
Ask HN: Should I use LinkedIn for blogging? - zengid
I&#x27;m a grad student in IT, but I&#x27;m looking to get a job as a front-end web application developer. I&#x27;m not sure if completing the degree is going to be worth it, so I&#x27;ve taken less credits this semester to focus on learning and building a portfolio project on my own.<p>I&#x27;ve been considering writing a blog about the research I&#x27;ve done while getting ready for the portfolio-project, such as cloud platforms, front-end frameworks (I think I&#x27;m going to indulge myself and use ClojureScript), etc. I just noticed that linkedIn has a blogging platform, so I&#x27;m wondering If I should use that instead of my blogger page.<p>Do you or your co-workers use LinkedIn for job hunting and&#x2F;or networking?  Would it be worth it to try and put an effort into building connections through the site? Any anecdotes are appreciated.
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freedomben
Any blogging is better than no blogging, but unless you yearn to be an
"enterprise" dev I would blog on medium or something a lot more hipster than
LinkedIn. There's obviously exceptions, but my general observation is that
it's management types and enterprisey types that blog on LinkedIn. There's
some good stuff on there to be sure, but you get an immediate brand by
choosing one platform over another.

Definitely start a blog tho. Every dev should have a blog. Use it to market
yourself.

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zengid
You've confirmed my suspicions about linkedIn. It feels very 'corporate' and
stiff.

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matchmike1313
I have used LinkedIn before for job hunting, it is a good place to connect
with recruiters. I would agree with freedomben's comment, its very corporate
though. If you are looking to go the "get hired by my work" route I would say
your energy is best spent blogging on another platform. Since you are working
on getting ready for your portfolio project I would sue something like GitHub
pages, Ghost, or Medium to host your blog for now. I think it's great to blog
about your journey, I would also consider tweeting about your experience as
well! Best of luck to you though!

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brudgers
Random advice from the interent:

\+ The important part of blogging is blogging, not selecting a platform. It is
more likely that a blog will die because it is not written for than because
there is an issue with the platform.

\+ Completing a graduate degree is likely to open more doors than a blog.
Partially because that is just the way the world works. Partially because most
blogs contain statements that are either outright errors or easily
misunderstood so as to be an error. And people deliberately read blogs to find
errors and are predisposed to misunderstanding blogs as containing errors.
That's just the way the internet works.

\+ Linkedin is useful for maintaining loose social/professional connections.
Which is to say it is good for keeping up with your current and former
classmates and coworkers. It is ok for research on individuals at companies
where you want to work, but as a general rule it is a mediocre way to reach
out on a personal level -- it achieves mediocrity because it is easy to use
but that ease of use means recipients place a low value on communications
within Linkedin.

\+ A job will be more valuable in terms of future jobs than a portfolio
project. In part because it will be validation in the world of work rather
than academia. In part (and this is where Linkedin comes in) because it will
expand your professional network to include the coworkers.

I am not saying not to do a portfolio project. But slacking off on a degree in
order to do one is not going to improve most people's attractiveness as a job
candidate. On Linkedin the degree will still be on your profile five years
from now. If a student project is there five years from now, that's probably
not a good thing.

In the end, Linkedin can supplement import relationships and achievements in
the real world. It cannot replace them.

Good luck.

