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I agree that there are many problems with LinkedIn, but my (contrarian) view is that it is still useful for me: - contact information for professional contacts

I agree that there are many problems with LinkedIn, but my (contrarian) view is that it is still useful for me: - contact information for professional contacts in one place, updated by them - job offers (yes, mostly good or at least decent) - can look up people to see their experience and common contacts - updates on what previous colleagues are up to. More here: http://henrikwarne.com/2013/08/21/linkedin-good-or-bad/ http://henrikwarne.com/2013/08/21/linkedin-good-or-bad/

jfoster 11y ago
My feeling is that you have to compare it with other sites in the same category. If you do that, I think it comes away looking really, really good. Pretty much everyone is on it, it does the things you listed, and the level of bs compared to any other site in the category is actually low, in my opinion. Caveat: I'm unfamiliar with the US/EU status quo for this category; maybe there are better options in those markets?
- dev360 11y ago
  >> the level of bs compared to any other site in the category is actually low, in my opinion I remember trying to figure out how to unsubscribe to emails from (I think) careerbuilder a few years ago and it was an absolute mess. >>> maybe there are better options in those markets? One site that seems most nimble right now would probably be indeed. They are growing a lot particularly here in europe and are more flexible in their partnering agreements. I work at the moment for a SaaS recruiting product, and I know all the big players are a pain to work with for integrations.. just reams of red tape. Another thing that is far more common in europe is that the job sites are much more fragmented. There are so many craigslist type sites that are driving lots of traffic that recruiters want to integrate with.
- toong 11y ago
  Europe is using LinkedIn as well. I don't even know about any alternatives ?
  - realusername 11y ago
    In France Viadeo is really strong, it's probably 50/50 with LinkedIn and most people have both, I guess every country has their own local equivalent.
  - eamsen 11y ago
    Xing is a popular alternative for the German-speaking markets.
- x1798DE 11y ago
  For developers specifically, I feel like Stack Overflow Careers our jobs or whatever) is about a million times better than LinkedIn, but it doesn't have the social aspect, I guess.
  - vzip 11y ago
    I appreciate that it's not 'social'. I don't think I'd use it if it resembled a social network.
  - cullenking 11y ago
    Haven't used it while looking for a job, but we've used SO to post and have not had good luck. Craigslist yields better results for a mobile dev in Portland, and costs one tenth of SO. Additionally my business partner and I received no less than 20 unsolicited recruiter and contract services spam emails each, and I wasn't even on the job posting!
    - mooreds 11y ago
      > I wasn't even on the job posting! Maybe they found you on LinkedIn :)
- blowski 11y ago
  I find a combination of attending meetups, having a personal website, and contributing to StackOverflow to be much more effective than LinkedIn. There's less spam, because the people and jobs are much more interesting. Your mileage may vary, but as a WASPish male mid-level dev based in London, this is true for me. I can appreciate that people outside that circle may get more value from LinkedIn.
  - henrik_w 11y ago
    I have an (admittedly not very active) account on SO (1400 karma), but over the years I've only received one job offer via SO. LinkedIn on the other hand gets me maybe one offer per month on average. I also have a blog at http://henrikwarne.com/ http://henrikwarne.com/ but I have never received any job offers via it. I go to very few meet-ups, but the ones I've been to have never generated any offers. So in my experience, LinkedIn wins hands down in that respect (I'm in Stockholm, Sweden).
