Why everyone you know wants to become a LinkedIn influencer

Scrolling my way out of a career slump

I hate to admit that for almost 15 years, my presence on LinkedIn was next to nothing. As I worked hard across different fields (like journalism, PR, events, social media), earned accolades, and climbed the corporate ladder, LinkedIn remained merely an afterthought. Like most older millennials, I grew up at a time when social media wasn’t around. Adoption, therefore, at least for professional reasons, took a while for me. In the first decade of my career, LinkedIn just wasn’t a priority—not for job-seekers like myself, nor recruiters.

Then a few years ago, after working full-time as a PR and communications professional, I went independent. I decided I wanted to bet on myself and give the freelance life a go. That’s when things changed and I began to consider LinkedIn in a new way.

For the first year and a half, I got lucky. I did not have to pitch for any work. I put out the word (through social media along with my personal network) that I was open to freelance opportunities, and they just fell into my lap. People who knew or had worked with me asked me to consult with them or referred me to others, and the ball kept rolling. I was grateful every day, and excited for Mondays, rather than experiencing the weekly Sunday dread.

Then my luck ran out. After about 18 months, suddenly work dried up, budgets all around were reduced, and I found myself with far more free time than I’d like. This was the downside of the freelance life. So last year, I started taking LinkedIn seriously, posting about projects, commenting on posts, engaging with industry content. My aim now is to get back into full-time employment after almost three years of being independent. I miss working with teams towards a shared goal, I miss the stability and comfort of a monthly paycheck, and the itch to climb the so-called corporate ladder is back.

And here’s how it’s going for me so far.

In the job-search trenches

I now spend more time on LinkedIn than on Instagram, most of it spent looking to network and find new work or job leads. However, with almost 18 years under my belt, suitable opportunities that truly make sense for my career are few and far between. Nowadays, I log on just to feel less miserable when yet another lead goes cold—you can count on at least five to 10 people complaining about this terrifying job market on the platform on any given day. On some days, it feels like a community and on some, like we’re all lamenting into an abyss.

As it turns out, I’m not the only one spending all my time on LinkedIn. Half a dozen friends who are in the throes of job hunting said they spend between one to four hours a day on the job site. Reports seem to confirm this growth in usage: LinkedIn’s registered users apparently grew from about 850 million in early 2023 to over 1 billion users by 2025, globally. India is LinkedIn’s second-largest market, growing to 150 million registered users by early 2025, up from around 120 million two years ago.

“I’m looking for anything really—job opportunities, career anecdotes from others in my field, commentary or updates about the brand I work with,” says 28-year-old Mumbai-based brand manager, Sara Mehta*. A crumbling job market means people feel compelled to keep their eyes peeled for any available opportunities, because the reality is grim. Official sources cite unemployment in India has risen from 4.5% in early 2023, to 5.6% in mid 2025, with many experts believing that the actual numbers are far higher.

But the question remains: is all this scrolling actually helping anyone get work?

So does LinkedIn work?

The answer appears to be a mixed bag. People like Mehta and 37-year-old writer, Leela Maan*, from Hyderabad, have indeed found work on the platform. “The last job I got was purely via LinkedIn—I saw a job post, applied for it and the rest is history,” says Maan. Mehta concurs, “I actually found my current job through a LinkedIn post, while I was endlessly scrolling on the app. I reached out to the poster on the platform and before I knew it, the opportunity had converted.” Forty-year-old communications specialist Ritu Ghosh* from Delhi, on the other hand, feels it’s next to impossible. “I’ve been working for 18 years and only one person I know has ever got a job through the platform,” she says.

But whether you find immediate value in it or not, it seems that having a presence on the job site can’t hurt—and indeed, only helps—your chances of finding work. Career coach and entrepreneur, Lochan Narayanan says, “LinkedIn today is the primary place where recruiters are actively scouting for candidates. Having zero presence there can even lead to recruiters rejecting your candidature because it could point to a lack of network, an unverifiable resume, or a lack of initiative.”

In today’s world, recruiters are not only looking at your CV and portfolio; your digital footprint is just as crucial as it gives them a holistic overview of you as a candidate and as a person. And, for better or worse, it starts with LinkedIn.

Is LinkedIn now Instagram?

So it’s clear that LinkedIn cannot and will not be ignored as a professional networking site and job board, but what about as a social media platform? Because today, the lines are blurring, and it’s not uncommon to find people sharing memes and striving to become LinkedIn ‘influencers’. (You know the ones: “what my morning chai taught me about leadership” or “I saved a dog on the way to an interview and the dog happened to be my interviewer”?)

And just like any other social media, here too, the algorithm is hard at work. Spend enough time on LinkedIn and you’ll soon see a pattern of posts being served to you. On any given day, my feed includes a few genuine hiring posts among multiple job searchers lamenting about being ghosted by recruiters, too many scam posts urging users to comment “Interested” if they want a job at Google or want to emigrate to Sweden (!), at least three seething writers offended that their pieces were flagged as AI because of an em dash, and ads. So many ads. From making your resume ATS-proof to how to ace interviews, you’re constantly encouraged to spend money to earn money.

Bengaluru-based tech entrepreneur, Anand Patel*, 35, says, “Sometimes it feels like the recruiters are simply fishing for data, claiming to be a large company. They then recommend other companies which are not related to your profession or something that you will not be interested in at all.”

That’s not to say it’s all bad. There are a few entrepreneurs, industry leaders and communications professionals I follow who are spitting facts every day, like my ex-boss, Pushkaraj Shenai, Group CEO Kedaara Healthcare, or younger entrepreneurs like Pranay Swarup, and industry pages like Agency Reporter. Following these accounts keeps me informed and makes me want to be better at what I do.

Essentially, as with any other social media platform, you have to train your LinkedIn algorithm to find people, topics and resources that inspire you and help you make the most of your time on it.

How to train the dragon

According to Narayanan, the key to finding a job through LinkedIn is to lean into your professional experience and engage with content that is relevant to your industry. She offered some tips:

Focus on building genuine connections. For example, don’t send a connection request and immediately follow it up with asking for a referral. Instead, have real curiosity about their work, build a rapport, and then clearly and thoughtfully seek the help you require.

Write and engage with good content. It is also a useful space to learn from others’ perspectives and share yours. Stay away from click bait content or plagiarising others’ content.

Freshers should focus on demonstrating accountability and personality. Showcase your authentic voice (avoid the use of excessive adjectives), share the work you’ve done or are inspired by. And remember to tailor your CV and cover letter to each job you apply to—a small hack that goes a long way.

Experienced folks should focus on demonstrating expertise along with the ability to continue to learn and adapt. Showcase your work, quantify your achievements in real numbers (note to self), and highlight the kind of employee and/or leader you would be.

In today’s economic climate, relying on a single avenue to get work is unwise, in my opinion. Instead, I think of LinkedIn as my wider-net platform—a place to document and showcase and easily share my portfolio and achievements, as well as survey and engage with the job market. I simultaneously make sure I stay visible on other platforms (like Instagram), and pay even more attention to building, nurturing and relying on my own network. Job hunting can feel excruciating, so you have to stack the odds in your favour.