Is LinkedIn Useful to Programmers Looking for Work?

Question

How should i create my profile on linkedin? I am in need of a job, have no post secondary education and never worked as a professional programmer before. Although I have been programming outside of school for 5 years.

Answer 1

I would advise you not to expect miracles from a LinkedIn profile. And don't lie on it, if an employer sees through it, you're definitely not hired.

What you can do of course is add the projects you worked on as "past employments". Even though it were not companies, you worked for the application/website.

Good luck finding a job!

Answer 2

I suppose it depends on what you expect to gain from having a profile on LinkedIn? If you're looking for exposure to potential employers, it might be a valid avenue (or at least to get the attention of recruiters perhaps).

Personally, I use LinkedIn to reconnect with former colleagues which is probably not the same goal you have.

It certainly couldn't hurt to put a profile up there, but as Peter Smit mentioned, be cautious with what you list. I'd also add, be careful which connections you accept. My policy is to only add connections from people I actually know and have met in real life.

Joining groups on LinkedIn can be a useful way to join in and discuss topics and view job vacancies. I'd be up front about your background, and look for an employer who would harness your personal interest and skills.

Answer 3

Check out Guy Kawasaki's Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job. And also The Brand Called You.

Answer 4

have no post secondary education and never worked as a professional programmer before.

Your biggest challenge is the lack of professional experience, so you'll want to take steps to overcome that and also use LinkedIn as a way to promote what experience you have.

One thing you can do is make a contribution to a popular Open Source project and post that on LinkedIn. Also get someone from the Open Source project who is also on LinkedIn to recommend you based on that work. It sounds harder than it is.

It will have a better chance of getting noticed, and the being on LinkedIn, employers have a better chance of noticing your experience.

Answer 5

My experience is that there are so many good programmers out there that potential employers in general don't search for you. You need to search for them. I use LinkedIn for two things:

1. Connect to current and former colleagues
2. To have a structured "track record" online that I have refer potential employers to

I also put in not only the companies where I am (or was) formally employed, but also clients that I worked for (since my work is exclusively as a consultant).

Answer 6

As a hiring manager, I've started to use LinkedIn informally for getting to know a little something about a candidate before I sit down with them. I check out:

• Employment history - to see if the candidate and I have any interesting common past history, also to see if there's something laid out a little differently from the resume which may give me more insight.
• Connections - it's a small world, and sometimes it can be interesting to see if the candidate and I have any common friends. That's both a plus and a minus - I will remove myself from interviewing if I realize that the candidate and I share too many good, personal friendships. OTOH - I will come prepared with better questions if I know that the candidate has worked with some of my collegues, since I can usually guess the business domain of the work and really drill down into a good discussion.
• General presence - if someone has declared themselves an expert in my business domain, I expect I can figure that out on the Net. One way is Linked in, but so is Stack Overflow... I have trouble believing in depth of expertise if I can't find much about the candidate on the net.
• Recommendations - I have yet to see a recommendation on LinkedIn that isn't glowing - after all it's public info volunteered by connections. Unless the recommendation is precise and descriptive, I usually don't pay much attention.

NOTE: This is research that I do as a technical interviewer, which occurs AFTER the candidate has submitted their resume to my company and passed through the HR process. So, I'm not picking up new candidates out there, I'm trying to dig up a little bit of info on people who have already come across my desk.

If anything, LinkedIn makes the candidate stand out a little. It tells me the candidate is out there connecting, probably with other professionals in the field. To me, that's a good sign of a passionate engineer.

Answer 7

Have a look at LinkedIn groups matching your interests and skills. Lots of openings are published there, e.g. for iPhone Developers, etc. Finding all groups on a certain topic or field with a reasonable degree of activity might take you some time, but it's worth the effort. And let others see which groups you are a member of!

Answer 8

Some suggestions:

• include keywords in your summary, experience descriptions, and interests section so that your profile comes up in searches by employers/recruiters more often

• make sure to include your SO profile URL in your web page list

• maybe even spend some time on the LinkedIn Answers building a rep - this gives you visibility and credibility that helps compete with others who have more experience