I’m a career transitioner looking to get a higher paying job working as a Web Developer. I’ve been self teaching for a bit over 3.5 years now and am currently working part time at a very small start up while still working on my own personal projects and slowly researching and studying CS topics.
I have been networking, mainly online and some locally. I also have been trying desperately to get away from mainstream social media platforms (left instagram, left reddit). But I find myself being highly encouraged by those within my network to keep my LinkedIn profile maintained and regularly post as a part of appealing to recruiters. I dislike the LinkedIn platform and what I perceive to be toxic positivity that proliferates on there. I also have reservations on hosting all my code on Github, but that seems to be what everyone defaults to for showcasing their portfolio.
I generally want to use alternatives to FAANG products whenever possible, and even though it’s not in the acronym, I include Microsoft in this list. I’d like to move away from using Microsoft products (LinkedIn) and their acquired platforms (Github) without nuking my potential career prospects.
This is more asking about long term advice as I believe as a new developer, this may not be possible (?).
Nevertheless, I’m seeking any advice on how to still advance my career in tech while staying off of these major platforms.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
TLDR; New web developer wants advice on how to continue to advance career without use of major media platforms, specifically LinkedIn, but also Github.
Replace github with https://codeberg.org/
I can always get behind a more open platform, but what is the appeal of codeburg over github?
EDIT: gitlab is also an option. Many companies use it internally and you can also have external accounts
I post essential details only on LinkedIn, and all my cool stuff on my personal website.
I started a personal website around when MySpace went away, and I realized I would have to migrate my posts every decade if I wanted to use someone else’s solution.
I could post links to my blog articles to LinkedIn, but I don’t bother. I probably would if my professional network was not already where I want it to be.
I do automatically post my Blog RSS to Mastodon. I considered doing the same for Lemmy, but I don’t honestly want more blog readers, or to talk to anyone who reads my blog. I like how, on Mastodon, a few people might see my blog article, but it otherwise passes by in the noise.
I’ve been contemplating replacing my personal GitHub with self hosted (probably ForgeJo). Git is so easy to mirror, I’ll probably still mirror a few portfolio projects into GitHub.
Linkdin is effectively a personal website generator with social features. Your profile page is the important part, but only if you’re optimizing for “searchability” / random discovery. If you’re doing that, then you’re competing with everyone else who is also doing that.
A personal website is fine; better even. It’s a project all on its own, and you can do cool stuff with it. Show off your projects on it. You can host your code on any platform that supports git, but you’ll get bonus points for using a self-hosted instance.
I have a linkdin account only to reserve my name and link to my website.
In Germany, XING is a viable alternative to LinkedIn, though many people have both accounts. You might check if businesses in your area also have XING accounts.
Thanks for the tip! Typing in my nearest metropolitan city yields no results, sadly, but I really appreciate you bringing them up as an alternative!
I don’t use LinkedIn at all. I have a neat and concise resume and make the most of all of my personal connections. Every job I’ve landed in the last ten years has been meeting someone and getting personally referred.
This is encouraging. While I am employed at my first web development job, I was only able to secure a position there thanks to the tech lead also being my mentor. After a certain amount of time, he determined I was ready to try my hand at some actual developer work. All my work was done remotely as I moved far away from him prior to starting work.
The MVP we produced is more or less at an end, and while I’ve been networking as much as I can, the local developer community where I am is an hour’s drive away and due to family obligations, is oftentimes hard for me to consistently coordinate.
And while I’ve made some connections online, they are scattered throughout the US and new to the industry as well, so our collective network is fine for sharing knowledge, it has not, as of yet, proven effective for finding those who can actually help me secure future employment or find opportunities.
As I pointed out in my original post, this is more me just trying to get advice on how to go about cultivating a career and network that doesn’t rely on LinkedIn for landing opportunities. I know there isn’t a one size fits all solution, but I am just reaching out to see what others recommend or to hear their experiences on how they go about landing new jobs with or without LinkedIn (obviously, if I can avoid using LinkedIn in the long term, I’d prefer that).
Thanks again for your insights thus far!
Honestly the market is really tough right now so it may not be indicative of what a personal network would usually perform like for finding new opportunities. I don’t think it will be too long until all this A.I. investment revamps the market and tech workers find themselves back in negotiating power.
Plus there’s always an advantage for competent skill vs code Bootcamp needs.
But generally speaking I don’t think it would be difficult for me to reach out and find a gig.
Honestly LinkedIn is a necessary evil. That is where people and businesses are, so that is where people and businesses go.
GitHub however does have functioning alternatives like GitLab, BitBucket and Gitea for hosting your code/projects.
I’ve never landed an interview or gotten a job based on LinkedIn. I think anybody who places an emphasis on that garbage is toxic and you don’t want to work for them.
I got a few jobs through LinkedIn, they were decent places. I wouldn’t automatically categorize a company placing their job positions there as toxic.
Everyone has a license here. Many use it, I use it to help me Google, I never get working code from it.
New hires use it a lot and it sends them off on huge tangents instead of asking for hell which is a huge net loss IMO
