Break me out of LinkedIn prison

May 20, 2016 4:43 PM

I want to delete my LinkedIn account. I'm tired of it, the security breaches, the spam, the shady practices of gobbling phone contacts, the spying, and the horrible no good worthless "news feed". But I need a bit of a "resumé presence" on the web. Is there a service that can do what I want?

I basically want to host my resume on a web site, but I don't want to actually *build* the web site myself. I want something that will have reasonably-good Google Juice. In my field, software, having a LinkedIn account seems to be basically mandatory--nobody seems to pass around resumés anymore; instead we just go check out a person's LinkedIn. I would like to set up a resumé-like page that is easily Googleable and easily update-able. I tried "about.me", but it was useless--strictly hardcoded calls to action like "Hire Me", and you had to select at least 5 pre-defined "interests". Plus, there seemed to be no way to include structured work experience or education.

Is there a simple and clean platform for me to do this? I would rather not build and host it myself, but if there's a canned static site generator out there, I would consider it. I am just tired of LinkedIn but I don't want to disappear entirely.

...yet.

posted by tybstar to Work & Money (12 answers total)

Best answer: A friend has suggested that I try branded.me for this purpose. You can use it as a portfolio as well.
posted by jgirl at 5:10 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't work for them but have you looked at squarespace? They have all kinds of templates and one might suit your needs.
posted by pdb at 5:12 PM on May 20, 2016

Couldn't you just do a WordPress site?
posted by kevinbelt at 5:14 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hmm, I'd say delete the LinkedIn app from any devices, use browser only, and unsubscribe from their emails -- and this will take way less time than setting up your resume on a new website.
posted by bluedaisy at 5:20 PM on May 20, 2016 [20 favorites]

Best answer: The freelancers I work with, regardless of what kind of work they do, pretty much all buy theirname.com and throw their portfolio or resume on it. Or at the very least, a page with their contact info. How they do this is not particularly important (Squarespace, Format, Wordpress, whatever), what is important is that whoever types their name into google sees it on the first page. The easiest way to do this is to buy the domain, since that is weighted heavily. If you have a common name buy JohnSmithSoftwareEngineer.com or whatever.

Squarespace can be thrown together into a few seconds. The even easier option would be to use the bare minimum hosting the domain registrar offers (I use Namecheap) and just literally export your existing resume as HTML and upload it.

Everyone still maintains LinkedIn accounts for the reasons you listed, even though I'm not really in an industry with CVs/resumes, the people on the corporate/client side seem to use it religiously so if that's your audience...
posted by bradbane at 6:05 PM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

You can use Google Sites. It's a free Google tool that will help you easily set up a website, which can be a one-pager with your resume info. Buy yourname.com and set it up to forward to the Google Site.
posted by chickenmagazine at 6:15 PM on May 20, 2016

Best answer: Online acquaintance runs Fabrik - fabrik.io, might work for you?
posted by slater at 6:18 PM on May 20, 2016

Are you a developer? You can put stuff on Github... tells more about your work than Linkedin can anyway.
posted by fingersandtoes at 6:25 PM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think it depends what you want it for. If you just want a place to host your resume that is Google-able (so if someone is looking for you specifically they can find it), then a Google Sites page or something on a domain that ideally is firstnamelastname.com or something should get good results.

If you want recruiters to reach out to you proactively (which can sometimes lead to good things), I think there is no substitute for LinkedIn. I get the vast majority of recruiter emails from there (once in a while I get one via Facebook, basically never get them emailed directly despite having a FirstInitialLastName.com and FirstNameLastName.com sites with my info).
posted by thefoxgod at 6:38 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I use LinkedIn, website only (no app), share no contacts or phone numbers with it, and use it with a single-purpose email address and single-use junk password. I turn off all notifications so it never emails me. I only see it when I log on.
posted by erst at 7:08 PM on May 20, 2016 [8 favorites]

Best answer: I don't have a suggestion for a truly strong alternative, but I want to second erst's suggestion. Whether or not you create an alternative option, make the most locked down account you can but avoid removing yourself entirely. While linkedin has its problems, it's ubiquitous. A strong personal site or portfolio elsewhere won't eliminate the need to have some presence there. Many hiring managers will react negatively to candidates who don't have a linkedin profile and some will eliminate you immediately. Case and point: me. I was evaluating resumes with the leader of my department just this morning and we rejected multiple people for not having a linkedin account. With so little context, hiring managers are reading the tea leaves across the board when evaluating applicants. A lack of linkedin account can convey a number of things: the candidate is out of touch with the modern professional online branding. They don't understand the digital landscape and social media in general. They are lazy and don't go the extra mile when embarking on a project (in this case, getting a job). All of the above might be false, but without a clear explanation as to why, hiring managers will fill the void with their own pre-conceived notions.
posted by amycup at 10:20 PM on May 20, 2016 [7 favorites]

About.me looks like its gaining some traction as a resume/portfolio site and I've been pretty impressed with it so far. I also used flavors.me for a time, but it's not expressly a career site.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn really is the, if you'll pardon the phrase, industry-standard online networking site, but I'm going to go ahead and nth Google Pages. Google tends to prioritize information posted using one of their services ahead of anything else, so that will help you rise to the top of your Google search results for sure.
posted by helloimjennsco at 6:27 AM on May 23, 2016