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Dammit LinkedIn, I'm a college dropout (2009)
- Asparagirl 9y agoLinkedIn also only wants to consider jobs in the modern sense, not the traditional sense. So I decided to list myself as "Co-CEO of the Ganz Family" with the description "Full-time stay-at-home mom. Job description includes cleaning up other people's poop, so it actually isn't too different from corporate life..." EDIT: And if you think that this approach would cut down on the dumb recruiter spam, you'd be sadly mistaken. :-/
- user5994461 9y agoIt might not stop the poor recruiters but it might stop the good ones who had good leads. Yes, there are some good recruiters even read profiles before they contact people.
- draw_down 9y agoI recommmend avoiding it entirely. That has worked well for me so far.
- andai 9y agoHow do you deal with the email invites? I'm thinking of making a filter to auto-delete them.
- microcolonel 9y agoI never went to high school, and this option doesn't really exist in many sites and forms on the web. It is what it is.
- marak830 9y agoSide note: how did you not go to high school and end up in tech(assuming here), just curious, you don't have to answer of course :-)
- zitterbewegung 9y agoYou can skip high school by taking a GED and applying to a community college.
- 1_2__3 9y agoOr as the article points out you can just not go to college at all.
- LyndsySimon 9y agoColleges and universities generally don't require that you have a GED at all. If you can score well on their entrance exam (SAT or ACT), they you qualify for enrollment.
- VLM 9y ago"High School" as an educational trifurcation is very USA, most of the world seems to bifurcate into pre-teen and teen. No concept outside the USA of going to a separate building for ages 14-18. For a good time there's also no enforced standard in the USA for middle school (older elementary) vs Junior High (youth high school). I went to a middle school that operated internally like a junior high, which was interesting. Construction/logistical reasons resulted in my high school experience being only 3 years sophomore to senior, freshmen year was the last year of middle school. Everyone who graduated with me had a middle school as their first year of high school on their transcript. When I was young enough for anyone to care about my education this sometimes led to bizarre conversations with HR people about why I transferred schools or why did I skip a grade, etc.
- nailer 9y agoFacebook did something similar and I entered 'Bovine University', which it turns out has tens of thousands of students.
- tyingq 9y agoThe University of Northern New Jersey would be a fun choice. A fictional school created by US Homeland Security for a sting operation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Northern_New_Jersey https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Northern_New_J... Edit: 72 Alumni and 2 employees on LinkedIn. Heh. https://www.linkedin.com/edu/university-of-northern-new-jersey-50010 https://www.linkedin.com/edu/university-of-northern-new-jers...
- knappa 9y agoYou could also go for the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schickele https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schickele https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach
- a3n 9y ago> The fake university was recognized by the State of New Jersey and was accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC).[3] The director of the ACCSC confirmed that it had accredited the "university" to cooperate with the federal investigation.[6] Thus bringing into doubt any ACCSC accreditation. I pity the innocent student who, at best, wasted time researching UNNJ, and possibly moved forward without realizing where the trail was leading.
- tyingq 9y agoThey appear to give out accreditation to massage schools, schools of "hair design", and so forth. I don't know that they reached a new low or anything. Homeland Security didn't appear to arrest any students, just the brokers. However, they did appear to let the students get screwed out of their time and money, and then deport them.
- zitterbewegung 9y agoDammnit Linkedin, all you do is let recruiters spam me.
- blowski 9y agoThey do a lot more than that - e.g. they scan all your contacts so they can spam them as well.
- tedmiston 9y agoOnly if you grant them access. It's not required to use LinkedIn.
- throwaway1182 9y agoErm, nope. Unfortunately, I downloaded the iOS app before Apple finally stopped their annoying "growth hack" by introducing a permission for accessing the contact list. To this day, I still have ex-girlfriends, one-time ridesharing buddies and even some fictuous people "waiting to connect with me" on LinkedIn.
- tedmiston 9y agoNot sure when you downloaded it but the contacts permission was added under iOS 6 in 2012. http://www.imore.com/how-restrict-apps-access-your-contacts-iphone-and-ipad-under-ios-6 http://www.imore.com/how-restrict-apps-access-your-contacts-...
- frik 9y agoand now that Microsoft bought it, it's even more offputting.
- jelder 9y agoThis rings true for me. I'm a high school dropout with a GED and a couple of community college credits, but nevertheless found success in tech. I know a lot of people my age took this unconventional path, but LinkedIn basically tells us to fuck off.
- jameskegel 9y agoConversely I'm in the same boat, but I still can't find value in LinkedIn because it feels so disingenuous, and not at all part of my peer hiring circle. I suppose if I weren't already employed in a job that fulfills all of my needs, I'd be more concerned, but LinkedIn has never been anything but a curiosity for me. I'm sure others may find more value in it, but in responding to your comment I guess I just felt the need to say you're not the only one that took the same unconventional path.
