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Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

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Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#151

Post by felipemnoa »

artsyca wrote: post #120
42_ wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that I think about it, most of my complaints about LinkedIn is about the "news feed". Its full of mostly useless content by wannabe thought leaders drowning out a few posts which may have been insightful/relevant. Job search and add/message connections are the only features I have found useful.

First thing I did was block the usual mega influencers and it got super quiet.. Not to mention any names but you know who I'm talking about.

>>Not to mention any names but you know who I'm talking about.

Not trolling but I'm willing to bet that the majority here in HN, including me, do not know who you are talking about.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#152

Post by markstos »

sk0v wrote: post #63

I really consider getting rid of my car. I bought it a year ago, but it's only ever sat in the driveway, I never use it. The funny meta-thing about his post, is that the content he feels adds 0 value, is in fact his own post. He is literally making a post about a tool he doesn't use. It's the equivalent of a person making a blog post about a tv series they don't watch but have seen the trailer for; no actual value to…

Upvoted for considering getting rid of your car. I finally got rid of mine. It eventually got broken into sitting in the driveway. Multiple times. Then when I finally wanted to drive it for something important, the battery was dead and I got to my meeting anyway.

Let me know if you want to have a phone call some time about considering going car-free.

Later I started https://bikes-as-transportation.com/

(spoiler: I also later got married to a woman with a car, so I end having easy access to a car anyway.)

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#153

Post by T3RMINATED »

The author says it himself in the introductory paragraph: > I never used LinkedIn... hadn't even updated my profile in the 9 months since I left my last software engineering job.

So you use LinkedIn only passively, never do anything on the platform and then write a rant on how it provides you no value? Maybe actually _try_ to use the strengths of LinkedIn before you dismiss it?

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#154

Post by hn_check »

matsemann wrote: post #83
sk0v wrote: post #63

I really consider getting rid of my car. I bought it a year ago, but it's only ever sat in the driveway, I never use it. The funny meta-thing about his post, is that the content he feels adds 0 value, is in fact his own post. He is literally making a post about a tool he doesn't use. It's the equivalent of a person making a blog post about a tv series they don't watch but have seen the trailer for; no actual value to…

> This is valueless content. I disagree. It poses several questions about the value of LinkedIn. And it spurred a discussion. If anything your comment really adds nothing here.. (Maybe some discussion, but a useful one?)

It looks like their comment added the same value, posing several questions about the value of comments about low value posts. Shouldn't you praise it?

Yeah, someone who doesn't use LinkedIn "closed" it. Who gives a shit. Well, a lot of people do because they desperately need the bottom feeders fretting over their LinkedIn because it helpfully debases everyone.

Anyone who relies upon LinkedIn for anything (rolodex, word of mouth, contacts) has failed in life and career.

This comment is for the edification of the good people use use showdead.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#155

Post by coldpie »

Nextgrid wrote: post #136
anthonybennis wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always exit HN with a positive mental head space. The discussion is generally informed, balanced and insightful . I wonder how the positive and respectful space here may be reproduced in other social media platforms.

> I wonder how the positive and respectful space here may be reproduced in other social media platforms. It's very simple once you stop chasing growth and engagement metrics. The main reasons the other social media platforms are cesspools is because outrage generates engagement so the platform is designed to encourage it as well as encouraging users to join and stay regardless of the quality of their contributions, w…

Strongly agreed. 95% of the web's problems can be blamed squarely on advertising-based business models. HN does not have ads, so the focus is not on getting more users and clicks (i.e. generating outrage), and the excellent moderators are quick to punish harmful users, because there is no motivation to keep them around.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#156

Post by coldpie »

diminish wrote: post #44
ThePhysicist wrote: post #28

From a professional standpoint LinkedIn gave me a lot of value for free so I'm mostly feeling positive about it, but I agree that like any social network it has downsides and can lead to psychological stress. Personally I live by the mantra that "scrolling is dangerous", i.e. I try to never interact with social media or news platforms that incite me to scroll down a feed of algorithmically curated news or updates, as…

I am one of the first LinkedIn members. Closed my account this year. It gave me nothing much. Recent 'x mentioned u r reporting to Y' was the turning point for me. Too much fuss for nothing.

