[sgerenser]

My current compensation is more than 4x what it was at my first job out of college 14 years ago. It would have been difficult to pull that off without getting in touch with recruiters at major tech companies on LinkedIn.

I did not have an expert write my profile and in fact I’ve hardly touched it in years.

[greggyb]

So is mine, and none of it is due to LinkedIn.

My most recent job search consisted entirely of friendly intros (most by colleagues at the hiring manager level) at a mix of startups and major tech companies. I have met these people through the normal course of business and life, and never through LinkedIn.

Maybe I'm special, because I've spent my career in tech consulting, so I got to network that way, but this is hardly a unique career path.

[sgerenser]

I think people that already live in tech hubs or are just in a position to network in person certainly don’t need LinkedIn as much as I did to get introductions to the major tech companies. For me, living in a smaller market and working for a small company it would be very difficult (not impossible) for me to have broken in without a LinkedIn introduction.

[verdverm]

How does it compare to industry average today?

Those numbers are highly tied to an independent event (your first salary, you could be a better negotiator today) and have been changed by inflation

[sgerenser]

My initial salary was pretty low, I started at a small company in a small market not near any tech hubs. But like I said, I think it would have been hard to network my way up without LinkedIn. All of my peers were making about what I was.

[piva00]

Inflation in a developed country for the past 14 years would account very very little for a 400% increase in salary.

[verdverm]

Yes but that plus 14 years of experience will add up to at least half if not most, super depends on that starting number. But really a comparison to today's numbers is most telling