How to find out exactly when you joined LinkedIn

This article updated in August 2020.

One of my clients asked me on Friday …

“How long have you been using LinkedIn Sherry? I am completely lost and still can’t find my way around.”

That got me thinking – I knew it had been a few years. I was made redundant from my law firm in 2009 and I’d been teaching lawyers how to make more effective use of LinkedIn for business development purposes.

At the time it was hard work because lawyers (sometimes) thought they knew better “we don’t need technology for networking”.

Many of them enjoyed their networking on the golf course or over dinner. But there was no escaping the fact that LinkedIn was taking off in a big way.

I ran lunchtime workshops for the lawyers as well as for the business services professionals. For our more senior partners, I offered one-to-one coaching sessions on how to make the most of LinkedIn.

As one of the early adopters of LinkedIn in my law firm, I had early warning when somebody was getting itchy feet because suddenly their profile looked very polished, they were making connections, left right and centre, and getting involved in group discussions. (Depending on how well I knew them, I would quietly mention that there’s a feature to switch off automatic notifications every time you make an update to your profile!)

Anyway it turns out I have been using LinkedIn for a good number of years. Curious how long you’ve been using LinkedIn?

How to find the exact date that you joined LinkedIn

Updated when LinkedIn moved the functionality in August 2020.

1. Open LinkedIn
2. Go to your settings page (click on your name at the top of the screen)
3. Click on Settings & Privacy
4. Click on the Privacy tab
5. Scroll down to the section How LinkedIn uses your data
6. Select Manage your data and activity
7. This brings up a list of all your activity on LinkedIn
8. Go to the last page and you’ll see the You Joined LinkedIn date – in my case, 23 October 2007.

For more help on how to use LinkedIn for job hunting

For more ideas and help on how to use LinkedIn for job hunting, here are my most popular articles on the topic.

If your LinkedIn knowledge is more ‘beginner’ runner than ‘elite’ athlete, start with the Essentials article first.

1. Essentials to get right on LinkedIn
2. 7 easy ways to get noticed easily on LinkedIn
3. Who to connect with to build your LinkedIn network
4. Get confident networking on LinkedIn
5. FREE 5 Day Sprint to Get Job Search Ready

Want some one to one help?

If you know you need to use LinkedIn more effectively and you’ve read these articles (or even if you haven’t), and you could do with some one to one help, let’s talk.

p.s. If you’re thinking about polishing your LinkedIn profile because you know that LinkedIn is the first place recruiters and clients look for you online, you’ll love my FREE 5 Day Sprint to Get Job Search Ready.