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Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash - Image by @upklyak on freepik

Some are mistakenly convinced that LinkedIn is the only tool that can help in a job search. Personally, I hate this tool, here's why...

- A rigid questionnaire -

In order to complete our profile, there are a lot of questions we need to answer. For someone who is just starting out in their career, this is really nerve-racking (See making us feel like we are worthless and insignificant).

In addition to being heavy, its form lack originality and leave little room for personality and personalization.

- Popularity ratings -

We are considered « best candidate » if we have the profile fully completed and often consulted. Consequently, it is not uncommon to see exaggerations in skills, which only serve to fill the page, such as indicating that one speaks Japanese, when one is just 'Otaku' and watches the animated with subtitles, or pretending to fully master a certain software when it has only been used once.

- A form of discrimination -

For some recruiters, the lack of a LinkedIn profile is perceived as unprofessional (It's ridiculous, soon we will be judged on the bank where we have our accounts).

Anyway, let's be realistic : when a recruiter checks our profile, he/she isn't looking to find matches between our CV and our LinkedIn page, he/she does it to see what we look like and who we are related/connected to.

- Hazardous requests -

When I had an account (Yes, I did), I would click from profile to profile without knowing people were notified that I had viewed their page. It wasn't until I was notified of visits on my profile myself that I understood it. So I was able to realize how many people I didn't know (and who weren't recruiters) were viewing my page. But the real problem was to notice that people that I had excluded in my private life, frequently came to see my page, sometimes even allowed themselves to leave comments concerning me (No need to specify that these were negative, since these were toxic people that I didn't want to see/hear anymore).

We can add to this, that nothing assures us that the person/company that contacts us really exists (We are not safe from malicious or manipulative people). Which brings me to talk about unwanted solicitations... While it’s true that some people have found love at work or between contacts, receiving requests for dates from strangers and other less elegant instances through our LinkedIn profile, is totally lacking in courtesy and yet it happens (Often!)

Conclusions

I have always found a job without this platform and I intend to continue without it...

What do you think?