My Career Journal

OK so I finally spent a real full day on LinkedIn and honestly? It's overwhelming huge incredible how much is in here. 900 million people. ← wow I set up my profile, browsed the job board (apparently 8 people get hired every minute??), poked around Sales Navigator, sent an InMail, took a Learning course on negotiation, and scrolled the feed for like an hour.

The feed is where I got annoyed though. So much garbage AI-generated stuff now. ← ugh Like, half the posts feel fake. And the premium stuff — $29.99/mo just to see who viewed your profile?? ← really? But I can't deny it — this is the one platform that does everything. Revenue apparently hit $13 billion last year. It's not going anywhere.

Verdict: The essential one. Even when it's annoying.

Tried Indeed + Glassdoor today. Took an hour 30 minutes like 15 minutes. ← so fast!

Here's the thing — there's nothing to explore. No profiles, no feed, no networking, no learning. You type what job you want, it shows you jobs. You apply. That's it. 350 million people do this every month and I totally get why.

The Glassdoor part is the secret weapon though. ← THIS I looked up the company I was applying to and found the actual salary range, real employee reviews, and even the interview questions they ask. LinkedIn would NEVER show me that. ← 👀

Zero social life. Zero content. Zero networking. But when I needed a job? Nothing was faster. And it was completely free.

OK this one surprised me. Wellfound (used to be AngelList Talent). 8 million users, 150K+ startups. ← small but

Here's what blew my mind: every single job listing shows the salary AND the equity. ← !!!! Right there. On the page. No guessing, no "competitive compensation," no BS. Just the actual numbers. I've literally never seen this anywhere else never.

I messaged a founder directly. Like, THE founder. Got a reply in 2 hours. That would never happen on LinkedIn — you'd need Recruiter or InMail or premium or whatever.

The catch? Only startups. If you want a corporate job, this place doesn't exist. But if startups are your thing? This is the most honest platform I've ever used.

Last one. Meetup + Lunchclub. And this was different weird the most human thing I've done all week. ← real talk

I went to an actual Meetup event. In person. At a coffee shop. 48 million people across 190 countries do this. 2 million events a year. Lunchclub's AI matched me 1:1 with someone — a designer who turned out to have the exact skill set my side project needed.

There were no profiles to optimize. No algorithms. No content to post. No premium tiers. Just twelve strangers sitting in a circle, introducing themselves.

I spent three days staring at screens. And on the fourth day, I put my phone down, walked into a room, and shook someone's hand. ← THIS is it

LinkedIn is the journal. This was the life it was writing about.