No, I will not connect with you on Linkedin

[racepug]

Being on LinkedIn has never helped me one damn bit. Personally I feel that it’s only helpful for people who work in certain industries. The kinds where having a network of contacts is helpful. Maybe. Other than that I think it’s a giant waste of time.

[kopek]

@ElvisL1ves

If you’re confident you’ll never have to go job-hunting again, then yes, I suppose it is. If you do, though, for a professional position of any kind, LinkedIn is how it’s done nowadays. That’s where recruiters search, often only there, that’s where status changes get posted and noticed, and that’s how contacts can pay off, to your surprise. Career opportunities get posted there widely, and again sometimes only there, and applying is typically a matter of a few clicks to send your online resume.

<snipped>

Again, it isn’t Facebook. It’s just a tool, a vital career tool, to be used in a mercenary manner. You need to work it so it will be there for you when you need it.

I forget just what the essential career site was back in the 90s but I remember there was one. Then it was a succession of various ones leading down to places like Monster. And the last year Linkedin. By November I’m betting that’s old news and a new “must be on” will be around. Professional or social, they are all basically fads. Get some good from it and that’s terrific. But actually invest time in it hoping for something? Sorry; color me skeptical.

[BigT]

@IvoryTowerDenizen

I’ve never viewed linkedin connections as vouching. Those silly endorsements are meant for vouching for someone (and are pointless, in my opinion). LinkedIn is simply for playing six degrees of separation in case someone knows someone who can be useful to you in business. You never know else who someone you barely know, knows. Those connections can be very useful. These aren’t friendhip requests but potential contacts.

Full warning: I don’t use LinkedIn. But if it’s a six degrees of separation thing, how does it help me to connect with someone who I have no intent to connect with, or even know if they are any good? Surely, if they are good in their field, we’ll have a common contact and thus be connected.

It just seems to me that responding a request is more about helping the other person than about helping you. It seems like a direct connection will always imply at least a partial endorsement–to the level of thinking they are good enough at their job.

[Nava]

@amarinth

Does anyone pay attention to “endorsements”? Because I have many endorsements from people who have never seen any evidence that I can do the things they endorsed me for.
It’s not that I don’t have skills in underwater basket weaving* or that I mind being known for it. But I know for a fact that you’ve not seen me do it. I’ve never spoken about that in front of you. You’ve never even seen a basket. Why are you clicking the “endorse” button?

*I really actually can do that

anyONE exactly, no. But since so often agents search by skills and don’t bother read what they find, I got a bunch of requests for things such as “we need a SAP PM consultant with FICO” before I figured out that someone had added “SAP FICO” to my list of skills. I don’t do Finance, I don’t want to do Finance, and I’ve been told that since I’m an engineer, any attempts on my part to touch the General Ledger will result in loss of fingers! (PM is Maintenance - while I actually know one person who did “Finance and Maintenance” and two who do “Finance and Production”, they’re very rare combinations).

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Duplicate

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

@BigT

Full warning: I don’t use LinkedIn. But if it’s a six degrees of separation thing, how does it help me to connect with someone who I have no intent to connect with, or even know if they are any good? Surely, if they are good in their field, we’ll have a common contact and thus be connected.

It just seems to me that responding a request is more about helping the other person than about helping you. It seems like a direct connection will always imply at least a partial endorsement–to the level of thinking they are good enough at their job.

Let’s say I connect with Harry. I can now see his contacts and notice Sally, who works for Acme corp, who I want to sell widgets to. I can now send a connection request to Sally and start discussing widget opportunities. LinkedIn makes it harder to send a request to someone if you don’t share a connection in common already. So connecting with Harry let me find a potential business opportunity with Sally AND makes it easier to reach out to her.

It can definitely help the other person but it can help you too. You say you’re not on linkedin, so some of the nuances about how you use it may not be obvious. It’s not like Facebook.

[Voyager]

@ElvisL1ves

If you’re confident you’ll never have to go job-hunting again, then yes, I suppose it is. If you do, though, for a professional position of any kind, LinkedIn is how it’s done nowadays. That’s where recruiters search, often only there, that’s where status changes get posted and noticed, and that’s how contacts can pay off, to your surprise. Career opportunities get posted there widely, and again sometimes only there, and applying is typically a matter of a few clicks to send your online resume.

I’m never going to have to go job hunting again, but I am involved in my field and most of the requests I get are from people in it - low level perhaps but sometimes well known. I never request a link but have plenty just accepting ones. I do reject requests from random people or sales critters. And people I don’t know professionally I get from some non-business link. I do endorsements upon request.
And recommendations.
My recruiter has used LinkedIn to try to fill a job we had, but the problem is the vast majority of people aren’t going to be interested. There are some sites where the chance of connecting with someone who is kind of looking for a job is much better.

[ElvisL1ves]

Part of LinkedIn’s purpose is exposing people to recruiters who aren’t actively looking, but might be persuadable or know of people who are looking, or who might be in the future. Contacts are better than no contacts, because you never know when they’ll become active for you.

It may well be a “fad”, but for right now and the short-term future, it’s how it’s done. If something else replaces it, it will be something not very different. Meanwhile, for contract or less-professional jobs, Monster is still very active.