programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
From the Wikipedia entry on Linked In:
It is not possible to remove yourself from LinkedIn. Instead, you have to file a customer support ticket.
This blurb neatly summarizes everything that's wrong with the Linked In service.
I've been a member of Linked In for almost two years now. I dutifully entered my credentials and kept them up to date. The only other interaction I've had with the service since then has been a continual stream of link requests. I'm selective about who I approve, limiting it to people I've only met in real life. And the net benefit of this selectivity? As far as I can tell, zilch. Nada. Nothing. I did get a cold call from a headhunter once based on my Linked In profile, but I don't consider that a benefit.
Has this service ever been useful to anyone? I'm telling you, Linked In is the digital equivalent of a chain letter. If you really want to contact a friend of a friend (of a friend), just pick up the phone or send an email. If the only way you can reach someone is through this nutty online social pyramid scheme, you don't deserve to be taken seriously. And I can guarantee that you won't be.
Consider carefully: who really benefits from your participation in Linked In? I'll tell you who benefits: Linked In.
If you can't immediately point to a few direct benefits you personally get from participating in Linked In, then why do it? Why build Linked In's marketing database with your valuable time and information?
From this point on, I'm opting out of linked in. Like Russell Beattie, I've found that there really is no there there. If you're a member of Linked In and you're not seeing direct personal benefits, I urge you to close your Linked In account as well. It's high time we put an end to this glorified chain letter of a service.
I find it useful for keeping in contact with former co-workers who I'd otherwise lose track of. I might not have enough of a connection with them to keep track of their email address changes over the years, but if I'm looking for work I'd want to give them a shout to see if they know of openings.
But other than that, put it on the highest privacy settings and forget about it.
a href="http://engtech.wordpress.com/2006/09/24/internet-address-book-web-anonymity-down-the-drain/"There's this service called Internet Address Book/a that lets people cross-search Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. I found it a bit disconcerning how easy it is to find out someone's entire life with nothing but their real name.
engtech on October 15, 2006 2:08 AMCouldn't agree with you more - I've not seen any benefit so far [over two years]: just lazy at closing my account ... off to do it now.
peetm on October 15, 2006 3:40 AMWord.
I never joined and none of my friends who had joined were able to give me a compelling reason to join.
In fact, they were complaining about still being in touch with people I'd much rather avoid!
I have seen benefits so I'm keeping mine. I've been offered jobs. I've re-connected with old colleagues from my industry. I've also helped to find jobs for colleagues. I'm constantly in touch with where people are in my industry. If I wanted to keep this up by myself it would require writing or calling upwards of 60 people on a regular basis. I just don't have the time for that.
When I first joined I was worried about getting spammed by headhunters. But so far this hasn't happened. And if it does I can just ignore them, like I ignore other spam.
This has cost me nothing. It's difficult for me to see how LinkedIn is profiting from me. If it is, I think I'm getting the better of the deal. I also use GMail. Can I close my account there? I don't know, it's never crossed my mind to look.
Paul Sinnett on October 15, 2006 5:01 AMI've seen huge benefits. Myself or colleagues have landed more than 2M in contracts via LinkedIn. I've hired and been hired via LinkedIn. I got a book deal via LinkedIn.
If you don't *use* the service, of course it's useful. But when I need someone for a gig, if an individual doesn't spring immediately to mind I turn to LinkedIn, ping someone, done.
It's not perfect, but it's the only social networking site I use for a very good reason.
Jeremy Wright on October 15, 2006 5:09 AMI agree with you on the principle that it is useless to do... useless things!
There are case LinkedIn is pretty useful though: I have friends and contacts all over the world and I find it useful as a "live" registry of contacts. It is a good way to follow their professional paths and to, sometimes, reconnect with old buddies.
A feature that could help LinkedIn being more useful would be an export of the profile in some sort of standardized ResumeML: in that sense, LinkedIn could be some sort of a resume federator for any sites requiring professional data (like job boards).
hacktick, did you really "lol" to the headhunter?
yuo b3at teh intarwubs!
I came to the same conclusions not to long ago:
http://damienkatz.net/2005/07/social_networki.html
Damien on October 15, 2006 7:16 AMthere are indeed some useful cases for linkedin.
i have spoken with my chef about such services, and he has told me, that everytime someone applies for a job in his company, he checks the openbc account (german equivalent for linkedin) and contacts the people on his contact list to find out whether this person is qualified or not.
the negative sides are those headhunter spam calls every week -.-
he: "do you like your current job ?"
me: "yeah"
he: "can't you talk at the moment or is this the truth ?"
me: "lol ... this is the truth"
he: "ok ... call me back if you wish to apply for another job"
me: *hangs up*
kind of annoying ;-)
hacktick on October 15, 2006 7:20 AMWell I joined and as Darren pointed out, could never find a real compelling reason why I did, and truthfully I wasn't the only one. In the end I just linkedout.
Stephen Chanasyk on October 15, 2006 7:51 AMIt's helped me; after getting a lot of resumes stopped at the HR desk, I routed one via LinkedIn to the hiring manager. He's now my boss. Not to say that LinkedIn doesn't benefit from my participation, not to say that's _why_ I got the job - but I'm staying with it.
