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Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

pcmaffey.com

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Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#411

Post by zenhack »

gonehome wrote: post #366
searchableguy wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the comments here. I find it scary that people are willing to deal with broken "tools" to such an extent and manipulate their own behavior to fit profit-seeking companies. I can see why we will be stuck with the same few social media and recruiting platforms because people are not willing to change but they are willing to put in the effort.

All the recruiters are on LinkedIn and pretty much use it exclusively. There’s a similar network effect problem with Facebook, but it’s a lot easier to leave Facebook because you presumably can still message your real life friends in other ways. With LinkedIn you can’t leave without also seriously hurting your ability to get in touch with recruiters. That said, you basically don’t have to spend any time on it after y…

Fwiw, I still get recruiter emails now and then years after having shut off my LinkedIn account. If they mention how they found me, it's usually through GitHub.

...not that I've ever had anything useful come from talking to a recruiter. The useful bits have always come through my existing personal network more directly, or through meatspace networking. I shut down my LinkedIn because I basically started to view recruiter emails as spam.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#412

Post by raydev »

I see a lot of complaints here about the News Feed, which I agree with, but I spend approximately zero minutes looking at it.

All I have to do on LinkedIn is exist and it's led to some useful job connections and a few offers (which I ended up not taking).

Honestly, the tone in the post tells me this person is at a point in their career where they feel confident they can walk in anywhere and get a job. I don't know if I'll ever feel that way and I like recruiters reaching out to me.

Just don't read the News Feed, and LinkedIn is good.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#414

Post by ghaff »

RonanTheGrey wrote: post #404
ghaff wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That brings up another issue, that employment background checks are increasingly checking social media posts for "questionable" activity. Honestly, can you blame them in the current climate? If they can find something that is seriously questionable (I leave the definition of that to the reader), anyone else can too. And no company wants either internal dissent or an external PR hit because someone they hired ranted…

You're exactly right... In fact there is a girl on Twitter with a very large following (>800k) who spends all her time hunting down people on social media who have ever in their lives said anything that could be construed as "seriously questionable" (whose definition changes according to the times). She's gotten incoming freshman kicked out of the colleges they were accepted to. Fired from their jobs. Businesses clos…

In general, I'm very happy that I couldn't publish to the Internet unfiltered until long after I internalized "Never say or write anything in public that you wouldn't want to appear on the front page of the newspaper." I pretty much stay away from politics online, especially on anything like twitter that is public--especially any opinions that are nuanced and easily misconstrued.

I do have good professional reasons to be on twitter and I honestly don't have much inclination to have political arguments there. If I did, I'd probably get another pseudonymous handle but even that carries some risk that it could be connected to you in some way.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#415

Post by gav »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #379
searchableguy wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the comments here. I find it scary that people are willing to deal with broken "tools" to such an extent and manipulate their own behavior to fit profit-seeking companies. I can see why we will be stuck with the same few social media and recruiting platforms because people are not willing to change but they are willing to put in the effort.

Are you are involved with recruiting in any way? Then be the change you want to see in the world. Does the company you work for use LinkedIn or use recruiters that send messages of LinkedIn? Make an effort to stop hiring them, and use neutral tools like email. I dislike LinkedIn, but have seen very few people walk the walk professionally when it comes to influencing their own workplace to stop using it in some way. I…

> use neutral tools like email

Email might be a neutral tool, but not using a tool like LinkedIn is worse because you're restricting your hiring pool to immediate connections. For all its warts, LinkedIn allows job seekers to connect with a wider range of jobs and job posters to connect to a wider range of potential candidates.

The answer isn't to double down on a "it's not what you know but who you know" world.

Most outside recruiters are terrible, we can agree on that. It's a two-fold problem, they give you poor candidates and harm the reputation of your firm by leaving a poor impression of you to them. I'm looking for work right now and had first hand experience of this recently; I don't know if I should feel sad that I didn't get a job that sounded perfect or happy that I dodged a bullet because if the candidate experience was so bad, what would working there be like?

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#416

Post by rileyt »

tomrod wrote: post #398
rileyt wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like VisualCV, you should check out https://standardresume.co . You can import your LinkedIn profile and our resume templates are designed in collaboration with hiring managers at top tech companies.

Why do hiring managers input into the design? Would it not be more efficient to have in-house recruiters provide their keyword scan values? Having been a hiring manager in that space, I'm not convinced the format mattered more than avoiding the obvious overly inscrutable wall of text, grammar check failures, or irrelevant data points.

I agree that not having the issues you mentioned is more important than the resumes format, assuming the format isn't unreadable. We are planning to add functionality to help with content quality.

We work with recruiters and hiring managers to review the designs. The primary things we review are readability/scanability and visual appeal.

We found that a lot of our customers were having more issues with getting offers than getting interviews, so we have chose to focus more on appealing to hiring managers.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#417

Post by ptmcc »

LinkedIn has directly led to me getting two great jobs and accelerating my career by leaps and bounds.

I don't read much/any of the news feed, and only occasionally check in on it at all, but it's a fantastic passive job search platform.

The vast majority of recruiter contacts I get are not worth following up on, but that rare message that just happens to be the right time/place is invaluable.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#418

Post by glglwty »

jeff_vader wrote: post #216

I sort of liked LinkedIn until they (like Facebook, twitter and others) made "liking" or commenting equivalent to sharing. There's no distinction nowadays. And, as a result, my feed is now mostly recruiter memes. I also stopped reacting to any posts in any way since I don't want all of my connections to see everything I do.

There is a "save" feature that behaves like bookmarking.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#419

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

jasonv wrote: post #392
GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing forcing you to scroll the feed. I just uBlock the entire feed, and use it as an online Rolodex. I've also built a fairly sizeable contact book of headhunters, should I ever want to leave my current position.

True. And worth considering. But it's not like I'm challenged by a corner case of their product offer. It's the whole creamy middle. I'm inclined to want out.

It's not really a "product" for individuals looking for work. Just set and forget, check for recruiter messages. I think that's the beauty of it, or how I use it anyways.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#420

Post by ikeyany »

bonoboTP wrote: post #231
sk0v wrote: post #63

I really consider getting rid of my car. I bought it a year ago, but it's only ever sat in the driveway, I never use it. The funny meta-thing about his post, is that the content he feels adds 0 value, is in fact his own post. He is literally making a post about a tool he doesn't use. It's the equivalent of a person making a blog post about a tv series they don't watch but have seen the trailer for; no actual value to…

The "I deleted my [Facebook, Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok] account and this is why" is a genre in itself. They rarely say anything new. Social media is a waste of time, the news feed is enraging, people put on a fake perfect persona, FOMO, insecurity, inauthentic connection, signaling, controversy, drama, dopamine, addiction. Unplug yourself, use analog tools, read books, have real life fun and deep b…

Reminds me of those people who swear off meat to reduce animal suffering, or people who swear off junk food in order to live healthier—it's all just a cynical ruse to feel superior.

/s

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