14 ms·

How to beat LinkedIn: The Game

502 points by davydog187 8y ago

dade_ 8y ago
It is great that LinkedIn just reports 500+ connections. It truly is an unimpressive stat. It's been a valuable platform for me, so I keep it around. The only things to remember: don't install the mobile app and get used to ignoring requests from unfamiliar people and irrelevant recruiters. Never connect it to Outlook or any other app.
- AznHisoka 8y ago
  When i see someone with less than 500 connections I am more likely to interact with them. Its a signal that they don’t blindly accept all connections.
  - kostarelo 8y ago
    Or a signal that they actually have many connections...
    - mmt 8y ago
      True, but there can still exist a presumption that a large proportion of those connections aren't meaningful. I have no qualms connecting with a vendor or recruiter I just worked with, even if briefly on a single project, but after 6 years of no contact and 2-3 employers later, that connection isn't going to be useful for something like an introduction, if we even remember each other. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
  - technofiend 8y ago
    One of our CIOs literally accepts any connection request and then quickly deletes anyone he doesn't know or care to stay connected with. Then again my employer has twigged on to the fact it's both a good recruitment tool and a good way for bad actors to find targets so everyone is mandated to put boilerplate language on their profile instead of any detail with regard to their job.
  - airpmb 8y ago
    Or that they are not old enough to have built up a larger legitimate network. Imagine the LinkedIn’s-dream-case of someone starting to use LI as soon as they are old enough to type (or hell, to say ‘hey cortana’) and sticking with it nearly from cradle to grave. How many years until even connecting with only legit other people gets them over 500? I have over 500, am pretty selective about connecting and I’m also over 40. Really what is needed is some kind of better metric than the number of connections anyway. Though one might ask better for who; it seems likely that it’s to LinkedIn’s advantage to hold the true graph connectivity closely so only they can profit thereby. I’ve also been thinking for awhile lately that I’m just part of the problem here and that it’d be not a bad idea to rather be part of the solution by getting off LinkedIn, to try and recapture some of the value that they’ve been deriving from the data I and my connections have been feeding them. Again, another example of the old “if you’re not paying for the service you’re probably the product being sold” corollary to the more familiar proverb concerning the price of lunches. Returning to the prospect of things like the ideal scenario for LI, I feel like the minimum age for joining any of these “free” services should be something like 30, so one has enough life experience to figure out that it may not actually be a bargain they are willing to make. Hmm, I just realized that the shorthand I’ve been using for LinkedIn could be pronounced like “lie”. I think I’ll start using that when talking about LI verbally.
- yeukhon 8y ago
  I was looking for a way to send one single invite. The FAQ gives the direction, but it turns out you have to let LinkedIn access to your email account. Also, when I first started using LinkedIn about 7-8 years ago, I gave LinkedIn access to my Gmail account and I clicked "invite everyone" by accident. LinkedIn spammed everyone, including mailing lists, which was very embarrassing.
  - joatmon-snoo 8y ago
    There was a class action lawsuit about something similar to this. I vaguely remember getting a 20$ check for it.
- abledon 8y ago
  Why no mobile app?
  - dade_ 8y ago
    Another comment spelled it out: LinkedIn's mobile app has several dark patterns, but the worst is the one that spams everyone in your Gmail. This is particularly a problem for Gmail because it makes a contact for everyone you ever emailed, so this includes personal relationships and it is a mortifying professional embarrassment. Over a dozen people I know have been fooled by it over the years. Then there is the data collection, but my phone is used for work and personal. All of the data they collect and analysis of that data is up for sale. No thank you.
    - abledon 8y ago
      Wouldn’t it have to ask permission to access that data on installation though?
      - dade_ 8y ago
        It does ask permission to access your contacts, but it doesn't say, "then, at some point in the future we will pop an unfamiliar screen in our mobile app that is deliberately designed to confuse you into agreeing to send an invitation to all of your email contacts, multiple times." https://www.engadget.com/2014/06/13/linkedin-lawsuit-email-contacts/ https://www.engadget.com/2014/06/13/linkedin-lawsuit-email-c...
  - dorfsmay 8y ago
    A better question is what value (to you, not to LinkedIn!) does the linked mobile apps has that the browser interface doesn't have?
- KKKKkkkk1 8y ago
  What's wrong with responding to unfamiliar people? When a friendly person approaches me on the street, I will usually say hi and hear what they have to say. Even if they're trying to sell me something, I feel it's better to be polite and waste a minute of my time than not to.
  - cannonedhamster 8y ago
    It's not one person. People with sought after skills get inundated with requests, often completely irrelevant. I get so many help desk job offers that I'm significantly overqualified for and dramatically over salary for. I usually just start any conversation there to end it quickly. People who are looking for my level of skills pay well.
    - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
      > People with sought after skills get inundated with requests, often completely irrelevant. Indeed, I know it's a very old cliche but I'm still not convinced there's such a thing as a recruiter who knows the difference between Java and JavaScript...
  - ozim 8y ago
    Responding maybe not, but accepting them as connections is. Sometimes recruiters will try to call someone in your network and you are stepping stone. Just like guy in article mentioned when you will have some degree of connection people will accept your connection. Bad part is when person attacked by recruiter/business hunter gets mad at you because you were supposed to be connected with this guy.
cm2012 8y ago
I've connected to literally $200,000+ worth of client work through LinkedIn, and the clients are very happy too, so I'm not on board with calling it useless. edit: And before I became a consultant, I got a life changing job offer from someone who discovered me on LinkedIn.
robin_reala 8y ago
This is where the classic phrase “the only way to win is not to play” comes in.
mandeepj 8y ago
Coolest read of the day. Never imagined Linkedin as a game :-)
dswalter 8y ago
That went gloriously off the rails.
djhworld 8y ago
Very amusing. I'm almost tempted to delete my LinkedIn. I turned off all email notifications months ago so largely forgot about it, but a friend of mine recently said he saw my profile pop up in his feed about a work anniversary or some other 'engagement' thing they spam people with. The photo on my profile is from 9 years ago, and my job title has since changed, in fact most of it is probably out of date. I suspect my inbox is full of recruiters shouting into the void.
- djhworld 8y ago
  Update: temptation got the better of me and I closed my account.
  - dyarosla 8y ago
    Now if only deleting your account meant never getting any more emails from them... I still get ‘so and so wants to connect’ after I deleted mine. Anyone have any idea how to stop this? (Besides an email filter?) is this practice even legal?
    - djhworld 8y ago
      They should have an unsubscribe link, if you live in the EU you should be able to ask them to delete all your data under GDPR rules
      - antsar 8y ago
        Is there any EU law which prevents them from resuming the spam as soon as another one of your acquaintances gives LinkedIn access to his/her contacts? Because otherwise that's what's going to happen...
        qznc 8y ago
        GDPR still applies. This is personal information about you, so you can make them delete it. The fact that they got the information from someone else is irrelevant. (Imho. Not a lawyer.)
