Roundtable Video

Is It A Red Flag If A Candidate Does Not Have LinkedIn?

Show Summary

Social media has blown up over the last decade with LinkedIn topping the charts on the professional side. But if a candidate doesn’t have a LinkedIn page, should hiring managers be concerned?
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Transcript
Matt Lewers: Hello and welcome to the Blueprint Round Table. I’m your host, Matt Lewers, joined by Krissy Micromanage-Manzano, and Emily Closing Bell. Blueprint Round Table’s, an ongoing series with our team, and occasional guest. In each session, we typically ask the team a simple question related to trends in recruiting talent, and go to market for discussion and debate.

Matt Lewers: This week’s question, and Emily, we’re gonna go to you first. Is it a red flag if a candidate does not have LinkedIn? The clock starts now.

Emily Bell: Yes.

Matt Lewers: Okay.

Emily Bell: Here’s why.

Krissy Manzano: Just think about it. Think about it.

Emily Bell: Totally appreciate the, like, angst that comes to social media. I don’t post a ton outside of it aside of like LinkedIn professionally, right? Like I just don’t really engage much with it. Like I’ll post like random pictures, but I totally get it. I’ve tweeted twice ever in my life. So I understand being against social media, however, when you are it’s a professional profile, so it’s really there. I think as like a way to basically say what’s on my resume is true because it’s publicly facing.

Emily Bell: And if it’s not true, someone, somewhere’s gonna know. Right. So it’s a really great way to kind of prove, like what you’re saying on your resume is fact. At the very least, you’ve worked at a certain place for a certain time and that’s proving it. Right. So it is a red flag. It’s a red flag for almost every employer that I’ve ever talked to on on the recruiting side.

Emily Bell: It is just, for whatever reason, it really freaks people out. So, and I think it’s because there’s just no checks and balances available and like, you wanna be able to trust people and you wanna know, like, believe what they’re telling you is true. But, you know, there’s bad eggs out there and they ruin it for all of us.

Emily Bell: No, I’m just kidding. But yeah, I think have the profile, keep it basic at the very minimum if, and then just have it out there. You don’t even have to have your own personal picture on it if you’re worried about potential biases coming into play. Like age bias is one of the reasons why sometimes individuals don’t have a LinkedIn profile, but you know, put a picture of your dog or your favorite vacation spot. You don’t have to have it be you know? So, Krissy, what do you think?

Krissy Manzano: I mean, I don’t know that I would call it a red flag. I would call it yellow, and I’ll tell you why. I think it depends

Emily Bell: That was not an option.

Krissy Manzano: Well, I think it depends on what industry you’re in. Like when we used to work at Motive, right? Like half the people we were trying to call to sell to, or you all were even calling or the other teams were calling didn’t have LinkedIn, right? Because that industry didn’t have that. Or if you look at contractors who have done contract work and been all over, like they don’t have that there.

Krissy Manzano: I definitely think it’s a question worth asking, right. Now, or let’s say like someone just graduated from college. I don’t know what colleges are doing today and maybe, I don’t know how much they’re talking about. Like, you need to have a LinkedIn profile.

Krissy Manzano: My my college was all about like, you know, your Facebook and they’re gonna print it off and now it’s like, no. Like, but I just, you know, I think it just depends on the industry, like in tech and in SaaS, like absolutely. I can see why someone would wanna understand, like, why do you not have one?

Krissy Manzano: Right. But I guess my initial view of like just trying to not assume bad intent from someone I don’t know. Cause I don’t like things. that are like, okay, if you don’t have this, this equals X, right? Like, this makes you this when I’ve never met you, I’ve never talked to you. And so I’m gonna just say like, you should still have a conversation or just like dig it as a recruiter, right?

Krissy Manzano: Like on our side we can ask that, Hey, why don’t you have a LinkedIn? And I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but I feel like I’ve asked people that before and there were like some legitimate reasons. So I’m just always more about like, be curious.

Emily Bell: Witness protection. I’m kidding. I’m kidding.

