Why Discord is a better job platform than LinkedIn!

Seventeen-year-old me was desperately looking for ways to help support my family, mainly after Dad, who had worked tirelessly to keep us afloat, ended up getting disabled. I knew something needed to be done. But as a teenager still, with little experience, the world of job hunting was pretty well intimidating. I turned to what everyone said was the golden ticket for professionals: LinkedIn. What followed was a frustrating journey of constant rejection and an unexpected discovery that changed everything — Discord.

The Struggle with LinkedIn: 74 Applications and No Results

I thought LinkedIn was a platform where I would connect with the employers and showcase my talents. So, I spent hours tweaking my profile, listing my skills, and writing cover letters. I began applying to job after job; in fact, I applied to 74 jobs in total over many months, including part-time, internship, and volunteer jobs.

But every time I clicked “Apply,” nothing happened. No single company responded for an interview. Why? I soon grasped that the ground in LinkedIn was a crowded area. There was not just a sea of professionals; there were millions just like me, hunting for the same opportunities. Employers were being bombarded with applications, and it was easy to be lost in the noise.

I felt invisible. I wasn’t getting the chance to show what I could bring to the table. That is when I realized that LinkedIn-while very useful to many-just wasn’t going to be my path.

Finding Discord: Where Meaningful Connections Can Happen

Feeling defeated after yet another job rejection, one night I opened my Discord-maintained for chatting with friends and engaging in gaming communities. I knew from a few people that professional communities for designers and creatives existed on Discord, but never as a place where someone could find a job.

Curious, I started looking for design and 3D modeling servers. People shared portfolios, discussed projects, and collaborated. It was a world unlike LinkedIn — here it wasn’t about the polished resume or the perfect profile picture. It was about what you could *do*, right here, right now.

Putting My Skills to the Test

So I decided to be more proactive. Stopped applying to jobs, like I was used to do on LinkedIn, and I started to reach out to people directly in design communities. I shared my work, asking for feedback, offering to help people with projects.I wasn’t saying “I’m looking for a job”, I was *showing* what I could do.

A week later, somebody called and offered me the opportunity to help with some minor design work. Not much, but it was my first real opportunity to actually work with a client. I did, and soon got another request from another person who had seen my work. Then another. Slowly but surely, I started to build a network of people that trusted my abilities, not because of an application I had filed, but by the work they saw me do in real time.

Landing My Dream Job at a AAA Game Company

It happened one day when there was an introduction, on a 3D design channel, to someone working for a Triple-A game development company that said they needed a junior 3D artist for their upcoming project. I immediately shared my portfolio and work on Discord that I had been doing. After a few back and forth messages, I got onto their team for a trial.

In a matter of weeks, I was accepted as a junior 3D artist in that very game company. At the end of all things, I landed a job in a place I only had dreamed about working in. And it was all because I chose to approach hunting for a job differently.

Why Discord Works

While LinkedIn works great in terms of networking in the traditional sense, Discord is unique in community and real-time interaction with a focus on productivity. It is not about competing with hundreds to get the attention of some hiring manager; it is about being active in a space where your work can talk for itself.

Following are reasons why Discord worked for me over LinkedIn:

1. Less Competition, More Collaboration: Unlike LinkedIn, where you’re one out of hundreds or perhaps even thousands of applicants, communities within Discord are so much more niche. You’re surrounded by people with similar interests, often looking to collaborate rather than hire.
2. Show, Don’t Tell: On LinkedIn, you’re relying on a resume and cover letter to speak for you. On Discord, you can be actively participating in discussions, posting your work, and showing people what you’re capable of. It’s immediate and impactful.
3. Real-time Opportunities: Things move quickly on Discord. When opportunities arise, they are usually available at that moment. Just by being active in the right communities, you can find yourself there when some project needs more hands rather than wait for weeks for some job posting to make its tortuous way through the application process on LinkedIn.

4. Direct Communication: Rather than apply and hope that your application was found, on Discord, you can get in touch with the actual people doing the hiring or project leads themselves. You are no longer just a faceless name in some pile of applications-you are a real person who shows up and contributes.

Final Thoughts: Choose the Right Platform for You

My failure story on LinkedIn to success in Discord taught me one valuable thing: finding a job may not be about where you look but rather how you engage. Of course, LinkedIn does help many ways for particular fields and sets of professionals. But in my case, with the need to prove my design skills, Discord was more helpful.

Probably, if the typical ways of job searching aren’t working for you, then it may be time to look elsewhere other than LinkedIn. Be it Discord, Twitter, or other niche communities, there are places your work can shine and where people are more interested in what you bring to the table rather than how polished your resume is.

Sometimes, finding the right job is all about being at the right place at the right time — and sometimes, that place isn’t exactly where everyone else is looking.

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If you’re frustrated with LinkedIn or other traditional job search sites, don’t give up. There are other ways to put yourself out there and find that dream job, as I did.