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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?

#181

Post by fivea »

tata71 wrote: post #148
paulcole wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this person needs a job more than they don't want to be inconvenienced by recruiters, then they really don't have a leg to stand on. You can always be as demanding as you want but don't be surprised when somebody else doesn't give in.

Just seems like GGP is trying to avoid being hired by a string of people not detail oriented.

> Just seems like GGP is trying to avoid being hired by a string of people not detail oriented.

I'd add that recruiters that spam people without any criteria or attention are a telltale sign that you are already expected to be treated as disposable and unworthy of attention even way before you are even made an offer.

So, strong start.

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

#182

Post by fivea »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #100
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…

This is why I deleted my LinkedIn profile and would suggest others to the same. It has become nothing more than a spammy network that collects way too much personal information.

> This is why I deleted my LinkedIn profile and would suggest others to the same. It has become nothing more than a spammy network that collects way too much personal information.

Could you please elaborate on your concerns? I mean, LinkedIn is a professional network whose whole point is to allow people like you and me to expose personal details we chose to disclose to recruiters and companies with the goal, direct or indirect, of advancing our career.

Knowing this, how exactly can anyone complain that a service whose sole point is to allow you share your profile info with recruiters is sharing your profile info with recruiters?

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

#183

Post by justinlloyd »

I have a decidedly love/hate relationship with LinkedIn.

Almost all of my work for the past decade has come via way of LinkedIn or referrals, and usually the referrals from older colleagues are because they could find me on LinkedIn. You don't _need_ a LinkedIn profile, and you're not obligated to provide it on a job application. Having a LinkedIn profile is a useful automated marketing tool, and a more extensive, cultivated version of your resume/C.V.

I have also found, that as an engineer/developer, that I don't use LinkedIn the way the majority of engineers/developers use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a marketing tool and should be used as such.

LinkedIn is also full of low-quality recruiter spam and people not even glancing at your profile before reaching out with a 6 month/$20 an hour contract Java position on the other side of the country.

Summation of LinkedIn experience - https://justinlloyd.li/blog/hippos-and-ducks-are-verbotten/

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

#184

Post by ojl »

DoubleGlazing wrote: post #84
evanelias wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I sometimes get messages where they are searching for candidates with C# or Java experience, also telling me that I seem like a perfect candidate. I do have a little bit of that but for the past ten years I have only been working with embedded sw development (C and C++) so obviously they didn’t read very carefully. I have gotten good contact with good recruiters using LinkedIn as well though so it varies quite a lot.

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

#185

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

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…

> They are spammy as heck

Spam sandwiches can be tasty though: that's how I got my current job. A recruiter sent me a LinkedIn message that was either intended for someone else, or she forgot to change the name at the beginning of the message.

Didn't matter; got job. I just replied "Hi Rebecca, I'm not Bhargav, but that position looks interesting" Fast forward a few months and I'm at a new place that seems pretty nice so far.

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

#186

Post by opportune »

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…

The way it usually works is:

Recruiter sends out spam to everybody fitting X parameters.

If you find the company and position interesting you can respond.

A recruiter will actually look at your profile and if they think you’re a good match, go from there.

I still find it useful overall because once you respond to the recruiter, you have a decent in with the company. You do need to wait for actually good positions to come in (which would be true anyway if they were looking at your profile), but you can literally just ignore them all until you are looking to actually job hop.

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

#187

Post by monkeyjoe »

lrvick wrote: post #175

I get multiple invites to interview every week and I do not have a LinkedIn. Just my self-hosted jsonresume site: https://lance.dev

Sweet. Didn't know this existed. Is your site theme custom?

From a quick check of https://jsonresume.org/ it looks like they only have document themes, not website themes.

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

#188

Post by rahimnathwani »

mellavora wrote: post #17
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

We can’t read the mind of your hiring manager, but most places don’t strictly require a LinkedIn. However, it’s so easy that you might as well just do it. You can have it set up and filled out in 10 minutes and it’s an easy link for people to pass around when discussing you as a candidate.

yes, but no, it isn't "just 10 minutes", you should give it the care and attention you'd give to your cv or any other professional presentation of yourself.

Right, but if you're looking for a job, you've already prepared your CV, so you have already written the content for your LinkedIn profile.

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

#189

Post by medium_spicy »

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…

This doesn’t apply to folks who want contacts for what’s in their profile, but: sometimes you’d like employers to know what relevant adjacent skills you have, without recruiters hitting them as search terms.

For that purpose, I masked all of my software terms like “java” from my EE profile with homoglyphs: humans can read them, but they don’t match search terms.

I used this site: http://www.irongeek.com/homoglyph-attack-generator.php?decod...

This is an example: ѕoftwаrе looks like “software” to humans, but I’ve pulled from Cyrillic characters, so the ascii codes don’t match.

I cut down my spam by about 80% instantly. (One weird trick!)

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

#190

Post by illwrks »

gregdoesit wrote: post #48

Former engineering manager here. LinkedIn is useful to get “sourced” for jobs. Sourcing refers to recruiters proactively searching for qualified candidates for a given job. The first place recruiters go to source for positions - especially for those that are harder to fill - is LinkedIn. So no: you absolutely don’t need to have LinkedIn to get hired if you apply directly. LinkedIn makes it easier for companies to fin…

100% agree.

There are a lot of business comms and networkers on linked as well as your standard social network content, in but the greatest value is what it provides to recruiters.

Recruiters use linked in as a 'direct sourcing' (head hunting) tool. LinkedIn provides a recruiter with a whole recruitment toolset to make their jobs very easy.

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