Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn • Hacker News Board

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#311

Post by jlokier » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:01 PM UTC

inglor wrote: post #39

I don't understand why as a developer I'd want to use LinkedIn. I have StackOverflow and GitHub which a lot of relevant leads come from. When I buy a used car - I don't publish a "I'm looking for a used car" post and wait for car salespeople to approach me. I go and charactarize what I'm looking for and then go car-shopping. When I look for a job - I don't publish a "I'm looking for a job". Talking to the recruiters…

> Contributing to open source and meeting and talking to engineers and building things is a lot more fun and rewarding.

I completely agree and I do both of those. I used to do a lot more in open source, but had other life priorities take over. Meeting and talking to engineers, though, I liked that so much that I ran a physical space dedicated to it, and will likely do something like it again.

(Aside: The rapid shift to online meetups has been great lately - I've been to a number of meetings and even conferences with fellow engineers in countries I would not have realistically travelled to.)

However in my experience, and I know it's not the same for everyone, "contributing to open source and meeting and talking to engineers and building things", fun and rewarding as it is, has not tended to be a good route to paid work. If anything it's been a significant net expense!

The point of my comment is that, unfortunately, even for developers the "fun" approach doesn't work out everywhere.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#312

Post by tomrod » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:04 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…

I've found good recruiting agencies through LI, and a whole lot of spammy ones.

The good ones I consider worth my time and are basically the only value I see from interacting with LI. Seeing people's resume is a nice side benefit, but something like VisualCV or similar offer a better format.

As a social network? Nah, I'm old school -- the dark closets/water coolers of the interwebs shouldn't be in the same place as primary branding.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#313

Post by actionowl » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

LinkedIn is almost entirely full masturbatory self back-patting, inspirational re-posts, expired job listing, and recruiters offering you jobs that don't match any of the skills on your profile.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#314

Post by yepthatsreality » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:07 PM UTC

I do this all the time and create a new one when I switch jobs. Otherwise I get near 0 benefit from LinkedIn.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#315

Post by banifo » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:08 PM UTC

headmelted wrote: post #265

banifo wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that because hn showed it on spot 1. I think it was a waste of time. I also started to think in this direction more the last few years: If we as a socity would be better of creating less but better, we would not have facebook or linkedin feets full of waste. We would have perhaps 10 hn articles per day, 10 world news, 1-2 local news and thats it. I would have the rest of my time 'free' of the burden of trying…

Extending this, news wouldn’t exist in its current form. Broadcasts would be much more honest too: “Hello everyone. There’s a pandemic sweeping the globe, which is unfortunate, but also cancer outcomes are the best they’ve ever been. Overall things are getting better. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll be back on Monday. If something genuinely important changes. Otherwise, take a walk and maybe get some fresh air instead.…

We would have newspaper like:

The New York Informer

Sunday teller

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#316

Post by jiofih » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:08 PM UTC

game_the0ry wrote: post #310

This blog post comes off whiny and weak, with a tone of unearned moral and social superiority, all while making sweeping generalizations and false claims. The author used LI poorly, then complained publicly about being dissatisfied. I get that randoms invites and messages are annoying, but the inconvenience shouldn't outweigh the benefit from LI replacing resumes for professional branding.[1] The 1 page resume is an…

I just got a job using my one-page resume. It looks almost the same as my LinkedIn profile. What’s the difference?

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#317

Post by Springtime » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:14 PM UTC

Just wanted to give a bit of praise for the blog post's illustration as a rather delightful little example of how lightweight and smooth SVG animation can be (and SMIL no less).

44KB for a scalable, looping blog graphic. Imagine if more of the web were like this.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#318

Post by rileyt » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:15 PM UTC

allthecybers wrote: post #226

moksly wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LinkedIn is the only social media that has had a positive impact on my career. I’m being followed by possibly future employers, networking with peers and talking about shared issues, planning working lunches at conventions and getting job offers. I never scroll through the news feed.

I dislike the news feed but have gotten four of my last six jobs from being discovered on LinkedIn. I’d love to close my LinkedIn but I never know when I’ll be job searching again. I kind of wish there was an HN like job site that was widely used in corporate America but didn’t have all the ‘content’. Just an online resume.

Have you seen https://standardresume.co? You can import your LinkedIn profile, choose a template and publish it as a web resume in minutes.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#319

Post by everythingswan » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:16 PM UTC

bonestamp2 wrote: post #287

mancerayder wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> wannabe thought leaders A high percentage of which seem to be recruiters cutting and pasting words of wisdom, inspirational quotes that dozens of people "Like." I don't know how people can take this stuff seriously.

I don't get any of these. Can you unfollow these people or are they some kind of sponsored/injected content? The only wannabe thought leaders I see are all people I actually know who are taking other people's thoughts and passing them off as their own. Thankfully, I rarely scroll the feed -- I only use linkedin to receive unsolicited messages from people who just want to be my friend so they can sell me their service…

You can unfollow them if they are a connection by clicking the three dots on the top right of a post. You remain connected but you no longer see their updates in your feed.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#320

Post by rileyt » Thu, Jun 11, 2020, 3:18 PM UTC

the_af wrote: post #269

MattGaiser wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if you let yourself believe it for a little while, you continue believing it for the rest of time.

The problem is that it -- at least my feed -- is not true positivity, it's fake positivity, which brings a strong negative reaction in me. Gurus talking entrepreneur-, startup- or hiring- bullshit, recruiters extolling the virtues of their profession, "if you're having a bad time with COVID19, here's something to stay positive" [bullshit follows]. LinkedIn is useful as an online resume. But the feed is mostly garbage…

You should check out https://standardresume.co. It's a minimalist web resume builder that lets you start by importing your LinkedIn profile. No feed, no recruiter spam and we don't sell your personal data like LinkedIn does.