Carl Manaster on October 15, 2006 8:06 AMYou may be discounting more-or-less hidden benefits. If someone google's my name to get an idea of my past work, I would hope that they find my LinkedIn profile and read the reccomendations from former co-workers. I think of it as more of an online resume than a way to contact people.
Schuyler Colfax on October 15, 2006 8:45 AMI hate LinkedIn because of the bloat it creates in Outlook. Why does it have to encroach on my Enterprise applications too?!?
deannie on October 15, 2006 8:46 AMNow I know why my invitation was never accepted.
sniffle
That's ok, Jeff. One day I'll meet you in person. Then you'll realize the error you've made.
Scott Allen on October 15, 2006 9:37 AMNo, I can't point to any practical benefit from LinkedIn
Then why use it? I dislike acting as an unpaid data entry worker for LinkedIn, especially since I get nothing out of it. And the fact that they intentionally make it difficult to remove yourself, or your "connections", is slimy.
That said, it is helpful to read actual examples of how other people found LinkedIn useful (from Paul, Jeremy, David, and others).
Jeff Atwood on October 15, 2006 9:59 AMI've been hoping that the service would extend to something like Plaxo... but it simply just grows and grows and grows.
Do you like Plaxo? At least with Plaxo, I can synchronize and dedup my address books online, on my PDA, and in Outlook.
Doug Karr on October 15, 2006 11:32 AMAgree w/Jeremy. LinkedIn is the only social networking service I've found at all useful: I've used it to track the status of connections I don't see often, learn more about people I'm introduced to, find connections while searching for work, been introduced to rational (if not perfect) job opportunities, and even found an interesting job description. I find their value-added services useless, but click an ad every once in a while to be nice (too bad they're all basically for the same firm).
Scott on October 15, 2006 11:49 AMYou can't easily remove yourself from LInkedIn, but you can change all your information, including your name. My contacts woke up one day and found they had a new, bizarre contact who they never heard of. I had a lot of fun coming up with the fake information.
John Doe on October 15, 2006 12:27 PMIve got nothing out of it other than seeing who else is doing what i do.
Alex Beston on October 15, 2006 12:56 PMIf you have had no benefit from it, why waste your "valuable time" on it in the first place? You knew what the site's intentions were when you signed up.
If you received a call from a headhunter, how is that not a benefit? Surely the reason most people sign up on LinkedIn is for the opportunity to be seen by others in your industry on the off chance someone might like the look of you and approach you.
Like you pointed out (the only thing in your article I agree with) if you signed up just to have a list of your friends, and friends of friends, then it was a pointless waste of time. It's about finding others in similar backgrounds and industries who one day might be able to help you with that problem you need solving; or that someone might come to you asking for your consultancy.
J on October 16, 2006 2:22 AMI use linked in to see where past friends and colleagues are at and I love it for that. I love doing a search on people I know, including clients. I have my setting set to 'reconnect with friends' and not interested in getting job offers.
I did receive a few invitations to apply for a job in some places, in a market I wasn't interested in at all. But I realized it was because one of my past job was flagged as a 'financial' company. (it was still wrong of that company to send this mail)
I switched that company to another 'market type' and I now receive absolutely nothing from linked in. You can also selectively turn off any kind of email notification.
The "invitation to connect" request I think are not sent right way. In any case, they are sent to a yahoo mail account, not my work email. My phone numbers or addresses are not in linked in -- why would I ever put that info on the internet, that's crazy. I don't understand people who say they 'got calls from headhunters'.
Anyway as you can tell I think I'm using linked in, and it's not using me ;-)
ulric on October 16, 2006 2:30 AMA tool is only as useful as your use of it. Linked-in is useful to keep in contact with colleagues and work friends in a more structured way than the odd phone call. It is MySpace for the professional.
Except if you use it as a Link farm... You need to restrict it to people you actually have worked with, people who you have spent quality time with. The people who 10,000 direct links/contacts do themselves a mis-service. People who try to link to people like Scoble without actually knowing him are the ones who ruin the function of the service, just like people who have 10,000 friends on MySpace (unless you are a band of course, using it for marketing).
Ian N on October 16, 2006 3:29 AMOh, and you can sort of remove yourself from Linked-in - delete all your links to everyone, change your e-mail address and never answer an invite. Nothing quite like side stepping the matrix.
Ian N on October 16, 2006 3:31 AMYou ain't got no friends, that's what it is.
nesjo on October 16, 2006 3:37 AMMy girlfriend made use of it to find her current job. She contacted the president of the company through it and requested a meeting. She's now their Head of HR.
I've used it in a few cases to contact colleagues from a decade ago that I had long ago lost contact with.
There will always be people abusing the system, but that goes for any system.
Steve Bush on October 16, 2006 5:51 AMI had my doubts, but I have seen real benefits lately. I get updates when my contacts update their profiles and it has helped me understand more about those who I work with. So LinkedIN is A-OK in my book.
I do agree that the power to be in the LinkedIN database should be in the user's hands.
The nice thing? Software changes every day and because of your post maybe things will change!
I had a very difficult situation to resolve involving a live server cluster and Microsoft Message Queue. I used LinkedIn to get in touch with one of the product developers from Microsoft. He chatted with me on Skype the next day and helped me resolve the issue. All that for free. I'm not complaining :)
Mark
Mark Cohen on October 16, 2006 7:23 AMI think LinkedIn has three benfits:
(1) It allows you to be found.
