried to enter a written explanation that I don’t use LinkedIn.
I technically have a LinkedIn account, but haven’t so much as visited it in nearly a decade. Everything on it is long out of date, save for my name. The listed home town and job history aren’t relevant to where I am and what I do today.
Despite that, I got a new job last year. Like you, I used a typical job-finding site… sort of. I searched on there, but didn’t find the job I have - rather, a recruiter for this company reached out to me. Not sure if that info is good news or bad news for you, but it worked out for me, even without an active LinkedIn page.
Or if you are HR would you see it as a negative if you received an application with no existent LinkedIn account?
Not HR but hiring manager, one of the best guys I hired has no LinkedIn account and I didn't mind. I go purely by resume and interview.
I got my current job a few years back. I made an account thinking it would help. It was basically useless for finding a job. The folks on there that were hiring would all demand you engage with their posts (I guess as a way of increasing "influence") but would not actually hire.
It is possible that prospective employers might look at your account during a job interview process which is why I have kept my account. But it did not help me find a job.
Currently looking for a job in around the same field, and I think LinkedIn is not as mandatory as people can make it sound like.
Most often offers are listed on different other platforms or directly on the company's website. You'll definitely miss on some offers but not all. It also depends on what type of company you are looking for, as I find that most big companies are LinkedIn only.
Overall, imo it may be more difficult depending on what you are looking for, but definitely doable
Yea, i think that is why i have deleted it as well. Already got a feeling that I dont have much interest in the kind of companies that would be linkedin only.
Seems like if you work in computer science type stuff you need it. I don't work as a developer and I have never had even an interview come from LinkedIn. My most recent time using it was about 3 years ago and I had zero success with it.
Depends on the country. I'm from Austria and got a job in IT via ams. You go there to get unemployment pay, but to receive it you have to apply to jobs. It's one of the best things our government has made.
At least in my industry the only people who have LinkedIn are marketing people and sales reps. Why the fuck would I ever want to join a social network full of those people when they waste enough of my time coming in to talk to me in person? Idk if someone I was interviewing showed me their LinkedIn I would be confused more than anything else so I think it depends on the industry.
Our HR department advertises and recruits from there. I wish they wouldn't. We are not a small company, so I can't get them to stop.
On the other hand when I am on a hiring panel I view any mention of LinkedIn on your resume or application a huge red flag.
LinkedIn is not a job site. Not a professional meeting space.
It is a tool for Microsoft to harvest data. Only fools would willingly participate in that.
I do not have a LinkedIn and I recently got a job at a food shop. However, I don't know about with developer jobs...
I've been contemplating deleting my LinkedIn for years. I personally do get recruiters reaching out to me occasionally for jobs.
My problem is that it's just Facebook now. Got an email the other day from LinkedIn about LinkedIn games. Like what? I have self respect so I play real games.
I'm self employed now so my finger is on the trigger.
What's a normal job listing mean in this day and age.
The industry I graduated from, which I held a job for 2 years, exclusively advertises through LinkedIn.
The jobs I held for other two years or so, in retail, were hell, but I got them through Seek.
The job I got, in retail also, I got it dropping a resume in person at a shop.
I used to work in a different field altogether. Those jobs I got through word of mouth.
So yeah, it depends a lot on of what kind of job you are searching for.
I could probably delete LinkedIn and still walk into several companies to get a job.
It is still good for me to have it out there as a public facing version of me.
only "job offers" i have had from linkedin were literal scams. As in, "buy your own tools". Sickening. And after hearing how people behave in linkedin and what kind of stuff they post.. I would rather swim in real cesspool than use that filth.
its been pretty dang useless to me and I can't say I got a job from it but all the same its the connections and references that are important to me. I would keep mine just so that I could do references for people I have worked with if they need it.
As an American trying to make a career pivot I've been told LinkedIn is mandatory. I hate reading it and posting, but I still do it. It's a fucking cesspool. I've been out of full time work for almost a year.
Like, necessary to just have one or necessary to post and interact with others? I'm fine with using it as a static page to basic info about myself but I will never engage with or create content for it.
Like necessary to post and interact. I'm bad at it and I really don't like it. I'm not getting anywhere with it, but I don't do it regularly either. I'm getting desperate though.
I started a new career this year (in 5th week) after searching/interviewing for 14 months, in 2020 deleted LinkedIn. It was a long slog and discouraging as hell but I finally landed one I was seeking.
So yes it's doable.
Never got a job through LinkedIn but ymmv. Depends on how you carry yourself I suppose.
Like others have said, I don't think its needed to get a job but it does help in two ways:
-
More passive. It let's you expand your resume/CV to give more detail etc since you aren't restricted on size/length. This can also be done with a personal website
-
More active. It can help you network which is honestly the biggest advantage to getting a job, but also the most work.
I personally do not use it like social media. I don't see the point of posts, more just a messaging service if and when I need it.
It depends on the field and where you are in your career. From my university, it seemed like the computer science and business people needed to be on LinkedIn, while the other sciences did not. It also becomes less important as you progress in your career, since there will be better ways to share your experience
No
Indeed was way more useful for me than LinkedIn ever was.
Really depends on the what job you are looking for.
I got a new job in the last year. I think it was through LinkedIn, but might've been through indeed. (software engineer going on his second decade)
Depends on the field. I did not need a LinkedIn, however often you need to have an in. Knowing one person at the company can be a big advantage and unfortunately LinkedIn can be the only way in some fields. If not having a LinkedIn is something you value more than a specific job then I wouldnt give that up.
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