Easy - you don't want them to be spammed as your previous employer was. You will find a lot of UK financials and IT companies actually demand you do not have them there because they do not want you headhunted. Other companies now demand what to put in the description so it makes the company look good.

How can one make the company look good without naming them?

I suspect your opinion is a result of your industry. In mine, it would be very unusual not to put one's employer. In fact, if the employer was omitted, everyone would assume one was unemployed.

Horses for courses and all that.

Sorry I'm just trying to get my head around how linked in would work if no one put their current employer down,
Surely that's the whole point of it?

That's why " never put your current employer " is strange advice? It's not just for job hunting either , otherwise it'd be called , oh I don't know " workopolis " or something

I work in a pretty close knit kinda industry, we use tall the time in a non recruitmenty kind of way

It's not about making the company look good, its your profile not theirs although I know of a few (mainly USA) companies now want full control of your profile. When so many others are not putting the current employer it doesn't make you look unemployed and there is nothing wrong with being unemployed anyway. Most of my contacts put something similar to the following which kind of answers all questions:

1. Manager for software company in Toronto
2. Looking for next assigment

Most people looking for us know we are avoiding spammers and phishers so it is not a problem - and they also don't want to be the victim of it.

As for it affecting a job change it doesn't - I send my full CV to jobs I apply for.

Well if you're sending a CV to employers in Canada then that's your first mistake.

Seriously LinkedIn is a very useful tool for people, and most prominently in the IT field. I got my current job through LinkedIn, and if you didn't put your current job on there it's almost useless. Seriously, if a recruiter did come across you it looks worse for you if you don't have a current job. I've been on LinkedIn for well over 8 years and never had a single cold call from a recruiter through my work, that would be completely unprofessional. Lots of messages through their messaging system, but no cold calling. Putting your current company in is very good if you work for a respected company in your field, and will put you up a notch if a recruiter knows what they're doing and knows their industry.

It's very useful for people for looking around, finding positions and finding out who in your network you can speak to to get closer to that position you're looking for.

They have all your previous employers - and your current job description. They don't need anything else unless you apply for a job.

I'll carry on doing what the vast majority of people in my occupation do all around the world (even Canada) and not name my current employer. Its interesting it doesn't happen in other occupations - but this doesn't mean it works like that for everyone so accept each occupation can be different.

As an example, one morning I was called into HR after the company email filter had identified several "cold calling" job descriptions from recruitment companies in my inbox. The same people had constanly been calling the receptionist who made a complaint to HR that so much time was being taken up. I was asked if I was happy in my work and why I was applying for so many jobs. They didn't believe me and I felt pushed out to get enough job after that. That is the damage that a rogue recruitment consultant can make.

You must be in a pretty niche IT role if the majority of people in your occupation in Canada don't put their current employer on their profile. Attending conferences with IT specialists and people who are considered to be the top of their field and experts on LinkedIn your advice is completely opposite to what everyone else seems to do and is recommending. Not putting your current employer makes it look like you've got something to hide, or you're ashamed of your current employer.

Even the workshop I attended last year concentrating specifically on LinkedIn profiles and utilization, and attended by people from all areas of IT, was contrary to what you claim. In my experience it is extremely rare to leave off your current employer, as it makes it impossible for someone to determine if you are what they are after or not and they don't need to waste their time contacting you to find out.

Conversations with recruiters and seminars on how job finding works in the 21st century are very enlightening. Remember the world has changed, in IT especially (I hate that term, it's like saying your job is in English.) You don't find jobs, jobs find you. Anything that makes you harder to match up with a position makes it less likely you'll not get it. "I know this person will have the knowledge because of what they're working on and where they work, this one I don't know but it will take effort to find out and life is too short." We live in a recruiter world now, not a job seeker world.

P.S. Any recruiter that cold calls you at your company instead of using modern electronic communication (and if they're finding you through LinkedIn a message is much easier than phoning someone,) is one who is desperate and is scrapping the bottom of the barrel looking for people. Someone starting out or someone facing a dwindling list of clients and prospects.

I work for a web design company so many of my connections (and their connections) are in IT related companies. Haven't come across a single person who doesn't list their current employer. Some work for big guys like IBM or ebay while others work for smaller firms.

Older friends from back in school work in a variety of industries and they all seem to list their employers too. Solicitors to quantity surveyors. All have the company name.

Aye, the only time I've heard of people not putting current employer in is if they were a stealth mode start up doing the funding rounds.

Of course recruiters want every bit of your information and promote this as the way forward - they want to know which companies employ people like you and add it to their sales database. 20 years ago I relied on recruiters to find me work, and now with the aid of sites such as linked in I don't need a recruiter because I am now able to get to the employer direct. I have never had a single problem hiding my current employer and have worked with some of the largest financial and IT companies in Europe, Asia, and US. I get many requests on linkedin simply because people read my curent job title and where I worked at previously - + many references from previous companies. The only time a company is interested in my current employer is if I apply for a job.

Recruiters and software sales people follow people like me on Linked In because they know we are decision makers in both personal recruitment and software purchases. Most of my jobs are 2 year contracts and as soon as we move it is seen as another sales opportunity for them.

Can you not simply accept that your experience is completely different to those that are actually living and working in Canada?

I accept that the advice you are giving may be correct for the industry you are in in the part of the world you are in but can you also accept that it is not correct for other industries in other parts of the world?

If you read what I've said you will see I have already accepted that the industry I work in works different and that I have connected with people in Canada in the same profession who do exactly the same as me. I really don't know why so many of you got upset because I'm doing it different to you implying I have something to hide and I'm being stupid etc. I tried to explain why people like me take that approach but judging by all of the comments nobody actually read it. Prior to arriving in Canada I already have a few meetings organised and am in regular contact with like minded professionals using the approach I have on linked in. My wife, son, and daughter are all Canadian and I am friends with lots of Canadians so have taken lots of advice from people I have met in person and none of them see the issues posters in this thread see.

I thought this would be a useful forum but it seems if you do something a little different and even successful it is frowned upon by the more established posters. I'm unsubscribing from this thread.

I haven't put my current employer in LinkedIn as I don't want to be found.

I can't be found either. Not even by google. You can find people with the same name as me, but none of them are actually me. Wanting to keep it that was the main reason I deleted my account on LinkedIn.