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LinkedIn

Is This Your Business?
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534 User Reviews

5.3

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Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: November 5th, 2025

LinkedIn is a social network and recruitment platform used by millions across the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the website was launched in May of 2003. The company’s revenue comes from member subscriptions, advertising sales, and talent solutions. LinkedIn is soon to be acquired by Microsoft (2016).

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The Good

  • Price range
  • Reach
  • Special features
  • Experience
  • Customer support
Price Range
LinkedIn offers free public individual profile and company pages as a form of social networking. Company pages can showcase a business to potential employees or customers. Personal profiles allow workers to make connections, give recommendations, and search for relevant employment opportunities. Users can share articles, videos, comments, and ideas with followers and connections. Additional services must be purchased. The basic LinkedIn premium plans and prices are as follows:
  • Job Seeker: 1 free month, then $29.99/month
  • Business Plus: 1 free month, then $47.99/month
  • Sales Navigator Professional: 1 free month, then $64.99/month
  • Recruiter Lite: 1 free month, then starts at $99.95/month
Larger companies with more extensive recruitment or advertising goals can upgrade to sponsored content to get their company's updates to more people, attract new followers, and get their message out on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. These plans are set up based on the company's budget and can be cost per click or cost per impression. Similar to the premium plans' option for a free trial, a free demo is available for sponsored content.
Reach
LinkedIn has over 433 million account members, with 106 million unique visiting members each month. There are 128 million members in the U.S., but the majority live in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Special Features
Accounts upgraded to premium have a number of additional avenues available to successfully network. These premium accounts are Job Seeker, Business Plus, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter Lite. Larger businesses with more recruiting needs as well as ad agencies can find additional plans and opportunities through LinkedIn's sales team. Job Seeker features:
  • Direct messaging to recruiters with 3 InMail credits
  • Move to top of recruiters' applicant lists
  • See who's viewed your profile in last 90 days and how they found you
  • See how you compare to other candidates with applicant insights
Business Plus features:
  • 15 InMail messages to contact anyone on LinkedIn
  • Business Insights: access to key metrics and trends of company
  • See who's viewed you in last 90 days and how they found you
  • Unlimited profile search
Sales Navigator features:
  • 15 InMail messages
  • Sales insights on accounts and leads, job changes, company growth
  • Advanced search with custom lead lists and advanced search filters
  • See what prospects interested in you in last 90 days
  • Unlimited profile search
  • Lead recommendations and saved leads
Recruiter Lite features:
  • 30 InMail messages with templates
  • Advanced search for finding candidates
  • Track candidates and open roles with Projects
  • Recruiting-specific design
  • See who's viewed you in the last 90 days
  • Unlimited profiles from search results and suggested profiles
  • Access all of Job Seeker Premium consumer features
LinkedIn has a number of mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices. The apps are:
  • LinkedIn-website functions adapted for mobile app
  • Job search-search for and apply in one click
  • Lookup-find, learn about, and contact coworkers
  • Lynda.com-expert-led courses available for download
  • SlideShare-access to over 18 million presentations, infographics, and videos
  • LinkedIn Groups-industry conversations (iOS only)
  • Pulse-daily professional news source
Premium Apps:
  • Recruiter-search and review profiles of potential hires
  • Sales Navigator-find leads and accounts in target market, connect, and get updates
  • Elevate-find and share interesting articles
Experience
LinkedIn was co-founded in 2003 by Reid Hoffman and a team of colleagues he had worked with from SocialNet and PayPal. The company began as a way for professionals to connect with each other, like an online address book. The following year they introduced groups, and in 2005 job posting and subscriptions became available. With a little over 11 years of experience in the job search industry, LinkedIn isn't the longest-standing company, but it's been around long enough to make major progress over the years, especially with its reach.
Customer Support
LinkedIn has a help forum discussion board where users can ask questions and receive responses from other users as well as LinkedIn staff. Users can sort discussion threads by most active, most votes, and newest, and apply more specific filters as they search for similar inquiries. The preferred contact with customer service directly was via an online form. After requesting information, customers immediately receive an automated answer acknowledging receipt of the issue. Responses are generally answered within 24 hours.
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The Bad

