Having been one of the earliest adopters of LinkedIn back in 2004 when it first came out, it’s been fascinating to watch the never-ending array of changes the site has made over the past 20 years — some of which have been brilliant, some perplexing, and others just plain, well, weird.

Along these lines, I’ve been tracking a number of minor-to-major LinkedIn changes in recent months that I thought might be good to bundle up and outline here in a posting.  Note, however, that LinkedIn constantly “experiments” with different features, rolling them out to some users but not others, so I can’t swear that every single development I mention below will be available yet to all of you out there.  Still, here’s the rundown…

— The “Now Hiring” filter: While the jury is still out on how useful or not this feature might be, paid users of LinkedIn will now notice a new “Now Hiring” menu option available in the People Search, All Filters menu that lets you search for users who have actively indicated they’re hiring people for specific job titles.  For example, you can narrow the search down to any manager who has said they’re currently hiring a CFO, or a Project Manager, or a Software Engineer.  Note, however, that I’m still seeking to confirm how much (if any) this filter overlaps with the standard job search functionality on the site and whether it’s truly signaling NEW openings a manager might have — or instead simply confirming when a person has already posted a given type of opening on the site’s main Jobs board.  I’ll keep you posted.

— No Count for “People Search” Results: One of my biggest frustrations of late is LinkedIn’s decision, earlier this year, to no longer display the actual count of results that comes up when you run a People search.  Since the site’s inception, this feature has always been available, and one still can get an exact count of results for Jobs, Companies, and other types of data on the site.  Just not People.  I’m scratching my head as to why such a basic and useful feature would suddenly be removed, but as of now, it’s no longer available.  And sure, while you can still see the total number of “results pages” at the bottom of the search, that number is capped at 100, making it near impossible to get an accurate count beyond 1,500 results or so.  Bizarre.

— Background Images Often Now Requiring Subscription: In addition to uploading a professional-looking photo on one’s LinkedIn profile, I’ve always urged people to also customize the “wallpaper” image behind their photo, as well, to help their page stand out from the crowd.  Alas, for at least some accounts, this feature (which has always been free) now seems to require a Premium account — so if somebody suggests you do this, and you’re a free user, don’t be surprised if you get blocked trying to switch your background to something other than the default image.

— Stricter Limitations on Connection Requests: I’ve also heard from multiple clients that free users of LinkedIn suddenly seem more limited in terms of how many invitations they can send out to their friends and contacts — and how many times they can “add a personal note” to such connection requests.  Alas, I can’t find any confirmation in LinkedIn’s Help Menu about what these limits might actually be, just confirmation that the number of notes/connections can vary greatly based on each user’s activity level.  As a result, for better of worse, job hunters using LinkedIn heavily in their networking efforts will feel a lot more pressure to upgrade to a Premium subscription, going forward, to maintain the level of networking capabilities they’ve enjoyed in the past.

— Confirmation on “Social Sharing” Impact:  For years, it’s been rumored that engaging with the social features on the LinkedIn home page has some level of positive impact on the “findability” of one’s profile in searches, but the exact amount of sharing needed to trigger this extra credit has always been shrouded in mystery.  Recently, however, I noted in the LinkedIn Help article here an easy-to-overlook remark that states”LinkedIn generally suggests three actions that all users should do every week: Posts, Comments, and Contributions.”  Perhaps I’m a conspiracy theorist, but given how vague LinkedIn has always been around how their search algorithm works, this seemingly innocuous line of text strongly suggests to me that users who engage in at least 3 “social sharing” activities each week get extra credit in the system — and be more likely to get hits by recruiters, hiring managers, and other audiences.  So if you’re a job hunter who isn’t already liking/commenting on others’ posts regularly, I’d recommend you do so at least 3x weekly to capitalize on this potential benefit.

— Interview Preparation Feature Removed: For whatever it’s worth, I also just saw confirmation that the site has retired the “Interview Preparation” feature they’ve offered over the past few years, likely due to fierce competition from other AI-driven sites offering similar interview prep/practice capabilities.  Not a big loss, in my estimation, but interesting to note it’s no longer available.

— Gulp: Employer Permission Needed for Profile Changes?  Last but not least, while I’ve only seen this arise in a single instance (and almost thought I was hallucinating), one day I went in to update a person’s current job with some new info and an alert popped up saying that they needed to get permission from their current employer to change anything in their profile entry.  This seems almost hard to believe, since for obvious reasons employers should have zero input or veto power on YOUR profile and what you choose to share on it.  But again, since I’ve only seen this happen one time, I’m assuming/hoping LinkedIn quickly reversed this change after realizing what an absolute can of worms it would open up, privacy-wise.  If any of you have encountered a similar restriction, however, please let me know.  Hoping it was just a one-time thing…

So there you have it – just a quick rundown of some changes I’ve noted to the site in recent months.  If any of you have spotted any other quirks or eccentrities involving the site, however, or have any other questions regarding how to use it effectively, please don’t hesitate to send your comments along!