LinkedIn networking as a junior dev
LinkedIn is very different from most social media platforms. There are many unspoken rules to navigating it, and some tricks to leveraging it’s algorithms to benefit jobseekers. With a large influx of juniors entering tech scene, I wanted to take some time to break down the mystery that is LinkedIn from my own personal experience on the platform.
I will be the first to admit that I used to hate LinkedIn and did not see it as a valuable tool. In fact, I actively told people to avoid it because I found the UI incredibly frustrating to use. But then something happened: lockdown started and in-person meetups ceased to exist, leaving LinkedIn as the primary networking tool. I began posting and reading more frequently and found myself growing a professional network faster than I had been doing previously in person. Now I understand what a useful tool it can be — when used correctly.
While some of this advice might sound blunt, my intent here is to help people communicate effectively and understand the perspective of those you might be reaching out to on a platform like LinkedIn.
Just so you know what we’re covering:
- DMs on linkedin
- The biggest mistake most people make
- Be concise
- How to effectively follow up with a contact - Posting and interacting publicly
- How to use the algorithm
- Understanding tone
- The golden rule to post success - Examples and variations
Direct Messaging on LinkedIn
1. You can’t just ask for handouts from strangers on the internet
This is one of the most common mistakes new devs make when trying to network on LinkedIn:
Above is a message I received recently from someone that I have never interacted with before. This might be an okay message if I were a hiring manager or recruiter that had posted roles. However, I am just a dev at a company that wasn’t actively hiring at the time. Based off on the non-mention of my name or company, I will assume this is copy/pasted to everyone, which also feels very impersonal. I am extremely unlikely to even acknowledge this message in my inbox. It is a waste of everyone’s time. I can’t speak for hiring managers, but I don’t think this message is standing out in their inbox of 100 other applicants either.
Asking for a job referral is not a small request. It means that the person who referred you is putting their professional reputation on the line in support of your candidacy. While yes, you can and should ask for referrals from people in your network, it is not common for people to give genuine referrals to total strangers. It can be worth asking, but you need to put more effort into explaining why you are a good fit and not just copy/paste a message to many people.
I am absolutely more likely to refer someone to a job who I have interacted with, even just online. If we are both members of a shared community and I can see you participating and showing soft skills and initiative (yes, even online!), I am also more likely to help you along in that process — even if we haven’t necessarily directly interacted until that time.
Given the opportunity, I will never refer a total stranger to a job, as is the case for a lot of professionals.
2. Respect the time of the people you are reaching out to
NoHello does an excellent job at explaining this conundrum, so please take a minute to check it out. Don’t beat around the bush with long drawn out conversations if your only goal is to ask something specific.
Of course you still want to be polite and not dive into an ask of the other person. My recommendation here is to just move it all into a single message instead of having a long drawn out back and forth. I also always take note when strangers are reaching out with direct commentary about something that I had also posted in past. Here is a great example of a cold reach out to someone’s DM:
Hello John, I saw your post about leveraging the useDataLoader hook in React and found it very helpful in my current project! I would love to connect and learn more about your experience as a developer. If you are available in the future to have a quick coffee chat, please let me know.
3. Follow up with intent
We all know it is important to stay in touch with potential job connections, but also difficult to do in a way that is not annoying or frustrating to them. My best advice is to show interest in what they are working on. If they are a person who posts about their work or side projects, use that as an opportunity! If they aren’t, check out their company blog and see what they company might be saying about the tech they are using. Then take the time and do a bit of research on the topic and ask some educated questions:
“Hey John, I know it’s been a while since we’ve spoken, but I just wanted to say hello. I was checking out your company blog last week and saw that you are moving over to Document Databases — that is a big move! I’m currently learning more about DBs and was wondering if you had any opinions about how the change is going for your company. If you have any time for a chat or even to give me some of your takeaways in a message, I’d love to hear them!”
Posting and commenting publicly on LinkedIn
1. Leverage the algorithm
One of the great benefits of how LinkedIn works is that we are able to see comments and posts from people who are outside of our own networks. If you create thoughtful posts that your own network interacts with, their extended networks will also see your work.
