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Was talking to a recruiter last week about some pt time project work. Nothing major, but good money considering this time of year is rather slow. I kicked him my resume’ , and sure enough got a notice a bit later the guy was checking my LinkedIn profile. I E-mailed him back asking him what info he was looking for…I keep a sparse LinkedIn profile because all I get is spam from it, but not detailed. I primarily use it to keep track of co-workers and friends.

His response: “this client likes to see a LinkedIn profile”

Me: “Why? Do people lie less on a LinkedIn profile -vs- a resume?”

Him: “Good point, but I just know their hiring manager likes to see a picture of potential applicants”.

Me: “Wasn’t aware I was applying for Hooters.”

Haven’t heard back from this nimrod, and frankly don’t care. If you want to know my age, race, marital status and religion please grow a pair and ask me for an interview.

Here’s another LinkedIn story. Before I left an MSP over a year ago they were doing a spat of hiring. I’m sitting in my cube and over hearing the manager in charge of filling the 2 positions with three other team members, and they are using LinkedIn profile picture as a filter because they didn’t want to interview all the qualifiying applicants; “this guy looks too old, this guy looks weird”. Mind you, these weren’t formal HR people doing the filtering and these weren’t high level positions, but it served as quiet notice that throwing all your information on LinkedIn might not be such a good idea.

I can understand being in a sales / customer facing position and using LinkedIn as a kind of electronic business card. I don’t understand otherwise why IT people are so fanatical about it, and if employers are requiring it to see a picture of potential applicants how can that be a good thing?

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Is the point you’re trying to make that it’s better to be thought “too weird” or “too old” in an in-person interview that requires more time and effort by at least two people rather than earlier in the hiring process?

Do you think that if I don’t like your physical presentation that hiding your picture is somehow going to back me into a corner where I’m forced to hire you?

Do you believe that if I don’t want to hire you that I can’t find something on your resume or in your personal interview that disqualifies you?

“spate”

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Even though discrimination for X,Y and Z are illegal everyone knows it happens anyway.
I’m heavily tattooed and have piercings. Im still very good at what I do. I’m sure that has lost me jobs as I’ve had a ton of interviews that seemed to go well then nothing. I just assume those are probably not people I want to work for anyway.

I use LinkedIn to follow vendors, friends, and former colleagues. I’ve had a few remote consulting gigs come out of it. It’s a good social network for professionals.

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" ‘Good point, but I just know their hiring manager likes to see a picture of potential applicants’ ". Sounds way to fishy to me. Is this bozo hiring on looks rather than skills? Sounds like it.

I have a Linkedin account but it has never served me in any positive way. I guess if you want to get emailed and called for interviews, you best have the right picture on your profile. Maybe I’ll replace my current picture of me next to a server rack cabinet with a 20-something year old bikini-clad beach bunny with dazzling white teeth, a perky little nose and a come hither look.

Seriously though, I did have a recruiter several years ago that placed me in a couple of contract positions tell me that my photo on Linkedin wasn’t professional enough and I should change it. The photo at that time was taken of me by a professional photographer. I was dressed business casual holding the reigns of a horse, and yes, the horses head was in the shot too, (better the head than the other side of the horse.) I was at a Polo Match when this was taken. Now considering how many poorly done selfies I see pasted on the profiles of Linkedin accounts, mine looked 100 times better.

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If you find it too bothersome to add a picture…then dun…

If you find it too bothersome to create an account for something you think you do not need, then dun.

There was a time where people are requested to provide 1 or 2 photographs to the company your are going to be interviewed for regardless if the interview comes along.

Then you are looking at a very micro level of what the application does…in the past year, we had over 100,000 job openings (some repeated) with over 3 million applicants in 18 different countries with some destinations across borders. We did have head hunters & agencies assisting us but most of the time the applicants were dropped as they failed to fill in the basic requirements of the basic forms…like Postal Codes, Photograph (or picture) which the system could easily detect as blanks.

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Exactly - That’s what I assume it was for. Again, if you are in a customer facing position and have some solid credentials and experience you want behind your name to help clients it’s a better tool yet.

Hiring managers and HR have discriminated since the Egyptians recruited to build the pyramids. My point is LinkedIn might be making it easier for them.

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Typical comment from Robert trying to to point a finger and scream ‘victim’ like he usually does. Instead he comes off like Tucker Carlson snorted too many lines before an interview.

I don’t ‘hide’ anything Mr. Carlson. I don’t take LinkedIn in seriously for me because until very recently I’ve not known hiring managers and HR to use it as a tool, and regard those that do as not worth my time. If they are, they might find a picture of Ron Jeremy in my profile pic. I’ve worked some really big companies the past two decades (6 with revenues in excess of a billion dollars) and none of them require pictures of applicants unless there’s some H1B stuff in the works, so I’m not sure what Adrian is talking about.

If HR / hiring managers are starting to use LinkedIn in such a way then why should I make it easier them? I’ve been called by companies two years after I interviewed - I know how to make impressions even if I don’t initially get the job. Please go look for a victim someplace else.

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I’m still confused over why this is a problem. Why would you want to waste your time getting prepared for an interview only to have them decline because you look weird? If they don’t want to hire me because I’m Asian, then it’s clearly not a place I want to work…so why should they and I even bother to communicate?

Apart from the vague tough-guy notion of wanting to “stick it to 'em,” I don’t see why this is an issue.

Let’s take a different approach on this.

  • Recruiter: “Client’s requirement includes a photo on a LinkedIn profile.”

  • You: “No. They can schedule an interview if they want to see what I look like.”