  • Resources and learning materials
Resources and Learning Materials
LinkedIn provides surprisingly little educational content to free account holders. Of course, their social network platform is a great avenue to find and share materials, lists, and tips on job-related items from other sources, but there are many other job search websites that have a more broad and deep reservoir of articles on their blogs. Paid job seekers get access to Lynda.com, a partner site and app with over 4,000 expert-led employment and business courses. Anyone can access a free trial to Lynda services through the website or app before needing to pay.
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The Bottom Line

LinkedIn has a great reputation with business professionals and companies across nearly every industry, and it is a clear leader in its own industry of job search and recruitment. Users have access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that can help lead to relevant jobs or potential employees. Job seekers do have to pay to access many of the features on LinkedIn, like their InMail messaging system, whereas most companies do not charge job seekers. But where it seems like everyone is on LinkedIn nowadays, it's probably worth the investment.
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User Reviews

Star Rating

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4.4

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534 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

56%

4 grade

31%

3 grade

9%

2 grade

2%

1 grade

2%

Sentiment Criteria

Value

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Quality

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Service

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Trustworthiness

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Jasmin Mena

LinkedIn has been the only place that has led to contacts from employers without me having to initiate it first. It's positive for me to see that employers actually use the service and considered me a good candidate. Only negative, and not necessarily LinkedIn's fault, is that a lot of employers are not upfront about the salary. Nobody wants their time wasted just to find out in the end that what they can offer is not what you want to take.

2 years ago

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Tanner Hales Pleasant Grove, UT

Linkedin is a fairly decent social media platform, but in terms of job searching, I have never had a ton of luck. I think that once it catches on a little better, and more companies recruit through it, Linkedin will become an awesome tool for job searchers. The interface is easy to use, and the recommended jobs are always right in line with what I am looking for. Just needs a few more jobs to search for.

7 years ago

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JimS. Cathedral City, CA

Of all the job hunt platforms, LinkedIn is my least favorite. Unfortunately, it seems to be the most preferred platform for employers. So like it or not, you might as well get used to it. I find it difficult to post your job experience in an easy to digest format when using LinkedIn. At best, you can only give them a general overview of your experience. So you will get a lot of calls and inquiries from hungry recruiters who are just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing if it will stick. In other words, they don’t look at you too close. They find a couple of keyword matches and then spam everyone with job openings, whether it fits you or not. And a lot of times it doesn’t. I don’t really like LinkedIn much, but I will say it’s good for networking. I.e., finding out you “know somebody who knows somebody”. And that, sometimes, is what it’s all about. As an aside, I would not bother paying the extra fee to be able to see who has looked at your résumé. Because employers can still hide themselves anyway, and most of them do. So it’s a waste of money.

3 years ago

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MM Largo, FL

Linked in is ok for networking I guess and learning about companies but there are alot of features that are inaccessible unless you pay for the upgraded account. I can't see paying money for anything LinkedIn offers. I guess it depends on your needs and what your willing to pay for and what your expecting for your money- or may be more useful to people with alot of professional contacts. Me... not so much.

4 years ago

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jingqi lei Rockville, MD

I like the system because they are so many participants. the information layout is well-organized and user friendly. the down side is that sometimes it block the information for no reason. for example, you may be able to see a person's profile when you search it in the morning time, but find it blocked in the afternoon when you are using hte same computer. seems it does not encourage a second search.

4 years ago

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Missy Truth Ankeny, IA

Mixed feelings on this service. It is run almost with a Facebook type setup with posts and things. Not easy to find what you want unless you know the name of the person . People are usually very vague in their resumes. Some users try to use it like a dating site making it unappealing to a lot of women. Also, the qualities section is useless because people set their own skills and strength, many overdo it.