(2) It allows you to find others.
(3) It can be "managed" by the LICM tool. See tech.groups in yahoo LICM. (I tried to put the link in but it wasn't welcome.
There's also some yahoo groups dedicated to exploiting LinkedIn and there are, using the metaphor of moneys type the encyclopedia, a lot of "monkeys" out there banging on keyboards trying to find the value in there somewhere.
Ferdinand J. Reinke
Kendall Park, NJ 08824
Webform that creates an urgent email = a href="http://public.2idi.com/=reinkefj"http://public.2idi.com/=reinkefj/a
Web page = a href="http://www.reinke.cc/"http://www.reinke.cc//a
My blog = a href="http://www.reinkefaceslife.com/"http://www.reinkefaceslife.com//a
It's about finding others in similar backgrounds and industries who one day might be able to help you with that problem you need solving; or that someone might come to you asking for your consultancy
In two years of use, neither of those benefits ever materialized for me. YMMV, of course, but I'm not participating in a system that has no concrete benfefits for me-- and neither should anyone else. Peer pressure, or some indeterminate, nebulous future promise of benefit, isn't a good enough reason to opt in to this particular social pyramid scheme.
Jeff Atwood on October 16, 2006 8:06 AMNever heard of it - apparently that makes me lucky.
Xepol on October 16, 2006 8:50 AMLike any site this requires you to be active - it's a good way for active people to locate other active people. If you sit back and expect the world to come to you then I'm afraid that it, er, won't.
Brian on October 16, 2006 9:14 AMI believe that LinkedIn has very valuable information and I do not find the emails it sends out to be extremely burdensome. I use it not only to look people up but also to introduce a hurdle to get to me. LinkedIn is hardly a Friendster or Plaxo.
pwb on October 16, 2006 9:43 AMBeing a member of LinkedIn hasn't benefited me any more or any less than being a member of MySpace or Facebook or Vox or Blogger or WordPress.com or any other blogging/social/whatever network. That isn't any reason to delete the account.
Michael Pate on October 16, 2006 10:20 AMWell speaking for all of those responsible headhunters/recruiters out there I believe that with any networking site you have to be realistic about why you are particpate in them in the first place. I have often times used Linked In just for the purpose of knowing, in my network, who has been faced with an unexpected RIF or who might be in need of assistance when it comes to making a career change. I think you use it when needed and make your profile only available to those you trust to be respectful of your privacy and your time.
Pam on October 16, 2006 10:31 AMJeff,
I can't speak to why you had such a bad experience with LinkedIn. From what I can tell, you pointed to a blurb about how someone complained they couldn't just delete their account. It doesn't even look like YOU were actually trying to do it and decided to go off on a rant about it, you just simply pointed to someone elses pain. There are a TON of other sites which have the same limitation, so why come down on LinkedIn?
If you just don't like the service, that's fine - not everything will please everyone. But to go off on a rampage urging people to close their accounts seems a bit over the top to me, and a bit unfair to LinkedIn. After all, YOU joined voluntarily and they haven't twisted your arm to stay right?
My personal experience has been pretty decent to be honest. I use LinkedIn's profile page as an online resume. They give you a pretty easy link to send people and it includes as much detail as I want to provide, AND the added benefit of having all my endorsements available to anyone I send there. If I am applying for a job somewhere and it has a form entry for "online resume", I point it to LinkedIn. Most employers will only ask for references once you have made it past the final stages and are getting ready to make an offer. What if they saw your references BEFORE you even interviewed? I have 21 outstanding endorsements provided by a mixture of former employers, direct-reports and clients. That alone gives me a leg up going into an interview because they have seen my track record and know I am capable of doing the job based on those references.
So Like anything else, I think you get out of it what you put into it. Just my $.02 man, but it seemed a little unfair to beat up on the service when a lot of people actually think it's pretty decent...
Frank
I've used it quite a bit. It's helped me get back in touch with some people I worked with 12 years ago, whom after several moves and job changes, I'd lost touch with. I've also used it to get in touch with a friend who moved and I had no good contact info for. It's been nice to be able to keep in touch of some folks I recently worked with and were all laid off together. We all helped each other find new jobs quickly within our network. Your situation may be different, where you're not changing jobs or moving frequently, so I can see how it might come off as annoying, but for myself, it's been a real boon to be able to keep in touch with former colleagues.
Chris B on October 16, 2006 12:32 PMI was skeptical and paranoid about LinkedIn until one of my board members convinced me to sign up a year ago. Now I'm a convert and I have several hundred connections. It's replaced much of my contacts database.
I've found LinkedIn most useful for keeping in touch with great engineers I've worked with in the past, and hiring them for my new startup. Not only did I get to work with them again, I saved paying headhunter fees. I also reconnected with a colleague who turned into a valuable customer. Many of these people would have been impossible to find otherwise as the contact info I had been keeping so carefully was 5+ years out of date.
If your job doesn't require you to interact with the world at large or you are not the type of person who networks much, then LinkedIn might not be of use. I think it is ironic for people like Robert Scoble to bash it, since he is almost a public figure. Not all of us have blogs with millions of subscribers.
