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Ugh definitely. The awful thing is that they harvest your email from someone's address book and then bombard you with "people you may know" on your actual legit

Ugh definitely. The awful thing is that they harvest your email from someone's address book and then bombard you with "people you may know" on your actual legitimate Linkedin account(tied into that email). LinkedIn is a ghetto of recruiters looking for no benefit contract employees("Oh we see you are an EXTREME CUTTING EDGE WEB2.0 NINJA, would you like to take a $50k contract job?"). Does this work on anyone? I can't imagine any legitimate "superstars" actually respond to these folks. Edit: the really awkward thing is when it starts recommending you one night stands from years ago just because you may have at some point exchanged an email.

nilkn 12y ago
> I can't imagine any legitimate "superstars" actually respond to these folks. Well, of course not. The goal isn't to get those people. It's to get the people who aren't that good but are just good enough and therefore are actually awed by having someone contact them and refer to them as an extreme cutting edge web 2.0 ninja.
jacquesm 12y ago
Facebook does the exact same thing. I keep getting their spam and I don't have an account so they pester me to sign up. Incredible that such big companies get away with this. Even google has joined the legion of spammers with their new 'g+ linkdrive'.
vonmoltke 12y ago
While I have certainly had my share of clueless recruiters contact me through LinkedIn, I have also had a good number of decent contacts that either didn't pan out or which I just wasn't interested in. I don't get nearly the deluge of contacts that some people here say they get, though.
- waterfowl 12y ago
  I'm pretty early career(graduated in 2012) and even I get harassed on the regular. Maybe they bother younger people more because they think we're less expensive(which is generally true) but the only "legit" linkedin recruiters I ever heard from seemed like Google/FB/Palantir/etc"spam every graduating CS kid in x region" as an invitation to apply rather than a normal "recruiting for a specific opening" type thing. Maybe I just have a shitty linkedin(but it does say plz no recruiters on it)
  - xauronx 12y ago
    I think there's something at play with when you're "looking". I didn't update anything to specifically say that I was in the market for a new job, but when I was, I was receiving a shitload of emails. Now that I switched jobs and I'm happily employed for about a year I only get like one every couple weeks. Not sure what kind of algorithm they use but it's pretty good.
    - seestheday 12y ago
      I notice that whenever I update my profile I tend to get a huge increase in emails.
  - larrys 12y ago
    You probably should develop a different attitude for you own benefit. You are just starting out and the shit recruiter today may very well progress in their career (perhaps they are even a newbie to recruiting) and you may need them down the road. Even if annoying, no sense to burn bridges. You can always be polite and keep the door open. Your job prospects may be good today but not in 5 or 10 years. As far as "harassed" welcome to the world of outbound selling. If you were out of a job and were sending out resumes and contacting potential employment prospects how would you like if they said that you were "harassing" them?
    - waterfowl 12y ago
      This is definitely true. I don't think I burn bridges(and the statement on linkedin isn't "no recruiters pls" it's more like "I am happily employed"). I don't angrily reply or anything. Also sure I wouldn't like it if people said I was harassing them with my resume, but I wouldn't be. These people send the same posts over and over to the same people(who, by their linkedin are clearly employed). I have no idea if they're good at recruiting, I just don't want another job.
      - sillysaurus3 12y ago
        (and the statement on linkedin isn't "no recruiters pls" it's more like "I am happily employed") I have no idea if they're good at recruiting, I just don't want another job. Right now. Ten years is a long time, though. There's also a good chance you'll be a completely different person in five. And since your employer has no loyalty to you whatsoever, you may be looking for a new job in even less time. There's no possible downside in letting recruiters email you.
jlarocco 12y ago
I agree with you about Linkedin for computer jobs, but monster.com and the other job sites are the same way. When I post an updated resume on monster.com, I have scummy recruiters calling me the very next day. So that's not a Linkedin problem, it's a shitty recruiting/hiring in the IT world problem. I don't think it's so bad for other professions, though. My girlfriend has found a job through her Linkedin contacts, and a friend of mine who does sales has found a job through his network there, too.
Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
I'm working with my employer (a consulting firm) to try and build a solution to this issue. We're trying to keep recruiters out of the loop and place value directly on contractors. Keep your eye out this weekend, we're going to go live and leave another post here.
zippergz 12y ago
I don't know if that kind of contact works, but I have gotten a very well-paying full-time, full-benefits job through LinkedIn. I hate their spamming practices, but I do find the site useful.
- colechristensen 12y ago
  I've been contacted through LinkedIn by several uninteresting recruiters, but also directly by many big names in tech for seemingly high quality jobs. There's good and there's bad on LinkedIn, but it certainly isn't worthless. By now it has the market penetration to be very difficult to replace, and it could be made great if it were just a little less annoying.
ry0ohki 12y ago
The really terrible thing is how hard it is to get those contacts OUT of the system. The best part is once you figure out how, they only let you delete 100 at a time (odd they had the capability to upload more than that at once). Just spent an hour last week doing this.
- swang 12y ago
  How do I do this? Annoying they are recommending some people just because we had email contact.
a3n 12y ago
I got my current job, which is pretty good, from an agency cold-calling me via linkedin. But I'm not a superstar. That said, it's been infuriating trying to figure out why or where I might know all those "you may knows." And I never contact anyone who contacts me via linkedin, unless they write something non-robotic in the message, because I assume it's a linkedin bot sending messages to an uploaded contact list.
jval 12y ago
I've always been puzzled by people who hate on recruiters contacting them through LinkedIn. If you dislike it so much, why don't you delete your LinkedIn profile? It's obviously there to facilitate exactly this kind of behaviour, so I don't see why there's any issue around it. To the contrary, I see these kinds of complaints as being a common form of humblebragging in the developer community. It comes across as: 'Gosh, isn't it tough being contacted by these recruiters all the time because my skills are under such high demand in the labor marketplace. Deleting that one email every few weeks sure does some serious damage to my psychological well-being.' The substance of this article is about email spam generated by LinkedIn itself. I think we should focus on that, and on the broader issue of where the limits are for email invitations in web applications. The issue this has highlighted (for me at least) is that it is easy to do damage to the reputations for others by putting their names on emails they didn't ask to be sent. This doesn't just mean losing users, it actually means souring and sometimes ruining the valuable relationships that users have with their colleagues and friends. There's a lot of trust and power inherent when someone else's name is put on an email and that isn't something to be sneezed at.
- simonswords82 12y ago
  There's no way getting contacted by recruiters (most of whom aren't reputable if they've got to resort to cold contacting via Linked In) is humblebragging. It's a total pain in the ass and I shouldn't have to delete my linked in account just to prevent it happening. In fact, recruiters that abuse Linked in like this should have their accounts deleted.
- bendtheblock 12y ago
  I thought the purpose was to keep a list of professional contacts I know. I don't expect to be contacted by recruiters I've never met before on an almost hourly basis during the week. For my company, this is a genuine nuisance and most of our phone calls are from clueless recruiters offering candidates that don't even have the skills we're looking for. Even if we needed a recruiter, I'd hardly choose one that called out of the blue. It's getting to the stage where we have to put warnings for recruiters not to contact us because we get so many it's harming our productivity. So that's why I hate on it. As an employer, I can say I've never had a good recruitment experience even outside of this situation. However, I don't expect them to stop any time soon. If this is also a problem for anyone here, the best result is to quickly politely tell them you're not interested. Perhaps ask where they saw your details. Put a note there. Don't stay on the phone for the inevitable questions they've been trained to ask to keep you on the phone. Just say no if you value your time.
davedx 12y ago
Not my experience. 90% of the recruiters who contact me (and I get a lot of mail) are for genuine, decent paying contract work - usually in the EUR450-500 day rate range. You have to ignore the obnoxious stuff you don't like with LinkedIn and just treat it as a tool.