  • Recruiter: “Thank you for your time.” notes: not compliant with instructions, don’t ever call this guy again, not worth my time or aggravation. Moving on to the next person on the list who has identical qualifications and experience

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What I am saying is simple…one of the first step to short-list applicants is to reduce the number of applicants…removing applications from people who does not fill in the required data.

Then I do not know which country or type of business where your picture is not kept in the employment records…but maybe for the past 20 years, it have been a norm in most MNCs.,probably I am more unfortunate to be in an organisation that needed staff cards, security cards or even a picture for the Intranet “welcome” page.

…

My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better…“Steve Jobs”

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I am all for pictures of current employees, but against it when it comes to choosing who will or will not get an interview, regardless of skill level.

It gives people time to, and don’t say they don’t, make some pre-determined choices about the applicant. They could reject applicants, again regardless of qualifications, based on their age, sex, race, body size, facial appearance, (deformities or scars) to name a few.

I was lucky enough to go to an HR seminar a few years back and one of the sessions was basing judgments of an applicant’s abilities on their photos. It was quite interesting how many, myself included, made some pretty stupid “interview choices” when we based our decision on who we were going to interview solely on their photo.

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I couldn’t spice this enough! This is all over the place and it is frustrating… However I have my Linkedin because I got nothing to hide and frankly recruiting through LinkedIN is shortsighted as sometimes they want to hire you for not what you are looking for even though you tell them from the beginning what you want.

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It’s too bad you feel that way. The “you” was the generic pronoun, not specifically you. And I’ve never actually viewed Mr. Carlson, so I don’t know what he’s like. The worst form of discrimination is when you close your mind. (I’m flexible, however. I’ve made a note to not comment on any of your threads in the future because you find it unhelpful.)

It wasn’t at all clear from your spate of complaints what point you were trying to make. You did clear that up in the post just above the one I quoted. I believe your thesis was “I believe LinkedIn makes it easier to discriminate.” My point (that you missed in your spate of ad hominem attacks) is that it may make the discrimination occur sooner, but it doesn’t increase the opportunity for or quantity of discrimination. That’s because (as I iterated) there are ample opportunities for the discrimination to occur.Unless you are also proposing that LinkedIn creates more discrimination, then your complain is not really with LinkedIn, but with those doing the discriminating.

So, your question, If HR / hiring managers are starting to use LinkedIn in such a way then why should I make it easier them? is pointless. Is your goal (as I originally asked) to force them to waste time interviewing you because it’s “harder” for them? That says that your time, equally wasted, is worth nothing. Yes, it may enable them to discriminate eariler in the process. But if they’re discriminating, you’re not getting the job anyway - so why waste your time? This was the theme that motivated me to ask what your real complaint was and what was your motivation for trying to “punish” all those discriminatory hiring managers.

Now I know. You’re Batman.

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“… sometimes they want to hire you for not what you are looking for even though you tell them from the beginning what you want.”

Isn’t that the truth! In the past I have gotten emails stating that after seeing my “resume” on Linkedin, I would be a perfect fit in some sort of medical position, (non-technical.) Imagine me, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the National Institute of Health!

Recently, speaking of Linkedin, over the last couple of months I have received emails from people who were reviewing my Linkedin account. They have been asking me to use them as referrals to any students looking for entry level positions in I.T. This is a first.

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I’ve got to agree with Robert on this, if x employer is going to discriminate you due to your appearance, then having a LinkedIn profile will only speed this up, it wouldn’t case any extra discrimination.

At the end of the day, I don’t use social media for the reasons you have mentioned, but their time and yours (along with everyone else who has applied) is valuable, so why waste it on an interview for someone you know wouldn’t get hired for reasons x, y and z.

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" At the end of the day, I don’t use social media for the reasons you have mentioned, but their time and yours (along with everyone else who has applied) is valuable, so why waste it on an interview for someone you know wouldn’t get hired for reasons x, y and z."

How very true. Sadly, you would think that as a society we would have gotten past this type of BS, but it is alive and well as we speak. This is a common practice where I live, but it’s not labeled as discrimination, it is disguised as “being diverse” in the company’s hiring practices. Company’s here have been known, (and got caught doing so,) to hire people who are totally unqualified over those who are fully qualified just to show everyone how “diverse” their workforce is.

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What an idiotic comment.

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I just use it for networking with other IT professionals.

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… You’re hired, Steve.

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While my LinkedIn Profile is probably not where it should be I guess the take away from this is that if a company does or does not want to hire me based on my looks, or any other info in my profile, than is it really a company I want to work for anyway… Sadly company culture does play a huge part in the hiring process. In a lot of cases I feel it plays a larger part than skill set even. If at any point the person responsible for the hiring feels like you would not fit in with the crowd than chances are they are not going to give you that position, would you really want them too though? If they are already set against you and will most likely treat you as an outcast than I would not want to work for them anyway. Having all of your info out there including your picture will at least give you the piece of mind of knowing that if a company hired you, they did so knowing all there was to know about you good or bad and still thought you were the best fit.

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I too was not sure of the point the OP was trying to make.

There are shifty recruiters everywhere (traditional, Indeed, LinkedIn and otherwise). That hasn’t prevented me from utilizing some of them over a long and successful career in IT. I’ve called a few out and complained on Indeed and they were very responsive.

I agree that putting an excessive amount of detail out on LinkedIn or elsewhere (Dice, Monster, …) is overkill. I post enough info on my profile to generate interest for a prospective employer to contact me and ask more questions.

There are also excellent recruiters on LinkedIn that have made it possible for me to take very close looks at great opportunities in the past few years. (I landed my current gig from Indeed).

I tend to prefer interacting with internal or direct-hire recruiters but sometimes you have to roll the dice and see what happens- even if they ask for a bit more info.

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