Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity • Hacker News Board

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#341

Post by a_t48 » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:05 PM UTC

monkeyelite wrote: post #329

glitchcrab wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A really good way of weeding out the recruiter spam is to change your first name to an emoji (I use the waving hand) and then put first name and last name in the last name field. That way when a DM opens with 'hello %waving hand emoji%' you know it's just scripted bulk crap.

Is it bad to use automation?

TBH automation for finding/filtering candidates, but preferably personal email to my inbox. I can tell when you’ve used some cruddy software to send automated follow-ups four times after I didn’t respond to the first message.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#342

Post by daveguy » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:07 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #301

glitchcrab wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A really good way of weeding out the recruiter spam is to change your first name to an emoji (I use the waving hand) and then put first name and last name in the last name field. That way when a DM opens with 'hello %waving hand emoji%' you know it's just scripted bulk crap.

Cool idea. I used to have "[crab emoji] positions only - or get blocked" in my profile and it did not deter anyone from offering me Java positions.

Okay, but maybe recruiters aren't up on rust iconography. Seems like an ineffective way to communicate a preference (vs it being a shibboleth with the GP).

I mean, unless the recruiter is a rust programmer they're going to have a hard time distinguishing your profile vs just "positions only - or get blocked" (ie don't contact me unless it's about recruitment).

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#343

Post by bravesoul2 » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:11 PM UTC

darth_avocado wrote: post #332

bluedino wrote: post #262

LinkedIn is decent for jobs/searching/applying. That's all I really find it useful for. Things I don't find it useful for: Salespeople trying to sell me some enterprise product when I don't have anything to do with selection/purchasing those items. Everything from IP phones to enterprise storage to whatever SaSS is hot Low-effort recruiter spam. Jobs I'm not interested in, qualified for, over-qualified for, want me t…

As a general rule, if you’re an engineering candidate that made a profile years ago and is missing updates and haven’t put in much description about your work experience beyond “I worked here from this date to that date”, you’re probably a good engineer. That’s how I find LinkedIn useful.

That is in danger of being a typical "weird heuristic" that linked in loves to post about (with high p values).

I have seen people say for recruiting advise.

* They recommend you hustle. E.g. deliver your resume pretending to be a food delivery

* Don't follow up if explicitly not told to by your recruiters instructions.

* You must have an up to date linked in.

Usually in hot take format that if you dont do that you got no chance.

So everyone stick to measuring for the role!

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#344

Post by bravesoul2 » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:13 PM UTC

nickfromseattle wrote: post #5

This reads like it was written by a developer 'who doesn't get marketing'. > Nothing you post there is going to change your career. I can attribute millions of dollars in revenue to LinkedIn, as can a lot of my 'LinkedIn friends' > Doing work that matters might. This is a pre-requisite for winning on LinkedIn. The kind of content that performs best are strong opinions informed by actual expertise. > Go for depth over…

> The kind of content that performs best are strong opinions informed by actual expertise.

Where do I find people posting such rare unicorns!

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#345

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:15 PM UTC

jackdawed wrote: post #106

To combat LinkedIn spam, I exclusively write wizard-themed LinkedIn posts: https://dungeonengineering.com/i-could-have-cursed-him-inste...

Well that made my day. Fantastic satire.

To be a nit picky well acktually…one of your articles opens with, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was import this, spoken by Guido van Rossum…”

I believe ‘import this’ was actually penned by Tim Peters.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#346

Post by bravesoul2 » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:19 PM UTC

modeless wrote: post #275

joshdavham wrote: post #239

If you find reading posts on LinkedIn as annoying as I do, there’s actually a nice solution that will literally wipe your feed blank: 1) Change your preferred feed view to “Most Recent Posts” : https://www.linkedin.com/mypreferences/m/settings/preferred-... 2) Unfollow all of your connections. You’ll stay connected but won’t see their annoying posts anymore. …and there you have it! Focused peace and zen on an otherwi…

Or just don't visit your feed?

Use an ad blocker!

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#347

Post by fHr » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:20 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #262

LinkedIn is decent for jobs/searching/applying. That's all I really find it useful for. Things I don't find it useful for: Salespeople trying to sell me some enterprise product when I don't have anything to do with selection/purchasing those items. Everything from IP phones to enterprise storage to whatever SaSS is hot Low-effort recruiter spam. Jobs I'm not interested in, qualified for, over-qualified for, want me t…

trys way to hard to be a social platform

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#348

Post by weinzierl » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:21 PM UTC

daveguy wrote: post #342

weinzierl wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool idea. I used to have "[crab emoji] positions only - or get blocked" in my profile and it did not deter anyone from offering me Java positions.

Okay, but maybe recruiters aren't up on rust iconography. Seems like an ineffective way to communicate a preference (vs it being a shibboleth with the GP). I mean, unless the recruiter is a rust programmer they're going to have a hard time distinguishing your profile vs just "positions only - or get blocked" (ie don't contact me unless it's about recruitment).

That was very much the intention. I think good tech recruiters should know their field and I know some that do. It's just that LinkedIn is a swamp of bad ones and my little experiment proofed to me that signal noise ratio there is so low that it is useless for me.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#349

Post by bravesoul2 » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:21 PM UTC

mostlystatic wrote: post #152

I love LinkedIn as a founder/developer. It's become my main social network after the Twitter acquisition. Your experience depends on what show up in your feed. For me, it's mostly developers talking about web performance optimization, small business owners talking about conferences they've been to, people sharing posts or videos they've released... and the occasional post from the local council or someone criticizing…

If you say this it means you probably have tuned who you connect to and your settings well to avoid spammy content. I'm amazed it is possible.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#350

Post by bravesoul2 » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 9:24 PM UTC

antihipocrat wrote: post #12

There is no benefit to be gained from disagreement or debate. Any such discourse looks problematic to a potential employer.

Unless its a safe enough disagreement. Lynching on an overconfident but incorrect post for example. As long as correcting it makes you look smart, hard working, a leader.