nilkn 12y ago

> I can't imagine any legitimate "superstars" actually respond to these folks. Well, of course not. The goal isn't to get those people. It's to get the people who aren't that good but are just good enough and therefore are actually awed by having someone contact them and refer to them as an extreme cutting edge web 2.0 ninja.

jacquesm 12y ago

Facebook does the exact same thing. I keep getting their spam and I don't have an account so they pester me to sign up. Incredible that such big companies get away with this. Even google has joined the legion of spammers with their new 'g+ linkdrive'.

vonmoltke 12y ago

While I have certainly had my share of clueless recruiters contact me through LinkedIn, I have also had a good number of decent contacts that either didn't pan out or which I just wasn't interested in. I don't get nearly the deluge of contacts that some people here say they get, though.

waterfowl 12y ago
I'm pretty early career(graduated in 2012) and even I get harassed on the regular. Maybe they bother younger people more because they think we're less expensive(which is generally true) but the only "legit" linkedin recruiters I ever heard from seemed like Google/FB/Palantir/etc"spam every graduating CS kid in x region" as an invitation to apply rather than a normal "recruiting for a specific opening" type thing. Maybe I just have a shitty linkedin(but it does say plz no recruiters on it)
- xauronx 12y ago
  I think there's something at play with when you're "looking". I didn't update anything to specifically say that I was in the market for a new job, but when I was, I was receiving a shitload of emails. Now that I switched jobs and I'm happily employed for about a year I only get like one every couple weeks. Not sure what kind of algorithm they use but it's pretty good.
  - seestheday 12y ago
    I notice that whenever I update my profile I tend to get a huge increase in emails.
- larrys 12y ago
  You probably should develop a different attitude for you own benefit. You are just starting out and the shit recruiter today may very well progress in their career (perhaps they are even a newbie to recruiting) and you may need them down the road. Even if annoying, no sense to burn bridges. You can always be polite and keep the door open. Your job prospects may be good today but not in 5 or 10 years. As far as "harassed" welcome to the world of outbound selling. If you were out of a job and were sending out resumes and contacting potential employment prospects how would you like if they said that you were "harassing" them?
  - waterfowl 12y ago
    This is definitely true. I don't think I burn bridges(and the statement on linkedin isn't "no recruiters pls" it's more like "I am happily employed"). I don't angrily reply or anything. Also sure I wouldn't like it if people said I was harassing them with my resume, but I wouldn't be. These people send the same posts over and over to the same people(who, by their linkedin are clearly employed). I have no idea if they're good at recruiting, I just don't want another job.
    - sillysaurus3 12y ago
      (and the statement on linkedin isn't "no recruiters pls" it's more like "I am happily employed") I have no idea if they're good at recruiting, I just don't want another job. Right now. Ten years is a long time, though. There's also a good chance you'll be a completely different person in five. And since your employer has no loyalty to you whatsoever, you may be looking for a new job in even less time. There's no possible downside in letting recruiters email you.

