Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn • Hacker News Board

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#251

Post by C1sc0cat » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:47 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #237

antonyh wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of late (this year) in my experience the job section is mostly reposts of other jobs or positions already filled or fake roles. Any post by a company with no logo is virtually guaranteed to be spam. I'm seeing them side-by-side with the real post. It's highly polluted by these bad actors.

LinkedIn has their own job platform with the “Easy apply” feature, but also seems to scrape job ads from a lot of third-party sites. The scraped ones are the bad ones. Bad formatting and categorisation, not kept up to date (the job might be expired on the original site but still displayed on LinkedIn) and you have to register and apply on an external site. It’s quite ironic that LinkedIn is so against scraping despit…

All scraper job sites have low quality inventory eg indeed.

Last time I was looking I used those sites to fil the quota for job applications per day that receiving JSA (social security) requires in the UK - whilst putting the real effort in to the 2-3 decent possibilities a week I found.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#252

Post by isakkeyten » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:47 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #204

I've never found a job through LinkedIn. I do like Easy Apply a lot, but it never resulted in anything. Every job I've ever had was found either through someone I know or by applying directly on a company website. I've had a few interviews resulting from LinkedIn, but it's not like LinkedIn gave me much of an advantage beyond Easy Apply. I didn't exactly get more interviews. In fact, I may have been getting fewer int…

That's the opposite of my experience but I'm assuming it's just more used where I'm from. I've gotten 3/3 of my job positions in these past 4 years by recruiters finding me instead of me looking for them. And I was a junior then. I still get contacts and offers in messages and get a connection request or two on the daily by HR people.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#253

Post by laurentdc » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

kerkeslager wrote: post #201

I've never had a LinkedIn, but I regularly receive emails from recruiters that start, "Hey, I found your profile on LinkedIn and...". These get a form response from me which says basically, "No you didn't, and given the first words you say to me are a lie, I have no interest in working with you. And if you feel guilty enough about how you actually got my email that you feel the need to lie about it, maybe you should…

Probably an automated tool. Sometimes I even get the "Hey |REAL_NAME|," ones..

Worst thing, these recruiter emails rarely have an unsubscribe link or some sort of opt-out. I don't have a LinkedIn but I once accidentally set my email public on GitHub for a month or so, now every once in a while I get those kind of emails. I'm sure it's been scraped and added to some database/spreadsheet somewhere.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#254

Post by dkersten » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

42_ wrote: post #97

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…

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.

Yeah, that’s why I basically use it as an online CV host and little else. I din’t think I’ve ever read a post that was shared on linkedin, and rarely ever bothered reading any of the news/notifications/updates.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#255

Post by mark_l_watson » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

I feel the almost same about LinkedIn as Facebook: I have privacy concerns and concerns about wasting my own attention/time on those sites. My compromise is to keep my accounts but to spend less than 15 minutes per month on each site.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#256

Post by C1sc0cat » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

chrismatheson wrote: post #119

NalNezumi wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something you got to give to LinkedIn is at least that this is the default behavior (as far as I know, I haven't changed any notification setting since I got it) It's great for someone that just want to have a "easy CV" so that recruiters at least know where/what you've worked with without back&forth mailing. Recently I tried to get Twitter for the first time and my gosh what a mess that platform is. I only wanted it…

This has not been my experience. Any recruiter I talk to asks for a CV. If I tell them my linked in is up to date they just ask me to convert it into a CV

If its a decent Job you do need a CV (ideally tailored to the job) and a Targeted cover letter.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#257

Post by wreath » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

Thanks, I just needed a teeny tiny push for me to close it too. One less thing to think about it.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#258

Post by kerkeslager » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

laurentdc wrote: post #253

kerkeslager wrote: post #201

I've never had a LinkedIn, but I regularly receive emails from recruiters that start, "Hey, I found your profile on LinkedIn and...". These get a form response from me which says basically, "No you didn't, and given the first words you say to me are a lie, I have no interest in working with you. And if you feel guilty enough about how you actually got my email that you feel the need to lie about it, maybe you should…

Probably an automated tool. Sometimes I even get the "Hey |REAL_NAME| ," ones.. Worst thing, these recruiter emails rarely have an unsubscribe link or some sort of opt-out. I don't have a LinkedIn but I once accidentally set my email public on GitHub for a month or so, now every once in a while I get those kind of emails. I'm sure it's been scraped and added to some database/spreadsheet somewhere.

True. I'm not sure whether that makes it worse or better.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#259

Post by hliyan » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

techslave wrote: post #210

hliyan wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> But after I opened one, it really helped my career. I found my last two jobs through it. Selection bias. You may very well have found the same exact, or even better, jobs outside of LI.

May I ask how? You seem to know more about my particular circumstance better than I do...

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#260

Post by headmelted » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 1:52 PM UTC

LinkedIn is a very strange place to me.

I’m there, but like the author I never really bother with it. Maybe every year or two I’ll check it’s up-to-date with work history but that’s about it.

I get a lot of calls from recruiters. I can only assume they’re cold-calling a list from linked in search results and I can’t think of a single incidence where the call has lead to anything.

The bizarre part is that I know several people on LinkedIn and Facebook (to be fair I haven’t signed in on Facebook either for about two years for lack of interest - if I haven’t bothered to call you in the last three years then I really don’t care what you’re eating for lunch these days).

On Facebook people post cat memes and talk about things they’re genuinely interested in, like how Janet’s friend Steve caught coronavirus from a telecom mast.

On LinkedIn the same people’s feeds are repost after repost of how they’re living their most Agile Scrum Synergy-driven Goal-oriented life.

As best I can tell, it’s a website for sucking up to employers you might some day have or hope to impress. Every post reads like the applicant side of a job interview where no-one even asked a question. Maybe it’s just me, and I don’t get it, but I just have better things to do with my time.