5 ms·

It's extremely frustrating, because in 2023 you're sort of expected to have a linkedin (some job applications even require it!), but people have started treatin

It's extremely frustrating, because in 2023 you're sort of expected to have a linkedin (some job applications even require it!), but people have started treating it like the next FaceBook. From 2020-2022 I saw a lot of COVID conspiracy theories and political memes being posted, and I wanted to respond to them, but since LinkedIn is basically a resume, I withheld responding, for the same reason that I don't put my voting history directly on my resume. Though honestly the worst part is the "inspiration porn" that people post on there all the time, nearly all of which reduce to "the job market is tough, but don't give up because it gets easy!!!". When you point out that it, in fact, does not ever get "easy" to wake up to 30 rejection emails every morning, they either try and sell you on some meditation routine, tell you that you have a bad attitude, or just block you. Honestly, it really is the absolute worst platform that I am stuck using. There are worse websites, obviously, but no one is forcing me to go to 4chan or The Daily Stormer every day.

nilespotter 3y ago
[flagged]
- hef19898 3y ago
  None?
- pc86 3y ago
  You have missed the point by a fantastically, awe-inspiring amount.
- irrational 3y ago
  Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back we see... that none of them were true.
  - mandmandam 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - tombert 3y ago
      Holy crap did this topic take a nosedive. My point wasn't even to "dismiss" COVID conspiracies, just point out that I didn't really want them on my LinkedIn wall. But fine. > Then there was the vaccine effectiveness, which was claimed as 100% but actually was well below that. Same for their preventing transmission, which was nonsensical. I think there's literally no one that claimed the vaccine was 100% effective; certainly no one with any kind of medical credential. I don't think there's ever been any vaccine in history that's been 100% effective, the numbers I heard when I got my vaccine was between 80-90% effective, and due to Bayes theorem hijinks that means the actual likelihood of being immune is well below that. This was never a cover-up, the scientists were pretty up-front about this. > Let's start with Wuhan being a likely origin point. This one gets bonus points, because it wasn't just a "conspiracy theory" but also "racist". All based on a Lancet paper that any smart reader could tell was bunk, and which turned out to be totally soaked with conflicts of interest. I don't recall anyone saying it was racist for saying Wuhan was an origin point. What people called problematic was people trying to label it as "kung flu" or "Wuhan Flu". > Then there was the "conspiracy theory" that natural immunity is superior to vaccine immunity; again, turned out to be true. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I don't think this was ever disputed. "Natural" immunity may indeed give you stronger immunity to COVID, but it has one major disadvantage: you have to catch COVID to get it, which is potentially lethal, and even if it wasn't "lethal", can have long-term side effects that we're still unsure about, not to mention that while you have COVID you're substantially more infectious than when you're not. Any reduction on infectiousness is a potential win.
      - mandmandam 3y ago
        Your memory has some holes in it friend. > literally no one that claimed the vaccine was 100% effective Well, apart from the President of the US [0], and Pfizer themselves [1], and many others. > I don't recall anyone saying it was racist for saying Wuhan was an origin point Many, many people claimed this; including a NYT reporter [2] and WaPo [3]. > I cannot speak for anyone else, but I don't think this was ever disputed. Yes, this was heavily, heavily disputed. Even Nature claimed mRNA was superior [4]. I hope you reflect on the fact that it took me only about 5 minutes to dig up these links, and that what you called a "nosedive" can now be seen as an educational experience. [0] - https://news.yahoo.com/ap-fact-check-biden-inflates-011843623.html https://news.yahoo.com/ap-fact-check-biden-inflates-01184362... [1] - https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-confirm-high-efficacy-and-no-serious https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-deta... [2] - https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-covid-lab-leak-apoorva-mandavilli/ https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-covid-lab-leak-apoorv... [3] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-media-called-the-lab-leak-story-a-conspiracy-theory-now-its-prompted-corrections--and-serious-new-reporting/2021/06/10/c93972e6-c7b2-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-media-cal... [4] - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06629-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06629-2
mauliknshah 3y ago
Further to that, my feed have been filled with Certification posts. Folks would boast about their 3 hour Certification courses with long cringe posts! And LinkedIn would not stop it, because they need to sell LinkedIn Learning!
- tombert 3y ago
