Importance of LinkedIn

[BobButtons]

I'm about to start law school at 38. 

For a number of reasons, I deleted my LinkedIn profile in January. 

I am wondering if that was a huge mistake. How important is LinkedIn when applying for legal jobs, including 1L/2L summer jobs, clerkships, and articling? Should I be trying to rebuild my old network from my past lives in banking and acting, or is that not really going to matter? 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. 

[Ramesses]

I don't have Linkedin and I got a summer job and articles. With that said, Linkedin is important to stay in touch with people and with changes in the industry. Recruiters also use it to contact you once you start practicing. Also, your banking contacts may be worth keeping in touch with depending on the area of law you want to practice.

[GoBigOrGoHome]

There are a lot of summer jobs posted on Linkedin that you probably wouldn't come across otherwise. While I abhor what Linkedin has turned into since the pandemic (facebook) - I still keep my account active because it is really the go-to for a lot of job postings.  

[PzabbytheLawyer]

On 4/13/2022 at 6:16 PM, Ramesses said:

I don't have Linkedin and I got a summer job and articles. With that said, Linkedin is important to stay in touch with people and with changes in the industry. Recruiters also use it to contact you once you start practicing. Also, your banking contacts may be worth keeping in touch with depending on the area of law you want to practice.

Banking would be fine.

But man, if you can build a practice around your theatre buds. Now that's a cool life.

Of course, if they're all starving artists, you might end up a starving lawyer. But still, probably cooler than being a banking lawyer.*

*caveat being that I found the day to day of an insolvency file quite intellectually fun actually

[Turtles]

My 1L Recruit experience included an explicit lesson on the importance of using LinkedIn in building your brand and network.

[Psychometronic]

I didn't make a Linkedin account until after I graduated and secured articles. It's a nice-to-have, not a must have. 

For OCIs and other recruitment-based jobs and clerkships, you don't need a Linkedin. The information will come to you through your school. Linkedin is helpful if you strike out on the recruit and need to job hunt beyond that. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Psychometronic

[123]

Okay, but if you don’t have LinkedIn, how will I look you up and silently judge you, if you happen to email me?!

[Ramesses]

12 minutes ago, realpseudonym said:

Okay, but if you don’t have LinkedIn, how will I look you up and silently judge you, if you happen to email me?!

That's exactly the reason why I don't have it haha.

Edited April 16, 2022 by Ramesses

[Ruthless4Life]

2 hours ago, realpseudonym said:

Okay, but if you don’t have LinkedIn, how will I look you up and silently judge you, if you happen to email me?!

That’s exactly why I have linkedin - to show all the bling bling cases I’ve worked on - and the endless status updates showing that I’m able to push out 10 articles a day for the PR department on the latest developments on the law, and all those #BetterCallRuthless4Life hashtags everywhere to find me.

[BobButtons]

22 hours ago, PzabbytheLawyer said:

Banking would be fine.

But man, if you can build a practice around your theatre buds. Now that's a cool life.

Of course, if they're all starving artists, you might end up a starving lawyer. But still, probably cooler than being a banking lawyer.*

*caveat being that I found the day to day of an insolvency file quite intellectually fun actually

Lol. 

When I resigned from my agency for film and television, they 100% pitched me on getting into entertainment law. It's certainly something I'll be looking into while at school, although I suspect my interests will ultimately lead me Ina different direction. 

Here's the thing though - I don't actually find most actors all that great to hang out with. There's an excessive amount of flakiness, and everyone pretends like you're going to be family forever and promptly looses touch when the project is over. 

One of the reasons I decided to leave the business was that I felt like I hadn't found my people. I have a few very close friends from theatre, but none of them stayed in the profession. It's like we all woke up one day and realized we could buy things with money 😛

(or rather, to be more serious, that we wanted to do something with more meaning and impact. Not that a good piece of theatre or film can't be meaningful, but truly impacting people's lives through such pursuits is far more rare than many within the profession would claim. Most of it is just entertainment or advertising, and that's fine but it's not for me). 

Edited April 16, 2022 by BobButtons
More content needed

[PzabbytheLawyer]

1 hour ago, BobButtons said:

Lol. 

When I resigned from my agency for film and television, they 100% pitched me on getting into entertainment law. It's certainly something I'll be looking into while at school, although I suspect my interests will ultimately lead me Ina different direction. 

Here's the thing though - I don't actually find most actors all that great to hang out with. There's an excessive amount of flakiness, and everyone pretends like you're going to be family forever and promptly looses touch when the project is over. 

One of the reasons I decided to leave the business was that I felt like I hadn't found my people. I have a few very close friends from theatre, but none of them stayed in the profession. It's like we all woke up one day and realized we could buy things with money 😛

(or rather, to be more serious, that we wanted to do something with more meaning and impact. Not that a good piece of theatre or film can't be meaningful, but truly impacting people's lives through such pursuits is far more rare than many within the profession would claim. Most of it is just entertainment or advertising, and that's fine but it's not for me). 

 

Your analysis is well measured and knowledgeable. It's obviously not much to go off of, but I suspect your legal analysis will follow suit too.

Certainly, explore options. But on a genuine note, unless you're looking to work in government, at a clinic, in an NGO/the UN, etc, law is highly entrepreneurial. That you have this many years in two different industries, with the contacts that go with it, will help you should you ever decide to build a client base in those fields.

I've found LinkedIn helpful not mostly to get jobs, but to build my network around niches I like and meet/connect with people I wouldn't have otherwise. It's a bit random, but it can be helpful in the long run. Similar to any marketing effort.

I'd say bring it back but focus your efforts on law school, finding jobs, etc. That's not to say you can't find jobs through LinkedIn, but there are many other avenues for you to do that while in law school.

[CheeseToast]

On 4/15/2022 at 1:04 PM, Turtles said:

My 1L Recruit experience included an explicit lesson on the importance of using LinkedIn in building your brand and network.

Mine was the exact opposite.