Krissy Manzano: Well, I can’t say honestly I feel like there was a woman once that didn’t have one and she told me why. And I’m like, spacing on what the reason was. But anyways, all that, and maybe I just remember it being valid, but I just feel like, you know, be curious versus assuming bad intent. Like if they have all the things that you’re looking for on paper, like have that conversation before dismissing it. But I would say yellow for sure ,in some ca, depending on the industry red flag. But it is a common thing to where I think if you don’t have one, get one. It takes two seconds. You don’t have to put, well, actually I think it’s, I think it’s more of a red flag if you don’t have a picture, to be honest with you.

Krissy Manzano: Like, I think that’s kind of weird. And if you’re concerned with age bias, like Emily said, put a picture of your dog or something, but like, don’t look like a bot. You know what I mean? Like a fake profile. So, but

Matt Lewers: Yeah. Interesting. Good points of view. Yeah, I think I hear both sides. I definitely think in our industry it’s definitely heavy orange, if not red flag for the majority of hiring managers

Emily Bell: Oh, new color.

Matt Lewers: Right? Yeah. Like when you’re going out in the ocean to play and it’s like, purple means jellyfish, orange means undertow, we’ll drag you out to Argentina.

Matt Lewers: That’s kinda where I got that But, do think in our, yeah, in our, quote me on the quotes, I think in our industry where we live, I think it is. I do see it being more of a red flag. But to Krissy’s point, like there’s all kinds of industries out there where LinkedIn’s not common. I’ve talked to multiple candidates recently that don’t have linked.

Matt Lewers: When I speak with them, you know, I trust what they’re saying, right? Trust but verify. I can’t verify without LinkedIn, but I do get the sense by the way they’re able to describe their experience that it’s real and relevant. But unfortunately, most hiring managers are gonna want to see a LinkedIn in the SaaS tech world.

Matt Lewers: And if, and I’ll be upfront with a candidate in that scenario and say, Hey, you need to have LinkedIn to be able to move forward, especially if it’s a part of their recruiting or multi-threading tactic, not recruiting, their prospecting or multi-threading tactics. Right. And I’ve had several candidates that have created LinkedIns just for that.

Matt Lewers: And then I’ve had other people say, I’m not gonna do it. And I say, well, unfortunately, you know, that kind of concludes this call. Which is not always

Krissy Manzano: Why do they not have LinkedIn though? Have they told you, like, have you found any valid reasons?

Matt Lewers: uh, No. Well, one was, one woman was coming from basically like retail. And moving into a SaaS org. So kudos to that SaaS org for taking those type of candidate conversations. And she put a LinkedIn together the same day and sent it over to me and I gave her some feedback and then she was live.

Matt Lewers: And then another individual I spoke to, probably about a month ago, just said that he had it, but he never used it and he got tired of it and was trying to remove all of his data from public access, and so he just doesn’t have it anymore. But what made it key for me, and I’m glad you asked the question, Krissy, what made it key for me is he volunteered three references for his three most previous companies.

Matt Lewers: And so for me, the references could offset not having LinkedIn, right?

Krissy Manzano: Yeah.

Emily Bell: That’s really good point. I think it, it’s definitely like the, when I’ve asked it, it’s more of a red flag when you ask why, and there’s a sense, like you get the sense that the person’s uncomfortable with the question. It’s like, in this day and age, if you choose not to have one, that’s fine. But be prepared for people to ask why and have a really good like, conversation about it.

Emily Bell: You know, don’t go in with defensiveness. I think if you understand, especially in this market from a tech sales standpoint, like people are going to expect you to have one, and if you don’t expect to be asked about it and have a really great reason why, or a confidence in your explaining why.

Emily Bell: And like you said, Matt, I mean having those proactive offer for, you know, letters of recommendation or connecting with people. I mean, it’s a super simple way to kind of get around it and it not being an issue. But when there’s like a sense of defensiveness, that’s when I’m like hmm.