  Honestly, if it were just people bragging about how they took a 3 hour class and got a useless certification, I don't think it would bother me. LinkedIn markets itself as a glorified resume, and it's pretty common for people to fluff up their meaningless certs. I just feel like there should be somewhat of a boundary between personal and professional life. There are things I would say to my friends that I wouldn't tell anyone in charge of giving me money, at least not directly, and I feel like LinkedIn (purposefully or otherwise) is actively trying to erode that boundary. It's horrible.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    There's not much I would post on Facebook that would cause me heartburn if a potential employer were to see it. (And most of my Facebook friends would be profoundly uninterested in most tech topics I would post on.) But, yeah, I keep my LinkedIn--to the degree I use it at all--very anodyne except to the degree you have relatively extreme opinions on specific tech topics.
    - tombert 3y ago
      I don't have a facebook, but I don't think I post anything that's likely to get me fired to any social media. However, there's sort of a difference between "not being fired" and "being hired". My political opinions are pretty normal (basically typical American lefty), and if my employer were to find a blog post I wrote about universal healthcare or something it's doubtful that they'd fire me. That's a little different than me plastering "BIDEN 2024!!!" all over my resume, and that's why I utterly hate LinkedIn.
    - dadsquad 3y ago
      anodyne, great word
JohnFen 3y ago
> some job applications even require it! I've never encountered this, but if I did, I'd be pretty thankful for the advance warning that I would not likely enjoy working there.
- tombert 3y ago
  I can't remember where, but it was a fairly typical form where you put your name and information, upload your resume, required fields have a red asterisk, and the LinkedIn profile was required. Now, I have no idea how much parsing they actually did; you might have been able to put "asdf" to make it validate.
- winphone1974 3y ago
  There's very little correlation between a company that's deeply integrated with LinkedIn tools and what it's like to work there. If you're going to judge all companies based on their recruitment toolchain, good luck finding an acceptable position!
bongoman37 3y ago
[dead]
88913527 3y ago
You can have a LinkedIn profile but not use the feed-- I don't see how that's necessarily frustrating. Make a profile, provide the link on job applications. Occasionally edit your profile so it's up to date. Then, don't use it. Simple enough.
- tombert 3y ago
  Sure, but a lot of companies post job listings on LinkedIn as well. I could (and mostly do) ignore the homepage, but I still see it occasionally.
- jxramos 3y ago
  I wish there was a way to never accidentally click on or navigate to the feed at all on LinkedIn. Could be a good opportunity for a browser extension to just nuke that part of the DOM.
  - hyldmo 3y ago
    That exists already! I use this one, which works on a bunch of other sites as well: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...
  - garrettgrimsley 3y ago
    If you use uBlock Origin you can do www.linkedin.com##:matches-path(feed).scaffold-layout__main www.linkedin.com##.global-nav__primary-link.global-nav__primary-link--active.app-aware-link The former will block the main content of the page while on the /feed/ path, while the latter will block the "Home" button in the header nav.
    - jxramos 3y ago
      wow I didn't know uBlock Origin was also capable of DOM cleanup. I really need to give that tool a second look.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
ssnistfajen 3y ago
I aggressively clicked "not interested" on meme/fluff posts for a while and now when my LinkedIn page always starts with some sort of system design diagram. My next click is usually straight to the jobs page anyways. The site will be done for once they start putting trending topics in the jobs page.
- walthamstow 3y ago
  The best is 'unfollow'. I have a a bit less than a hundred connections, all real people I know, and I follow 0 accounts. So there is no feed. It's empty.
o116172854 3y ago
4chan is way better than HN, sorry.
jollofricepeas 3y ago
It has got worse. But there’s a right way to use LinkedIn. Keep in mind that the majority of people only want to network when they need something. You can use LinkedIn to do the opposite and create meaningful connections. 1. Judgment-free support. That lady you barely remember from your previous job is starting a business. Encourage her. Some person is starting yet another podcast? Ask a couple of kind questions. 2. A low effort contact list. Next time you go out to an event and meet with new people ask to connect on LinkedIn. You have a better chance of maintaining that connection with LinkedIn reminders than if you exchange phone number or email. Why do this? Life is short.
Ms-J 3y ago
I've never had a Linkedin nor any other type of social media, not even a public Github page, and I've received many simply great job offers, especially in 2022-2023. Putting this out there so people don't think they need to join some absolutely shit random corporate social networks to get a job.
- sam_lowry_ 3y ago
  What's your secret?
  - Ms-J 3y ago
    Either Indeed, or from email. The emails usually come from recruiters using databases, but I've also received emails directly from the companies using word of mouth, too.

