Most professionals these days are on LinkedIn, as are companies and other organizations. It’s become a critical social media network that’s integral to networking. Not only is LinkedIn a great place to showcase your resume easily online, but it’s also a great way to meet like-minded people and also aid in your job search, or alternatively, help a recruiter find someone for a position. With all of these uses, it’s probably crossed your mind at one point or another on whether you should upgrade to LinkedIn Premium. This offer typically pops up for a free trial and you may have thought to yourself that you should go for it.
LinkedIn has so many features already as a free account, you may think you don’t need it. But let’s take a look at the various perks you get for paying a monthly fee. LinkedIn has several premium accounts: Premium Career, Premium Business and Executive. We’re only going to talk about Premium Career because we’re assuming you’re on this page as an individual, not a business looking for LinkedIn advice.
The Premium Career subscription costs $29.99/month and $24.99/month if you allow it to be billed as one annual payment (coming out at $299.88 for the year). While this may sound like a lot of money, you have to decide if the features you get for this are worth it for you personally. No two people’s answers will be the same.
Additionally, if you’re looking at LinkedIn for a temporary purpose (such as a job search or looking to connect with a specific group of people) it may be worth it to spend the money on a few months of LinkedIn Premium Career.
One of the biggest benefits you get with this is the applicant profile on jobs you may apply to. With the premium account, if you view a job you’re interested in applying for, it will not only tell you how many people have already applied, but it’ll also break down their information and qualifications so you can determine whether you stand a chance at the job or not.
Additionally, you’ll also get five InMails. Sending InMail means you can send a message to any 2nd or 3rd level connections. This is a great way to connect with people you’re interested in meeting without trying to find a way to connect to them directly. You’ll also be able to see full profiles for 1st, 2nd and 3rd connections.
Other features include reference searches, saved searches, more search results and a gold badge on your account that shows you’re a prime member—a good way to stand apart from the crowd. You can also get on-demand courses, learning resources and offline viewing in mobile.
All of these are such great features, but are they worth the $29.99/month? Perhaps. It all depends on your individual needs, but one thing is for sure; you get a lot more with Premium than you do with just the basic LinkedIn account.
