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As for point 6: I only connect with people I know. Every once in a while I get a connection request from some random person , but I always say no if I don't kno

As for point 6: I only connect with people I know. Every once in a while I get a connection request from some random person , but I always say no if I don't know them (even if we are in the same industry). I think the whole value of connections is diluted otherwise. A connection doesn't mean anything. So that's what I see as the disadvantage of adding as many contacts as possible.

ydt 11y ago
I agree with you in principle and in the past only accepted connection requests from people I know as well. However, I think LinkedIn's promise as professional social network has really diminished over the years and mostly functions as nothing more than a job board at this point. I probably have about 100 recruiters I have never met in person in my network. As a contract dev updating my profile serves as a way to push notify these people that I'm in the market. It's really the only value I see left in the platform.
- alain94040 11y ago
  It's your choice to add 100 random recruiters to your network. But then, don't complain that you are being spammed by recruiters.
  - CaptSpify 11y ago
    Not who you were replying to, but I don't add people that I don't know to my network, and I still get spammed by recruiters constantly.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    I get spammed by them via initial contact / add connection requests. I literally have 0 recruiters in my list of contacts.
  - tomtang0514 11y ago
    Me too keep getting spammed by recruiters. And the handful number of recruiters I'm connected actually don't bother spamming me LOL
  - r00fus 11y ago
    I've "unfriended" recruiters I've mistakenly added in the past. However, if you're looking for talent, it is helpful to have such "connectors" in your network - without those recruiters, when I was doing a check on my network I didn't see some of the people I was trying to hire - this was only the case when I had switched jobs/domains.
    - rhizome 11y ago
      Wow, how do you unfriend people? I've looked for a way for years.
      - tomtang0514 11y ago
        Linkedin -> Connections tab -> filter by "connections only" -> find the one you wanna unfriend in the list and mouse over it -> "more" -> remove connection
        rhizome 11y ago
        That is just about as buried as I thought it would be if indeed it was possible. Classic LinkedIn, thanks!
codingdave 11y ago
I reply to messages from random people who ask to connect with an email telling them that if they have a reason they want to talk to me, please send me an email about it. Most people never reply, so I presume they are just trying to bump up their numbers.
- sanderjd 11y ago
  Or maybe, like me, they accidentally clicked the button that sends out contact requests to all (or maybe just a lot of?) your "suggested contacts". D'oh!
eropple 11y ago
Connections don't mean anything except for raising your own profile and improving your position in search results. I have 939 contacts on LinkedIn right now and my experience has not changed from when I had 50.
alkonaut 11y ago
The strongest contacts should be those that have overlapping resume entries, i.e colleagues, former colleagues and people you may have studied with. Other contacts should have an optional tag (friend/family/random recruiter/...) and would have a lot less weight. Being connected with someone because you worked 5 years with someone they worked 10 years with earlier is a lot closer than you having responded to the same recruiter once. LinkedIn has all this info and should really use it. It does however show the conflict again: recruiters are their bread and butter, so they may want to be careful outing them as people with huge weak networks that appear to be spam nets.
- gutnor 11y ago
  A huge network for a recruiter is not weak. That is his bread and butter. Often, a valuable interaction with a recruiter is very brief: he found you a job. Similar for people in Sales, Business development, Consultant, ... The problem is that the connection feature in LinkedIn covers 2 vastly different use case. What is regular for you ( and me ), a network of people we have worked with and developed a relationship and that overlap your competences in some fashion and eventually become an implicit reference for what you put in your resume. What is regular for recruiter is a network of customer to which you have provided services. You will look at a recruiter connection to double check if he is indeed in contact with all the major investment banks as he pretend, not to double check he indeed worked at company X on project Y in the past. The weighting should be almost the opposite for a recruiter. If he has worked 5 year in HR in a company 10 years ago, those connections are less interesting that the one he has made in his current position. Problem is that all the use case are treated the same in linked in and most people mix and match different type of contacts in their connection.
dennisgorelik 11y ago
Large list of contacts in your industry allows you to quickly vet new contact or prove to new contacts that you are not a newbie in your industry. That's how connections who you do not personally know - help.

