Goodbye LinkedIn Premium

INTRODUCTION

I’ve had a profile on LinkedIn since 2005, back then the total number of people on LinkedIn was around 90,000, globally. For me, I joined as at that time I was sourcing for consultants to join the firm that I was working for. And, back then, it was a useful tool to source professionals when compared to the other job boards that were around. It is fair to be said that it suited its purpose, and it was a useful platform. Roll the clock forward 20 years and it’s now a very different experience.

In 2016, at the height of my career, due to a change in CEO and a global restructure in the organization where I worked, all my management layer globally was made redundant. So, in an effort to re-join a mainstream corporation quickly, I decided to sign up for a Premium Account on the assumptions (i.e. that were being advertised by LinkedIn) that profiles with premium subscriptions would be at the ‘top of the lists’ when recruiters/headhunters were searching to fill roles.

THE NEXT PHASE – DISCOVERY

Over the next few years, I quickly dispelled the misconception that if you’ve had a prosperous career showing a steady increase in responsibility, had reached a very senior role/s, no gaps in employment and continued one’s education, it should be relatively easy to find your next role. Wrong. I was embarking on a journey that would change the course of my life. In this journey, LinkedIn Premium played no role. That is, it served me no advantage or success.

I found myself discovering and navigating the ‘gig economy’, where I had assumed Linked Premium would have been invaluable. Nothing, nothing at all came via LinkedIn Premium despite all the hype.

During this phase I landed frequent interim roles, consulting assignments, coaching opportunities and a part-time role as a Professional skills Instructure, which I continue today. This journey is not for the faint-hearted, but it shouldn’t be so difficult given this platform that now boasts over 1.2 billion members worldwide. All the opportunities that came my way were through my real network (as opposed to the virtual one), word-of-mouth, referrals, ex-colleagues, and one assignment leading to another. I was perplexed at my lack of success on what is the biggest professional networking platform in the world.

THE SUBSEQUENT PHASE – OPTIMISING

Given the lack of success, I came to the realization that given the now enormous number of profiles all competing for pretty much the same thing, my profile and hunting tactics were most likely not optimal. So, I started researching and discovered the world of profile optimization for key roles, assignments and how you pitch yourself so that you can be found more easily. I also discovered the growing use/complexity of Aplicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) that companies use to search through thousands of profiles to come up with an optimal short list given their requirements.

Given this is a skill I do not have, I decided to rely on professionals. In 2022 I contracted the services of a reputable profile and resume writing company in Singapore. They took my standard LinkedIn profile and my standard resume and rewrote the whole thing through a series of conversations/iteration between the writer and myself. Whilst the content was (and always should be) still 100% accurate, it was written in such a way that I simply don’t have the skills to do or the time to learn something that I myself don’t want to make a living doing so. It supposedly used all the keywords to trigger results in ATSs within my domain, it was written it a much better construct than the originals and both the LinkedIn profile and resume were 100% inline. The only difference, the LinkedIn profile is public, so quantified achievements were listed within quantum, whereas the resume, a confidential document, had the achievements all quantified. When my new LinkedIn profile went live, my profile views jumped over 400%. Despite this colossal jump, nothing ever came out of it – no calls, no approaches, no additional connection requests, nothing. Spent a lot of money – no results.

I didn’t stop trying. In 2023 I contracted the help of a headhunting firm that advertised as a complimentary business, an outplacement service. Again, a reputable firm that whilst they didn’t guarantee results, did boast an 80% success rate. So, I set out again under the guidance of yet another professional but now armed with a (supposedly) brilliant/effective LinkedIn profile, brilliant resumes and brilliant cover letters. I probably sent out, through LinkedIn and through email addresses, over 600+ reach outs. Out of this, I received one, one only call back and an interview for a job that didn’t even exist – the company was just feeling the market. Again, more money was spent and zero results.

Later that year I learnt from another headhunter, a trusted adviser and one who is legally qualified, that what I was doing was illegal. That is, spamming people’s inboxes with private data (i.e. email addresses) that were given to me, that had been previously used in prior searches and client lists.

THE FINAL PHASE – GOODBYE LINKEDIN PREMIUM

Adding to an already underwhelming experience with a premium account and all the additional work carried out, today’s LinkedIn, in general, is worlds apart from what it started out to be. It’s a platform with very different algorithms and content. I find my feeds now being mostly covering political issues, geopolitical tensions, anger postings, bragging postings, over opinionated posts by people I’ve never heard of and/or are not even qualified to write such content, people posting content that they just cut & paste from news article, etc., etc., etc..

I don’t engage in these posts in any way, but, if I look at them for more than a few seconds, more always follows. I have put simple points of views (POVs) on some posts where I clearly explained that this is nothing more than a POV and yet, I’ve been harassed, publicly and privately, called names, and discriminated against. All through simply expressing a simple POV, not backed by research and/or popular opinions, just a simple POV. Some responses and comments I’ve had to delete because they were so aggressive and insulting. Again, from people whom I’ve never heard of.

Finally, much of the content I see isn’t even written by a human. Whilst some of the data may have come from a human, the articles are written by AI. This also goes for job postings, the real and fake ones, as well as responses to posts. AI is a great tool, and I use it myself to augment my creativity, but never to replace it.

I can and do get my world news elsewhere and for free, I don’t need to get it from LinkedIn for a hefty annual fee of about SGD 300. And, I certainly don’t need the aggression. So, after almost a decade of annual fees and a complete lack of success on a Premium Account, the renewal comes up at the end of this month and I’ve decided not to renew. My profile will still be live and current, but now, it will be for free.

CONCLUSION

LinkedIn hasn’t worked for me and I’m certain I’m not alone. However, there are thousands, millions of businesses globally who rely on the platform to carry out their services. I also understand that recruiters who have Recruiter Accounts can use that powerful functionality very effectively. The competition is fierce and as a professional recruiter, I can’t see how you can function without this tool and its complex search functionality.

As a business, it’s also an immense platform to showcase your business and its achievements. There are a handful of businesses I follow that I genuinely believe they have ‘the planet’s sustainability’ in mind and are paving the way to a brighter future. For those of you, ‘Bravo’. One day, at some point in the future when I decide to retire, I will undoubtably delete the entire account and ‘sail the world. For now, whilst hope remains low, who knows, but again, its now for free.