So, I’ve been a victim of job hunting lately. You too? I’ve signed up for more services in the past few weeks than I have in several years. There are a lot of avenues for this kind of stuff, from skill testing sites like HackerRank or LeetCode to the famous career-oriented social network LinkedIn. A lot of businesses are built around this never-ending necessity: people need jobs.

Honestly though? You shouldn’t waste money investing in any kind of job-finding site. Any company worth their salary is going to be thorough with selecting their candidates, and a little promotion or what have you from paying for a job hiring site I wouldn’t think to have much of an impact.

I know LinkedIn Premium offers a method to contact recruiters directly, but if I was a recruiter, those “special” mails would just annoy me. I’d want the right fit, and the right fit isn’t going to be you pestering me through some premium service. The right fit is going to be you having a valid resume, proving it through additional meaningful substance, and then speaking to me so I know that it’s all authentic.

So yeah, no. I don’t believe in paying for promotion of my skills or resume (or literally editing or writing my resume for me? Have some dignity, people!) – I can just show and prove that normally. However, new members of LinkedIn are offered a free month of premium, so I figured why not? I was honestly surprised with what they offer.

LinkedIn Learning

LEARNING? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I discovered that premium also gets me a free subscription to LinkedIn Learning which I immediately started digging into.

What I’ve seen so far are some fairly quality crash-courses – about one to two hours each – covering many different fields, not just for software engineers. I didn’t actually look at the programmer topics because they seemed a bit basic at a glance (perfect for someone at a junior level), but currently I’m going through courses pertaining to:

• “Agile” practices (ding! buzzword)
• Time management/efficiency methods
• Transparent communication
• Writing marketing copy

That last one I picked up because I got an offer to do some freelance technical writing today. Learning to Write Marketing Copy, created by Ian Lurie, who is obviously a dad - he gives an excellent rundown of the copy writing essentials with a side of productivity tips in a busy household. This blog post is actually practice to use the methods he talks about.

Random ironic thought, his course is probably subtle copy writing in itself to direct traffic towards his consulting company.

So... Yes?

If you are someone like me who doesn’t believe in marketing yourself, but would rather employ a more honest and effortful method of proving that you are fit for a role, resume promotions are a waste of money.

However, I love learning, and self-training is my thing. If I find enough courses on LinkedIn Learning to keep me busy, I might just be tempted to keep a subscription past the trial. Check it out if you’re interested in solidifying some of your skills.