laurex 8y ago
> Shortly after I connected with an eagle-eyed Pulitzer Prize and Emmy nominated journalist/producer (who perhaps was initially fooled by my impressive credentials to accept my request), I received an angry message from him. “Don’t know who you are,” he wrote, “but neither school you list offers the majors or degrees you claim to have so I’m deleting you from my contacts." Dying. Nice work.
- orcdork 8y ago
  That part felt petty & mean spirited to me. If anything the person was playing "the game" in the way it should be played, yet the author felt the urge to unnecessary ridicule them (even anonymously so).
  - Rexxar 8y ago
    It's all other who are ridiculed imho. It was the only person who do a basic check.
  - romwell 8y ago
    It should be pointed out that the degrees in question were as follows: Degree: Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A) Majors: * International Business * A+ Degree: Bachelor of Arts Majors: * Farm Sciences * Straight A's Perhaps the surprise and indignation of a person who discovered that "Straight A's" is not a real major in Yale does have some comic value.
- aberoham 8y ago
  > Work your way through the corporate food chain like an intestinal parasite at a gratis conference buffet. lol, priceless!
- everdev 8y ago
  > In 2014, I founded the company LinkedIn Skill Endorsements, and after posting on Twitter that I was charging ten cents for endorsements (a limited time discount from the usual 50 cents), I snagged three customers. I sent them a welcome email. Note the highly inflated “change fee.” As soon as their payments were processed in PayPal, I endorsed them for things like “alcoholism,” “horse care,” “blood,” and “solid waste.” Since this is stuff most people wouldn’t want on their resume, they’d be forced to pay me a $10,000 fee to remove the terrible endorsements. Lol, this guy is too much.
soared 8y ago
Unrelated to the (enjoyable) article - How do you feel about the advertisements on this site? More intrusive, less intrusive? Edit - I ask because instead of the usual advertising model they have 12 partners a year that get custom ads, and there is no other advertising.
- Ancalagon 8y ago
  Actually they were very unintrusive. I thought they were part of the article
- rapnie 8y ago
  They want me to place 89 cookies. No way to opt-out, only 'accept all'. Abort :( Edit: actually I did return to the article just now. Curiosity. No longer a cookie alert, though I accepted nothing yet. Either silently placed or not working properly.
davedx 8y ago
Hi! I’ve started a couple of lucrative contracts via LinkedIn and receive many offers there. I make lots of money because of LinkedIn. Thanks for playing, sorry to hear you suck at the game. Maybe try some cheat codes?
- anothergoogler 8y ago
  Wait, you're proud of being recruited on LinkedIn?
  - paul7986 8y ago
    I’m the same.. as a UI/UX Designer & Developer LinkedIn via recruiters has brought me great opportunities & a better overall life. Some recruiters are slimey, but most I’ve dealt with in my ten year career are not.
  - Rjevski 8y ago
    Well, if you use it correctly LinkedIn isn’t too bad. As a contractor who has to jump ship every 6 months or so, I find it quite convenient to let the recruiters do the heavy lifting. I literally have to do nothing - I just get offers in my inbox and just have to say “interested” to secure an interview and usually get the gig the next week. Maybe past a certain level of experience you can easily secure gigs without it, but I’ve never really been interested at “networking” and if I can let LinkedIn do the job for me then all the better. Granted, the platform itself is shit (and the iOS app is an absolute crime) but the idea isn’t that bad.
    - scarface74 8y ago
      Between networking with former coworkers and networking with good local recruiters, you get a better bang for your buck working with recruiters. They know where the jobs are and they are incentivized to get you a job.
  - exotree 8y ago
    I’ve also had lucrative offers and contracts come by way of LinkedIn.
ravenstine 8y ago
I'd like a version of LinkedIn that uses computer vision to shadow ban anyone who wears a suit and a shit-eating grin.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- confounded 8y ago
  LinkedIn may not be the site for you
projectramo 8y ago
I want to read the version of this where you win Githib
- ikeboy 8y ago
  Just run a script to commit every day, or better yet backdate commits
  - i_made_a_booboo 8y ago
    GitHub Gardener
  - qznc 8y ago
    In 2015 I "painted" my Github profile this way: https://github.com/qznc/rockstar/graphs/code-frequency https://github.com/qznc/rockstar/graphs/code-frequency It was just a one off script. The next step would have been to run it daily or fill it with commits from the future. I remember there was an HN article where someone made the Github contribution diagram on the profile page into some picture.
anothergoogler 8y ago
You'll want to disable JS on this site, or else you'll get shot to another article when you reach the end, replacing the linked article in your history (lord knows who thought that was a good idea).
- jstandard 8y ago
  Techcrunch does this too. It's to encourage binge reading. The news equivalent of Youtube autoplay next video. The metrics likely suggest it's good for the site, but I'm also not a fan. It's very confusing for the reader.
  - Noumenon72 8y ago
    The worst is Bloomberg.com, which has a ten-article paywall and counts articles you scroll into. It does this so eagerly that you lose an article even if you were only scrolling down to click the link for the comments.
  - johnnydoe9 8y ago
    At least Outline doesn't have comments, a lot of sites have comments at the bottom of the article at the click of the button which you can't hit at times because it eagerly kicks you into another article.
- soared 8y ago
  Their UX is super interesting. On mobile you can swipe to the right at any time to get a new article.
jdavis703 8y ago
I don't understand why LinkedIn get's so much hate. I got my two last jobs from recruiters reaching out to me on LinkedIn. My current job I got from an ex-coworker at a place that I found because of LinkedIn. Like all markets, LinkedIn is chaotic but you can get value out of it if you can avoid the bad parts like spam.
- Rjevski 8y ago
  The idea of LinkedIn is good, but the execution is absolutely awful. It encourages spam and lies, has a shit app (on iOS) and the “social” aspect of it is completely stupid and useless (they now even support videos - WTF?). I’d pay good money for a “premium” alternative without the above issues.
  - throwaway9980 8y ago
    What do you get when you combine LinkedIn, spam, and videos? Gary Vaynerchuk! It took me a few weeks of unfollowing, unsubscribing, or clicking whatever buttons were available for “omfg stop showing me this stuff” to delouse my feed of all things Gary Vee.
    - ta1234567890 8y ago
      This. GV is like a LinkedIn virus, really annoying. Also the guy is like the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, getting rich by selling advise on how they got rich, which is all pretty much useless for others (or at least very disingenuous)
      - throwaway9980 8y ago
        Yeah, if I didn’t know better I would say that he’s a Sasha Baren Cohen charector. Literally a caricature of a bunch of stereotypes.
      - i_made_a_booboo 8y ago
        totally not how he got rich but OK.
NiceGuy_Ty 8y ago
Not ready to outright delete Linkedin, but it was the noisiest mobile app on my phone. Luckily the mobile site works decently, so it has been assigned to a firefox tab for the foreseeable future.
g7 8y ago
This is hilarious
lionhearted 8y ago
