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I've hated Linkedin for years, but what's interesting is to understand why. I think it's a mix of - really, really bad UX resulting in an ugly product - the lev

I've hated Linkedin for years, but what's interesting is to understand why. I think it's a mix of - really, really bad UX resulting in an ugly product - the level of emptiness of the news feed, full of people talking about respectful bosses and good work condition while quoting Steve Jobs (oh, the irony) - seeing people becoming apparently more successful than me (if I have to be honest) - the level of intrusiveness of the platform in general Despite all that, I've been afraid of missing job opportunities if I left the platform. And I don't know why, because I've only found one job through Linkedin in 10 years. I wish I had the guts to leave it entirely.

na85 9y ago
What bothers me the most about LinkedIn is how vapid everyone seems to be. Everone has a job title like 'dynamic individual searching for creative opportunities' when they really mean unemployed. It's like a game where everyone pretends while simultaneously knowing that everyone else is pretending too.
- robinhood 9y ago
  I've long thought of an alternative, but I don't think we can do better than this actually, as people are, by nature, vapid, in the sense that they will always pretend to be someone they are not. I wish someone will create an alternative where, unlike Facebook, people don't feel miserable after visiting the site.
  - phillc73 9y ago
    There are alternatives[1][2], it's just that it doesn't feel like they have critical mass outside certain markets. XING is focused on German speakers and claims circa €150 million in revenue. Viadeo claims 65 million users. They're not exactly small or overtly failing entities. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viadeo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viadeo
- noarchy 9y ago
  > It's like a game where everyone pretends while simultaneously knowing that everyone else is pretending too. To be fair, that sounds a lot like job-hunting, in general. The whole process can be filled with rituals meant to obfuscate the fact that you just want a job.
  - JBlue42 9y ago
    Pretty much. When searching around for advice on how to market yourself on LinkedIn, that sort of title, though full of shit, is what is recommended. I wish I could have an alternate profile or A/B test. I think my current one is detrimental to the job search because I list jobs going back 17 yrs vs my resume which is tailored to my current field. With a second profile, I'd narrow it down. Maybe I should do that anyway.
  - beavis2 9y ago
    Sounds like half the workplaces, too.
  - oliv__ 9y ago
    Sounds like dating.
justinclift 9y ago
> I wish I had the guts to leave it entirely. Just get it done. Maybe see if you can export your data first, just for your own peace of mind. :)
chucksmash 9y ago
I don't like the company and I don't like the app, but I vastly prefer a single spammy point of contact for headhunters over "hey our recruiting software scraped your email address, how are you?"

na85 9y ago

What bothers me the most about LinkedIn is how vapid everyone seems to be. Everone has a job title like 'dynamic individual searching for creative opportunities' when they really mean unemployed. It's like a game where everyone pretends while simultaneously knowing that everyone else is pretending too.

robinhood 9y ago
I've long thought of an alternative, but I don't think we can do better than this actually, as people are, by nature, vapid, in the sense that they will always pretend to be someone they are not. I wish someone will create an alternative where, unlike Facebook, people don't feel miserable after visiting the site.
- phillc73 9y ago
  There are alternatives[1][2], it's just that it doesn't feel like they have critical mass outside certain markets. XING is focused on German speakers and claims circa €150 million in revenue. Viadeo claims 65 million users. They're not exactly small or overtly failing entities. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viadeo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viadeo
noarchy 9y ago
> It's like a game where everyone pretends while simultaneously knowing that everyone else is pretending too. To be fair, that sounds a lot like job-hunting, in general. The whole process can be filled with rituals meant to obfuscate the fact that you just want a job.
- JBlue42 9y ago
  Pretty much. When searching around for advice on how to market yourself on LinkedIn, that sort of title, though full of shit, is what is recommended. I wish I could have an alternate profile or A/B test. I think my current one is detrimental to the job search because I list jobs going back 17 yrs vs my resume which is tailored to my current field. With a second profile, I'd narrow it down. Maybe I should do that anyway.
- beavis2 9y ago
  Sounds like half the workplaces, too.
- oliv__ 9y ago
  Sounds like dating.

justinclift 9y ago

> I wish I had the guts to leave it entirely. Just get it done. Maybe see if you can export your data first, just for your own peace of mind. :)

chucksmash 9y ago

I don't like the company and I don't like the app, but I vastly prefer a single spammy point of contact for headhunters over "hey our recruiting software scraped your email address, how are you?"