How do you check when did a person joined LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. With so many professionals on the platform, it can be useful to check when someone joined LinkedIn to get a sense of how long they’ve been establishing their professional brand and network on the site. There are a few simple ways to find out when someone became a LinkedIn member.

Viewing the Join Date on a LinkedIn Profile

The easiest way to check when someone joined LinkedIn is to look at the “Joined LinkedIn” date shown on their profile. To find this:

1. Go to the person’s LinkedIn profile.
2. Scroll down to the introductory section of their profile.
3. Look for the date under “Joined LinkedIn” on the right side.

This shows the month and year that the person created their LinkedIn account.

For example, if the date says “Joined LinkedIn in March 2014”, it means they’ve been a member since March of 2014. Their full join date is not shown, just the month and year.

Checking Join Date on a LinkedIn Profile Using a Desktop Browser

On the desktop version of LinkedIn, there is another way to find someone’s join date that gives you the full date (month, day and year):

1. Go to their profile page.
2. Right click anywhere on the profile page.
3. Select “View Page Source” or “Inspect Element” to see the page HTML.
4. Press Ctrl+F on Windows or Command+F on Mac to open the browser search function.
5. Search for “joinDate” to find the join date entry.

This will show the full join date in YYYYMMDD format. For example, a join date of March 5, 2014 would appear as “20140305”.

Using LinkedIn’s People Search Filter

LinkedIn’s advanced people search function allows you to filter profiles based on when someone joined LinkedIn. To use this:

1. Go to LinkedIn’s advanced people search.
2. Enter the name of the person (or leave blank to search all members).
3. Under “Filters”, select “Date Joined”.
4. Choose a date range like “Last 24 months”, “Past year”, etc.
5. Click search.

This will show profiles of people who joined LinkedIn within the selected date range.

To isolate a specific join date, you may need to experiment with different date ranges. For example, search 1990-2000, then narrow to 1995-2000 to hone in on the 1990s.

Estimating the Join Date Based on Account ID

Every LinkedIn member is assigned an account ID when they join, shown on their public profile URL.

For example:

“`
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-smith-123456/
“`

The number at the end (123456) is the account ID.

LinkedIn has issued account IDs sequentially since they launched. Earlier members received lower ID numbers.

Therefore, while not precise, a member’s account ID provides a general sense of when they joined based on the ID numbering sequence over time.

* ID numbers below 10 million = Likely joined between 2003-2011
* ID numbers 10-50 million = Likely joined between 2011-2015
* ID numbers 50-100 million = Likely joined between 2015-2018
* ID numbers 100-300 million = Likely joined between 2018-present

Again this is not an exact science, but can provide a ballpark sense of when someone became a member based on their account ID.

Estimating Join Date Based on Profile Badges

Looking at someone’s earned profile badges can provide clues about their LinkedIn join date:

* Founder Badge – Received if joined in first year of LinkedIn launch (2003-2004)
* 5, 10, 15 Year Badges – Show years of membership

If you see they have a 10 or 15 year badge, you know they have been a member for at least that long.

Searching for the Exact Join Date

To find the exact day that someone joined LinkedIn:

1. Go to LinkedIn Advanced People Search.
2. Search their name and location.
3. Filter by 1st degree connections.
4. Sort by oldest connections.
5. Look at the dates of their oldest connections – likely indicates close to their join date.

The date of their very first connection is likely near the day they joined.

This takes some effort but can uncover the precise join date.

Using Third-Party Tools

Some third-party tools and browser extensions can find the full join date:

* LinkedIn X-Ray Search: Chrome extension that reveals join dates.

* LinkedIn Help Tools: Enter profile and shows join date and date of first post.

* SOCx Social Media Audit: SEO tool reports full LinkedIn join dates.

However, use caution as some tools may violate LinkedIn’s terms of service. Manually inspecting profiles is safest.

Join Date Visibility Settings

It’s worth noting a person can customize their LinkedIn profile settings to hide their join date. Typically this is visible to others, but they can opt to remove it.

If you cannot see the join date anywhere on a profile, the member has likely changed this setting for privacy reasons.

Conclusions

Here are some key takeaways for checking someone’s LinkedIn join date:

• Easiest way is looking at “Joined LinkedIn” date on profile
• Desktop browsers can view full join date in page source
• People search filters by join date range
• Account ID provides estimate based on numbering sequence
• Earned badges indicate years active
• Sorting connections by oldest shows near join date
• Third-party tools can report it but may violate ToS
• Users can hide join date in profile settings

In most cases, you can find the general or precise period when someone joined LinkedIn. This can provide useful context about their professional networking history and activity over time on the platform. But also respect if a user has opted to keep this information private.

Key Takeaways

• LinkedIn “Joined” date shows month and year joined.
• Desktop browser HTML code can reveal full join date.
• Search filters let you find profiles by join period.
• Account ID numbering indicates estimate join year.
• Badges show years active on LinkedIn.
• Oldest connections likely near join date.

Knowing someone’s LinkedIn join date can provide useful context about their professional networking history and activity over time. A variety of methods are available to check general or precise join dates.