- ryanmarsh 9y agoHighschool dropout as well. I see LinkedIn as sort of the antithesis of GitHub. Whereas LinkedIn is sort of a social proof via credential, GitHub is social proof via work product. Plenty of people smarter than me have written about the diminishing value of credentials and credentialism as social proof[0]. I believe that is partially why LinkedIn is such a cess-pool/shit-show. Maybe it's my bias from being a dropout that only my work product has ever mattered. I believe there's room for a social network to replace LinkedIn with a "GitHub for non-tech people". Perhaps this would have a mix of credentials and a way to show ones work. [0]: The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts Book by Daniel Susskind and Richard Susskind https://www.amazon.com/Future-Professions-Technology-Transform-Experts/dp/0198713398 https://www.amazon.com/Future-Professions-Technology-Transfo...
- sbarre 9y agoI agree with the first part about credentials, but I see a bit of danger in how you view Github. I wish I had time to put more stuff in my Github account, but I don't.. All the work I do is for clients, or for my employer, and I can't post or share it. Sometimes I can extract a small piece and share it, but otherwise, I can't. I also don't have a ton of time in my life to code on personal projects anymore. So while I consider myself an experienced and accomplished developer (been at it for 20 years now), if Github is my "social proof via work product", then I don't look like much.. I'm not saying this is your fault or that people will only ever look at Github, but I hear this more and more ("show us your Github work") in the context of hiring and evaluating developers, and I hope it doesn't become just another thing that - following OP's point - people or systems hold against you for not having.
- hughperkins 9y agoIs a 100% filled in linked in profile something to strive for? It seems like the poster has chosen an arbitrary goal, then seeks to manipulate the goal so he can finish it. Why not just choose a different goal?
- tyingq 9y agoHe was complaining about the LinkedIn UI, and probably things like email, that would constantly complain about it being unfinished. They've moved away from percentages, but it still nags you: http://imgur.com/a/vVOdv http://imgur.com/a/vVOdv Note there's a "NOT NOW" button, but no "NOT EVER" button.
- a3n 9y agoI have never paid attention to any of the "you aren't complete!" messages or indicators. I don't care.
- tedmiston 9y agoI ignored LinkedIn's "get complete!" messages for a long time. One night I sat down with the curiosity of hitting 100% on LinkedIn. I now have an "all-star profile", whatever that means, and in a top some percentage of profiles. At the end of the day, it just means more people look at my profile. It may be jumping to conclusions to say I get no value out of it — it's a mixed bag. More contacts from people I know about legitimately good opportunities, and them seeing my face pop up more on LinkedIn might play a role in that. But it also means more contact from recruiters, and usually that means spammy third party recruiters. I mostly just don't respond to them anymore.
- musesum 9y agoFor eduction I put down "Various" - that seemed to work.
- phkahler 9y agoIf liked-in does not make your "percent complete" available to others then who cares? If it does, that could be bad because people will think "this guy didn't bother..." So what is the answer to this?
- andai 9y agoAdd a custom stylesheet that removes the warning? ;)
- trevyn 9y agoI put down the school that I attended, but no mention of a degree. Do they still let you do that?
- sulam 9y agoThey let you, but then nag at you to fill in more details. It doesn't get you to 100%.
- 5706906c06c 9y agoMeh. I don't need LinkedIn to judge or validate my life achievements.
- webmaven 9y agoI finally gave up complaining about this issue late last year, and filled in the education section of my profile with the following: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Master of Wizardry, Arithmancy, Passed all N.E.W.T.s with grades E and O 1985 – 1989 Activities and Societies: Ravenclaw House, Dumbledore's Army Thesis: "Extending Turing's Phase Conjugate Grammars for Extra-dimensional Summoning to Account for Quantum Many-Worlds Hypothesis using Dho-Nha Geometry Curves".
- ultim8k 9y agoIt's not about LinkedIn. Apparently companies today don't care about your work or skills. All they want is a dog that is trained to obey. School education is part of that. Questions like "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" are a sign towards that direction.
- stoic 9y agoI just put "School of Hard Knocks" on my LinkedIn and leave it at that. If that's unacceptable to a prospective employer, I've successfully weeded out a bad fit. So far it hasn't been.
- nickcano 9y agoHoly shit, posted in 2009 and still no change. I see this every time I'm on LinkedIn--I hate it. Still nowhere for me to add my book (sure, publications, but it will drown under more recent talks and papers), but it can harass me about my non-existent schooling. What would be the harm in making the widgets modular and more customizable? I'm not asking for CSS, but let me completely remove sections that don't apply, and add new generic ones as I see fit.