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Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#81

Post by DoubleGlazing »

CSSer wrote: post #70
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #67

I have never got a job through LinkedIn, even though I get loads of contacts from recruiters - as many as 10 per week. The problem is that those contacts are poor quality. They are spammy as heck, basically mass emailing anyone who has a specific search phrase anywhere in their profile. For the last year my profile bio has opened with the statement "Recruiters: Please tell me what your favourite colour is if you want…

I love the bio bit. That's a hilarious and really nice touch.

It's interesting what happens when certain recruiters send a follow up message when I don't answer first time. When that happens I tell them to read my profile carefully. Some then get it and send me a colour and a few have got a bit shirty saying I am being unprofessional or that I am being unreasonable expecting them to read my profile given the pressures they are under.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#83

Post by ryanmercer »

GoodbyeMrChips wrote: post #74
ryanmercer wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the person you are replying to, but one of the first classes on my "let's get a bachelors starting at 36 years old" required us to create a LinkedIn profile as an assignment if we didn't already have one. I think they've just become a de facto thing that is expected.

> I think they've just become a de facto thing that is expected. Good god! Where in the world are you? Here in Blightty, it wasn't that long ago having a linkedin account would count against some of our candidates.... as a candidate must have had their head in the sand not to be aware of the toxic behaviour of linkedin (spamming personal contacts) [1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/linkedin-.…

The United States, this was at a private 4-year university. I've seen gobs of job postings on company websites that, on the application section, ask for your LinkedIn profile link as well and my current employer is a very active user as are virtually all of the c-level employees.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#84

Post by DoubleGlazing »

evanelias wrote: post #76
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #67

I have never got a job through LinkedIn, even though I get loads of contacts from recruiters - as many as 10 per week. The problem is that those contacts are poor quality. They are spammy as heck, basically mass emailing anyone who has a specific search phrase anywhere in their profile. For the last year my profile bio has opened with the statement "Recruiters: Please tell me what your favourite colour is if you want…

I feel like the quality issue is only getting worse over time. Yesterday I received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter that began with "I wanted to reach out as it is almost the end of the year" ... The same recruiter previously emailed me in December and did not use that phrase, so it's not like he always copy-and-pastes the same thing. However, in his December message, he misspelled my name (which is only 4 letter…

A really common one I get is emails about Java jobs where the recruiter praises me for all my Java skills and experience and talks about how I would be the perfect candidate for the job they have. The thing is nowhere in my profile does it say I have Java experience (I'm all C#/.Net), however it does mention JavaScript in a few places. They couldn't be any more obvious with their laziness.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#86

Post by gausswho »

moritonal wrote: post #20
AlexandrB wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why would it be a red flag? All it indicates that the applicant doesn't use LinkedIn.

It's just... odd. It's a signal that the candidate has some reason for not wanting a LinkedIn account, which could range from a messy history to a passionate belief in not having an online record. All of which _might_ translate to a difficult candidate who isn't prepared to make it easier for the employer. As ever with these kind of eccentricities, if the candidate is good enough they can pull it off, but otherwise i…

Agreed that there's a signal among those who decline to dump their work history publicly into the hands of the largest company in the world and its recruiter flock in exchange for maybe job leads. It is eccentric, unfortunately.

But reading that signal partially will filter out improperly. Aside from privacy, candidates who value their time don't want to be disturbed unless they have initiated.

Someone whose LI profile doesn't exist (or has just 'go to my site') is more experienced at the game.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#87

Post by pavel_lishin »

evanelias wrote: post #76
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #67

I have never got a job through LinkedIn, even though I get loads of contacts from recruiters - as many as 10 per week. The problem is that those contacts are poor quality. They are spammy as heck, basically mass emailing anyone who has a specific search phrase anywhere in their profile. For the last year my profile bio has opened with the statement "Recruiters: Please tell me what your favourite colour is if you want…

I feel like the quality issue is only getting worse over time. Yesterday I received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter that began with "I wanted to reach out as it is almost the end of the year" ... The same recruiter previously emailed me in December and did not use that phrase, so it's not like he always copy-and-pastes the same thing. However, in his December message, he misspelled my name (which is only 4 letter…

In my experience, Google and Amazon recruiter emails tend to be the most poorly written, confusing and unprofessional emails I receive from recruiters.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#88

Post by dep_b »

I landed my current job at one of the absolutely top paying companies through LinkedIn. Meta contacted me a short while ago and while I wouldn't want to work for them they did find me through LinkedIn and it was a serious recruiter directly from them not some third party shady stuff.

It's my #2 source of jobs after TopTal for the last 10 years and comes before word of mouth. I don't think there are any other sources though one guy hunted me down through a YouTube comment which I thought was pretty cool.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#89

Post by fshee »

No. When I attempted to create a LinkedIn a few years ago they flagged my account as spam and requested a photo ID. They will not get one from me.

GitHub under Microsoft also flagged a new-ish work related GitHub account as spam. They eventually reversed the suspension after four/five months. Luckily my day-to-day work does not have GitHub in the loop. On one occasion a co-worker did me a favor and submitted a PR for me.

* In LinkedIn's case I used some Czech in my profile. Maybe that made it seem suspicious.

* GitHub doesn't like when you delete a GitHub account, wait some amount of time, then create another GitHub account with the same email address.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have to use LinkedIn to get hired?

#90

Post by abadger9 »

Definitely not! I deactivated my linked in 5 years ago and got emails from Amazon, Snapchat, and some stealth company that didn't want to disclose their name since Monday. I think it's not as necessary on the engineering side, but I did pass all the rounds of interviews @twitter but have a manager pass on me because i didn't have a linkedin profile (this was through a 3rd party contracting agency and not the FTE application route)
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