    - mixmastamyk 11y ago
      I don't think he's saying that the webpage attracts job offers, just that by having an easy to find presence online, people are able to find him.
      - blowski 11y ago
        Exactly. I have had a few cold interview offers through StackOverflow, even fewer from my website. But after meeting people at events, they check my website, and in some cases this leads to further discussion. The 'spam-vs-interesting' ratio of those discussions is much better compared to what I used to get when I had a LinkedIn account.
ryandrake 11y ago
I don't know what LinkedIn you're using that provides you with job offers, but the one I'm on has only lead to recruiter contacts which may or may not lead to interviews, which (so far) have never lead to an actual job offer. LinkedIn is great if you just want to endlessly socialize with recruiters. Don't worry about finding them: They'll all try to connect with you and chat you up about one of their jobs that is just like the one you have but at another company. Hell, you might even get an interview out of it, but good luck turning that into an actual job in today's picky environment. And if any of those LinkedIn recruiters are reading this, Try This One Neat Trick That Candidates Love: Instead of approaching someone with a job posting that's basically what he did 2 years ago or what he's doing today, approach him with what he might want to be doing 2 years from now. You'll get better responses, I guarantee it.
- vonmoltke 11y ago
  > I don't know what LinkedIn you're using that provides you with job offers, but the one I'm on has only lead to recruiter contacts which may or may not lead to interviews, which (so far) have never lead to an actual job offer. I think it is a language thing. I have noticed that non-native English speakers tend to refer to job ads, recruiter contacts, and such as "job offers". I think it comes down to what sense of "offer" you are using: "to give someone the opportunity to accept or take something" or "to make something available".
- henrik_w 11y ago
  You're right, they're trying to get me interested in other jobs, which would then lead to an interview etc. Maybe "recruiter proposals" or something would be better. As for how they should approach you, I recently got annoyed enough by bad approaches to write a blog post about it: http://henrikwarne.com/2015/11/22/recruiting-software-developers-initial-contact/ http://henrikwarne.com/2015/11/22/recruiting-software-develo...
- qihqi 11y ago
  Except, companies want to hire "experts". They want to hire people who have done X to do X, instead of people who haven't done X but want to do it.
mooreds 11y ago
I agree with you about everything except the job offers. But even just the other three points are very good. I have gotten to the point that whenever I consider a client, job offer or employee, I: - google them for general information - look them up on LinkedIn to see what they've done professionally and/or if we have anyone in common. (Yes, they may see I have checked out their profile--so what?) - look for them on twitter (much lower hit ratio) All this gives me a much rounder perspective on a person than I would have without these resources.
- rrdharan 11y ago
  Agreed, I basically follow the same process when I'm going to interact with someone professionally. > Yes, they may see I have checked out their profile--so what?) You can actually turn that off - it means you won't be able to see visitors to your own profile, but I don't care about that information either so I have it disabled.
  - mooreds 11y ago
    > You can actually turn that off I actually like to see who has looked at me (I guess it is an ego thing), but yes, that's a good point. Speaking of ego, one of the developers I worked with recently said, jokingly, that LinkedIn is where she goes when she's feeling down, because she has recruiters contacting her all the time (she has a number of years of Angular experience).

