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Comment by reidjs | Hacker News Reader

It would be a red flag for me if they are younger/early career, but if you are older and have a good resume and/or portfolio website I wouldn’t care.

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Out of curiosity, why would it be a red flag? All it indicates that the applicant doesn't use LinkedIn.

It's just... odd. It's a signal that the candidate has some reason for not wanting a LinkedIn account, which could range from a messy history to a passionate belief in not having an online record. All of which _might_ translate to a difficult candidate who isn't prepared to make it easier for the employer.

As ever with these kind of eccentricities, if the candidate is good enough they can pull it off, but otherwise it's a orange flag.

All the best people I’ve ever worked with were odd.

So true.

Fully agree, but I learnt the hard way there's a right way to present myself, else be passed over by people with opportunities.

Why would I /want/ a LinkedIn account?

Sorry, if someone is hiring based on whether I have a cricle-jerk social media account, then I don't want to work there.

I genuinely don't understand why you would think it's odd?

Agreed that there's a signal among those who decline to dump their work history publicly into the hands of the largest company in the world and its recruiter flock in exchange for maybe job leads. It is eccentric, unfortunately.

But reading that signal partially will filter out improperly. Aside from privacy, candidates who value their time don't want to be disturbed unless they have initiated.

Someone whose LI profile doesn't exist (or has just 'go to my site') is more experienced at the game.

A fine example of how hiring and assessing candidates can really be arbitrary

It could signal that this person goes against the grain, maybe has a disagreeable personality, too cool to join the herd, might put up a fight about being asked to do other things. Some of these qualities can be very valuable, but most hiring managers don't know how to leverage these qualities. Tech people might be impressed, but hiring managers who live their lives in LinkedIn could be put off. Imagine trying to get a job as a recruiter without a LinkedIn profile. That would be impressive.

Not the person you are replying to, but one of the first classes on my "let's get a bachelors starting at 36 years old" required us to create a LinkedIn profile as an assignment if we didn't already have one. I think they've just become a de facto thing that is expected.

> I think they've just become a de facto thing that is expected.

Good god! Where in the world are you?

Here in Blightty, it wasn't that long ago having a linkedin account would count against some of our candidates.... as a candidate must have had their head in the sand not to be aware of the toxic behaviour of linkedin (spamming personal contacts) [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/linkedin-...

The United States, this was at a private 4-year university. I've seen gobs of job postings on company websites that, on the application section, ask for your LinkedIn profile link as well and my current employer is a very active user as are virtually all of the c-level employees.

It would be a red flag for me if a potential employer distrusted candidates without LinkedIn accounts.

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