I've received exactly two unsolicited contacts this year, which is nothing compared to dozens of spam emails that slip thru SpamAssassin every day.
WizardEast on October 17, 2006 3:24 AMFor me, the biggest benefit of LinkedIn is having an online copy of the address-book (i've lost my address book twice due to a hard-drive crash, and I know, I was supposed to make a backup, but I never really did it).
So having this sort of online contact backup is useful. I got quite a few calls from headhunters from LinkedIn, which is IMHO an additional benefit. Sure, the service could be better, and they could improve it by allowing me to delete connections and put in more contact information for each connection, but I'm happy with it for now considering that it's free.
Hi Jeff -
Before you close your account could you please add a link .... to .... me!?!
Who?
Me, it's ME!
Joseph Hunkins on October 17, 2006 7:16 AMLinked in is not really targeted at developers... It's targeted at marketing, sales and Entrepreneurs. The value comes from having a network of people that you know that know someone that you dont...and that you would LIKE to know. Example: I recently had some bad experiences with a startup VOIP service. I wanted to complain to someone in upper management because the support people in India dont know or care about the real issue I was having. SO I pulled up my linked in network and searched for the level of management at that company that I wanted to complain to... And I was 2 links away from that person... So I asked my friend who inturn asked their friend and I had a phone conversation with someone that I would never have even had the opportunity of speaking with in a pre-linked in environment...
I wouldnt have known that I was only 2 "friends" away from this person...
Thats the value that Linked in provides to me and to the people that need the social networking.
Developers and a social network? No wonder linked in dosent make sense to you...
Jake-
Jake on October 17, 2006 7:24 AMWell I had no benefits until last April when I got an email from a recruiter that turned into a real job offer with a 40% pay increase.
So I can say it's definitely been useful.
I'm keeping my Linked-In account. For me, the benefit is catching up with colleagues I worked with decades ago (before any of us had an e-mail address) and are now spread around the planet.
I don't get spam job offers from headhunters because I've turned off the "open to job offers" option. (OK, well maybe I'm unattractive too. :))
Mike Fitzsimon on October 17, 2006 11:32 AMI've had mostly good experiences with LinkedIn over the years. I also like Plaxo when it's not bugging meto spam my friends
But neither service on their own offer me much value.
If LinkedIn could combine with Plaxo to give me decent, unobtrusive address book management then I'd be more likely to use it to keep in touch with a distributed contact network...but right now there's very little reason to add to many friends/collegues to either service...
First of all, I'll confess to being a LinkedIn evangelist, but not a fanatic. I don't advocate the "link collecting" approach and, as evidenced by many of the reactions here, contend that it harms far more than just the people sending and receiving thos spammy invitations.
Now I could sit here and say, "Oh but you can do this and that with LinkedIn," or, "I had this great success with LinkedIn," etc.
But I have a better idea...
strongUse Cases/strong
Let's have a debate. Jeff, Robert, anyone else who wants to take me on. I'll post a series of LinkedIn use cases in my blog -- OK, not formal use cases with diagrams, but rather, user stories. You, or anyone else who wants to, tell me how you'd accomplish it without LinkedIn, then people can decide for themselves based on some real information.
And maybe I learn some ways to better manage my communications, and maybe you start to see the value of LinkedIn.
Interested?
Scott Allen (not K. Scott Allen) on October 18, 2006 7:27 AMClosing your account is quite easy--two clicks from the link you provide (http://www.linkedin.com/feedback?displayContactCustomerServiceFeedback=). We can move it to one click, but we have little indication that many people don't like our service and want to get off. Of course, there is still a lot to improve, but, as others have pointed out, you have to actually try to search for someone to get value. And when people use LinkedIn with a clear business purpose, we almost always hear it works great. Having reached profitability in March and seeing revenues growing at twice the rate of membership (average subscriber is paying $300 per year), I think there several indications that LinkedIn is adding value to many of our members.
Konstantin Guericke on October 18, 2006 10:13 AMIt is great for recruiting! If you cant see the benefit then dont use it! LOL Just dont join if you dont understand??
Average subscriber is paying $300 per year!? What are they getting that I don't get for my $0.
John on November 2, 2006 2:17 AMI think linked-in is useful (it got me two jobs and someone asked me to write a book in my technical field), *and* quite fun :)
See my post "Is Linked-In a MMORPG" to know what I mean: http://my.opera.com/jcayzac/blog/is-linked-in-a-mmorpg
LinkedIn is a great and powerful tool for market researchers especially those helping with business planning. I have moved from skeptic to passionata after finding contacts around the world to exchange opinions with ... all thanks to LinkedIn leads. The greatest door opener ever invented for sales people too. Now if you are not of an exploring mind.. and not in sales or marketing.. what are you doing there in the first place??
Athol Foden on November 6, 2006 1:34 AMInteresting... :)
Lets connect?
Steven Burda, MBA on November 9, 2006 9:42 AMIf one gets a suggestion for a job then its great. For me the LinkedIn is a way of finding new and old people to collaborate with, sometimes you meet with peoplw and know there current position but not more. LinkedIn gives that possibility.
Like it, realy liked SixDegrees also.