jlarocco 12y ago

I agree with you about Linkedin for computer jobs, but monster.com and the other job sites are the same way. When I post an updated resume on monster.com, I have scummy recruiters calling me the very next day. So that's not a Linkedin problem, it's a shitty recruiting/hiring in the IT world problem. I don't think it's so bad for other professions, though. My girlfriend has found a job through her Linkedin contacts, and a friend of mine who does sales has found a job through his network there, too.

Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago

I'm working with my employer (a consulting firm) to try and build a solution to this issue. We're trying to keep recruiters out of the loop and place value directly on contractors. Keep your eye out this weekend, we're going to go live and leave another post here.

zippergz 12y ago

I don't know if that kind of contact works, but I have gotten a very well-paying full-time, full-benefits job through LinkedIn. I hate their spamming practices, but I do find the site useful.

colechristensen 12y ago
I've been contacted through LinkedIn by several uninteresting recruiters, but also directly by many big names in tech for seemingly high quality jobs. There's good and there's bad on LinkedIn, but it certainly isn't worthless. By now it has the market penetration to be very difficult to replace, and it could be made great if it were just a little less annoying.

ry0ohki 12y ago

The really terrible thing is how hard it is to get those contacts OUT of the system. The best part is once you figure out how, they only let you delete 100 at a time (odd they had the capability to upload more than that at once). Just spent an hour last week doing this.

swang 12y ago
How do I do this? Annoying they are recommending some people just because we had email contact.

a3n 12y ago

I got my current job, which is pretty good, from an agency cold-calling me via linkedin. But I'm not a superstar. That said, it's been infuriating trying to figure out why or where I might know all those "you may knows." And I never contact anyone who contacts me via linkedin, unless they write something non-robotic in the message, because I assume it's a linkedin bot sending messages to an uploaded contact list.

jval 12y ago

I've always been puzzled by people who hate on recruiters contacting them through LinkedIn. If you dislike it so much, why don't you delete your LinkedIn profile? It's obviously there to facilitate exactly this kind of behaviour, so I don't see why there's any issue around it. To the contrary, I see these kinds of complaints as being a common form of humblebragging in the developer community. It comes across as: 'Gosh, isn't it tough being contacted by these recruiters all the time because my skills are under such high demand in the labor marketplace. Deleting that one email every few weeks sure does some serious damage to my psychological well-being.' The substance of this article is about email spam generated by LinkedIn itself. I think we should focus on that, and on the broader issue of where the limits are for email invitations in web applications. The issue this has highlighted (for me at least) is that it is easy to do damage to the reputations for others by putting their names on emails they didn't ask to be sent. This doesn't just mean losing users, it actually means souring and sometimes ruining the valuable relationships that users have with their colleagues and friends. There's a lot of trust and power inherent when someone else's name is put on an email and that isn't something to be sneezed at.

simonswords82 12y ago
There's no way getting contacted by recruiters (most of whom aren't reputable if they've got to resort to cold contacting via Linked In) is humblebragging. It's a total pain in the ass and I shouldn't have to delete my linked in account just to prevent it happening. In fact, recruiters that abuse Linked in like this should have their accounts deleted.
bendtheblock 12y ago
I thought the purpose was to keep a list of professional contacts I know. I don't expect to be contacted by recruiters I've never met before on an almost hourly basis during the week. For my company, this is a genuine nuisance and most of our phone calls are from clueless recruiters offering candidates that don't even have the skills we're looking for. Even if we needed a recruiter, I'd hardly choose one that called out of the blue. It's getting to the stage where we have to put warnings for recruiters not to contact us because we get so many it's harming our productivity. So that's why I hate on it. As an employer, I can say I've never had a good recruitment experience even outside of this situation. However, I don't expect them to stop any time soon. If this is also a problem for anyone here, the best result is to quickly politely tell them you're not interested. Perhaps ask where they saw your details. Put a note there. Don't stay on the phone for the inevitable questions they've been trained to ask to keep you on the phone. Just say no if you value your time.

davedx 12y ago

Not my experience. 90% of the recruiters who contact me (and I get a lot of mail) are for genuine, decent paying contract work - usually in the EUR450-500 day rate range. You have to ignore the obnoxious stuff you don't like with LinkedIn and just treat it as a tool.