The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Can anyone advice on what I should post on LinkedIn (and whether I should at all)? I plan to switch jobs in 6-12 months, and to open the profile to recruiters. Right now I only updated it with a few Azure certificates I got over the last couple years.
I have a few things in mind of what I can post there — like a pyGame project I recently finished, or me tinkering with with a locally-deployed LLM, or how I prepared for the Azure Admin exam. But really, I feel more comfortable discussing stuff like that in an anonymous fashion somewhere on reddit, rather than "humblebrag" on LinkedIn — as the signaling intention is pretty clear when you post there.
Recruiters and HR are being totally trustworthy when they say they’re looking for candidates who are independent thinkers and are unafraid to communicate results on difficult issues, so you should regularly post about racial IQ and crime statistics.
Kidding, of course.
My impression is that LinkedIn posts don't help at all with getting recruiter attention, unless you somehow become viral and have recruiters throwing themselves at you. But that’s like hoping to do a song cover to go viral on TikTok or Instagram to get girls throwing themselves at you, i.e., a lottery ticket.
From what I recall, what’s most important is your profile’s headline and job titles, in particular the most recent one. So you should set those up to contain key words that recruiters search for. And have a photo and and a (mostly) filled out profile. Recruiters are searching for, messaging, and churning through candidates as fast as they can like swiping on Tinder. They won’t linger on your profile for long in the event they even visit it in the first place. And just like with online dating, social proof and preselection are key, so having a fair amount of connections helps (especially with attractive young women and important sounding people). I wouldn't be surprised if there is some sort of ELO/page-rank like component to recruiter search algorithm results with respect to connections.
Not posting at all is more than okay. Posting comes at the risk of making your network cringe and lower their opinion of you, or possibly risking whatever the LinkedIn equivalent of unfriending you is.
That being said, your proposed topics of a pyGame project you finished and a locally-deployed LLM would be easily some of the most interesting posts on my feed. I barely look at my feed but I’d at least skim such posts. They certainly beat the usual “so proud of connecting with the talented women at [women’s conference] #WomenIn[STEM/Tech/Finance/etc.]”. An Azure Admin exam preparation post has a greater chance of being cringe, depending on how unique your experience was, how difficult the exam is perceived to be, and how in demand the certificates are.
I wonder what to do if I want to switch my role. E.g. if I am currently a dba, or a sysadmin, recruiters most likely will offer only jobs of the same kind. Or whether I should be looking for job postings myself, and only use a LinkedIn account as some sort of a business card / CV.
You can angle your job title(s) as marketing for your next desired role without explicitly lying.
And yes, you should be application-grinding regardless. If you're actively looking to make the next move, planning to passively rely on recruiters contacting you may lead to disappointment.
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