RackF on January 2, 2007 6:41 AMI just joined Linked In. Is the web site always so sluggish? Takes forever to get through it.
Steve on January 30, 2007 2:00 AMLinked In has had several benefits for me.
1) Allows me to keep track of folks that have changed jobs. Often the only contact info I have for someone is from the company they worked for a few years ago.
2) It's a lightweight resume that anyone can easily access.
3) You can import/export contacts to OE, Yahoo, etc.
4) You can use it to find out about a person or company you are doing business with. Who do they know? Who do they work with? etc.
I agree that everyone is to a certain extent updating a huge database for LinkedIn. As long as they don't misuse that database, I have no problem with that.
Jay on February 4, 2007 7:39 AMI NEED TO UNSUBSCRIBE NOW - PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!!!
GAYLE on February 14, 2007 1:27 AMOpinions are just that! Your opinion. Sometimes you should keep it to yourself!
Vesa on February 16, 2007 10:20 AMBE carefull,
Link in is one of those tools protected by the CIA to track, not only every single move you do, but all with whom.
You guys that critisize linkedIn because "what kind of friend wouldn't just pick up a phone and call me" are just being ridiculous. I can't tell you how many times I've reached out to former business associates that I would have lost track of if not for linkedIn or some similar service. Not only that, I've found folks to help me, and folks have found me to help them... all passed through my known connections - and that's the point. While head hunters have attempted to link to me, if they aren't through my connections, I just reject/ignore... what's the problem?
Jimmy on April 6, 2007 12:20 PMIncentives are the cornerstone of modern life. What is LinkedIn's incentive? That should be all you need to know.
Stan Miller on April 17, 2007 6:24 AMI tried to link into LinkedIn. I received an email which required me to click on a prompt which would send me back to LinkedIn, so I could use my password to officially confirm my user status. My husband's email kept appearing, asking for his password. I imagine that because he is the primary on our account this would cause a slight hiccup in my registration but the whole point is to link an individual identity so I cannot really, quite, excuse this hideous infraction of E-etiquette.
Yvonne Lederer on April 19, 2007 11:29 AMJeff:
I've always been a fan / avid user of LinkedIn, but I too was bothered by the problem of unwanted invitations from people I don't know. And I've always especially hated to see that practice driving people like you, Scoble, et al., away from the tool.
Well, LinkedIn just made a major change in their policies regarding invitations. Basically, "five strikes and you're out". When people receive an invitation, they have the ability to click on a button that says, "I don't know the sender". If someone gets five such hits on invitations they've sent, their account gets automatically suspended.
This should virtually eliminate the practice of sending invitations to people you don't know. It will make "open linkers" have to actually contact the person, introduce themselves, and make sure they're amenable to receiving such a request - to actually communicate (wow - what a radical concept!) - before sending the LinkedIn invitation.
More details on my blog:
http://linkedintelligence.com/linkedin-makes-it-easier-to-connect-with-people-you-know-harder-with-people-you-dont
Someone asked why members would pay to use Linked In. I chose to pay an annual fee so that I can contact individuals directly, rather than going through my contacts and requesting an introduction (seems a bit burdonsome to me). Surpisingly, almost every stranger I have contacted in this way has responded to me in a very positive manner. If you want to know who is out there working on a specific issue, this is a great resource. The new answers feature is also interesting.
Linked In is only useful if you use it. I use it and I really like it.
H on May 4, 2007 11:42 AMAccording to LinkedIn Customer Service, you CAN opt out!
Question: I closed my LinkedIn account, but I still see my profile on the Internet. Why?
Answer: Although your LinkedIn account is closed immediately, it may take up to 72 hours for your public profile to be removed from the caches of internet search engines.
I guess it pays to be patient instead of blasting LinkedIn all over the Internet!
jaynelwells on May 16, 2007 5:35 AMFunny how everyone signed up to Linkedin, and now no-one cares and wants out! I had to go through all the fields and insert bogus data to "close" my account.
If they'd made the whole thing free from the beginning it might have worked.. but even then it's a dull site with no action.
I just deactivated my facebook account -- that's how ahead of the times I am :-)
optyouty on June 7, 2007 8:49 AMThank you, I couldn't find how to close my account. linkedin sucks
suvorov on June 10, 2007 7:32 AMI use LinkedIn though don't add new contacts as frequently as I probably should to get the most benefit. Personally, I've reconncted with past collegues through it and helped someone complete his MBA thesis. By introducing it some other friends, I've heard they reconnected with past colleagues as well and received some help on a project they were working on. I'm sure there are improvements to be made to the service, but after reading through some of these other folks' comments, there seem to be more positive reactions than negative.
Gina on June 13, 2007 10:50 AMLinkedIn is proving very useful to me. I've done real business, reconnected with people I met at conferences etc. and have not had the chance to meet since. I've assisted colleagues with introductions and been assisted in return. I like it.
Joe on June 19, 2007 10:26 AMLike any system or service, this will only be a useful as you make it. The functionality of any tool is highly dependent on the operator of the tool. You could do this without Linkedin, but it simplifies the processes for you. Of course it does allow the owners of the system to easily do network analysis on you and everyone in the network. But, if you are not doing anything illegal, you should not have anything to worry about, unless you accept lots of invitations from people you don't know who are doing something illegal; which goes back to those who have suggested you should only link with people you know.
