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Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

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Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#21

Post by minouye »

hga wrote: post #15
minouye wrote: post #14

I don't get why LinkedIn gets a free pass on a lot of the shady stuff it does. Case in point: if I have a free account, public details are hidden when browsing profiles and I'm told I need to "upgrade" my account to view them. Viewing the same profile in an incognito window reveals the "restricted" details. That seems like an ExpertsExchange level trick.

I'd assume that's for recruiters, and that what you see in the incognito window is to give them a taste (perhaps they have governors to limit how much can be found per unit of time). Not being that sort of recruiter I've only ever wanted to see that kind of thing to confirm if a particular "John Doe" is the one I'm thinking of before asking to connect to him, and personalizing the note takes care of that well enough.…

I'm definitely not a recruiter and LinkedIn could easily extrapolate that from my resume. Say for example I just want to do some due diligence on a contractor (or business associate or company exec. or whatever). I don't want to connect, just see their qualifications, general background, etc.

Logged in: http://media.tumblr.com/ba1105d066fd8c3acca2909898d5b603/tum...

Logged out: http://media.tumblr.com/17fe723913901fe9a1e0c0c53b6ba6e4/tum...

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#22

Post by auctiontheory »

jusben1369 wrote: post #19
auctiontheory wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should absolutely have a LinkedIn account and begin to build the network. Just don't PAY for your LinkedIn account.

I feel like the "network" benefit of LinkedIn is close to zero. That is, when was the last time anyone said "I would like to talk to person X at Company Y. Oh, one of my friends is connected to person X. I'll ask that person for a warm introduction" Is anyone seeing or doing that?

Yes.

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#23

Post by vladsanchez »

What really bothers me is the amount of 'bs' skills some of my coworkers state they have. It's an honor-based network being abused by some.

It's also funny when non-SME (Subject Matter Experts) endorse SME skills. In my case, a Realtor endorsing OOP skills. Go figure!

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#24

Post by ngoel36 »

minouye wrote: post #14

I don't get why LinkedIn gets a free pass on a lot of the shady stuff it does. Case in point: if I have a free account, public details are hidden when browsing profiles and I'm told I need to "upgrade" my account to view them. Viewing the same profile in an incognito window reveals the "restricted" details. That seems like an ExpertsExchange level trick.

It's like the WSJ paywall. They know you can get around it, and at the end of the day they don't want to hide the information from someone who's willing to work hard to get it. Eventually, if it's worth enough, they'll pay for ease of access.

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#25

Post by gergles » 

  > But the question for everyone else is, why are employers
  > (who pay to access the database) and job seekers (who 
  > pay for database positioning) playing along while 
  > LinkedIn sells everyone out with this game of payola?
There is no "payola" in searching the database. Job seekers aren't paying for database positioning, they are paying only to be at the top of the list of "here are people who applied for your job". This is mentioned by Corcodilos in his article then immediately handwaved away as if it doesn't matter, but this point completely changes the thrust of his argument.

You don't show up at the top of search results no matter what kind of account you have; your payment or lack thereof does not manipulate organic search results. It only puts you at the top of a list of people who applied for jobs using the "Apply for jobs" function. The value for the free account-holder and for the recruiter is still intact.

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#26

Post by zcarter »

The problem comes down to trust and incentives. The "promoted" job board model leads to a middle man agent ("agent" in the Economics sense) with asymmetric information who is incentivized to give poor advice. LinkedIn wants you to trust their matching algorithm, but then goes behind your back and supplants the best matches with whoever the highest bidder happens to be.

Instead of benefiting when their customers get value from their service (successful placements), LinkedIn is profiting from desperation and frustration (the more unsatisfied costs - "free" grade users, the more potential paying customers), and simultaneously making the search process more difficult for all parties involved.

LinkedIn's position in the job search marketplace is as a monopolist provider of up-to-date candidate information, a valuable side effect of their primary virtue: being the winner take all social network for the corporate world.

Rent-seeking behavior from monopoly providers with asymmetric information should surprise no one. Rent-seeking behavior leading to angry market participants should surprise no one.

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#27

Post by gergles »

minouye wrote: post #14

I don't get why LinkedIn gets a free pass on a lot of the shady stuff it does. Case in point: if I have a free account, public details are hidden when browsing profiles and I'm told I need to "upgrade" my account to view them. Viewing the same profile in an incognito window reveals the "restricted" details. That seems like an ExpertsExchange level trick.

This is just because people have more permissive public profiles than default. I view this as a privacy feature for people who may want to be on LinkedIn but only use the site to communicate with their connections - if they have a limited/empty public profile, then you won't see any additional information.

Yeah, I agree they should probably check and see if the public profiles are more permissive than just the top bit of information, but I imagine something about their architecture makes that difficult.

I also agree with the point about the NYT paywall; it's likely just a tiny additional monetization strategy.

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#28

Post by wpietri »

jusben1369 wrote: post #19
auctiontheory wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should absolutely have a LinkedIn account and begin to build the network. Just don't PAY for your LinkedIn account.

I feel like the "network" benefit of LinkedIn is close to zero. That is, when was the last time anyone said "I would like to talk to person X at Company Y. Oh, one of my friends is connected to person X. I'll ask that person for a warm introduction" Is anyone seeing or doing that?

I make intros like that once or twice a month. I'm generally happy to do so, because I only accept LinkedIn connection requests from people I know well enough to recommend.

Re: Is LinkedIn Cheating Employers and Job Seekers Alike?

#30

Post by hga »

minouye wrote: post #21
hga wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd assume that's for recruiters, and that what you see in the incognito window is to give them a taste (perhaps they have governors to limit how much can be found per unit of time). Not being that sort of recruiter I've only ever wanted to see that kind of thing to confirm if a particular "John Doe" is the one I'm thinking of before asking to connect to him, and personalizing the note takes care of that well enough.…

I'm definitely not a recruiter and LinkedIn could easily extrapolate that from my resume. Say for example I just want to do some due diligence on a contractor (or business associate or company exec. or whatever). I don't want to connect, just see their qualifications, general background, etc. Logged in: http://media.tumblr.com/ba1105d066fd8c3acca2909898d5b603/tum... Logged out: http://media.tumblr.com/17fe723913901fe…

Ah, I didn't mean to suggest you were a "recruiter", although the examples you gave could be part of the recruiting function, and it wouldn't be unreasonable for LinkedIn to want some money from your to do perform such due diligence. It would be interesting to see if they've got an account level for that sort of small scale thing.
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