jfoster 11y ago

My feeling is that you have to compare it with other sites in the same category. If you do that, I think it comes away looking really, really good. Pretty much everyone is on it, it does the things you listed, and the level of bs compared to any other site in the category is actually low, in my opinion. Caveat: I'm unfamiliar with the US/EU status quo for this category; maybe there are better options in those markets?

dev360 11y ago
>> the level of bs compared to any other site in the category is actually low, in my opinion I remember trying to figure out how to unsubscribe to emails from (I think) careerbuilder a few years ago and it was an absolute mess. >>> maybe there are better options in those markets? One site that seems most nimble right now would probably be indeed. They are growing a lot particularly here in europe and are more flexible in their partnering agreements. I work at the moment for a SaaS recruiting product, and I know all the big players are a pain to work with for integrations.. just reams of red tape. Another thing that is far more common in europe is that the job sites are much more fragmented. There are so many craigslist type sites that are driving lots of traffic that recruiters want to integrate with.
toong 11y ago
Europe is using LinkedIn as well. I don't even know about any alternatives ?
- realusername 11y ago
  In France Viadeo is really strong, it's probably 50/50 with LinkedIn and most people have both, I guess every country has their own local equivalent.
- eamsen 11y ago
  Xing is a popular alternative for the German-speaking markets.
x1798DE 11y ago
For developers specifically, I feel like Stack Overflow Careers our jobs or whatever) is about a million times better than LinkedIn, but it doesn't have the social aspect, I guess.
- vzip 11y ago
  I appreciate that it's not 'social'. I don't think I'd use it if it resembled a social network.
- cullenking 11y ago
  Haven't used it while looking for a job, but we've used SO to post and have not had good luck. Craigslist yields better results for a mobile dev in Portland, and costs one tenth of SO. Additionally my business partner and I received no less than 20 unsolicited recruiter and contract services spam emails each, and I wasn't even on the job posting!
  - mooreds 11y ago
    > I wasn't even on the job posting! Maybe they found you on LinkedIn :)
blowski 11y ago
I find a combination of attending meetups, having a personal website, and contributing to StackOverflow to be much more effective than LinkedIn. There's less spam, because the people and jobs are much more interesting. Your mileage may vary, but as a WASPish male mid-level dev based in London, this is true for me. I can appreciate that people outside that circle may get more value from LinkedIn.
- henrik_w 11y ago
  I have an (admittedly not very active) account on SO (1400 karma), but over the years I've only received one job offer via SO. LinkedIn on the other hand gets me maybe one offer per month on average. I also have a blog at http://henrikwarne.com/ http://henrikwarne.com/ but I have never received any job offers via it. I go to very few meet-ups, but the ones I've been to have never generated any offers. So in my experience, LinkedIn wins hands down in that respect (I'm in Stockholm, Sweden).
  - mixmastamyk 11y ago
    I don't think he's saying that the webpage attracts job offers, just that by having an easy to find presence online, people are able to find him.
    - blowski 11y ago
      Exactly. I have had a few cold interview offers through StackOverflow, even fewer from my website. But after meeting people at events, they check my website, and in some cases this leads to further discussion. The 'spam-vs-interesting' ratio of those discussions is much better compared to what I used to get when I had a LinkedIn account.

ryandrake 11y ago

I don't know what LinkedIn you're using that provides you with job offers, but the one I'm on has only lead to recruiter contacts which may or may not lead to interviews, which (so far) have never lead to an actual job offer. LinkedIn is great if you just want to endlessly socialize with recruiters. Don't worry about finding them: They'll all try to connect with you and chat you up about one of their jobs that is just like the one you have but at another company. Hell, you might even get an interview out of it, but good luck turning that into an actual job in today's picky environment. And if any of those LinkedIn recruiters are reading this, Try This One Neat Trick That Candidates Love: Instead of approaching someone with a job posting that's basically what he did 2 years ago or what he's doing today, approach him with what he might want to be doing 2 years from now. You'll get better responses, I guarantee it.

vonmoltke 11y ago
> I don't know what LinkedIn you're using that provides you with job offers, but the one I'm on has only lead to recruiter contacts which may or may not lead to interviews, which (so far) have never lead to an actual job offer. I think it is a language thing. I have noticed that non-native English speakers tend to refer to job ads, recruiter contacts, and such as "job offers". I think it comes down to what sense of "offer" you are using: "to give someone the opportunity to accept or take something" or "to make something available".
henrik_w 11y ago
You're right, they're trying to get me interested in other jobs, which would then lead to an interview etc. Maybe "recruiter proposals" or something would be better. As for how they should approach you, I recently got annoyed enough by bad approaches to write a blog post about it: http://henrikwarne.com/2015/11/22/recruiting-software-developers-initial-contact/ http://henrikwarne.com/2015/11/22/recruiting-software-develo...
qihqi 11y ago
Except, companies want to hire "experts". They want to hire people who have done X to do X, instead of people who haven't done X but want to do it.

mooreds 11y ago

I agree with you about everything except the job offers. But even just the other three points are very good. I have gotten to the point that whenever I consider a client, job offer or employee, I: - google them for general information - look them up on LinkedIn to see what they've done professionally and/or if we have anyone in common. (Yes, they may see I have checked out their profile--so what?) - look for them on twitter (much lower hit ratio) All this gives me a much rounder perspective on a person than I would have without these resources.

rrdharan 11y ago
Agreed, I basically follow the same process when I'm going to interact with someone professionally. > Yes, they may see I have checked out their profile--so what?) You can actually turn that off - it means you won't be able to see visitors to your own profile, but I don't care about that information either so I have it disabled.
- mooreds 11y ago
  > You can actually turn that off I actually like to see who has looked at me (I guess it is an ego thing), but yes, that's a good point. Speaking of ego, one of the developers I worked with recently said, jokingly, that LinkedIn is where she goes when she's feeling down, because she has recruiters contacting her all the time (she has a number of years of Angular experience).