4 ms·

Not to be flippant, but ever since LinkedIn has become unbearably slow and buggy to use (since the UI update), any pressure to improve is welcome.

QML 9y ago
Two reasons I don't use LinkedIn: they ask for me to signup when viewing profiles, and it seems over complicated to do anything on that site.
- privateprofile 9y ago
  Are you a professional working in the IT industry, or in industries where LinkedIn has a lot of candidates (e.g. media, advertising, etc)? I'm asking because I'm curious of how job hunting and networking goes for you without LinkedIn.
  - blowski 9y ago
    Not the OP but I'm a developer and I don't have LinkedIn. I never have any problems finding work. I have a personal site with my CV on it, and I spend a lot of time networking.
    - treehau5 9y ago
      Yes, but having a LinkedIn can only help.
      - Retric 9y ago
        Some people have negative views of LinkedIn profiles so it can occasionally hurt. Especially when LinkedIn spams someone using your picture.
        treehau5 9y ago
        People, not businesses.
    - justonepost 9y ago
      I spend zero time networking and get lots of opportunities on linked in.
      - squeaky-clean 9y ago
        Do you ever follow up on those and see if there's value to it? I get 2-3 messages a week on LinkedIn by recruiters that clearly haven't read my profile for jobs I'm not interested in. I wouldn't consider any of those opportunities.
        drusepth 9y ago
        I get 6-7 messages per week (~1/day on average) and I'd say about half of them are actually recruiting for my skills/location/needs, which is admittedly pretty good for not investing any time into the platform. I've followed up with a few over the years and they've ultimately not been good fits for me at the time (stack, salary, or location), but I wouldn't say they were bad jobs. Also, for the others I usually just respond with a canned "I'm only looking for X, Y, Z right now, so feel free to reach out again if you find something along those lines!" I think it's worth having a LinkedIn if you're looking or open to moving jobs, as it's a pretty common venue for recruiters to (easily) get in touch, IMO.
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - drdeadringer 9y ago
    > I'm curious of how job hunting and networking goes for you without LinkedIn Whilst I do have a LinkedIn profile, I have yet to use LinkedIn as an avenue to search for a job in any meaningful sense. Perhaps this will change, but at the moment I'm far more likely to integrate Google's job search into my process than jacking up LinkedIn to max.
ctrlaltdestroy 9y ago
LinkedIn has always stayed close to my heart. I'm currently on my third job, and I found all of them through LinkedIn. But I find it incredibly hard to like their new UI. They try hard to look like Facebook, when they really have no reason to do so. LinkedIn messaging is supposed to be professional messaging like email, but they turned it into a chat window. The "news feed" used to be useful and relevant, now I see memes and irrelevant sponsored posts. I try to check the site at least once a day, and in the past 3-4 weeks I find myself leave the site in less than 30 seconds. The home page is so heavy that you can almost feel it. I deleted my facebook account recently for some reasons, and I find the exact same reasons on LinkedIn now.
- drewrv 9y ago
  This might seem weird but I've never heard of someone getting a job via Linkedin. I mostly get recruiter spam. Do you work in tech? I've heard outside of tech the site is indispensable. Care to share any tips on how to use it for job hunting?
  - ctrlaltdestroy 9y ago
    Yes I'm a software engineer. I guess I got lucky in unintentionally doing the right things that eventually helped me out. Here are some tips. 1. When I was doing Masters, in order to not forget every little academic project I did, I documented them on LinkedIn and put the code on github and linked it. 2. People would be against doing this, but when I was searching for internships, I kept adding any recruiter I came across to my network. Especially with recruiters from well-known companies (like MS, Google, Intel etc), I add them aggressively and was sure to do (3) below. 3. When adding someone to my network, instead of the default template message, I wrote something about myself, like "Hi I am currently doing my Masters in CS at <univ> university and I am looking for internship opportunities. Please take a look at my profile and let me know if you think I might be a match for something". 4. Always kept my profile updated as I took more courses, did side projects etc. This way, my network got updates about me, and they were able to see that I was getting more knowledge and experience. The recruiters and other professionals who were not able to find a match for me before now start to think may be they should give me a shot. 5. Network, network and network. I shared interesting tech articles I found online, liked others' posts about such articles etc. This might seem obvious, but don't "like" memes and funny statuses. I grew my network to the point that I had 400+ connections. But only about 200 of them were people I actually know and the rest were recruiters/professionals in the field/startup CEOs etc. The downside of this is that I now often get recruiting messages when I'm no longer in the job market. I save those messages hoping that I would find them useful one day. TL;DR is that keep your profile updated and rich with content, and network as much as you can. Be professional, try to take time to respond to the recruiters who reach out to you. Even if you are not interested in their company, take a minute to just say so. It may help you in the future.
clairity 9y ago
this won't have any bearing on linkedin because they see themselves as a (professional) social network, not a jobs site (even though recruiting is a decent chunk of revenue). jobs seem to be a natural extension of google's search service, and a direct competitive response to indeed. these job search results will be useful to people but i don't see it changing the industry. discovery is an important step in getting a job but it's only one step. (i say this as someone working on the matching problem between employers and employees.)
- fwn 9y ago
  I don't even understand what the difference between a professional social network and a normal (?) social network is. I wouldn't know on how to behave differently.
- indymike 9y ago
  80% of their revenue comes from selling recruiter accounts.