Ok this was riotously funny, but in defense of LinkedIn, it's a great place to hire and a great place to get a job if you take the time to write a quality, genuine profile — which is certainly a rarity and makes good people stand out. I just ended a hiring campaign on LinkedIn. The stats were that it lasted 35 days, cost $704, our job ad was shown to 1001 people, and 233 applied through the platform. I didn't keep exact stats of qualified / non-qualified people, but there were at least 5 people I thought were wow good, and another dozen or two that I wasn't sure immediately about but who were possibly really good. We hired two people. These numbers outperformed their algorithm — they estimated that we'd get 40-60 applications for $600 across 30 days, and we got considerably more. I think our ad was pretty good and unusual, it was a condensed version of our team hiring page — http://ultraworking.com/work http://ultraworking.com/work As for whether "fake social networker" cred helps... I don't think so. I make a quick checklist of things I'd skim rapidly for when looking at profiles to do first pass analysis. Basically, I'd look for any sense of ownership, service, or self-direction. Things like genuine volunteer activities, excellent academics, leadership roles in student clubs are all obvious examples. But actually, there were a bunch of things that are doable for everyone that I looked for, and which surprisingly few people do. For instance, the vast majority of candidates wrote their profile in first person tense. "I'm a skilled marketer with X years of..." or "I'm looking for a job doing..." Very few people wrote in any second person tense at all. EG: "If you're looking to hire a marketer and you have a great company, I'd love to help you develop your..." I also saw only 2-3 profiles out of 300 that mentioned being happy, smiling, or service oriented. One guy didn't have any fancy brand name education or work experience, but he wrote something like, "I did this job with a smile every day and looked to make everyone I worked with happy." Okay cool, yes, I'd be delighted to talk to you. Your culture will vary of course, but I was also impressed with people that had a mix of any kind of art/aesthetics alongside any math/engineering/analytical pursuits, and noted anyone who mentioned a disciplined history of sports, martial arts, or athletics. What didn't factor much at all for me were the self-descriptions of jobs (I skimmed briefly to make sure they weren't a total non-fit, but otherwise don't really trust it) and in the Hiring Portal, you can't even see how many connections someone has easily. Or maybe you can, but I must have just parsed over it if so — I didn't notice it once. I was skeptical of Linkedin for a long time. The "LinkedIn: The Game" thing. But it's a legitimately great way to put good opportunities in front of people looking for a new job, and a good way to seek companies doing what you're interested in if you're jobseeking. I'm legitimately very impressed with Linkedin excited to work with the two people that joined the team. In my book, a very good use of $700 and 15 hours.
jccalhoun 8y ago
I'm so glad I'm in a field (academia) that doesn't really use linkedin.
- gammarator 8y ago
  Academia: The Game is even more ridiculous, though.
- Perceval 8y ago
  We've got field-specific Academia.edu as our LinkedIn alternative.
danirod 8y ago
I changed my privacy settings set on LinkedIn so that no one could see my connections after I started noticing that many recruiters sending invitations were already connected to other people I know or have as a contact otherwise. I strongly suspect some of these recruiters just want to add you for the sake of having access to your contacts lists in order to have more people to connect with. I don't usually accept requests from recruiters, either. In fact I had this for a while as my first sentence in my profile page and that didn't stop them from sending requests. That signals me they don't bother checking your profile first, either. Apart of maintaining my vanity URL, I don't even know why do I still have a LinkedIn account; I just don't find it very useful.
misterbowfinger 8y ago
At a previous job, we got so annoyed with recruiters that we decided to create a honeypot account - fake LinkedIn, fake Github, fake Twitter, everything. We took the first picture off of Google for "bro" as the profile picture. For his Github, we just forked popular projects like jQuery and then ctrl+f replaced the name with his first name, like "bradQuery". Surprisingly, we had many recruiters contact us about the popular "bradQuery" library. And we uh, had to play the part of a douchey brogrammer. It's amazing how far those conversations went. It was really fun at the time, but also maybe a little mean to recruiters. They do have a tough gig and they're usually under the gun. Ah well...
emilfihlman 8y ago
I loved this!
cyberferret 8y ago
Enjoyed the article, but I often wonder about the metrics of ads that appear mid stream on a satirical article such as this. I noticed a few ads for Hewlett-Packard within the article, but the cartoon-y graphics used and their placement within the article body just made me think they were faux ads that fit the comedy nature of the article. It was only when I scrolled through to another (serious) article and saw the same ads that I realised they were actual legitimate ads.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
adrian_mrd 8y ago
Funny writeup - the recruiter and the Goldman/Quantcast callout was particularly enjoyable :) An alternate LinkedIn game that I've done many times with colleagues (and which works better on the web/desktop UI) is: * Ensure you have at least 50 connections * Go to the 'My Network' then 'People You May Know' * Scroll down and enjoy some of the ridiculous profile photos eg people at the horse races, photos with partners cropped out, weird off-camera poses, 1980s hair, etc * Try not to laugh Admittedly with the recent rise of 'personal brands', this game is more difficult than it used to be - yet still juvenile! Also, what the heck is a 'thought leader' anyway? Isn't it better to be an 'action leader', a decision-maker, a publisher of some description; someone who does something or produces something meaningful? Not all thoughts were created equal, of course, and there are not many 'thought leaders' on LinkedIn who were not self-appointed! edit: fixed 2 spelling errors, formatting changes, added Quantcast reference for clarity
- TomMckenny 8y ago
  >what the heck is a 'thought leader' anyway? As far as I can tell: Someone who very successfully spreads ideas they only partially understand with the inevitable oversimplification here and there.
  - noitsnot 8y ago
    Simon Sinek wins the gold medal for thought leader in my book.
    - adrian_mrd 8y ago
      Fair point, but at least he has published some works and spun a few TED talks. Maybe we need a separate HN thread: who is the lamest ‘thought leader’ you’ve come across recently? ;)
      - adrian_mrd 8y ago
        I couldn’t resist :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17585492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17585492
sonnyblarney 8y ago
"Strange game. The only way to win is not to play." - WOPR/Joshua
paulie_a 8y ago
The best way to beat LinkedIn is to delete your account. LinkedIn is pointless.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
crazy_monkey 8y ago
Sell out to Microsoft...
coin 8y ago
What an obnoxious layout, especially on mobile
- whymauri 8y ago
  What makes it obnoxious? I kinda liked it on desktop (the website with the news article).
adrianhel 8y ago
Regarding the first quote: https://mobile.twitter.com/themlotsdad/status/998227586806317057 https://mobile.twitter.com/themlotsdad/status/99822758680631...
paul7986 8y ago
For those who find LinkedIn pointless are you making crazy bank already and find no need to raise your salary by using recruiters who offer you better jobs weekly on LInkedin? When they do it's time for you to say I make 100k more then you really do and boom you raised your salary a ton. I don't get the hate though and again those that hate it I guess don't need to play the game? They already have maxed out their salary and or aren't in tech to make as much money as possible? Or maybe they are the programmers who hate facebook and social networks in general; have no clue how to use Linkedin to their advantage?
- incompatible 8y ago
  Well, we didn't have the walkthrough until now. I've never been contacted by a recruiter in LinkedIn, but now I see how it's done.
- mixmastamyk 8y ago
  Personally I get lots of invites to interview due to my experience but few job offers, since I'm not great at unrealistic coding tests under the gun. What can L.I. do for me?
