Commentary: Do we all need LinkedIn now?

There was a time when you could apply for a job by handing someone a resume. You walked into a business. You spoke to a person. You introduced yourself. Your skills mattered. Your attitude mattered. Your character mattered.

Now it often feels like none of that matters unless you also have a LinkedIn profile. And not just any profile. A polished profile. A branded profile. One with endorsements, activity, and the right digital posture. In some industries, the first question is no longer who are you, but do you have LinkedIn.

Some job applications stop you mid process and request a link to your profile as if it is a required credential. They do not ask if you want one. They assume you have one. They assume you understand the unwritten rules of an online system that was never mandatory until it suddenly was.

This shift is not limited to large cities or corporate hubs. It is happening in smaller communities as well, where people still expect hiring to involve a conversation, not a digital identity test.

LinkedIn started as a networking tool. It has quietly become a gatekeeper. Not because the platform is inherently bad, but because we allowed a private system to become a default requirement for work.
And the consequences are real.

Many people do not want LinkedIn. They do not want another social media account. They do not want to curate a brand or perform professionalism for strangers. They do not want to turn their working life into a public feed.

Some people are private.
Some are older and never needed it.
Some work in trades or hourly jobs where LinkedIn offers little value.
Some struggle with anxiety or depression that makes self promotion difficult.
Some are rebuilding their lives and are not ready to display every chapter publicly.
But the expectation is now built into hiring.

I experienced this myself while trying to rebuild my life. I was dealing with the real work of starting over. Finding stability. Staying sober. Moving forward after serious setbacks. I was not thinking about branding myself online. But employers increasingly wanted to see a digital version of me that did not exist. A version that could be neatly summarized and easily evaluated.

Talk to older workers with decades of experience. Many are screened out before anyone meets them because they lack a digital footprint. Talk to people who have gone through layoffs, caregiving, illness, or other life disruptions. LinkedIn often demands a clean narrative for lives that are anything but clean.

Talk to people with criminal records trying to rebuild. They know that once an employer looks them up online, the worst moment of their life often appears before anything else they have done to recover.
This is not really about LinkedIn. It is about the expectation that everyone must participate in a system they did not choose.

There are real consequences.
It deepens inequality.
It increases age bias.
It turns work into performance.
And it punishes people who are trying to rebuild.

Do we really want a system where getting a job feels like maintaining a public persona? Where professionalism is measured by online presence instead of real ability?

There is a better approach.

Employers can stop treating LinkedIn as mandatory. They can rely on resumes, references, and actual conversations. They can evaluate people based on their work, not their profiles.

Workers are more than digital identities. Some of the most reliable and capable people have never posted anything online.

LinkedIn should be a tool. Not a requirement. An option. Not a test.
A society that values real work should not force everyone to become a marketer just to earn a chance at a job.

Jay Werther is a graduate of Roger Williams University School of Law and lives in Utah. He writes about mental health, digital identity, recovery, bureaucracy, and modern systems.