I've recently read a post by @shareef on why he doesn't use LinkedIn and it highlighted a lot of pain points I myself have experienced on LinkedIn as well.

And while people agreed with Shreef, there's also a lot of people who have had success with the platform. So it got me thinking, what is the best way to use LinkedIn?

The Promise 🌅

Oh LinkedIn. The promise of a platform for aspiring professionals to progress their careers by getting exposed to new career opportunities and build a network of like minded professionals.

Reality 💀

In recent times my experience with LinkedIn has been terrible to say the least. Some reasons include:

• Constant posts about showing off success such as "I just bought a car" or "check out my latest certification" to gain some cheap validation... I mean to motivate others to push through on their journey on not give up.💪
• Irrelevant jobs postings getting spammed in my inbox like "Hi Chadwin. We're looking for a Senior React Developer with 8 - 10 years experience" despite me just starting out.
• Engagement bait through quotes, memes and asking people to react on a post if, for example, leave a like if you're feel motivated today.
• And promoted posts of Career Coaches trying to get us past the resume phase for the low price of being added to their mailing list.

It's clear to see that there's not that much value on LinkedIn these days. And I'm sure that I'm not the only person that has been experiencing this.

The other side 💸

Now that I've got all that negativity out of my system, I've also seen and heard of people who have been getting immense success out of LinkedIn. Whether it be finding clients, building a solid network of like minded people etc.

So I'm keen to hear from you. What is the best way to use LinkedIn? And is it even worth it in 2022?