nilespotter 3y ago

[flagged]

hef19898 3y ago
None?
pc86 3y ago
You have missed the point by a fantastically, awe-inspiring amount.
irrational 3y ago
Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back we see... that none of them were true.
- mandmandam 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - tombert 3y ago
    Holy crap did this topic take a nosedive. My point wasn't even to "dismiss" COVID conspiracies, just point out that I didn't really want them on my LinkedIn wall. But fine. > Then there was the vaccine effectiveness, which was claimed as 100% but actually was well below that. Same for their preventing transmission, which was nonsensical. I think there's literally no one that claimed the vaccine was 100% effective; certainly no one with any kind of medical credential. I don't think there's ever been any vaccine in history that's been 100% effective, the numbers I heard when I got my vaccine was between 80-90% effective, and due to Bayes theorem hijinks that means the actual likelihood of being immune is well below that. This was never a cover-up, the scientists were pretty up-front about this. > Let's start with Wuhan being a likely origin point. This one gets bonus points, because it wasn't just a "conspiracy theory" but also "racist". All based on a Lancet paper that any smart reader could tell was bunk, and which turned out to be totally soaked with conflicts of interest. I don't recall anyone saying it was racist for saying Wuhan was an origin point. What people called problematic was people trying to label it as "kung flu" or "Wuhan Flu". > Then there was the "conspiracy theory" that natural immunity is superior to vaccine immunity; again, turned out to be true. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I don't think this was ever disputed. "Natural" immunity may indeed give you stronger immunity to COVID, but it has one major disadvantage: you have to catch COVID to get it, which is potentially lethal, and even if it wasn't "lethal", can have long-term side effects that we're still unsure about, not to mention that while you have COVID you're substantially more infectious than when you're not. Any reduction on infectiousness is a potential win.
    - mandmandam 3y ago
      Your memory has some holes in it friend. > literally no one that claimed the vaccine was 100% effective Well, apart from the President of the US [0], and Pfizer themselves [1], and many others. > I don't recall anyone saying it was racist for saying Wuhan was an origin point Many, many people claimed this; including a NYT reporter [2] and WaPo [3]. > I cannot speak for anyone else, but I don't think this was ever disputed. Yes, this was heavily, heavily disputed. Even Nature claimed mRNA was superior [4]. I hope you reflect on the fact that it took me only about 5 minutes to dig up these links, and that what you called a "nosedive" can now be seen as an educational experience. [0] - https://news.yahoo.com/ap-fact-check-biden-inflates-011843623.html https://news.yahoo.com/ap-fact-check-biden-inflates-01184362... [1] - https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-confirm-high-efficacy-and-no-serious https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-deta... [2] - https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-covid-lab-leak-apoorva-mandavilli/ https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-covid-lab-leak-apoorv... [3] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-media-called-the-lab-leak-story-a-conspiracy-theory-now-its-prompted-corrections--and-serious-new-reporting/2021/06/10/c93972e6-c7b2-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-media-cal... [4] - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06629-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06629-2

mauliknshah 3y ago

Further to that, my feed have been filled with Certification posts. Folks would boast about their 3 hour Certification courses with long cringe posts! And LinkedIn would not stop it, because they need to sell LinkedIn Learning!