ydt 11y ago

I agree with you in principle and in the past only accepted connection requests from people I know as well. However, I think LinkedIn's promise as professional social network has really diminished over the years and mostly functions as nothing more than a job board at this point. I probably have about 100 recruiters I have never met in person in my network. As a contract dev updating my profile serves as a way to push notify these people that I'm in the market. It's really the only value I see left in the platform.

alain94040 11y ago
It's your choice to add 100 random recruiters to your network. But then, don't complain that you are being spammed by recruiters.
- CaptSpify 11y ago
  Not who you were replying to, but I don't add people that I don't know to my network, and I still get spammed by recruiters constantly.
- fweespeech 11y ago
  I get spammed by them via initial contact / add connection requests. I literally have 0 recruiters in my list of contacts.
- tomtang0514 11y ago
  Me too keep getting spammed by recruiters. And the handful number of recruiters I'm connected actually don't bother spamming me LOL
- r00fus 11y ago
  I've "unfriended" recruiters I've mistakenly added in the past. However, if you're looking for talent, it is helpful to have such "connectors" in your network - without those recruiters, when I was doing a check on my network I didn't see some of the people I was trying to hire - this was only the case when I had switched jobs/domains.
  - rhizome 11y ago
    Wow, how do you unfriend people? I've looked for a way for years.
    - tomtang0514 11y ago
      Linkedin -> Connections tab -> filter by "connections only" -> find the one you wanna unfriend in the list and mouse over it -> "more" -> remove connection
      - rhizome 11y ago
        That is just about as buried as I thought it would be if indeed it was possible. Classic LinkedIn, thanks!

codingdave 11y ago

I reply to messages from random people who ask to connect with an email telling them that if they have a reason they want to talk to me, please send me an email about it. Most people never reply, so I presume they are just trying to bump up their numbers.

sanderjd 11y ago
Or maybe, like me, they accidentally clicked the button that sends out contact requests to all (or maybe just a lot of?) your "suggested contacts". D'oh!

eropple 11y ago

Connections don't mean anything except for raising your own profile and improving your position in search results. I have 939 contacts on LinkedIn right now and my experience has not changed from when I had 50.

alkonaut 11y ago

The strongest contacts should be those that have overlapping resume entries, i.e colleagues, former colleagues and people you may have studied with. Other contacts should have an optional tag (friend/family/random recruiter/...) and would have a lot less weight. Being connected with someone because you worked 5 years with someone they worked 10 years with earlier is a lot closer than you having responded to the same recruiter once. LinkedIn has all this info and should really use it. It does however show the conflict again: recruiters are their bread and butter, so they may want to be careful outing them as people with huge weak networks that appear to be spam nets.

gutnor 11y ago
A huge network for a recruiter is not weak. That is his bread and butter. Often, a valuable interaction with a recruiter is very brief: he found you a job. Similar for people in Sales, Business development, Consultant, ... The problem is that the connection feature in LinkedIn covers 2 vastly different use case. What is regular for you ( and me ), a network of people we have worked with and developed a relationship and that overlap your competences in some fashion and eventually become an implicit reference for what you put in your resume. What is regular for recruiter is a network of customer to which you have provided services. You will look at a recruiter connection to double check if he is indeed in contact with all the major investment banks as he pretend, not to double check he indeed worked at company X on project Y in the past. The weighting should be almost the opposite for a recruiter. If he has worked 5 year in HR in a company 10 years ago, those connections are less interesting that the one he has made in his current position. Problem is that all the use case are treated the same in linked in and most people mix and match different type of contacts in their connection.

dennisgorelik 11y ago

Large list of contacts in your industry allows you to quickly vet new contact or prove to new contacts that you are not a newbie in your industry. That's how connections who you do not personally know - help.