- mayniac 8y ago
  I just don't like the idea of a business social network to be honest. If I get along with coworkers then I'll exchange numbers, email address etc and talk to them that way. For job hunting, I prefer to do it on my own terms: linkedin has job postings I can view from a dummy account, then there's glassdoor, indeed etc. I don't do consulting/contract work so I tend to stick around companies for at least a year, the weekly job offers are just annoying to me. As is having to deal with connection requests from people I don't know or don't care about. Salary wise I'm comfortable enough and not in tech to make as much money as possible, I just enjoy it: there's better fields for salary in the UK. I've doubled my salary in two years without linkedin anyway, it's not essential to have. Then there's the whole security side of things. I want linkedin to die solely because it's such an easy source of OSINT information. I also do hate social networks in general, at least the implementation of them, for quite a few reasons. What exactly does Linkedin offer me other than ego stroking which I can't do myself?
rdiddly 8y ago
I endorsed them for things like “alcoholism,” “horse care,” “blood,” and “solid waste.” Can't stop laughing at this!
- jpatokal 8y ago
  My favorite trio of endorsements is "flexibility", "lubrication" and "potatoes".
  - owenversteeg 8y ago
    So are there any banned LinkedIn endorsements? I imagine it would still be pretty doable to string together several normal endorsements to make something hilarious.
allan_golds 8y ago
Shit site for mobile
morenoh149 8y ago
"Once your profile is in decent shape, you can start connecting with strangers. Unfortunately, LinkedIn limits users to only 30,000 connections, and 3,000 connection requests, so use some discretion." l o l Is it weird I was thinking of making a mastering linkedIn course yesterday? I think people would be interested.
leszekm 8y ago
I’m looking for a professional agency that could create my LinkedIn profile. Has anyone know one?
- vfulco2 8y ago
  Please reach out through my email. I do them multiple times a week along with English resumes and interview coaching in the Shanghai based professional services firm I own and run. I am fully booked until August 1st however. TIA!
armini 8y ago
We found the best way to beat LinkedIn was to create a better version of it https://peertal.com/#/profile/9 https://peertal.com/#/profile/9 We've developed an algorithm for ranking users similar to how Google ranks pages. This does away with spam & depends on reciprocal endorsements rather than friend requests.
- eddievonnie 8y ago
  I like the fact that yours app allows negative endorsements as well. There's a lot of people I know reviewed on linkedIn that would have more negative reviews in the real world.
- johnkarrabah 8y ago
  I saw you guys at the Rise conference pitching. Thanks for giving me payments & reviews as part of your product demo :)
- lloydde 8y ago
  This is at least as great satire! Google rank not having spam — good one! My favorite though is your one two punch: > Why is the company setup in the USA? https://peertal.com/#/faq https://peertal.com/#/faq And > Peertal is developed by a global team... https://peertal.com/#/about https://peertal.com/#/about So good! I won’t spoil it for others. They’ll have to visit the sight for the full experience. I’m a beleiver!
  - armini 8y ago
    Thanks lloydde You raise some valid points that I'm sure we can overcome. By no means are we pretending that our platform is perfect but as we get user feedback we will improve these points. 1- I will personally update site FAQs & about section shortly. I wrote those points when we first launched the app back in 2015 but we're now up to version 47 of the app & a lot has changed. 2- The app is developed by Global team, we all work remotely from Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam & Canada. You can find us all on the map view https://peertal.com/#/map-view https://peertal.com/#/map-view 3- As for your point about our code being vulnerable to spam, you might find it more entertaining to read our business principles that we're working on https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jPV7sXWfMRle03U0E6RPdCDYiDlSBifRvazQp_aF6ws/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jPV7sXWfMRle03U0E6RPdCDY... If you haven't read this book already I suggest you read it https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13530973-antifragile https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13530973-antifragile Feedback & criticism will only make us better & I can only thank you for that :)
winningcontinue 8y ago
ROFL that reply to the recruiter. 'You know what they say: In business, you're either the earthquake or the losers falling into the cracks and landing in the hot magma'
- thermodynthrway 8y ago
  > "Greebo" was banned the next day. I consider this my greatest failure, learn from my mistake. LOL
xab9 8y ago
Linkedin is terrible (the ui, the bugs, the social crap, the missing functions), but I'm okay with that. When I want to find another job I start accepting the random recruiters and tell them to write me an email, otherwise I avoid it like the plague. I remember one recruiter who was really pissed off when I accepted her request after half a year or so, but most of them couldn't care less. I usually apologize first and then tell them politely how I'm "not good with linkedin". Same for facebook. Unless I want to reach someone who prefers the platform (fortunately only a handful of people for me), otherwise no login at all. Unfollow everyone (no exceptions), like their pages if they send a like request (and unfollow in the same second) and just get out. The internet is like a bottle. You can put the cork back in and noone will care. Of course this is a strategy that works for me, ymmv.
vfulco2 8y ago
While I appreciate the creativity involved, my colleagues in the soft skills world and I running a professional services firm in Shanghai, generate some terrific leads and partnership connections through the service. The article was good for a laugh.
ivanjaros 8y ago
I am a skilled sr sw dev, I have 600-700 connection on linkedin and I know 4 people, have been there for years and never got a job out of it. The idea of linkedin is great but in practice it is absolutely pointless website.
auslander 8y ago
Cyberpunk at its best. high5.
diminish 8y ago
Page down and down arrow keys don't work. Is this a new UX normal?
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
hguhghuff 8y ago
LinkedIn is like one giant business motivational poster.
s3nnyy 8y ago
Xing, the German Linkedin throttles you after you send ~50 invites to strangers (first some have to be accepted before you can send more), Facebook even stops you from sending friend-requests after you sent 20 invites or so. Not sure why Linkedin allows people to send 3000 contact-requests without throttling them. Any ideas?
- notahacker 8y ago
  Growth hacking. Some of those users won't have active LinkedIn accounts, but will (re)register on the basis that VP of Very Important Company must be trying to get hold of them for a reason...
mifreewil 8y ago
This was great. If you enjoyed this, you should also watch this short parody of LinkedIn from SuperNews: https://youtu.be/_7DiOm-edMs https://youtu.be/_7DiOm-edMs
Egidius 8y ago
I like LinkedIn because it gives me a sense of how the market is doing. As a Dutch developer, I get messages just about every single weekday. Especially last year it's been crazy: I've had 3 recruiters in 20 minutes. Unfortunately employers are more willing to pay (multiple) recruiters than to just increase salary to snatch developers from lower paying employers. The free market is not working that well for us developers if we keep giving recruiters the chance to act as intermediaries. Out of principle I only deal with employers directly or in-house recruiters. I'm not saying they're all bad, but I've seen a lot of them who approach Javascript devs for Java positions and visa versa... they add no value in the next step of your career.
gandutraveler 8y ago
It's amazing how majority of HN community hates products/companies that real market users actually find useful and are successful.