4 years ago

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Mark Troxel Provo, UT

I use LinkedIn for job searches. I have not been actively looking for work, but use it to see what is available in the area. I have applied online for a handful of jobs where I was interested but have not accepted any offers. My main complaint with LinkedIn as a job search tool is often the employer does not list the pay range for the job and so you are left to other sources to try and figure that out.

4 years ago

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George Lowe Plano, TX

Linkedin is great for connecting and seeing what else is going on in idustries across the globe. I'm not impressed with the job search side of Linkedin. My suggestion is more access to employers searching for candidates without haveing to purchase membership. My take is get employers and new candidates in touch then ask for membership to help grow businesses and employees.

4 years ago

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Norma Grove Iowa City, IA

I have my name come up in many searches. I have yet to receive contact from anyone. I am retired and perhaps that is the reason. It is a good way to stay in touch with friends and see their updates on their work status and advancements. It lets us know who has work anniversaries. It might be better suited to those actually searching for work. I mostly used it to stay in touch and just in case something were to open up that would interest me job-wise.

5 years ago

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Erika American Fork, UT

I think Linkedin has been a great way to connect businesses and people. There are a lot of positives from it. There is a lot of scams and fraud on it though so you have to be aware and verify the person you are connected to is actually a viable trust worthy connection. Just because they have a lot of connections does not mean they are trust worthy.

6 years ago

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Mellissa Clark Palm Bay, FL

Did not like how linkedin has become like a FB for the working world. Loved when it used to be all about employment and résumés, but now it’s too much like social platform

2 years ago

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Gary Mayer South Jordan, UT

I retired two years ago and no longer need this service. I have been trying to cancel my account with them but have had no luck. I am still getting requests to link with people. very frustrating.

8 years ago

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OrvilleBro Herriman, UT

Linkedin is great, but like many social media sites, there is an aura of unrealism and fakeness (is that a word?). I do like how they provide a platform to advertise my professional career, I just wish the format was less facebook-ish.

3 years ago

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Aly Houston, TX

I've been a member for years and honestly do not feel I have gotten much out of it. It feels like something to have just so employers know you're not a serial killer. I also dislike the "who viewed your profile" feature as you don't always want someone to know you've viewed theirs.

4 years ago

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The Bean Spiller Provo, UT

This site is a lot more of a social media/networking site than a job search site. It's hard to find jobs on LinkedIn without knowing people, but it's good for employers to look at your background. It's more of a supplement to a job search, rather than a method to find jobs

4 years ago

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Dodd ,

LinkedIn is nice if you want to see where others work in your industry but it isn’t useful to help you get a job like it claims the connections do. I was on it for 4 yrs but I found it was more like a social network than a job placement company.

4 years ago

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Diana Ploeger Oakley, UT

Can build own profile with company providing feedback to improve it. I encourage my college students to develop their profile and maintain it through their education so that upon graduation it reflects the student’s knowledge, skills, and experiences.

5 years ago

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David Adrian Morales Weslaco, TX

I use LinkedIn more for B2B networking versus actual employment. Its a good place to network and promote your business but not so much for jobs/careers in my experience.

2 years ago

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K.M. P. Charlotte, NC

Great resource for finding colleagues & other connects from college & former workplaces. However, it is becoming more like facebook or other social media, but I appreciate hearing what everyone is up to.

4 years ago

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Nell Damascus, MD

I find it overwhelming. I do not want to log in . I receive multiple emails telling me people are looking at my connection and I don’t even know what is on there and I’m scared too look.

4 years ago

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SJ Norcross, GA

Great network but bad support for site itself. If you forget password or email address. Or change numbers for back up just know you won’t have any luck getting into the page until you have your memory back.

4 years ago

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Aaron Secaucus, NJ

Wants to be Facebook for businesspeople; Is actually MySpace for businesslesspeople. Too much effort invested into developing profile & contacts, not enough actual job opportunity.

4 years ago

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perscilla Tallahassee, FL

I like how I am able to have a lot of job options to choose from. I dislike how the website is not updated about the job listings. Overall, I have been successful at finding jobs on LinkedIn.