Not one to write posts? Make meaningful comments on what others post. Giving thoughtful feedback and asking open-ended questions is a great way of engaging on the platform in a visible way. Similar to writing your own posts, comments are also shared with Nth degree connections.
2. Positive vs negative tone
Because LinkedIn is tied to your livelihood, it tends to be a very positive place — sometimes to a toxic extent. It is easy to fall into a pattern of being overly positive, so my advice here is to just make sure that what you are posting feels genuine to your experience. We all have bad days and we all make mistakes, and at the end of the day you want to work with a team who see your humanity and not just your economic output.
On the other side of things, I have seen a lot of early career developers use the platform to expose companies that they perceive to be unjust in their hiring processes. While those comments may be valid, you have to remember that other companies who are hiring will have access to your LinkedIn and will have to consider the risk they would be taking on if you were unsuccessful in their own hiring process.
tldr; companies are unlikely to hire you if you are only using the platform to complain about other companies. Most of the time, it isn’t worth the risk.
That being said, I firmly believe that negative experiences can be discussed and framed from a growth mindset. In these cases, I’d remove direct naming of the company or connection that led to a bad experience and instead focus on what could have happened in those scenarios to produce a better outcome. These types of posts are also great to start engaging conversations by asking questions to your network about how they would have handled the situation differently. It is also important in these situations to leave yourself time between the interaction and the post because negative feelings can impact your tone.
3. Consistency is key
As with everything in life, consistency is key. Job hunting can be a full time job and only you can understand how best to allocate your time. You have to juggle learning and prepping for technical interviews, finding open positions, building portfolio projects, and networking all at the same time. Setting yourself some time on a consistent basis (doesn’t have to be daily!) is important to nurture those networks and connections.
At this point, I just want to reiterate that this advice stems exclusively from my own personal experience using LinkedIn. I have consistently been surprised by the amazing community I’ve built up by following the tips above, and I’ve organically grown my network out this way. The big takeaway here is that no one (not even high ranking CTOs) want to feel like an interaction is transaction. Networking is about community building and creating meaningful contacts. Sometimes a contact you make won’t resurface until your next job search, but those are valuable connections to keep in touch with. I can say from experience that I have made contacts that have reappeared years later with an amazing opportunity. Other times I’ve had a line on a great job and I’ve been able to recall someone who stood out and connect them with the right person.
tldr; networking can be a long game, so treat people like real people and take a genuine interest in them if you want them to do the same for you.
Examples and variations
I know that these can be delicate situations and it can be hard to communicate, so I wanted to provide you with some examples of potential posts that could stem from a negative experience:
Let’s say you had a technical interview with a company and the dev who was evaluating you had a condescending tone and wasn’t giving your space to explain your work. You feel like the interview process was unfair and that the only reason you didn’t get the job was because of this one dev.
Negative post (not recommended):
I interviewed with Meta today and it was the worst experience of my life! I wrote great code that was picked apart by a developer who wouldn’t even let me explain my work, and then the company ghosted me for 2 weeks before finally telling me that I didn’t get the job. It was such a rude experience and I would not recommend anyone apply to work for them.
Productive post:
I recently had a tech interview that didn’t go as well as I had hoped. While I think the work I submitted was really solid, the team that reviewed it didn’t agree and decided to go with another candidate.
Now after this you should include some kind of call to action. Depending on what other content you post, you can frame this in a few ways. One of the things that I like to do it have an ask, because devs of all levels have likely experienced this and some will be willing to give advice, which is a valuable way for your to engage with more talent in your network. Here are a few suggestions of questions to ask:
Vulnerable ask:
I’m feeling a bit deflated after missing out on this opportunity. For other devs who have also experienced professional rejection, how do you come back from a job rejection?
Educational ask:
Although I feel like my code was some of my best work, I’m worried that it might not be up to the standard that companies are looking for these days. For employed developers: what resources did you use to up your tech interview skills that helped you land your job?
Resource ask:
I would really like to improve on my work and better understand why my code wasn’t effective. I haven’t been able to get feedback on my submission from the company, but if anyone who is experienced in PHP has time to review my work, I’d love the opportunity to learn from your experience!
This was a long and detailed post, so if you’ve made it to the end then thank you so much for sticking it out and I hope you’ve been able to find something useful!
