What you need to know about LinkedIn is an article that shows and shares practical experience with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an American platform made for people searching for jobs. According to different statistics, it has 1 billion users( LinkedIn report). While other platforms like Market Biz and others indicate 1.5 billion, others indicate 1.2 billion. These different figures give an indication of the reliability of these data. See Figure 1, users’ distribution worldwide infograph.
Here, I show what you need to know about LinkedIn users and statistics. As per LinkedIn, data 1 billion users worldwide, divided into 200 countries. The majority of these users come from the USA, Europe, Asia, and limited Middle East. Premium users: 175 million worldwide, 67 million business profiles.And 447 million users from the USA, Canada, Brazil, the UK, France, Italy, Mexico, India, and China. That counts 50% of LinkedIn users.
Also, what you need to know about LinkedIn is that it’s a USA creation. Built by USA entrepreneurs mainly who fit the USA culture, context, and social mentality. It’s a brilliant platform for likewise USA culture. Surely European countries, Latin America. The Middle East, and specifically the Gulf region (UAE and Saudi Arabia), is a different culture. Users are 3,170,000 million and 3,360,000 users distributed between all premium, free users, and business accounts.
This data shows that the LinkedIn platform doesn’t fit the Arabian culture. In this article, I will focus on the Gulf region, specifically the Emirates. Before I dive in, let’s have a quick look at the general idea about LinkedIn and how it works.
What you need to know about LinkedIn is that it’s a full personal portfolio of users searching for a job. A bio about the person’s career as an introduction. The qualification section includes what he obtained from his education. Skill sections include the soft and hard skills that the users have. The experience section includes all the current and previous summary work and time. What he obtained in the training and development certificates section. Language and interest are also another section. Finally, the references section.LinkedIn expects a full profile from the user.
Here what you need to know about LinkedIn in practice, as follows: ( the behavior of companies on LinkedIn). Opening a profile on LinkedIn (full) is not enough and will not guarantee a person will land a job. When a firm posts a job opening, read it carefully in detail. Firms tend to take an applicant who fits exactly 100% The job Description. But even this will not guarantee landing a job. Because some firms are silly and not normal, they might segregate your application based on another reason.
From my personal experience, I have used LinkedIn for more than 20 yours. I have applied once to an urban planner job at the Parsons firm. You will not imagine that the firm kept this job open for application for more than one year. The number of applicants exceeded 10000. They did not find even one from them. Why did they not employ one from the United States?
Many of the 67 million business profiles use their profile on LinkedIn to promote their services. You will get lots of contacts from people in sales and marketing for different services. With my previous premium profile, I used to get messages from sales of cars, bank loans, and property brokers. Mainly, these B2C people look for users of high position because of their higher income.
Why do you find people on LinkedIn that published a job opening for a long period? I have seen lots of these behaviors and track the profile holders. When I check these people working as a group, there was a hidden activity behind that. They collect CVs, for example, for jobs in architecture and construction. After a small period, they all need to do is open a License costs $2000and a website $,150 /year. Like this, many of these kinds became recruiters and started selling their CVs (the good ones) to firms. For every successful applicant, they take 10 to 20% of their yearly salary.
All users on LinkedIn, especially the premium (They are serious), are permanently looking for a job. And on LinkedIn, getting a job takes time because the recruiters have thousands of options. They do not make a decision very fast. LinkedIn does not consider whether someone has been out of a job for a long time or is changing a company. In some cases, companies hire someone from outside the LinkedIn circle, while an applicant waits for several months without noticing.
Has anyone in the world known how LinkedIn works (employer account)? What do you need to know about LinkedIn? Is it a robot? Number one, it will search the CVs after applicants apply to a job opening. Even replays are system replies. Have you imagined how the Google search engine works? An employer specifies a couple of keywords in his account to search LinkedIn profiles. For example, lead architect, western educated, 10 years’ experience, AIA certified, and so on. In this way, let’s say he gets 100 CVs.In the second round, he increases the number of keywords. In the last round, for instance, 10 applicants to choose from.
The idea here is that many get excited because they reach the final round even without knowing it happened. The robot, based on the firm selection, set the number of keywords, let’s say lead architect, in the last round. The CVs that have, for example, 20 times lead architect will get to reach the final round and get read.
Now, let’s return to the contradiction of LinkedIn, doing simple calculations. Firms that research LinkedIn performance say on LinkedIn, 6 people get hired every second.
- 6 applicants per second.
- 21,600 applicants per hour get hired
If we consider that companies work 8 hours a day, that means.
- 21,600 X 8 = 172,800 applicants get hired in a day
Now, almost all firms in the world work 26 days a month, so a year
- 26 X 12 = 312 days of work without excluding holidays
Holidays in the Middle East and the Gulf region are 14 days. So the number of applicants getting hired in a year will be :
- 172,800 X 312 = 53,913,600 million worldwide applicants get hired in a year.
As per LinkedIn Figure the premium users in 2025 reached 175 million profiles. So if we consider that all these are job hunters, then :
- 175 /53,913,600 = 3.24 year
These 175 million users searching for a job will get hired full after 3.24 years time. Based on that, an applicant at the very least will stay in employment for more than 4 months.
This is not rational and against logic. This shows the lies and dull of the online data and statistics.
I have worked in the Arab Gulf, more than 20 years. I never got employed from LinkedIn (premium user). LinkedIn publication focuses on the references on the profile, even that will not guarantee employment. I got employed through the references of my friends, colleagues, and previous employers. And a human resource Specialist in the USA mentioned that in their publications. For example, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters book authors Jay Conrad and David Perry said It’s a myth that someone on LinkedIn will refer you to their employer. Even if you make as much contact, why should someone you don’t know in another company refer you?
Throughout my career in the Gulf region, I worked in multinational firms. After employment, they asked me to refer someone I know. For instance, a German company asked for a senior mechanical engineer (which I don’t have). I asked them why you don’t get one from online or from your website? They said we don’t hire, but only by reference from the company.
A mixed nationality firm, working on mega projects in the Gulf region, asked me to refer senior architects. At that time, all I knew we’re employed, and I asked them, Why don’t you employ from online? They said we employ by reference only from inside the company. A joint venture company I also worked with was looking for senior architects I told them I don’t have. I asked the managing director why you don’t employ from online. They said we have an account with a local recruitment company? But we prefer by reference from inside.
I have worked in the Middle East and specifically, the Gulf region, for more than 20 years. I realized from my 20 years of experience there that an applicant must consider several things when he is searching for a job. Nationality and qualification. Second, professional licenses like RIBA and AIA, etc. And work experience in large-scale companies. Also, soft and hard skills. In addition to language, strength, writing skills, interpersonal skills, and proper behavior.
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