I have never had an account with Linkedin…don’t want one.
However, it seems like every damned day I get some “Bob wants to connect with you on Linkedin” or “Alan wants you to join Linkedin” or whatever other damned email list from people I know that has been hacked somehow.
I don’t think it’s been hacked, they’re sending you (legit) requests to join. Either manually, or they’ve given Linkedin permission to go through their email contact list and send an invite to everyone.
I’ll agree, it’s obnoxious. I don’t have an account either and I get annoyed when I’ll get two, three, four requests from the same person. I feel bad when I finally have to just email the person back and tell them to knock it the f off. Especially when the emails come at 6 am, about 20 minutes before my alarm goes off…just early enough that an email can wake me up.
Interesting. I have a linkedIn account - basically because its a continuously updating rolodex - and I rarely get emails. I think I have it set to show updates, but not email me about them.
I pretty sure these requests you’re getting are actual requests other humans have sent. Personally I only link people I genuinely wish to be associated with: colleagues and friends I respect in the workplace arena, so my contacts list is pretty stable. But like facebook, some people are just link whores and send invites out willy nilly.
(um, that sounded a little insulting, like these invites aren’t from people who like and respect you. I don’t mean to say that. But if you’re getting links from people you barely know, that would be why).
Has anyone actually benefitted from having a Linked In account for what it’s supposed to help you? (job networking)
I had an account that I had updated with all my current information, as well as adding everyone I knew, whether it was from previous jobs, or other friends/family.
I never got anything from it in the 1 1/2 years I had it.
Yet I post my resume on Monster, and I get a barrage of offers a day, to the point that I haven’t been out of work in the part 10 years (which is a good thing 
So other than exposing a lot of my private data, it was pretty much useless to me and I deleted everything before removing my account (I did the same with Facebook, another waste of time)
Anyone had better luck?
I applied for a job through LinkedIn that got me into a new sector of my industry, and in which I’ve had various jobs for a total of two years now.
Plus, it’s nice to both know where my old coworkers are (and not have to read about their cats or what they’re eating right this moment) and to see their recommendations and thumbs-ups for my work/skills.
Well I get what I want from it, which is to keep track of my former colleagues, college and law school friends, and other people who someday wish me well, and help me land a job. I think perhaps if you thought it would pay off in immediate job offers, you had wrong expectations. While recruiters certainly use it, the point is to maintain your social network of professional contacts in a non-facebook environment.
As a matter of fact, yes. I got my current job through LinkedIn, although it was because the recruiter at my company was using it to search for people with my skill set.
Oddly enough, I’d just started a contract position here when he contacted me, which helped a bit since I was already showing them I could do the job. And I got the contract position because my heart sister has been a long-time employee here and recommended they talk to me; she also badgered me into submitting my application yet again. But the HR recruiter found me on LinkedIn.
I have gotten called by recruiters and companies at least 5-6 times with job offers (or at least, requesting that I interview for a job offer) after looking at my LinkedIn profile. I had one guy who spent about 20 minutes trying to lure me away from my current job…trying to find something about my current job that I didn’t like.
I got my current job via LinkedIn, and a regular stream of good-quality contacts keep coming in too. Our recruiter *only *goes there, not Monster, in fact.
I’ve had such a steady stream of crap from Monster, with no good prospects, that I wish I hadn’t even signed up there. I knew there are a lot of bottom-feeding recruiters around, but I didn’t know it was that bad.
But that could just be my occupation and experience level, YMMV.
LinkedIn isn’t about creating a database for recruiters to spam you with garbage jobs. (Why would I want a 6 month Java contract in Iowa? I live in NY and I’m not a Java programmer).
The way you are supposed to use it is to find people in your network who might work at companies you want to work at or do business with. It’s up to you to reach out to those people.
No matter what the value of Linkedin is, there should be a way for any email address to opt out of receiving any messages from Linkedin, ever. I guess you can filter it, so your email box trashes anything from them.
I’ve landed a couple of interviews via LinkedIn.
one thing they did which I hated (thankfully they stopped) is changed some of the wording of their e-mails. A while back, I got an e-mail from them with the subject along the lines of “What Thought Leaders like Richard Branson are saying” and I thought to myself- “Thought Leaders? Are you fucking kidding me?”
What’s a heart sister?
This is weird, because I was just thinking about starting a rant thread about Linkedin. One part about the OP’s incessant emails, the other part about how nothing fruitful has really ever come from it.
Yet, I don’t feel compelled to delete my account; it just vaguely seems like my resume is floating out there in an ocean of other resumes no one really knows what to do with.
Ugh. I joined Linkedin a few months ago after an old colleague sent me the connect email. I have since still nothing at all to my profile (just has where I work and position, no picture or education or anything else).
I’ve had a few other connect requests, which I’ve okayed. Otherwise I just get spam from Linkedin cluttering my inbox. Hell, I haven’t even viewed my profile in about a month now.
It really seems rather pointless. I don’t see it being around in 10 years.
A friend so close they’re your sibling in all but blood. We each call the other’s mom, “Mom”, and they in turn refer to each of us as their daughters.
“Best friend” just isn’t a strong enough term to describe it.
I just corresponded with an ex-colleague through Linkedin. He wanted to know if he could use me as a reference, to which I agreed.
I think Linkedin will be huge in 10 years, and will perhaps completely supplant the expectations of providing a resume and references for job applications. After all your profile should be your resume, and your endorsements and contacts are your references.
Linkedin is not going away anytime soon and will continue to grow in popularity for professionals seeking opportunities, and for companies seeking recruits.
I’ve been approached a couple of times by people looking to fill positions, and I’ve been pointed towards jobs that are in my field.
Linkedin will only get better.
I have received LinkedIn requests from people who later confirmed they did not send out any requests, so it does happen that these are sometimes generated by the website and not people.
LinkedIn is weird.
The emails are because their way of asking to access your email contacts is just slightly more sneaky than usual. I somehow fell for it, and spammed everyone I know. I think it’s just one click of a button marked “find out who you know” or something similar (it was several years ago). Usually there are more steps where you can decide not to spam all your innocent friends, that’s what surprised me.
The other weird thing is that you can see who looked you up, which can be… awkward.
I was once looking at that, and found that the guy I spoke to at the council about a broken traffic light had looked me up. It was literally a conversation of a few seconds: “traffic lights on this street are broken” - “ok, thank you”. And then he looked me up on LinkedIn. Weird.
I get perhaps one request a month. Fortunately, most of my requests are from colleagues - current and former - and I will accept them, note where they are located, and exit. I do not have any information in my profile except for company, location, and job title.