What LinkedIn Premium Career includes
LinkedIn Premium Career (approximately $39.99/month as of 2024) includes:
- InMail credits — 5 per month to message people outside your network
- See who viewed your profile — full list, not just the last 5 viewers
- Applicant insights — see how you compare to other applicants (skills, experience level)
- LinkedIn Learning — access to online courses
- "Top Applicant" job suggestions — roles LinkedIn says you're a strong match for
- Open Profile — anyone can message you without an InMail credit
- Interview Prep — AI-powered practice interview tool
Note: The higher-tier LinkedIn Premium plans (Business, Sales Navigator, Recruiter) are not designed for job seekers and are much more expensive.
Which features are actually useful for job seekers
Worth it:
InMail credits: If you're actively reaching out to recruiters at target companies, 5 InMails per month is legitimately useful. This is the most concrete value for job seekers who use direct outreach. Free accounts cannot message anyone they're not connected to.
Who viewed your profile: Useful during an active search — you can see which recruiters or hiring managers have been on your profile and reach out proactively.
Applicant insights: Seeing where you rank against other applicants can tell you when a role is highly competitive (hundreds of applicants with similar experience) — useful for prioritizing which applications to follow up on.
Not worth it:
LinkedIn Learning: Courses are available for free via many public libraries that have LinkedIn Learning partnerships. Check before paying.
"Top Applicant" suggestions: Marginally useful. The algorithm's suggestions are not notably better than your own search.
Interview Prep: Decent but not better than free tools like Pramp or Big Interview for most roles.
The honest case against paying
LinkedIn Premium is priced for salespeople and recruiters, not job seekers. At $40/month, you're paying for features that are marginally useful compared to the alternatives:
- InMail vs connection request: You can get the same access to a recruiter by sending a free connection request with a note. Most recruiters accept connections from job seekers.
- Profile views: Interesting information, but knowing who viewed your profile doesn't help unless you reach out — which you can do after connecting for free.
- The free trial: LinkedIn frequently offers a 1-month free trial. If you're in a short, active job search, using the trial for a month and then cancelling is a legitimate strategy.
When it's worth paying: If you are actively conducting a job search that involves direct recruiter outreach, have a 6+ month timeline, and will use InMail credits every month, the math works out. If you're passively browsing or rely on applying through job boards, it probably doesn't.
The free trial strategy
LinkedIn offers a 30-day free trial of Premium. During a job search, you can time your trial to a period of high outreach activity — such as when you're targeting a specific set of companies and want to message their recruiters directly.
How to maximize the trial:
1. Identify your top 10–15 target companies
2. Find the recruiter or HR contact at each on LinkedIn
3. Send InMails to all of them in the first few days of the trial
4. Use the profile views feature to identify who's been looking at your profile
5. Cancel before the trial ends if you don't plan to continue
Set a calendar reminder to cancel 3 days before the trial ends.