Farewell, LinkedIn!

When I started my career, everyone told me, “You need LinkedIn!”

At the beginning, LinkedIn seemed like a new and better way to build connections, especially as an introverted person. However, my experience over the last five years has shown me that “old school” ways of connecting are much better. Those face-to-face moments help you find people who genuinely want to succeed together and filter out the noise.

The truth is, I have never actually gotten a job through LinkedIn. Most of my interviews have come from meeting people in person, applying directly on company websites, or showing up and doing real work within the community. While the brand LinkedIn has the social trust, I’ve decided to move away from it. I don’t need a platform to validate my authenticity as a developer or as another competent person.

There is also simply too much “digital noise” on the platform these days. It feels like the website rewards people for acting like performers rather than focusing on the actual work being done. For example, there is no real way to verify that someone has actually completed a certification or gained a skill unless you use their specific tools, like LinkedIn Learning.

This creates a loop where the platform cares more about its own features than the actual competence of the people using it. Plus, learning through videos has never helped me truly master a skill or find a job it made me feel like a consumer. What has genuinely helped me is the “bottom-up” approach: going to the library, grabbing a developer book, or sitting down with a manual to really understand how a system works from the ground up. The platform doesn’t value that kind of deep learning, it’s time to move on.

I’m not disappearing, though!

I am still an active member of the tech community. If you want to chat, share ideas, or work together, you can find me in our shared Slack and Discord groups, or you can visit my website at justin-bento.com to find my email. Please keep in mind that I have a strict policy of no coding after 5 PM and no work after 9 PM.

Thank you to everyone who has connected with me over the years and watched me grow. Now it’s time for me to move away from platforms that drain my energy and get back to the things that truly help me move forward.