Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements • Hacker News Board

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#121

Post by CaptSpify » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 3:04 AM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #100

colinbartlett wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am personally astonished that LinkedIn is still a thing. For me, it was the most obviously useless of all the social networks and it was the first one I deleted, upwards of 7 years ago now. The other social networks eventually followed but LinkedIn just gave me zero value from day one. It was nothing but recruiter spam. Do people actually get work and jobs out of LinkedIn? Or is is just a way to keep up with what o…

> Do people actually get work and jobs out of LinkedIn? Or is is just a way to keep up with what old coworkers are doing? I frankly do not get it. Yes. Multiple times.

As someone who has only gotten recruiter spam from LI: Was it worth sifting through all the spam? I've personally never known anyone who has gotten a job with them, so from where I sit it seems like a lot of work for no payoff. I'm curious as to your experience, though.

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#122

Post by tn13 » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 3:16 AM UTC

Depends on what that data means. Endorsement does not mean X knows Java. I would take it as X is somehow related to Java.

This is very useful and a collective statistics while being completely useless for individuals.

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#123

Post by callalex » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 3:36 AM UTC

brandall10 wrote: post #61

ben1040 wrote: post #8

I've been considering just deleting my LI account. It essentially has just been a sink for terrible recruiter mail; in 12 years of having an account I don't think I've once received any sort of actionable message through it. I've also turned off the endorsements because I was just getting driveby endorsements for things like J2EE. Is there a job-search downside to deleting your account, provided you have a decent Goo…

I've been on LI similarly as long... I get some of the ire, but when I see comments like this I wonder if I'm in some extreme minority. I don't get pelted with a ton of messages - maybe a dozen a month at most, and maybe 1/2 of them are actual ops I could be interested in/are applicable to my skillset. I've had several interviews which originated from a LI message - easily over a dozen, and I may have landed a job in…

How much do you value your professional time at? How long does it take you to read, comprehend, and respond to 12 recruiter spams a month? Take that dollar figure and imagine what you could buy with it after 6 months!

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#124

Post by tedmiston » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 3:44 AM UTC

deftnerd wrote: post #109

Up until the LinkedIn redesign a few weeks ago, I used to run a bit of javascript every day that would pick a 100 people randomly on my LinkedIn "friends list" and endorse them for one of their listed skills that I hadn't already endorsed them for. Every time I did that, it caused about 20% of the people to view my profile, which gamed my LinkedIn statistics so my profile was ranked higher in various searches. I have…

Great idea. Essentially the same approach as like bots on Instagram. Have you considered doing more targeted endorsing — for example, endorsing people in a skill you want to be endorsed in? I've had people do this manually before.

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#125

Post by tedmiston » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 3:47 AM UTC

CaptSpify wrote: post #121

user5994461 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do people actually get work and jobs out of LinkedIn? Or is is just a way to keep up with what old coworkers are doing? I frankly do not get it. Yes. Multiple times.

As someone who has only gotten recruiter spam from LI: Was it worth sifting through all the spam? I've personally never known anyone who has gotten a job with them, so from where I sit it seems like a lot of work for no payoff. I'm curious as to your experience, though.

One time I even got recruiter spam on LinkedIn from LinkedIn.

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#126

Post by dnautics » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 4:00 AM UTC

one of the linked to articles has the following excerpt:

"Most jobs are never available publicly, just like most worthwhile candidates are not available publicly (see here). Information about the position travels at approximately the speed of beer, sometimes lubricated by email."

How does interviewing.io plan to attack this problem? I recently have had a lot of trouble getting placed - through one of interviewing.io's competitors (still not employed), but am now somewhat cynical about the process.

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#127

Post by shultays » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 5:02 AM UTC

For anyone that wonders what the hell is the loading bar that is on top of the page, it loads the data for graphs at the bottom of the page.

I was semi-worried that my computer will explode when it is loaded. It takes so long and gives no visual feedback what it is loading. I would either put that near graph or better just use a static image

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#128

Post by Waterluvian » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 6:03 AM UTC

leeny wrote: post #96

mendicantB wrote: post #42

Your analysis is extremely flawed. I really appreciate your sharing the data with us and I like your service. But, this is a poorly done and a far from subtle plug of your business at the cost of LinkedIn. 1) Technical ability vs # of endorsements Jesus. Hiding stats that you don't like through aggregations? And please read up on Simspons Paradox, which is clearly the case here just by looking at your plot. Try a bas…

Author here. I appreciate the notes and am happy to revisit and make corrections when needed. To respond to your points: 1. As a sanity check, I did do a t-test of technical ability vs. # of endorsements before publishing. There is no statistically significant relationship between the 2. (P 2. What do you mean by "language matters here" (re the histogram)?

After reading the way in which your work is being criticized (regardless of the validity of the criticisms), I'm very impressed to see you here making lemonade of it all. I'd be crying in the corner if it were me. Good work.

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#129

Post by snoman » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 6:31 AM UTC

mendicantB wrote: post #107

nazgul17 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone interested in data science, I am curious to know more: could you elaborate on your points?

First 200 pages https://www.amazon.com/All-Statistics-Statistical-Inference-...

Sassy, but I'll allow it.

Re: Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements

#130

Post by snoman » Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 6:40 AM UTC

CaptSpify wrote: post #121

user5994461 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do people actually get work and jobs out of LinkedIn? Or is is just a way to keep up with what old coworkers are doing? I frankly do not get it. Yes. Multiple times.

As someone who has only gotten recruiter spam from LI: Was it worth sifting through all the spam? I've personally never known anyone who has gotten a job with them, so from where I sit it seems like a lot of work for no payoff. I'm curious as to your experience, though.

Got a job at MS via LinkedIn, as well as my current job, which I really enjoy.

I ignore recruiters if I even get a hint that they're not employed directly by the company they're purporting to be with. It's become less of an issue within the last year or so.