LinkedIn

About LinkedIn

I’m retired but not ready to sit still. My name’s Frank, and I spent 35 years in supply chain management. After I left my last job, I thought I’d just do a little consulting here and there. But I found myself stuck. All my old contacts had retired or moved on, and I didn’t know how to find new gigs. My granddaughter showed me this app on my iPhone 14. She said everyone in business uses it. I figured what the heck, I’d give it a shot. Several months later, I’m still using it, though I have some mixed feelings. It’s helped me reconnect with a few old colleagues and even landed me a small project with a logistics company. But it’s not as simple as I hoped it would be.

Features & Highlights

The main thing I use is the job search. You type in what you’re looking for, like “supply chain consultant” or “logistics advisor,” and it shows you openings. I like that it remembers my preferences and sends me notifications. That part works pretty well. There’s also a news feed that shows business articles. I scroll through it sometimes while I’m having my morning coffee. It keeps me up to date on what’s happening in the business world, which I honestly missed after retiring. The networking part is where it gets interesting. You can look up people you used to work with, see what they’re doing now, and even send them a message. I reached out to a fellow named Dave from a company I partnered with back in 2015. We ended up having lunch last month. That felt good. The app also lets you post your own updates or articles, but I haven’t tried that yet. Seems like a lot of fuss.

User Experience

Here’s where I get a little frustrated. The app has too much going on. When I open it, I see the news feed first, then there are buttons for jobs, messaging, notifications, and my profile. It’s cluttered. I accidentally tap on things all the time. Last Tuesday, I was trying to check a message from a recruiter and somehow ended up liking some random post about artificial intelligence. I don’t even know what artificial intelligence has to do with moving boxes on a warehouse floor. The font is small too. I have to put on my reading glasses every time. My granddaughter says I can zoom in, but that’s another step. For someone like me who just wants to look for work and chat with old colleagues, it feels like there’s a lot of noise. I do appreciate that the messages are straightforward. Once I find the inbox, it’s fine. But finding it is the problem sometimes.

Pricing

The app is free to download and use. You can make a profile, search for jobs, and send messages without paying a dime. That’s what I do. They do have a paid plan called Premium, which costs money every month. My grandson told me it shows you who’s looked at your profile and gives you more info about job listings. I haven’t signed up for it. I’m on a fixed income, and I’m not convinced I need to pay to find work. The free version is enough for what I’m doing. But I will say, some features are locked behind that paywall. You can’t see the full list of who viewed your profile without paying. That annoys me a bit. But I can live without it.

Updates & Support

I had a problem last month. I applied for a job through the app, but I never heard back. I wanted to check if the application actually went through. So I used the help section to contact support. I sent a message explaining my issue. It took them four days to reply. The response was very general, just telling me to check my application status in the settings. It didn’t really help. I wrote back and asked for more specifics, but nobody replied again. That left a bad taste in my mouth. The app updates pretty regularly. Sometimes they change things around, and I have to figure out where buttons went. Last week, the messaging icon moved, and I spent ten minutes looking for it. For a free app, I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much, but a little more support would be nice.

Security & Privacy

This worries me a bit. I put a lot of personal information on my profile: my work history, my education, my phone number. The app asks for all of it. I trust it generally, but I get nervous when I see articles about data breaches. LinkedIn says they use encryption and two-factor authentication. My daughter helped me set that up so it texts me a code when I log in from a new device. That makes me feel safer. I also like that I can control who sees my profile. I set it to only my connections. But I’ve noticed that sometimes I get friend requests from people I don’t know, like salespeople trying to sell me something. That’s annoying. I just ignore them.