Brian on June 25, 2007 11:01 AMThose of you you dont like linked in can leave and take your negative slant with you!!
Nigel on June 27, 2007 9:52 AMWhat a sucky and stupid policy that you can't delete your account and that you are SuckedIn to LinkedIn. Aaaagh! On to the bogus profile-filling-in... Yay, headhunters!!! ;-p
Wonky on June 28, 2007 8:40 AMMy personal experience with it has only been positive. I'd somewhat lost touch with a number of folks I worked with in the late 90s, and LinkedIn helped me reconnect with them -- some of whom even came to me with work.
Christian on July 7, 2007 11:59 AMI "signed up" for this service as I was sent an "invitation" by a friend. I see now that the system has a feature where you type in your e-mail address and password, and it automatically sends invitations to all of your contacts in your e-mail list.
But I did not know that at the time. I thought my friend wanted me to join for personal reasons. I did not want to lose a friendship over this, so I signed up. No doubt she signed up for similar reasons (She works for a high tech company, and I see that a lot of her co-workers are on the site - perhaps they run it?).
I am semi-retired and really don't want links or opportunities or headhunter calls or e-mails or whatever from linkedin. I just want to be left alone. I get way too much work as it is, and my biggest problem is turning away work, not trolling for more. Clients I have. You want 'em? Please take them.
I clicked on the "delete my account" and they send an e-mail that they will get back to me in 3 days or something. I do not do business with companies that have policies like this. If someone is deceitful from the get-go, don't act all shocked when you are screwed down the road. Any relationship that starts with deceit can only go downhill. Honesty speaks volumes, and Linkedin is not being totally honest when they hook you into "joining".
I left my profile mostly blank, but I am still receiving invitations from people I don't know, and I am "linked" to 1,687 people I've never heard of.
This is sort of phoney. A real word-of-mouth referral is based on personal knowledge of that person, not some made-up relationship or phantom links.
The deal is that Linkedin advertises "11 million subscribers" but in reality, I suspect a lot of the "members" are like me, who signed up just to appease a friend (or so we thought) and not piss them off.
I strongly suspect the "positive" comments on this blog are from Linkedin employees.
Frankly, online social networking is a total waste of time. I'd rather being actually doing something with real people than playing games with a computer. FWIW.
Their opting out is apparently improving, probably as a result of blogs like this (keep up the good work!). These internet companies will do whatever they can get away with unless someone holds their feet to the fire.
About 20 minutes after I sent in my "close my account" request, I received the following e-mail:
"Thank you for contacting LinkedIn Customer Service. We have removed your account and all associated information. Since your account is now closed, you will no longer receive emails through LinkedIn or be able to log into the LinkedIn system. You can reactivate your LinkedIn account by contacting Customer Service.
Thanks,
Suzy Jackson
Customer Service Representative"
Thank you Suzy. No questions asked, no harrassement, nothing. My account was closed IMMEDIATELY.
So they have improved this aspect of the service - quitting.
Oddly enough, when this was happening, I received a phone call from a client who wanted to refer someone to me. (Please No! Go Away!) The "old fashioned" method of networking operates pretty well, IMHO. Who needs a faked-up online version?
FWIW.
linkedin has been incredible for lining up sales meetings.
hopefully it stays that way for a while before it starts getting the same response you would get from firing off an email to someone requesting a meeting. this these days is merely treated as spam dure to the abuse by spammers.
shaun on July 12, 2007 7:52 AMThe only benefit I get out of it is that I can pretend to have a lot of friends :)
Anders on August 7, 2007 2:55 AMI have been on LI almost since the beginning. I have heard similar arguments over the years.
The bottom line is that LinkedIn is a tool - and unless you know how to use the tool, it isn't going to do anything for you.
If you look at it as a way to gain industry knowledge (other than keeping your head in a book), becoming social with others in your field, and potentially finding the dream job, invest some time in it and see what it can do.
Oh, and to people who complain about getting the calls from headhunters: If you don't want calls, don't put your phone number in your profile! I never said I was a smart man, but that seems like a pretty simple way to prevent all those dreaded calls from people who want to offer you a job......
kenr on August 14, 2007 8:29 AMI was thinking of joining Linkedin but after reading the previous posts I'm not so sure. Can someone tell me if this would be a good place to
a) find old friends that I've lost contact with or
b) suppose I've just written a movie script or book, would this be a good place to find people who know where to reach a distributor, or a publisher or people willing to finance projects like these?
Why do all 500 of the Fortune 500 companies participate in such a "useless" service? I bet you guys are the same people that say monster.com doesn't work. You just have to give it time people! It took 2 years, but I landed a great job with monster. Just had to refresh my profile from time to time.
I figure 20 years from now if the service still exists (and I think it will), I'll have hundreds of contacts by then, and if I ever want to break away to do my own thing, I'll have my own private network of potential employees to draw from, people that I personally know as well as people they know, for free.
I'm not seeing the "pyramid scheme" side of things. No one is trying to make any money here, except the host, and it hasn't cost me anything except 5 minutes every few days to check my account. If it's really that bad, change your email address to a fake one on the site and it'll all go away...
