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The joy of LinkedIn is you don't need to spend your life scrolling through it. Go in, spend 5 seconds seeing what's new or if you have any non-spam messages, th

by ljm 3y ago

The joy of LinkedIn is you don't need to spend your life scrolling through it. Go in, spend 5 seconds seeing what's new or if you have any non-spam messages, then close the tab. Ignore it for a week or two and repeat, no excessive engagement required.

sanderjd 3y ago
Yeah I unironically really like LinkedIn. I use it to see who works at companies and who else people I know might know, and what all those people have been up to. This is all super useful information to me as I plan out what to work on and with whom. But the feed could just not be there and it would make no difference. Not sure what you'd put in that real estate on the home page instead though.
- local_crmdgeon 3y ago
  I think LinkedIn doesn’t know either, so they just did … that
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    Absolutely. I imagine the product meeting being "What are we going to put on the homepage? It's would be weird for your home page to just be your own profile... I guess a feed? Those seem popular and take up plenty of space...".
- culopatin 3y ago
  I must not know how to use it. My experience is an empty shell of people that only use it when they are looking for a job. The active ones post things that they think will make them look smart, cheap blog posts about “5 management tips”, “is your manager micromanaging you?”, “9 must have resume tools”, stuff like that. The people that I’m actually interested in have a profile, but never actually use it. Or already got a job and don’t need to open it often, if at all. The recruiters that reach out are always scammy or offer ridiculous things hoping that if I’m there, I’m desperate. 12/h do it all position, contract, for maybe 2 weeks, maybe 6 months, (doesn’t matter, I’m on the verge of homelessness anyway right?) for a “very important and growing company” that’s not even in the area I’m in. It always gives me that fake useless vibe. I don’t really know how to turn it into something I actually want to be part of.
  - intelVISA 3y ago
    Pretty much how LI works unfortunately. The people you'd hope were active are out there busy doing useful things not writing "5 lifehacks to do useful things".
    - sanderjd 3y ago
      > Pretty much how LI works fortunately. Fixed that for you! :) Seriously, discoverable linkable profiles with tracking of connections and links to businesses and schools is incredibly useful, and we're fortunate it exists.
  - nurbel 3y ago
    the trick is to not try to be a part of it, but only use it when looking for a job. Sometimes the recruiters leads are worth it to me, but this must be very variable between users depending on profile, location,…
    - culopatin 3y ago
      And do what in that scenario? Do you cold-chat (like cold call I guess) people?
      - sanderjd 3y ago
        Yes. It's professional, not personal, it is in no way weird or creepy to just say "hey interesting background, any interest in getting coffee with me?" just like you would with a new colleague at work. But it's pretty much everyone you can meet that way, not just people at your own company.
        moneywoes 3y ago
        Have you come across a playbook for doing it the right way?
        3y ago
- ljm 3y ago
  Aside from the occasional lunatic post the feed's been pretty decent for me. A lot of it can be noise but I think the fact that it's kind of basic and doesn't manipulate you into constant engagement is what makes it better - I see a lot of stuff that I might not have come across otherwise rather than being fed content the algorithm thinks I enjoy, and the stuff I post gets decent visibility. I suppose it's kind of old-skool in a way while also just being there to fill the space with... something. Meanwhile you couldn't pay me to sign up to FB, Twitter, Insta or TikTok. Overall though - LinkedIn definitely grows in value as your career moves from 'what you know' to 'who you know'.
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    Yeah I agree. I find the feed useless but harmless.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
  So do I. Besides the fact that I got my current position directly through LinkedIn (cold contact from a recruiter), I use it to learn about people I'm going to meet. I work with our Bizdev team a lot, discussing proposals for new business and it's great to be able to look up the management/development team of a company that we're going to have a meeting with to get a better picture of where they're coming from and what their company does. The objections in this thread strike me as typical developer negativity: it's not directly tech-related so it must be useless.
b112 3y ago
Ignore it for a week or two and repeat, no excessive engagement required Oh my god, don't say that out loud! That'll send them into a full redesign!
- antonvs 3y ago
  That’s nothing, I generally ignore it for months at a time
davidmurdoch 3y ago
A week or two? More like a year or two.
stcroixx 3y ago
You log into LinkedIn every week or two to check messages there? I'd call that pretty solid engagement. If I were a product person there, I'd be happy to have a user like you. I log in every few years when I really have to for some reason and it's always a pain because I'm going to have to reset my password, figure out my login, blah, blech.
Forgeties79 3y ago
I log into it strictly to job search, and for that it has been fantastic. What I love is that I don’t need to engage with the site regularly in order to utilize it for that function. I’m on every year or two for a few weeks (minutes a day tops) to update resumes, clean up my “professional storefront” essentially, and do a few job searches - which then leads to me getting regular emails with job opportunities that match my parameters. And unlike other hiring sites, LinkedIn has actually produced results for me.