5 years ago

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Dee Farquharson Washington, DC

Great for finding others to network with, but finding positions and applying to them is a bit of a clunky interface. Also, there's a premium edition. It may be better, but I'm not going to pay for it.

6 years ago

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Ron Durfey Pleasant Grove, UT

Just landed a new job because of LinkedIn and the help I received from their service and my connections. Use them all the time. Unfortunately, the cost is way too high to use for too long.

7 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Bryan Peterson Herriman, UT

I have a linked in account where I have made a lot of connections. There are a few that I will be reaching out to as i begin a new job search later this year

3 years ago

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Abby Bostick Groton, MA

I have a LinkedIn account but have not used many of it's features because it seems like you have to pay for everything. As a free service, I don't find it very useful.

4 years ago

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sharon denise lowe ,

didnt understand the concept people were finding me i thought this was a job site i dont like how my information is world wide and people i didnt want to find me found me

4 years ago

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Joe Khawaja Minneapolis, MN

LinkedIn has become very commercial. Instead of networking, professional development and jobs it’s focus is increasing on unnecessary solicitation of sales and marketing.

5 years ago

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Tiffany I Gaithersburg, MD

For job opportunities I wouldn’t necessarily go to LinkedIn. Recruiters do reach out often but I would use a better site if I was seriously job hunting.

5 years ago

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Nathan D. Warrendale, PA

Linkedin is a great place for business to connect with people looking for employment, sometimes you get messages for jobs you are not interested in or qualified for, however.

6 years ago

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Katie W-V Phoenix, AZ

I find they send me potential contacts of people I don’t know quite often and I receive a lot of spam from paid accounts.

4 years ago

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Tara Jones Orem, UT

Linkedin is great for recruiting higher level, skilled positions. Entry and mid level hiring is done much better and much cheaper through Workable.

6 years ago

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Sara Jane Crestwood, KY

Did not get as many qualified applicants through the job search posting as with other sites.

7 years ago

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Anna Toth Minneapolis, MN

Not overly easy to use, dislike feature I’d notify when searched, and limits for paid vs unpaid memberships

4 years ago

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Jennifer Salt Lake City, UT

I have never found a job that I am interested in on Linkedin. It's more for networking, not finding open opportunities.

4 years ago

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Jon Posey Riverton, UT

I like LinkedIn for jobs, especially since you can see people who currently work there, I think that is very helpful.

6 years ago

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Amber C Frey San Diego, CA

I've never found LinkedIn to be very useful. The site feels a little busy and I've never found a job through them.

7 years ago

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Tony's Babygirl Staton MO

Great engine for someone deep searching for work, covers lots of regions.

2 years ago

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Kristen Smith Corpus Christi, TX

I have gotten nothing from this service many looks but not a single job.complicated website

3 years ago Edited January 17, 2023

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Aaron Cooper Houston, TX

Ability to see open position in my area of expertise The website isn't particularly inituitve

4 years ago

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boscoe16 Ladson, SC

Not great to navigate for searches. Lots of clutter and redirecting. Overall okay.

5 years ago

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Kayla Dison Birmingham, MI

i like linkedin but i think the site could be modified for easier search when looking to hire

5 years ago

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MissHmong95 Utica, MI

Not too bad but I rather go with ziprecriters. Not too much information on this app.

5 years ago

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amy rex ,

I find the site a little confusing to navigate. I set alerts, but they don't seem to work.

5 years ago

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Shanna South Jordan, UT

I had to use LinkedIn once for a job application. Now I get emails all the time, super annoying

7 years ago

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Spencer Cottle Orem, UT

Useful sometimes but not everyone updates their profiles so can be ambiguous.

4 years ago

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Kari Fisher Ogden, UT

I have updated my profile several times and keep getting e-mails.

4 years ago

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Q Kelly Hallandale, FL

I have never received a job offer through this group

4 years ago

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