The Traininator on August 17, 2007 7:30 AMThey say never provide personal information or passwords...I just joined at the urging of a friend and the FIRST page i was directed to tried to scan my machine...THE SECOND page asked for my yahoo password so they could rip my address book. Not going to happen.
As for Trainator's 08/15/07 comment that all Fortune 500 companies participate...where in the hell did you get that info? I'll put up $10,000 to anyone that can document that all 500 companies actively support their employees joining this crap site on company time. What a crock. You work for linkedin, right? Or you're really naive.
Sorry but this is an obvious phishing site and a waste of my time...I'm pissed I even signed up.
Entonces, adios amigos!
JTn
jimmy the nose on August 19, 2007 6:39 AMI just signed up, searched for contacts, and basically only found 2 people I actually know in relatively recent years and professional connections, neither of which I really want to talk to again. I'd have to pay to upgrade my account to contact them, when I could just use a little thing called email to do it. Linked In stikes me as just another human resources circle jerk and fake jobs database. Maybe it's great for HR-types who have to get responses from large numbers of real people for fake job postings, but for those of us actually looking for real connections to the actual decision makers (rather than HR BS'ers), it's a joke. Delete.
defiant on August 21, 2007 12:02 PMWow! Granted I'm 'just a recruiter'...I cannot believe how cliche we've become...half of the positions I have are Direct Hire positions with huge clients who outsource their HR and hiring...should sound familiar to those of you in the IT world??? I could tell you WHO to call as far as hiring mangers go...for just about every company in my area...granted, alot of 'head-hunters' are BS'ers...it's a fast developing line of work and those recruiters who are unethical will be left behind...being as it's becoming the only way for most large companies to do their hiring...you'd be better off not ignoring the so called SPAM...and at least 'listening'...a good recruiter wouldn't call you if your resume and experience wasn't what their client was looking for....just weed them out and question who you're talking to.
Autumn on August 21, 2007 1:07 PMThe only benefit I get out of it is that I can pretend to have a lot of friends
Maybe...
:)
ACER BT.T2303.001 on August 29, 2007 2:47 AMLinkedIn is great for people like myself who are independent contractors and need to keep in touch with others in the IT field. When I'm ready to finish an assignment I can send out an email to recruiters, headhunters, etc and let them know I'm in the market for a new gig. My resume and contact info are easily available to them and those with an interest can follow up.
I treat LinkedIn as a personal contact list where the contacts do the work of keeping thier information current.
JLH on September 20, 2007 11:57 AMI dont use LI. Not because its not good but becuase it presents in my mind many risks that I'm not willing to accept. PPL's major concerns are about getting your time wasted by spam, headhunters etc. My concern however is to minimize the ability for someone to defraud or target me for something bad (however small that risk is). Put simply, I dont want to be made a target for such things as Targeted Attack Viruses which are on the rise and use your job titles/positions and personal history data to build their payloads or likelihood of success. I have enough problem dealing with smaller daily issues let alone having to one day deal with getting hit by the big one just because i 'publish' details about me on a globally accessible internet site. The harder it is for ppl to get information about me, the harder it is to assimilate something real that i might fall for and suffer for simply because i'm successful. Yes you can say i'm paranoid but thats my choice and I'm happy with it.
In concept i think LI has its good points but it has its potential ugly side of which i'm not willing to deal with. Yes LI is not the only tool that ppl can use to get your information from, but thats also why i dont use services like this. I beleive i'm not stupid but then again so did those many ppl who fell for the initial nigeria bank scams.
JD on September 20, 2007 1:40 PMLinked in was how I acquired my current job. I think it is a great tool if you use it correctly.
RM on October 1, 2007 12:41 PMThere are plenty of benefits to LinkedIn. Anyone who wants to develop business, share ideas, find employees, find jobs can benefit from using LinkedIn. I'm actually too busy to put up a website to bitch about because I've found work for friends and myself.
If you're tech saavy, you can get the best of both worlds and make it a win-win situation. This requires that your mind gets up off its lazy ass and does a little abstract reasoning.
S2T1, Silicon Valley, Cali
Me, me, me. The benefit I got was hearing a recomendation I posted helped a past colleague get a job.
Californiaman on October 26, 2007 5:33 AMYou can cancel your account? B.S. The 1st reply you get back pretends like they will cancel the account, but they don't. The email responses are funny and I will update until they stop replying. How much do you want to bet some of the positive responses are from LinkedIn people?
Hi Brent,
Thanks for replying back to us. We will not remove the account. If there is anything that we can do please let us know.
Thanks for using LinkedIn!
Nathalie P. Customer Support Specialist
Original Message Follows: ------------------------
Please do cancel the account, it is still available on-line.
LinkedIn Customer Service support@linkedin.com wrote:
Hi Brent,
Thank you for contacting LinkedIn Customer Service. Regrettably, since you no longer have access to the primary e-mail address on the account, we will not be able to update your account or reset your password; however, we can close the account for you.
The Questions and Qnsweres feature is outstanding. I have learned and been able to contribute substantially to small business through this capablitiy. I have also obtained numerous clients through linked in
Ken Larson
SCORE Counselor
Ken Larson on November 12, 2007 7:16 AMI like Linked In. In my field, my collegues tend to move from company to company and it's a great way for me to keep up with who has moved where!