tombert 3y ago
Honestly, if it were just people bragging about how they took a 3 hour class and got a useless certification, I don't think it would bother me. LinkedIn markets itself as a glorified resume, and it's pretty common for people to fluff up their meaningless certs. I just feel like there should be somewhat of a boundary between personal and professional life. There are things I would say to my friends that I wouldn't tell anyone in charge of giving me money, at least not directly, and I feel like LinkedIn (purposefully or otherwise) is actively trying to erode that boundary. It's horrible.
- ghaff 3y ago
  There's not much I would post on Facebook that would cause me heartburn if a potential employer were to see it. (And most of my Facebook friends would be profoundly uninterested in most tech topics I would post on.) But, yeah, I keep my LinkedIn--to the degree I use it at all--very anodyne except to the degree you have relatively extreme opinions on specific tech topics.
  - tombert 3y ago
    I don't have a facebook, but I don't think I post anything that's likely to get me fired to any social media. However, there's sort of a difference between "not being fired" and "being hired". My political opinions are pretty normal (basically typical American lefty), and if my employer were to find a blog post I wrote about universal healthcare or something it's doubtful that they'd fire me. That's a little different than me plastering "BIDEN 2024!!!" all over my resume, and that's why I utterly hate LinkedIn.
  - dadsquad 3y ago
    anodyne, great word

JohnFen 3y ago

> some job applications even require it! I've never encountered this, but if I did, I'd be pretty thankful for the advance warning that I would not likely enjoy working there.

tombert 3y ago
I can't remember where, but it was a fairly typical form where you put your name and information, upload your resume, required fields have a red asterisk, and the LinkedIn profile was required. Now, I have no idea how much parsing they actually did; you might have been able to put "asdf" to make it validate.
winphone1974 3y ago
There's very little correlation between a company that's deeply integrated with LinkedIn tools and what it's like to work there. If you're going to judge all companies based on their recruitment toolchain, good luck finding an acceptable position!

bongoman37 3y ago

[dead]

88913527 3y ago

You can have a LinkedIn profile but not use the feed-- I don't see how that's necessarily frustrating. Make a profile, provide the link on job applications. Occasionally edit your profile so it's up to date. Then, don't use it. Simple enough.

tombert 3y ago
Sure, but a lot of companies post job listings on LinkedIn as well. I could (and mostly do) ignore the homepage, but I still see it occasionally.
jxramos 3y ago
I wish there was a way to never accidentally click on or navigate to the feed at all on LinkedIn. Could be a good opportunity for a browser extension to just nuke that part of the DOM.
- hyldmo 3y ago
  That exists already! I use this one, which works on a bunch of other sites as well: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...
- garrettgrimsley 3y ago
  If you use uBlock Origin you can do www.linkedin.com##:matches-path(feed).scaffold-layout__main www.linkedin.com##.global-nav__primary-link.global-nav__primary-link--active.app-aware-link The former will block the main content of the page while on the /feed/ path, while the latter will block the "Home" button in the header nav.
  - jxramos 3y ago
    wow I didn't know uBlock Origin was also capable of DOM cleanup. I really need to give that tool a second look.
ShadowBanThis01 3y ago

ssnistfajen 3y ago

I aggressively clicked "not interested" on meme/fluff posts for a while and now when my LinkedIn page always starts with some sort of system design diagram. My next click is usually straight to the jobs page anyways. The site will be done for once they start putting trending topics in the jobs page.

walthamstow 3y ago
The best is 'unfollow'. I have a a bit less than a hundred connections, all real people I know, and I follow 0 accounts. So there is no feed. It's empty.

o116172854 3y ago

4chan is way better than HN, sorry.

jollofricepeas 3y ago

It has got worse. But there’s a right way to use LinkedIn. Keep in mind that the majority of people only want to network when they need something. You can use LinkedIn to do the opposite and create meaningful connections. 1. Judgment-free support. That lady you barely remember from your previous job is starting a business. Encourage her. Some person is starting yet another podcast? Ask a couple of kind questions. 2. A low effort contact list. Next time you go out to an event and meet with new people ask to connect on LinkedIn. You have a better chance of maintaining that connection with LinkedIn reminders than if you exchange phone number or email. Why do this? Life is short.

Ms-J 3y ago

I've never had a Linkedin nor any other type of social media, not even a public Github page, and I've received many simply great job offers, especially in 2022-2023. Putting this out there so people don't think they need to join some absolutely shit random corporate social networks to get a job.

sam_lowry_ 3y ago
What's your secret?
- Ms-J 3y ago
  Either Indeed, or from email. The emails usually come from recruiters using databases, but I've also received emails directly from the companies using word of mouth, too.