by ljm 3y ago

sanderjd 3y ago

Yeah I unironically really like LinkedIn. I use it to see who works at companies and who else people I know might know, and what all those people have been up to. This is all super useful information to me as I plan out what to work on and with whom. But the feed could just not be there and it would make no difference. Not sure what you'd put in that real estate on the home page instead though.

local_crmdgeon 3y ago
I think LinkedIn doesn’t know either, so they just did … that
- sanderjd 3y ago
  Absolutely. I imagine the product meeting being "What are we going to put on the homepage? It's would be weird for your home page to just be your own profile... I guess a feed? Those seem popular and take up plenty of space...".
culopatin 3y ago
I must not know how to use it. My experience is an empty shell of people that only use it when they are looking for a job. The active ones post things that they think will make them look smart, cheap blog posts about “5 management tips”, “is your manager micromanaging you?”, “9 must have resume tools”, stuff like that. The people that I’m actually interested in have a profile, but never actually use it. Or already got a job and don’t need to open it often, if at all. The recruiters that reach out are always scammy or offer ridiculous things hoping that if I’m there, I’m desperate. 12/h do it all position, contract, for maybe 2 weeks, maybe 6 months, (doesn’t matter, I’m on the verge of homelessness anyway right?) for a “very important and growing company” that’s not even in the area I’m in. It always gives me that fake useless vibe. I don’t really know how to turn it into something I actually want to be part of.
- intelVISA 3y ago
  Pretty much how LI works unfortunately. The people you'd hope were active are out there busy doing useful things not writing "5 lifehacks to do useful things".
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    > Pretty much how LI works fortunately. Fixed that for you! :) Seriously, discoverable linkable profiles with tracking of connections and links to businesses and schools is incredibly useful, and we're fortunate it exists.
- nurbel 3y ago
  the trick is to not try to be a part of it, but only use it when looking for a job. Sometimes the recruiters leads are worth it to me, but this must be very variable between users depending on profile, location,…
  - culopatin 3y ago
    And do what in that scenario? Do you cold-chat (like cold call I guess) people?
    - sanderjd 3y ago
      Yes. It's professional, not personal, it is in no way weird or creepy to just say "hey interesting background, any interest in getting coffee with me?" just like you would with a new colleague at work. But it's pretty much everyone you can meet that way, not just people at your own company.
      - moneywoes 3y ago
        Have you come across a playbook for doing it the right way?
        3y ago
ljm 3y ago
Aside from the occasional lunatic post the feed's been pretty decent for me. A lot of it can be noise but I think the fact that it's kind of basic and doesn't manipulate you into constant engagement is what makes it better - I see a lot of stuff that I might not have come across otherwise rather than being fed content the algorithm thinks I enjoy, and the stuff I post gets decent visibility. I suppose it's kind of old-skool in a way while also just being there to fill the space with... something. Meanwhile you couldn't pay me to sign up to FB, Twitter, Insta or TikTok. Overall though - LinkedIn definitely grows in value as your career moves from 'what you know' to 'who you know'.
- sanderjd 3y ago
  Yeah I agree. I find the feed useless but harmless.
HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
So do I. Besides the fact that I got my current position directly through LinkedIn (cold contact from a recruiter), I use it to learn about people I'm going to meet. I work with our Bizdev team a lot, discussing proposals for new business and it's great to be able to look up the management/development team of a company that we're going to have a meeting with to get a better picture of where they're coming from and what their company does. The objections in this thread strike me as typical developer negativity: it's not directly tech-related so it must be useless.

b112 3y ago

Ignore it for a week or two and repeat, no excessive engagement required Oh my god, don't say that out loud! That'll send them into a full redesign!

antonvs 3y ago
That’s nothing, I generally ignore it for months at a time

davidmurdoch 3y ago

A week or two? More like a year or two.

stcroixx 3y ago

You log into LinkedIn every week or two to check messages there? I'd call that pretty solid engagement. If I were a product person there, I'd be happy to have a user like you. I log in every few years when I really have to for some reason and it's always a pain because I'm going to have to reset my password, figure out my login, blah, blech.

Forgeties79 3y ago

I log into it strictly to job search, and for that it has been fantastic. What I love is that I don’t need to engage with the site regularly in order to utilize it for that function. I’m on every year or two for a few weeks (minutes a day tops) to update resumes, clean up my “professional storefront” essentially, and do a few job searches - which then leads to me getting regular emails with job opportunities that match my parameters. And unlike other hiring sites, LinkedIn has actually produced results for me.