502 points by davydog187 8y ago

It is great that LinkedIn just reports 500+ connections. It truly is an unimpressive stat. It's been a valuable platform for me, so I keep it around. The only things to remember: don't install the mobile app and get used to ignoring requests from unfamiliar people and irrelevant recruiters. Never connect it to Outlook or any other app.

AznHisoka 8y ago
When i see someone with less than 500 connections I am more likely to interact with them. Its a signal that they don’t blindly accept all connections.
- kostarelo 8y ago
  Or a signal that they actually have many connections...
  - mmt 8y ago
    True, but there can still exist a presumption that a large proportion of those connections aren't meaningful. I have no qualms connecting with a vendor or recruiter I just worked with, even if briefly on a single project, but after 6 years of no contact and 2-3 employers later, that connection isn't going to be useful for something like an introduction, if we even remember each other. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
- technofiend 8y ago
  One of our CIOs literally accepts any connection request and then quickly deletes anyone he doesn't know or care to stay connected with. Then again my employer has twigged on to the fact it's both a good recruitment tool and a good way for bad actors to find targets so everyone is mandated to put boilerplate language on their profile instead of any detail with regard to their job.
- airpmb 8y ago
  Or that they are not old enough to have built up a larger legitimate network. Imagine the LinkedIn’s-dream-case of someone starting to use LI as soon as they are old enough to type (or hell, to say ‘hey cortana’) and sticking with it nearly from cradle to grave. How many years until even connecting with only legit other people gets them over 500? I have over 500, am pretty selective about connecting and I’m also over 40. Really what is needed is some kind of better metric than the number of connections anyway. Though one might ask better for who; it seems likely that it’s to LinkedIn’s advantage to hold the true graph connectivity closely so only they can profit thereby. I’ve also been thinking for awhile lately that I’m just part of the problem here and that it’d be not a bad idea to rather be part of the solution by getting off LinkedIn, to try and recapture some of the value that they’ve been deriving from the data I and my connections have been feeding them. Again, another example of the old “if you’re not paying for the service you’re probably the product being sold” corollary to the more familiar proverb concerning the price of lunches. Returning to the prospect of things like the ideal scenario for LI, I feel like the minimum age for joining any of these “free” services should be something like 30, so one has enough life experience to figure out that it may not actually be a bargain they are willing to make. Hmm, I just realized that the shorthand I’ve been using for LinkedIn could be pronounced like “lie”. I think I’ll start using that when talking about LI verbally.
yeukhon 8y ago
I was looking for a way to send one single invite. The FAQ gives the direction, but it turns out you have to let LinkedIn access to your email account. Also, when I first started using LinkedIn about 7-8 years ago, I gave LinkedIn access to my Gmail account and I clicked "invite everyone" by accident. LinkedIn spammed everyone, including mailing lists, which was very embarrassing.
- joatmon-snoo 8y ago
  There was a class action lawsuit about something similar to this. I vaguely remember getting a 20$ check for it.
abledon 8y ago
Why no mobile app?
- dade_ 8y ago
  Another comment spelled it out: LinkedIn's mobile app has several dark patterns, but the worst is the one that spams everyone in your Gmail. This is particularly a problem for Gmail because it makes a contact for everyone you ever emailed, so this includes personal relationships and it is a mortifying professional embarrassment. Over a dozen people I know have been fooled by it over the years. Then there is the data collection, but my phone is used for work and personal. All of the data they collect and analysis of that data is up for sale. No thank you.
  - abledon 8y ago
    Wouldn’t it have to ask permission to access that data on installation though?
    - dade_ 8y ago
      It does ask permission to access your contacts, but it doesn't say, "then, at some point in the future we will pop an unfamiliar screen in our mobile app that is deliberately designed to confuse you into agreeing to send an invitation to all of your email contacts, multiple times." https://www.engadget.com/2014/06/13/linkedin-lawsuit-email-contacts/ https://www.engadget.com/2014/06/13/linkedin-lawsuit-email-c...
- dorfsmay 8y ago
  A better question is what value (to you, not to LinkedIn!) does the linked mobile apps has that the browser interface doesn't have?
KKKKkkkk1 8y ago
What's wrong with responding to unfamiliar people? When a friendly person approaches me on the street, I will usually say hi and hear what they have to say. Even if they're trying to sell me something, I feel it's better to be polite and waste a minute of my time than not to.
- cannonedhamster 8y ago
  It's not one person. People with sought after skills get inundated with requests, often completely irrelevant. I get so many help desk job offers that I'm significantly overqualified for and dramatically over salary for. I usually just start any conversation there to end it quickly. People who are looking for my level of skills pay well.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
    > People with sought after skills get inundated with requests, often completely irrelevant. Indeed, I know it's a very old cliche but I'm still not convinced there's such a thing as a recruiter who knows the difference between Java and JavaScript...
- ozim 8y ago
  Responding maybe not, but accepting them as connections is. Sometimes recruiters will try to call someone in your network and you are stepping stone. Just like guy in article mentioned when you will have some degree of connection people will accept your connection. Bad part is when person attacked by recruiter/business hunter gets mad at you because you were supposed to be connected with this guy.

cm2012 8y ago

I've connected to literally $200,000+ worth of client work through LinkedIn, and the clients are very happy too, so I'm not on board with calling it useless. edit: And before I became a consultant, I got a life changing job offer from someone who discovered me on LinkedIn.

robin_reala 8y ago

This is where the classic phrase “the only way to win is not to play” comes in.

mandeepj 8y ago

Coolest read of the day. Never imagined Linkedin as a game :-)

dswalter 8y ago

That went gloriously off the rails.

djhworld 8y ago

Very amusing. I'm almost tempted to delete my LinkedIn. I turned off all email notifications months ago so largely forgot about it, but a friend of mine recently said he saw my profile pop up in his feed about a work anniversary or some other 'engagement' thing they spam people with. The photo on my profile is from 9 years ago, and my job title has since changed, in fact most of it is probably out of date. I suspect my inbox is full of recruiters shouting into the void.

djhworld 8y ago
Update: temptation got the better of me and I closed my account.
- dyarosla 8y ago
  Now if only deleting your account meant never getting any more emails from them... I still get ‘so and so wants to connect’ after I deleted mine. Anyone have any idea how to stop this? (Besides an email filter?) is this practice even legal?
  - djhworld 8y ago
    They should have an unsubscribe link, if you live in the EU you should be able to ask them to delete all your data under GDPR rules
    - antsar 8y ago
      Is there any EU law which prevents them from resuming the spam as soon as another one of your acquaintances gives LinkedIn access to his/her contacts? Because otherwise that's what's going to happen...
      - qznc 8y ago
        GDPR still applies. This is personal information about you, so you can make them delete it. The fact that they got the information from someone else is irrelevant. (Imho. Not a lawyer.)

laurex 8y ago

> Shortly after I connected with an eagle-eyed Pulitzer Prize and Emmy nominated journalist/producer (who perhaps was initially fooled by my impressive credentials to accept my request), I received an angry message from him. “Don’t know who you are,” he wrote, “but neither school you list offers the majors or degrees you claim to have so I’m deleting you from my contacts." Dying. Nice work.

orcdork 8y ago
That part felt petty & mean spirited to me. If anything the person was playing "the game" in the way it should be played, yet the author felt the urge to unnecessary ridicule them (even anonymously so).
- Rexxar 8y ago
  It's all other who are ridiculed imho. It was the only person who do a basic check.
- romwell 8y ago
  It should be pointed out that the degrees in question were as follows: Degree: Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A) Majors: * International Business * A+ Degree: Bachelor of Arts Majors: * Farm Sciences * Straight A's Perhaps the surprise and indignation of a person who discovered that "Straight A's" is not a real major in Yale does have some comic value.
aberoham 8y ago
> Work your way through the corporate food chain like an intestinal parasite at a gratis conference buffet. lol, priceless!
everdev 8y ago
> In 2014, I founded the company LinkedIn Skill Endorsements, and after posting on Twitter that I was charging ten cents for endorsements (a limited time discount from the usual 50 cents), I snagged three customers. I sent them a welcome email. Note the highly inflated “change fee.” As soon as their payments were processed in PayPal, I endorsed them for things like “alcoholism,” “horse care,” “blood,” and “solid waste.” Since this is stuff most people wouldn’t want on their resume, they’d be forced to pay me a $10,000 fee to remove the terrible endorsements. Lol, this guy is too much.

soared 8y ago

Unrelated to the (enjoyable) article - How do you feel about the advertisements on this site? More intrusive, less intrusive? Edit - I ask because instead of the usual advertising model they have 12 partners a year that get custom ads, and there is no other advertising.

Ancalagon 8y ago
Actually they were very unintrusive. I thought they were part of the article
rapnie 8y ago
They want me to place 89 cookies. No way to opt-out, only 'accept all'. Abort :( Edit: actually I did return to the article just now. Curiosity. No longer a cookie alert, though I accepted nothing yet. Either silently placed or not working properly.

davedx 8y ago

Hi! I’ve started a couple of lucrative contracts via LinkedIn and receive many offers there. I make lots of money because of LinkedIn. Thanks for playing, sorry to hear you suck at the game. Maybe try some cheat codes?

anothergoogler 8y ago
Wait, you're proud of being recruited on LinkedIn?
- paul7986 8y ago
  I’m the same.. as a UI/UX Designer & Developer LinkedIn via recruiters has brought me great opportunities & a better overall life. Some recruiters are slimey, but most I’ve dealt with in my ten year career are not.
- Rjevski 8y ago
  Well, if you use it correctly LinkedIn isn’t too bad. As a contractor who has to jump ship every 6 months or so, I find it quite convenient to let the recruiters do the heavy lifting. I literally have to do nothing - I just get offers in my inbox and just have to say “interested” to secure an interview and usually get the gig the next week. Maybe past a certain level of experience you can easily secure gigs without it, but I’ve never really been interested at “networking” and if I can let LinkedIn do the job for me then all the better. Granted, the platform itself is shit (and the iOS app is an absolute crime) but the idea isn’t that bad.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Between networking with former coworkers and networking with good local recruiters, you get a better bang for your buck working with recruiters. They know where the jobs are and they are incentivized to get you a job.
- exotree 8y ago
  I’ve also had lucrative offers and contracts come by way of LinkedIn.

ravenstine 8y ago

I'd like a version of LinkedIn that uses computer vision to shadow ban anyone who wears a suit and a shit-eating grin.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
confounded 8y ago
LinkedIn may not be the site for you

projectramo 8y ago

I want to read the version of this where you win Githib

ikeboy 8y ago
Just run a script to commit every day, or better yet backdate commits
- i_made_a_booboo 8y ago
  GitHub Gardener
- qznc 8y ago
  In 2015 I "painted" my Github profile this way: https://github.com/qznc/rockstar/graphs/code-frequency https://github.com/qznc/rockstar/graphs/code-frequency It was just a one off script. The next step would have been to run it daily or fill it with commits from the future. I remember there was an HN article where someone made the Github contribution diagram on the profile page into some picture.

anothergoogler 8y ago

You'll want to disable JS on this site, or else you'll get shot to another article when you reach the end, replacing the linked article in your history (lord knows who thought that was a good idea).

jstandard 8y ago
Techcrunch does this too. It's to encourage binge reading. The news equivalent of Youtube autoplay next video. The metrics likely suggest it's good for the site, but I'm also not a fan. It's very confusing for the reader.
- Noumenon72 8y ago
  The worst is Bloomberg.com, which has a ten-article paywall and counts articles you scroll into. It does this so eagerly that you lose an article even if you were only scrolling down to click the link for the comments.
- johnnydoe9 8y ago
  At least Outline doesn't have comments, a lot of sites have comments at the bottom of the article at the click of the button which you can't hit at times because it eagerly kicks you into another article.
soared 8y ago
Their UX is super interesting. On mobile you can swipe to the right at any time to get a new article.

jdavis703 8y ago

I don't understand why LinkedIn get's so much hate. I got my two last jobs from recruiters reaching out to me on LinkedIn. My current job I got from an ex-coworker at a place that I found because of LinkedIn. Like all markets, LinkedIn is chaotic but you can get value out of it if you can avoid the bad parts like spam.

Rjevski 8y ago
The idea of LinkedIn is good, but the execution is absolutely awful. It encourages spam and lies, has a shit app (on iOS) and the “social” aspect of it is completely stupid and useless (they now even support videos - WTF?). I’d pay good money for a “premium” alternative without the above issues.
- throwaway9980 8y ago
  What do you get when you combine LinkedIn, spam, and videos? Gary Vaynerchuk! It took me a few weeks of unfollowing, unsubscribing, or clicking whatever buttons were available for “omfg stop showing me this stuff” to delouse my feed of all things Gary Vee.
  - ta1234567890 8y ago
    This. GV is like a LinkedIn virus, really annoying. Also the guy is like the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, getting rich by selling advise on how they got rich, which is all pretty much useless for others (or at least very disingenuous)
    - throwaway9980 8y ago
      Yeah, if I didn’t know better I would say that he’s a Sasha Baren Cohen charector. Literally a caricature of a bunch of stereotypes.
    - i_made_a_booboo 8y ago
      totally not how he got rich but OK.

NiceGuy_Ty 8y ago

Not ready to outright delete Linkedin, but it was the noisiest mobile app on my phone. Luckily the mobile site works decently, so it has been assigned to a firefox tab for the foreseeable future.

g7 8y ago

This is hilarious

lionhearted 8y ago

Ok this was riotously funny, but in defense of LinkedIn, it's a great place to hire and a great place to get a job if you take the time to write a quality, genuine profile — which is certainly a rarity and makes good people stand out. I just ended a hiring campaign on LinkedIn. The stats were that it lasted 35 days, cost $704, our job ad was shown to 1001 people, and 233 applied through the platform. I didn't keep exact stats of qualified / non-qualified people, but there were at least 5 people I thought were wow good, and another dozen or two that I wasn't sure immediately about but who were possibly really good. We hired two people. These numbers outperformed their algorithm — they estimated that we'd get 40-60 applications for $600 across 30 days, and we got considerably more. I think our ad was pretty good and unusual, it was a condensed version of our team hiring page — http://ultraworking.com/work http://ultraworking.com/work As for whether "fake social networker" cred helps... I don't think so. I make a quick checklist of things I'd skim rapidly for when looking at profiles to do first pass analysis. Basically, I'd look for any sense of ownership, service, or self-direction. Things like genuine volunteer activities, excellent academics, leadership roles in student clubs are all obvious examples. But actually, there were a bunch of things that are doable for everyone that I looked for, and which surprisingly few people do. For instance, the vast majority of candidates wrote their profile in first person tense. "I'm a skilled marketer with X years of..." or "I'm looking for a job doing..." Very few people wrote in any second person tense at all. EG: "If you're looking to hire a marketer and you have a great company, I'd love to help you develop your..." I also saw only 2-3 profiles out of 300 that mentioned being happy, smiling, or service oriented. One guy didn't have any fancy brand name education or work experience, but he wrote something like, "I did this job with a smile every day and looked to make everyone I worked with happy." Okay cool, yes, I'd be delighted to talk to you. Your culture will vary of course, but I was also impressed with people that had a mix of any kind of art/aesthetics alongside any math/engineering/analytical pursuits, and noted anyone who mentioned a disciplined history of sports, martial arts, or athletics. What didn't factor much at all for me were the self-descriptions of jobs (I skimmed briefly to make sure they weren't a total non-fit, but otherwise don't really trust it) and in the Hiring Portal, you can't even see how many connections someone has easily. Or maybe you can, but I must have just parsed over it if so — I didn't notice it once. I was skeptical of Linkedin for a long time. The "LinkedIn: The Game" thing. But it's a legitimately great way to put good opportunities in front of people looking for a new job, and a good way to seek companies doing what you're interested in if you're jobseeking. I'm legitimately very impressed with Linkedin excited to work with the two people that joined the team. In my book, a very good use of $700 and 15 hours.

jccalhoun 8y ago

I'm so glad I'm in a field (academia) that doesn't really use linkedin.

gammarator 8y ago
Academia: The Game is even more ridiculous, though.
Perceval 8y ago
We've got field-specific Academia.edu as our LinkedIn alternative.

danirod 8y ago

I changed my privacy settings set on LinkedIn so that no one could see my connections after I started noticing that many recruiters sending invitations were already connected to other people I know or have as a contact otherwise. I strongly suspect some of these recruiters just want to add you for the sake of having access to your contacts lists in order to have more people to connect with. I don't usually accept requests from recruiters, either. In fact I had this for a while as my first sentence in my profile page and that didn't stop them from sending requests. That signals me they don't bother checking your profile first, either. Apart of maintaining my vanity URL, I don't even know why do I still have a LinkedIn account; I just don't find it very useful.

misterbowfinger 8y ago

At a previous job, we got so annoyed with recruiters that we decided to create a honeypot account - fake LinkedIn, fake Github, fake Twitter, everything. We took the first picture off of Google for "bro" as the profile picture. For his Github, we just forked popular projects like jQuery and then ctrl+f replaced the name with his first name, like "bradQuery". Surprisingly, we had many recruiters contact us about the popular "bradQuery" library. And we uh, had to play the part of a douchey brogrammer. It's amazing how far those conversations went. It was really fun at the time, but also maybe a little mean to recruiters. They do have a tough gig and they're usually under the gun. Ah well...

emilfihlman 8y ago

I loved this!

cyberferret 8y ago

Enjoyed the article, but I often wonder about the metrics of ads that appear mid stream on a satirical article such as this. I noticed a few ads for Hewlett-Packard within the article, but the cartoon-y graphics used and their placement within the article body just made me think they were faux ads that fit the comedy nature of the article. It was only when I scrolled through to another (serious) article and saw the same ads that I realised they were actual legitimate ads.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

adrian_mrd 8y ago

Funny writeup - the recruiter and the Goldman/Quantcast callout was particularly enjoyable :) An alternate LinkedIn game that I've done many times with colleagues (and which works better on the web/desktop UI) is: * Ensure you have at least 50 connections * Go to the 'My Network' then 'People You May Know' * Scroll down and enjoy some of the ridiculous profile photos eg people at the horse races, photos with partners cropped out, weird off-camera poses, 1980s hair, etc * Try not to laugh Admittedly with the recent rise of 'personal brands', this game is more difficult than it used to be - yet still juvenile! Also, what the heck is a 'thought leader' anyway? Isn't it better to be an 'action leader', a decision-maker, a publisher of some description; someone who does something or produces something meaningful? Not all thoughts were created equal, of course, and there are not many 'thought leaders' on LinkedIn who were not self-appointed! edit: fixed 2 spelling errors, formatting changes, added Quantcast reference for clarity

TomMckenny 8y ago
>what the heck is a 'thought leader' anyway? As far as I can tell: Someone who very successfully spreads ideas they only partially understand with the inevitable oversimplification here and there.
- noitsnot 8y ago
  Simon Sinek wins the gold medal for thought leader in my book.
  - adrian_mrd 8y ago
    Fair point, but at least he has published some works and spun a few TED talks. Maybe we need a separate HN thread: who is the lamest ‘thought leader’ you’ve come across recently? ;)
    - adrian_mrd 8y ago
      I couldn’t resist :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17585492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17585492

sonnyblarney 8y ago

"Strange game. The only way to win is not to play." - WOPR/Joshua

paulie_a 8y ago

The best way to beat LinkedIn is to delete your account. LinkedIn is pointless.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

crazy_monkey 8y ago

Sell out to Microsoft...

coin 8y ago

What an obnoxious layout, especially on mobile

whymauri 8y ago
What makes it obnoxious? I kinda liked it on desktop (the website with the news article).

adrianhel 8y ago

Regarding the first quote: https://mobile.twitter.com/themlotsdad/status/998227586806317057 https://mobile.twitter.com/themlotsdad/status/99822758680631...

paul7986 8y ago

For those who find LinkedIn pointless are you making crazy bank already and find no need to raise your salary by using recruiters who offer you better jobs weekly on LInkedin? When they do it's time for you to say I make 100k more then you really do and boom you raised your salary a ton. I don't get the hate though and again those that hate it I guess don't need to play the game? They already have maxed out their salary and or aren't in tech to make as much money as possible? Or maybe they are the programmers who hate facebook and social networks in general; have no clue how to use Linkedin to their advantage?

incompatible 8y ago
Well, we didn't have the walkthrough until now. I've never been contacted by a recruiter in LinkedIn, but now I see how it's done.
mixmastamyk 8y ago
Personally I get lots of invites to interview due to my experience but few job offers, since I'm not great at unrealistic coding tests under the gun. What can L.I. do for me?
mayniac 8y ago
I just don't like the idea of a business social network to be honest. If I get along with coworkers then I'll exchange numbers, email address etc and talk to them that way. For job hunting, I prefer to do it on my own terms: linkedin has job postings I can view from a dummy account, then there's glassdoor, indeed etc. I don't do consulting/contract work so I tend to stick around companies for at least a year, the weekly job offers are just annoying to me. As is having to deal with connection requests from people I don't know or don't care about. Salary wise I'm comfortable enough and not in tech to make as much money as possible, I just enjoy it: there's better fields for salary in the UK. I've doubled my salary in two years without linkedin anyway, it's not essential to have. Then there's the whole security side of things. I want linkedin to die solely because it's such an easy source of OSINT information. I also do hate social networks in general, at least the implementation of them, for quite a few reasons. What exactly does Linkedin offer me other than ego stroking which I can't do myself?

rdiddly 8y ago

I endorsed them for things like “alcoholism,” “horse care,” “blood,” and “solid waste.” Can't stop laughing at this!

jpatokal 8y ago
My favorite trio of endorsements is "flexibility", "lubrication" and "potatoes".
- owenversteeg 8y ago
  So are there any banned LinkedIn endorsements? I imagine it would still be pretty doable to string together several normal endorsements to make something hilarious.

allan_golds 8y ago

Shit site for mobile

morenoh149 8y ago

"Once your profile is in decent shape, you can start connecting with strangers. Unfortunately, LinkedIn limits users to only 30,000 connections, and 3,000 connection requests, so use some discretion." l o l Is it weird I was thinking of making a mastering linkedIn course yesterday? I think people would be interested.

leszekm 8y ago

I’m looking for a professional agency that could create my LinkedIn profile. Has anyone know one?

vfulco2 8y ago
Please reach out through my email. I do them multiple times a week along with English resumes and interview coaching in the Shanghai based professional services firm I own and run. I am fully booked until August 1st however. TIA!

armini 8y ago

We found the best way to beat LinkedIn was to create a better version of it https://peertal.com/#/profile/9 https://peertal.com/#/profile/9 We've developed an algorithm for ranking users similar to how Google ranks pages. This does away with spam & depends on reciprocal endorsements rather than friend requests.

eddievonnie 8y ago
I like the fact that yours app allows negative endorsements as well. There's a lot of people I know reviewed on linkedIn that would have more negative reviews in the real world.
johnkarrabah 8y ago
I saw you guys at the Rise conference pitching. Thanks for giving me payments & reviews as part of your product demo :)
lloydde 8y ago
This is at least as great satire! Google rank not having spam — good one! My favorite though is your one two punch: > Why is the company setup in the USA? https://peertal.com/#/faq https://peertal.com/#/faq And > Peertal is developed by a global team... https://peertal.com/#/about https://peertal.com/#/about So good! I won’t spoil it for others. They’ll have to visit the sight for the full experience. I’m a beleiver!
- armini 8y ago
  Thanks lloydde You raise some valid points that I'm sure we can overcome. By no means are we pretending that our platform is perfect but as we get user feedback we will improve these points. 1- I will personally update site FAQs & about section shortly. I wrote those points when we first launched the app back in 2015 but we're now up to version 47 of the app & a lot has changed. 2- The app is developed by Global team, we all work remotely from Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam & Canada. You can find us all on the map view https://peertal.com/#/map-view https://peertal.com/#/map-view 3- As for your point about our code being vulnerable to spam, you might find it more entertaining to read our business principles that we're working on https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jPV7sXWfMRle03U0E6RPdCDYiDlSBifRvazQp_aF6ws/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jPV7sXWfMRle03U0E6RPdCDY... If you haven't read this book already I suggest you read it https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13530973-antifragile https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13530973-antifragile Feedback & criticism will only make us better & I can only thank you for that :)

winningcontinue 8y ago

ROFL that reply to the recruiter. 'You know what they say: In business, you're either the earthquake or the losers falling into the cracks and landing in the hot magma'

thermodynthrway 8y ago
> "Greebo" was banned the next day. I consider this my greatest failure, learn from my mistake. LOL

xab9 8y ago

Linkedin is terrible (the ui, the bugs, the social crap, the missing functions), but I'm okay with that. When I want to find another job I start accepting the random recruiters and tell them to write me an email, otherwise I avoid it like the plague. I remember one recruiter who was really pissed off when I accepted her request after half a year or so, but most of them couldn't care less. I usually apologize first and then tell them politely how I'm "not good with linkedin". Same for facebook. Unless I want to reach someone who prefers the platform (fortunately only a handful of people for me), otherwise no login at all. Unfollow everyone (no exceptions), like their pages if they send a like request (and unfollow in the same second) and just get out. The internet is like a bottle. You can put the cork back in and noone will care. Of course this is a strategy that works for me, ymmv.

vfulco2 8y ago

While I appreciate the creativity involved, my colleagues in the soft skills world and I running a professional services firm in Shanghai, generate some terrific leads and partnership connections through the service. The article was good for a laugh.

ivanjaros 8y ago

I am a skilled sr sw dev, I have 600-700 connection on linkedin and I know 4 people, have been there for years and never got a job out of it. The idea of linkedin is great but in practice it is absolutely pointless website.

auslander 8y ago

Cyberpunk at its best. high5.

diminish 8y ago

Page down and down arrow keys don't work. Is this a new UX normal?

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

hguhghuff 8y ago

LinkedIn is like one giant business motivational poster.

s3nnyy 8y ago

Xing, the German Linkedin throttles you after you send ~50 invites to strangers (first some have to be accepted before you can send more), Facebook even stops you from sending friend-requests after you sent 20 invites or so. Not sure why Linkedin allows people to send 3000 contact-requests without throttling them. Any ideas?

notahacker 8y ago
Growth hacking. Some of those users won't have active LinkedIn accounts, but will (re)register on the basis that VP of Very Important Company must be trying to get hold of them for a reason...

mifreewil 8y ago

This was great. If you enjoyed this, you should also watch this short parody of LinkedIn from SuperNews: https://youtu.be/_7DiOm-edMs https://youtu.be/_7DiOm-edMs

Egidius 8y ago

I like LinkedIn because it gives me a sense of how the market is doing. As a Dutch developer, I get messages just about every single weekday. Especially last year it's been crazy: I've had 3 recruiters in 20 minutes. Unfortunately employers are more willing to pay (multiple) recruiters than to just increase salary to snatch developers from lower paying employers. The free market is not working that well for us developers if we keep giving recruiters the chance to act as intermediaries. Out of principle I only deal with employers directly or in-house recruiters. I'm not saying they're all bad, but I've seen a lot of them who approach Javascript devs for Java positions and visa versa... they add no value in the next step of your career.

gandutraveler 8y ago

It's amazing how majority of HN community hates products/companies that real market users actually find useful and are successful.