Contracting, do I need LinkedIn?

[triplecrownjockey]

I hate social media and I also love my privacy, as such, I don't have a LinkedIn profile (or any online presence).

My CV gets a good hit rate on job boards, but I want to make the move over to contracting (software project manager) and I'm conscious not having a LinkedIn profile and the benefits it can bring (such as endorsements) may cost me.

I'd be interested to hear from recruiters, or contractors and their experience with LinkedIn. Do I need to just bite the bullet?

Edit: cant update title, but you know what I mean!

[eliot]

I’m pretty fed up with Linkedin, people posting about themselves in the third person about what wonderful day/thing done.
If you can get work without using it - doesn’t seem a bad outcome

[mikef]

I’d say that LI is not really for contractors and the endorsements on there aren’t worth anything

Interested if anyone has contrary experience

[bigandclever]

I used to activate my account whenever I was actually looking and deactivate it the rest of the time. Not so much because people would be searching me out, but more that if I did submit a profile to some agency they were guaranteed to search on LinkedIn. I never got a gig from it.

[mikef]

If you do sign up to LI just put the minimum info on there to intrigue someone into contacting you (factual, not some sort of self-advertisement). Don’t post anything like a CV. And don’t pay them anything for “premium” features like seeing who has checked you out

[Moulder]

Let Moulder share their thoughts with you...

I have been IT contracting for the last 20 years and like you get a good rate of return on simply loading a new searchable CV to Jobserve/Indeed/Reed/Etc.

In this time I have mostly had a LinkedIn profile as well with a summary of previous roles. Never has any work arisen from this and any roles Linkedin suggest never have a rate spread so go no further. Never have followers forwarded roles, and when I see them "Open to a new and dynamic challenge" it all seems a bit desperate.

Like a few other posts here I find LinkedIn pretty grim in terms of self-congratulatory tosh, though I am sure some find it useful and will have the opposite experience.

[maccas99]

On the flip side to other comments - I found my contract role via LinkedIn that has since turned into a permie role. It's not as busy as it was but I certainly wouldn't dismiss it out of hand based on my experience.

[paddy1970]

A lot of contracting opportunities are advertised on LinkedIn (not just the job section but the post from your network).

[triplecrownjockey]

Interesting comments so far, mostly against.

I think I'll see how I do without it, and if the phone calls are infrequent then maybe I'll succumb.

[Gecko1978]

Had a couple of jobs via LinkedIn I contract. But I find LinkedIn a woke cess pit of irrelevant bullst. However those who love it point out its changed so each to there own

[sociopath]

mikef said:

I’d say that LI is not really for contractors and the endorsements on there aren’t worth anything

Interested if anyone has contrary experience

The last few years of my contracting, I never used job boards as I was getting plenty of work via linked in.

In fact my final 2 pre retirement roles (CTO and then a 2 year Interim IT Director) came from totally cold calls from the employers via linked in.

I must admit that I never actually used the site other than as a cv holder though. So never got bothered by all the "look at me" poats

[E63eeeeee...]

I found both my contract roles to date on LinkedIn. One contacted me directly, and one I saw posted by a recruiter I followed after they previously contacted me about a different role.

It's got all the same controls as other social media, so I just mute anyone posting irrelevant nonsense. My feed is mostly either people writing interesting stuff related to my job, people I've worked with, or recruiters posting jobs. Turning on and off the "looking for work" flag does make a meaningful difference in how much contact you get.

My experience of the CV board kind of site is that the contact you get from them is much lower quality than what you get on LinkedIn, but that may vary between roles.

[triplecrownjockey]

mikef said:

I’d say that LI is not really for contractors and the endorsements on there aren’t worth anything

Is this really the case?

My role involves me dealing on a daily basis with my customer's operations directors, finance directors, managing directors, and the occasional CEO or chairman. I'm confident most would be more than willing to write me a glowing endorsement.

Surely a dozen endorsements from these positions would be worth their weight in gold?

I just feel I am building these relationships, and then throwing them away when the project is completed, never to speak again. At least if I could secure an endorsement I would have something to show.

[mikef]

That's based on my previous profile on LI gaining scores of endorsements from commercial contacts that I hadn't actually worked with and who really didn't know what I do day to day

Based on that I don't much trust the endorsements on there, but if it gets you work, go for it

[BeastieBoy73]

I’m a freelance artworker and hate LI.

Worse than recruitment agencies, I just found it was other freelancers looking at who your contacts were and approaching them themselves.

[Blown2CV]

i am a contractor and the bulk of the useful inbound contacts i get are through there. It's not really about you do; more about what recruiters do.

[worsy]

Blown2CV said:

i am a contractor and the bulk of the useful inbound contacts i get are through there. It's not really about you do; more about what recruiters do.

This. I've been a contractor and also hired contractors. I ALWAYS use LI to verify your experience. No one puts a title or role in the public domain that they didn't actually have. they might embellish a little but it's not likely to be a complete lie.

[Freakuk]

I've been contracting for 25 years and in that time job boards are one of the last places I check/expect to get work. Whereas LinkedIn is my go to place apart from calling recruiters.

I've had several roles from LinkedIn where I've been headhunted directly by the company then directed to their agency to do the work as an example.

I tend to use LinkedIn as a tool to help with looking for my next contract, keeping my profile up to active, keep myself active on there and growing my network, agencies, recruiters at those agencies, companies, similar people at those companies that I would align to in my role.

I haven't used LinkedIn for months now as I am in a role which has got some legs, so I'm out of touch with what the day to day platform has become, maybe my experience is out of date now.

[SWoll]

For new roles jobserve has always been my first port of call, but have recently had quite a number of direct approaches with regards to roles via LI, one of which I had a successful interview for today.

No harm in havng a decent profile on there IME, you don't have to pay any attention to all of the noise.

[LesMcQueen]

I’m on LI and my last 3 contracts have come from there, either word of mouth or direct approaches from recruiters. I keep mine updated and occasionally “like” posts and make a small change to profile to keep it active looking. It’s free so no hassle. Just don’t bother reading too many of the updates as there is some rubbish posted!