A huge mistake I made on LinkedIn may have cost me a few jobs - here are the most common blunders other people make

Let me provide you with some context. My account was barely set up - I'm not even sure if I even had a profile picture at that point.

I'd only slapped the account together after getting hyped up about making connections and garnering professional opportunities at the college's career center (so fun).

The problem was, I didn't really know how to wield my new social media platform. For the few days I had it, I'd mostly just used it to check out my high school crush's profile.

And then I got this alert saying that one of my new dorm mates had viewed my account.

I remember sitting at my desk and feeling a cold dread seep over me. I hadn't realized that you got notifications when other people view your page (yeah, I know, there are certain privacy settings that eliminate this, but I was totally clueless back then).

Once I realized that this guy probably knew I was stalking him, my reaction was swift and uncompromising. I deleted my LinkedIn, got on a plane, and fled to a town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, where I've been living ever since.

Well, I did that first thing, at least. I deleted my fledgling LinkedIn account. I didn't get another one until about a year later.

So that's my biggest LinkedIn-related failure. Obviously, I was young and foolish and treated the account more like a nerdier version of Facebook than a means of making professional connections. Because of my melodramatic decision, I may have missed out on some interesting opportunities. Today, I'm a LinkedIn all-star and I'm very happy with my account (except for the fact that the profile strength bubble never quite fills all the way up- that drives me insane).

I talked to career expert Nicole Williams to get her take on common mistakes people make on LinkedIn. She told me about four widespread faux pas: