LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 810 million members worldwide as of August 2022. With so many professionals using LinkedIn to connect, network, and search for jobs or employees, it’s common to wonder – can you see when someone created their LinkedIn profile?
The short answer is no, regular LinkedIn members cannot see the exact date another member created their profile. However, there are a few ways to estimate or get a general sense of when someone’s LinkedIn account was created. In this article, we’ll explore:
- Why you can’t see a LinkedIn profile’s creation date
- Ways to estimate when someone’s LinkedIn was created
- Who can see a LinkedIn profile’s creation date
- Whether you should care about when someone’s LinkedIn was created
Read on for a deep dive into what LinkedIn profile information is visible, and tips for gauging when a connection created their account on the platform.
Why You Can’t See a LinkedIn Profile’s Creation Date
Unlike some other social networks, LinkedIn purposefully does not show the date a profile was created. Here are a few reasons why:
Privacy and Security
LinkedIn prioritizes their members’ privacy and security. Displaying the exact date someone’s account was created could enable hacking risks or allow others to gather more intel than desired. Keeping creation dates private reduces security and privacy vulnerabilities.
Reduces Bias
Seeing when someone created their LinkedIn could unfortunately lead to biased assumptions. For example, someone may see a connection created their profile in the 1990s and assume they are resistant to new technology or networking approaches. Obscuring creation dates helps reduce biased first impressions.
Puts Focus on Content
LinkedIn wants the focus to be on a member’s skills, experience, and content – not when they created their account. Hiding creation dates keeps the emphasis on what matters most for career networking and growth.
Standard Across Members
Since ordinary members can never see each other’s profile creation dates, it puts everyone on equal footing. All members and connections solely see each other’s revealed work histories, education, skills, and public content.
Ways to Estimate When a LinkedIn Profile Was Created
While you can’t definitively see when someone’s LinkedIn was created, there are some clues you can use to make an educated guess:
Check Their Oldest Job or Education
Often, members will include their past work experiences and education on their LinkedIn profiles. Check the start dates on their oldest or earliest jobs and education. It’s likely they created their profile around or after that time period when they began updating their professional backgrounds.
Look for Tenure or Number of Years
Similarly, look for any mentions of tenure, years of experience, or number of years in the person’s current position or company. For example, if it says “15 years at XYZ Company”, you can deduce their LinkedIn was likely created around 15 years ago.
Note Any Dated Content
Sometimes members will mention dates in their profile content – such as “Founded marketing firm in 2009” or “Led retail expansion in 2015”. These can give hints as to when their profile was likely started based on when they began adding these professional milestones.
Badge Dates
Some badges on profiles show the year they were achieved, like “Top Voice 2019” or “5 Year Company Veteran”. These badge dates will generally indicate the person’s account was active at least as far back as the badge year displayed.
Contact Them
One direct way is to simply ask the person when they joined LinkedIn! Many members will openly share when they created their profile, especially if you explain politely why you are interested or curious about the context.
Search Their Name on Google
Try searching the person’s name in Google along with “LinkedIn” or “LinkedIn profile”. Look for any dated mentions, links, or references to their LinkedIn account dating back to when it likely originated.
Check Archived/Cached Versions
Search for the person’s name and LinkedIn profile on archive sites like Archive.org for older cached copies. Look at the earliest snapshot available and the date it was archived to determine approx. when their profile first appeared.
Who Can See a LinkedIn Profile’s Creation Date?
For individual members, the exact profile creation date is not visible or accessible in any way. However, there are two exceptions:
LinkedIn Employees
Employees who work at LinkedIn would have internal back-end access to view member profile creation dates and account details. But for privacy reasons, they do not share or disclose this information.
Some Company Admins
Administrators of Company Pages on LinkedIn can see aggregated data on when employees who are linked to the company page created their profiles. This gives companies high-level insights without revealing individual dates.
Should You Care When Someone’s LinkedIn Was Created?
In most cases, it’s not hugely important when someone specifically joined LinkedIn. Here are a few reasons the creation date doesn’t matter that much:
- Experience matters more than tenure. Someone could have 10+ years of management experience, even if they just created their LinkedIn last month.
- Early users aren’t necessarily tech-savvy. Some early LinkedIn adaptors in the 2000s still have very basic profiles and poor social media skills.
- Users grow over time. Someone with a young profile could quickly gain followers, engagement, and thought leadership presence.
- Expertise can develop rapidly. Regardless of when someone created their account, their knowledge and contributions can accelerate.
The quality and strength of someone’s profile is far more telling than when they joined LinkedIn. Focus on assessing their capabilities, achievements, and potential value as a connection – not simply their profile’s creation date.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn purposefully keeps profile creation dates private, you can still make reasonable estimates of when someone likely joined. Look for dated achievements, milestones, badges, and archived profile mentions to gauge an approximate timeframe.
In most professional contexts, someone’s tenure on LinkedIn doesn’t reveal much. Far more important is continually evaluating their demonstrated skills, experiences, and ability to add value as a connection. With some sleuthing and educated guesses, you can satisfy your curiosity about when a profile was created. But the bigger focus should be on what they are doing in the present.