QML 9y ago

Two reasons I don't use LinkedIn: they ask for me to signup when viewing profiles, and it seems over complicated to do anything on that site.

privateprofile 9y ago
Are you a professional working in the IT industry, or in industries where LinkedIn has a lot of candidates (e.g. media, advertising, etc)? I'm asking because I'm curious of how job hunting and networking goes for you without LinkedIn.
- blowski 9y ago
  Not the OP but I'm a developer and I don't have LinkedIn. I never have any problems finding work. I have a personal site with my CV on it, and I spend a lot of time networking.
  - treehau5 9y ago
    Yes, but having a LinkedIn can only help.
    - Retric 9y ago
      Some people have negative views of LinkedIn profiles so it can occasionally hurt. Especially when LinkedIn spams someone using your picture.
      - treehau5 9y ago
        People, not businesses.
  - justonepost 9y ago
    I spend zero time networking and get lots of opportunities on linked in.
    - squeaky-clean 9y ago
      Do you ever follow up on those and see if there's value to it? I get 2-3 messages a week on LinkedIn by recruiters that clearly haven't read my profile for jobs I'm not interested in. I wouldn't consider any of those opportunities.
      - drusepth 9y ago
        I get 6-7 messages per week (~1/day on average) and I'd say about half of them are actually recruiting for my skills/location/needs, which is admittedly pretty good for not investing any time into the platform. I've followed up with a few over the years and they've ultimately not been good fits for me at the time (stack, salary, or location), but I wouldn't say they were bad jobs. Also, for the others I usually just respond with a canned "I'm only looking for X, Y, Z right now, so feel free to reach out again if you find something along those lines!" I think it's worth having a LinkedIn if you're looking or open to moving jobs, as it's a pretty common venue for recruiters to (easily) get in touch, IMO.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- drdeadringer 9y ago
  > I'm curious of how job hunting and networking goes for you without LinkedIn Whilst I do have a LinkedIn profile, I have yet to use LinkedIn as an avenue to search for a job in any meaningful sense. Perhaps this will change, but at the moment I'm far more likely to integrate Google's job search into my process than jacking up LinkedIn to max.

ctrlaltdestroy 9y ago

LinkedIn has always stayed close to my heart. I'm currently on my third job, and I found all of them through LinkedIn. But I find it incredibly hard to like their new UI. They try hard to look like Facebook, when they really have no reason to do so. LinkedIn messaging is supposed to be professional messaging like email, but they turned it into a chat window. The "news feed" used to be useful and relevant, now I see memes and irrelevant sponsored posts. I try to check the site at least once a day, and in the past 3-4 weeks I find myself leave the site in less than 30 seconds. The home page is so heavy that you can almost feel it. I deleted my facebook account recently for some reasons, and I find the exact same reasons on LinkedIn now.

drewrv 9y ago
This might seem weird but I've never heard of someone getting a job via Linkedin. I mostly get recruiter spam. Do you work in tech? I've heard outside of tech the site is indispensable. Care to share any tips on how to use it for job hunting?
- ctrlaltdestroy 9y ago
  Yes I'm a software engineer. I guess I got lucky in unintentionally doing the right things that eventually helped me out. Here are some tips. 1. When I was doing Masters, in order to not forget every little academic project I did, I documented them on LinkedIn and put the code on github and linked it. 2. People would be against doing this, but when I was searching for internships, I kept adding any recruiter I came across to my network. Especially with recruiters from well-known companies (like MS, Google, Intel etc), I add them aggressively and was sure to do (3) below. 3. When adding someone to my network, instead of the default template message, I wrote something about myself, like "Hi I am currently doing my Masters in CS at <univ> university and I am looking for internship opportunities. Please take a look at my profile and let me know if you think I might be a match for something". 4. Always kept my profile updated as I took more courses, did side projects etc. This way, my network got updates about me, and they were able to see that I was getting more knowledge and experience. The recruiters and other professionals who were not able to find a match for me before now start to think may be they should give me a shot. 5. Network, network and network. I shared interesting tech articles I found online, liked others' posts about such articles etc. This might seem obvious, but don't "like" memes and funny statuses. I grew my network to the point that I had 400+ connections. But only about 200 of them were people I actually know and the rest were recruiters/professionals in the field/startup CEOs etc. The downside of this is that I now often get recruiting messages when I'm no longer in the job market. I save those messages hoping that I would find them useful one day. TL;DR is that keep your profile updated and rich with content, and network as much as you can. Be professional, try to take time to respond to the recruiters who reach out to you. Even if you are not interested in their company, take a minute to just say so. It may help you in the future.

clairity 9y ago

this won't have any bearing on linkedin because they see themselves as a (professional) social network, not a jobs site (even though recruiting is a decent chunk of revenue). jobs seem to be a natural extension of google's search service, and a direct competitive response to indeed. these job search results will be useful to people but i don't see it changing the industry. discovery is an important step in getting a job but it's only one step. (i say this as someone working on the matching problem between employers and employees.)

fwn 9y ago
I don't even understand what the difference between a professional social network and a normal (?) social network is. I wouldn't know on how to behave differently.
indymike 9y ago
80% of their revenue comes from selling recruiter accounts.