Yet the alternatives the article proposes are mostly for coders and tech folks. Business people only have LinkedIn. However bad LinkedIn can be, it's still the only tool around for some people. I think the problem is that for some jobs is very difficult to show your skills. A good finance guy has a very hard time showing off vs say, a programmer - there is no github or SOF for finance guys, question is: can there be one?
LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
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Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you try to delete it, that's when the nightmare starts.
Would you mind explaining why? I've been considering deleting mine for quite some time now. My google+ profile gets substantially more views, and I rarely use that either.
Well I've never done it, but my understanding is that they will never stop emailing you.
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#13LinkedIn's job search interface is pretty bad for tech employees. There's so many better options out there. But there's nothing better for getting quality recruiters to notice you than LinkedIn.
It might be great if your goal is to get "recruiters to notice you" which might be OK if you don't already have a job (it's better than nothing). But in my experience, recruiter attention is insufficient if your goal is getting a _better_ job. I tried the LinkedIn thing for a while (and still maintain an account there, because who knows?), but it basically resulted in a lot of recruiter contacts and plenty of interviews, but apparently not a lot of companies that were actually serious about hiring. They seem to mostly be the dog jobs too, the crap "opportunities" that employers couldn't immediately fill so they have to use recruiters. And in this job market, if you can't immediately fill a position, you ought to take a good look at what's wrong with that position.
You'll also have a hard time using it to change job function or for a career upgrade. If your profile says "Senior Software Engineer" you'll just get a bunch of recruiters spamming you to be "Senior Software Engineer" at some other company. They'll never reach out to you and say, "hey how would you like to try being tech lead, or managing a team of engineers?" The site's obviously automated "suggested jobs" are also carbon copies of whatever it is you're already doing, too.
Needless to say, I don't bother much with LinkedIn anymore.
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#14LinkedIn's job search interface is pretty bad for tech employees. There's so many better options out there. But there's nothing better for getting quality recruiters to notice you than LinkedIn.
Recruiters can get very spammy and they immensely difficult to deal with on sites like Dice, Indeed, and Monsters of the web. On LinkedIn, the seem to be far more capable and targeted to my interests. Companies like Google and Amazon have contacted me through LinkedIn as well.
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#15This reads like a hit piece for some reason.
"LinkedIn is now, at best, a business card holder. At worst, it’s a delivery service for spam."
I see that, but I also don't find any of the critiques particularly egregious.
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#16Personally, I've used LinkedIn for recruiting tech talent, being recruited and most recently, doing biz dev (aka sales).
Stray observations: 1. LinkedIn has too many products like sales navigator that attempt to force you through a specific workflow. While it can work, it feels a lot like a misguided tracking system.
2. LinkedIn is most useful as an online resume. Whenever I am meeting someone new or want a refresher, I check LinkedIn. I think everyone does this in North America. This doubles as a useful social sign in tool for biz apps.
3. Older people (40+) in non tech positions respond surprisingly often to InMail. They respond far more often than young techies (who probably get too many messages). This is surprising and extremely useful for my job.
4. LinkedIn needs contact management in context of career. For example: simply stating when you made this contact is crucial.
5. LinkedIn needs a way to show how active a profile is or at least indicate if a profile is no longer responsive. There are millions of LinkedIn profiles that are inactive but LinkedIn encourages you to pay to message them.
6. There needs to be an indicator for how close you are to a specific contact. 99% of the time your mutual contacts are useless. This is especially true for "active users" like myself who see no major disadvantage personally for adding as many contacts as possible.
My whole point is that LinkedIn has an extremely valuable service. It is missing some features and product focus. Many of my above suggestions also help refocus LinkedIn's integrity.
Overall LinkedIn falls into this strange low integrity (in this case, spammy) but somehow successful company. The question is are they going to clean up their act. I think they will.
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#17I have a LinkedIn profile because I was led, back in the day, to think that was the best way to put myself out there for businesses to find and hire me. I don't think I've gotten more than 50 views in the entire time I've had the thing, which is blown away by my personal website (which is still a tiny number of views, but swamps LinkedIn). That and every time I connect with someone or make the mistake of clicking on…
I live in the US. I get connection requests from Nigerian princesses and London bankers. Not sure which set of people would be more fun to hang out with on a Saturday afternoon.
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#18This isn't a bad article, but it's extremely one-sided, from the POV of tech employees, which are still the vast minority of workers. Yes, it's spammy and yes, they use dark patterns, and yes, there should have been some better ethical governance since the beginning, but it's not as bad at what it aims to do as a lot of people believe. Even if you just consider it a business card holder -- there's actual value there.…
Look no further than the source. Who is TC writing for? Certainly not my girlfriend. Certainly not the founder of my former marketing agency.
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#19This reads like a hit piece for some reason.
modern journalism
Re: LinkedIn Problems Run Deeper Than Valuation
#20This reads like a hit piece for some reason.
"LinkedIn is now, at best, a business card holder. At worst, it’s a delivery service for spam." I see that, but I also don't find any of the critiques particularly egregious.
They're all just a tad limited in scope. I guess it makes sense since I would think TC's primary demographic is technical people (I can't back this up though, may not be accurate). In general though, I agree.