Krissy Manzano: And that’s a good point too, because, you know, one of the, I feel like from an interview standpoint, people set up questions or views on things of assuming that everyone you talk to is gonna be a liar, somewhat of a sociopath. And, you know, is gonna just do all these things, right? And let me tell you something, the people or was a bad
performer, right?

Krissy Manzano: They had it so easy where like all the, I don’t want people where all the sales were just coming into them. By the way, let me know where that organization is. I’d love to like go there one day. I’ve not met an organization yet where sales just rolled in. I don’t know where that place is, but I’d love to know.

Krissy Manzano: You know, side note, just DM me on LinkedIn. But we set that up. It’s like when people do bad or they had a bad exper or they were the problem at a company, it’s actually pretty easy to tell when you have a conversation with them. Like they’re not, I think people think that we’re, again, a sociopath is like an amazing liar and has no conscience, and that’s why they can lie so easily.

Krissy Manzano: But if you have your questions set up for the normal person, like literally 98, 90 9% of the time, you’re gonna be able to figure out. And very easily, you know, I’m able to go, okay, this was something that this person was the problem, right? And the reason that it’s easy, you all, is because that individual normally doesn’t have the self-awareness to know they’re the problem.

Krissy Manzano: So they’re willing to like share some of the information with you. Like, yeah, this manager was awful and this manager was awful, you know, and they thought I had an attitude problem, and I didn’t think so. Like, they’ll say stuff like that because they are so not self-aware, that’s why they’re a problem.

Krissy Manzano: They don’t have that self-awareness. You know, you don’t need to, I’m just saying that more piggybacking from what Emily said.

Matt Lewers: Looking me as you say it. I don’t know how I feel

Emily Bell: Oh, she’s me. She’s actually describing you.

Matt Lewers: Did she just slack you my name? Is that what’s happening?

Matt Lewers: Anyway, so we’ll let you off the hook, Krissy, this is good. Thank you both. Those were good good counterpoints. I think this is a very valid discussion, especially in a remote first world where some people are likely trying to have multiple jobs and collect W2s from multiple employers, in which case they probably would remove themselves from LinkedIn.

Matt Lewers: Right. I think that’s very real possibility. So this is a timely, relevant topic and maybe we’ll re-address it a year from now.

Krissy Manzano: Yes. Maybe our opinions will change. Don’t hold us to it.

Matt Lewers: Awesome. Thank you.

Krissy Manzano: Bye y’all.

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Our focus is currently North America, but we’ve also worked with tremendous people in APAC, LATAM, and EMEA. If you have needs in these regions (whether you are based in North America or elsewhere), we want to hear from you!
What roles do you recruit?
Our team superbly recruits for any roles within go-to-market (GTM) functions, including:

  • Customer Success: Standard, Senior, and Principal Customer Success Managers, Onboarding Specialists, Implementation Managers, Community, Customer Support, & Solutions Architects
  • Marketing: Growth & Demand Generation Marketing, ABM, Events, and Content / SEO Marketing
  • Sales: Sales Development, SMB, Commercial, Mid-Market, Enterprise, and Strategic Account Executives
  • Account Management
  • Revenue Operations and Enablement: Marketing, CS, and Sales Operations
  • Solutions Engineering and Post-Sales Solutions Architects
  • GTM Leadership: Front-line, second-line, VP, and SVP / C Level placements (CRO, CMO, COO)
I've worked with so many headhunters and recruiting firms. What makes you different?

Put simply, we aspire to be as proficient in articulating your business value prop as your internal employees. Exceptional talent does not want to speak with “head-hunters;” instead, they want to connect with educated ambassadors of your business and your brand about meaningful career opportunities.

We go deep on your business and into talent markets to foster connections that other recruiting firms tend to miss. And we work with our hiring clients to ensure excellence in their hiring process. Please reach out to us for more information!

Is SaaS experience important when hiring?

Hmm, what does this mean anyhow?! We recommend defining the skills and behaviors sought before running a search rather than using buzzwords or phrases from other people’s job descriptions. We help employees go beyond acronyms to ensure they develop robust job descriptions that tie to specific candidate profiles for targeting in the market. Need help? Let us know!