On the hiring side, we tried using LinkedIn during a recent hiring round of about 5 highly skilled C developers. We flipped through hundreds of LinkedIn candidates and exactly zero made it past the resume filter. Completely useless. The only successful hiring method we found was actually the monthly Who's Hiring threads here on Hacker News.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#157

Post by bengale »

LinkedIn could really do with a way to segment recruiters. I don't know how that would work but I tend not to go on there an interact as most of my feed is recruiters either listing jobs I don't care about or talking about the recruitment industry which I also don't care about.

However, I still want to be connected to them, its useful for them to be able to reach out to me if they have something that aligns with my skillset, I just don't need them in my feed I guess.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#158

Post by dlkf »

I liked this essay. I don't agree with all of it. But it has a lot of interesting musings, and it's written without the sort of hyperbole or bombast that typically accompanies pieces about "why I'm not using x."

> I'd go so far as to say that unless your profile is exceptional for some reason, it probably does more harm than good.

This can't possibly be true. LinkedIn is the go-to sourcing tool for every HR department in the world. Right now —even in the midst of a global recession —thousands of recruiters are trawling LinkedIn to fill a role. If you don't have a LinkedIn account, you are immediately disqualified from the pool. Moreover, a lot of HR departments will simply expect a LinkedIn profile. They like having a standard mode of comparison that's easily digestible.

> You and I are just another candidate in a tall stack

This is a false dichotomy. Having a LinkedIn profile isn't mutually exclusive with a portfolio, blog, github, kaggle account, stackoverflow profile etc. And if the recruiter is only going to look at your LinkedIn anyway, then how is your awesome blog going to help? I would go in an opposite direction, and describe LinkedIn as a sort of Pascal's wager. At worst it's a net neutral; at best you might get an interesting job offer.

> When people long for the days of the early web, the glorious idiosyncracies of personal sites and forums, they are really longing for a time and a space where people were free to communicate their own values. Now that space is owned and rented to the highest bidder. A site like LinkedIn wraps you up into a tiny, uniform package, sets you in an enormous data warehouse next to millions of other tiny people just like you, and sells the lot of you.

Well put. It's definitely kind of depressing. But at the same time, I feel that it's possible that a centralized platform like LinkedIn can serve as an equalizing force (depending on its search/discovery capabilities). I suspect that a world where we are all using blogs and forums is much more siloed than one with LinkedIn. Information asymmetry in job markets is bad for workers. For all their faults, tools like LinkedIn and GlassDoor are (or at least could be) a force that alleviates this. I don't really have a final word here, I can see benefits to both worlds.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#159

Post by SamuelAdams »

hliyan wrote: post #141
ThePhysicist wrote: post #28

From a professional standpoint LinkedIn gave me a lot of value for free so I'm mostly feeling positive about it, but I agree that like any social network it has downsides and can lead to psychological stress. Personally I live by the mantra that "scrolling is dangerous", i.e. I try to never interact with social media or news platforms that incite me to scroll down a feed of algorithmically curated news or updates, as…

Counter-example to the original author: I refused to have a LinkedIn account for the first 12 years of my career (LinkedIn launched the same year I started my career, I believe). But after I opened one, it really helped my career. I found my last two jobs through it. My timeline looks OK because I unfollow a lot of people. I've done the same with Facebook. I rarely come away from either site with my blood pressure an…

> I unfollow a lot of people

This is the trick to turning platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn into a tool, not a vice. You need to curate who you follow. Facebook in particular has many tools to do this, from preventing their content posting to your news feed to unfriending them altogether.

Too many people just follow everyone they know, then complain when they start seeing content that gives them negative outcomes.

There's also this weird social stigma where people think that if you unfollow them on a social website, you can't be friends in real life. That's not true either! They're just really bad at posting content I'm interested in viewing.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#160

Post by madengr »

coldpie wrote: post #156
diminish wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am one of the first LinkedIn members. Closed my account this year. It gave me nothing much. Recent 'x mentioned u r reporting to Y' was the turning point for me. Too much fuss for nothing.

On the hiring side, we tried using LinkedIn during a recent hiring round of about 5 highly skilled C developers. We flipped through hundreds of LinkedIn candidates and exactly zero made it past the resume filter. Completely useless. The only successful hiring method we found was actually the monthly Who's Hiring threads here on Hacker News.

Are you saying the filter was useless, or you couldn’t find a single candidate out of hundreds?
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