Susan on November 14, 2007 11:15 AMI can't get out of LinkedIn. I have sent numerous emails to the system and they have not replied. I hate it.
LinkedOut on December 18, 2007 12:34 PMThink it's pretty pitiful when you say a call from a search consultant isn't a benefit. Obviously you don't understand how the system. What comes 'round goes 'round. Too bad for you.
Marnie on December 18, 2007 12:42 PMYou can't easily remove yourself from LInkedIn, but you can change all your information, including your name. My contacts woke up one day and found they had a new, bizarre contact who they never heard of. I had a lot of fun coming up with the fake information.
Bingo. I deleted all my info, disassociated my work email address, and listed myself as a Rodeo Clown. That P.O.S. site is nothing but porn-for-recruiters and a tool for *lazy* prospective employers. If some jackass were to turn me away because of the content of that site (i.e. contacting my contacts), F'em.
People just don't realize what they are giving up. I once had a less-than-ethical headhunter flat-out offer me cash money for a copy of my company directory. Of course, I told him to piss up a rope. This should, however, give you an idea of how valuable information like this is - to the wrong people - LinkedIn, for one.
You ain't got no friends, that's what it is.
Spoken like somebody who thinks things such as "MySpace friends" matter.
Peer pressure, or some indeterminate, nebulous future promise of benefit, isn't a good enough reason to opt in to this particular social pyramid scheme.
"...forward this letter to 10 friends or else...yada yada yada". Amen, brother. LinkedIN is bullpuckey.
If you sit back and expect the world to come to you then I'm afraid that it, er, won't.
How does *not* participating in Grown-Up MySpace(tm) equate to "expecting the world to come to [me]"? I don't need some horsecrap middleman making bank off of data I provide. Lest we FORGET that not only is there value in each one of our sets of personal data, but ALSO [more?] value in the CONNECTION info we would provide.
Aaron G
You are right on the money, Aaron.
I think you use it when needed and make your profile only available to those you trust to be respectful of your privacy and your time.
And what are the long-run assurances that the dweebs BEHIND LinkedIn will "be respectful of your privacy"? Practically ZERO.
Konstantin Guericke
I hope you go bankrupt.
The deal is that Linkedin advertises "11 million subscribers" but in reality, I suspect a lot of the "members" are like me, who signed up just to appease a friend (or so we thought) and not piss them off.
Bingo. I put some basic info in at the time. It has since been stripped out and replaced with bogus/ludicrous info.
The only benefit I get out of it is that I can pretend to have a lot of friends :)
Ten points for honesty. If not you, personally (if you're joking), this is the main driver for most of the knuckleheads using the "service".
Linked In stikes me as just another human resources circle jerk and fake jobs database.
Correct.
Think it's pretty pitiful when you say a call from a search consultant isn't a benefit.
"Search consultant". LOL! Spoken like a truly sleazy head-hunter. As they say in Hollywood, JobPimp, don't call me - I'll call you.
Impugn on December 26, 2007 8:45 AMI think you were expecting too much out of LinkedIn. It is a social networking site, just like MySpace and Facebook - except it is for business professionals. I expect nothing more from LinkedIn except to help me reconnect with friends and acquaintances that I have worked with over the past 15 years.
I do get several connections a week, and it's fun to see and hear from old 'work buddies.' I have even had someone I've worked with offer me a job. If I don't know the person, I reject their connection -- I'm not interested in having the most connections/friends on LinkedIn.
It's simply a matter of realistic expectations. As I said, it is just one more social network with a business front.
Aj
Linkedin is the only networking site of value. I was able to connect with past coworkers and bosses, and then memorialize recommendations from bosses on it. For a professional reputation online, it seems pretty useful to me. And, for getting jobs, it's great.
Christie on January 29, 2008 5:15 AMI just closed mine!
cnu on February 7, 2008 10:25 AMI'm leery of sites like this but to say I gain no direct value from this is absolutely not the case. In the IT industry, its crucial to stay in touch with people. I don't appreciate spam any more than the rest of the world but I don't feel that I'm being taken advantage of here. Sure, there are a lot of potential for such but I've not personally witnessed it.
I use this tool for a number of reasons. The first one is to find both old and new contacts and to stay in touch with them. Secondly, there is so much flux in the Tech industry and I know so many good people, I work hard to refer them to job opportunities when I hear of them. To me this is a tool that enables me to be socially responsible and accountable to my friends and colleagues who have helped me get where I am and gives me an opportunity to give back.
JimN on February 11, 2008 9:13 AMHey folks.
You do not need it, do not use it. coffee is everywhere. I do not drink. same for you with linkedin?
what is the matter?
Impugn -- for someone so against internet socializing, you sure spent a lot of time and thought agreeing with what 10 other people already said. way to contribute!
You Win at The Interweb!
Absolutely right - I hate it and it appears to be one of the lousiest written social networking pages. I stumble over bugs all the time. Will try to file a ticket to have my account removed from that website.
I was a member for almost a year and have not gotten any valuable offers from other linkedin users.
Impugn -- for someone so against internet socializing, you sure spent a lot of time and thought agreeing with what 10 other people already said. way to contribute! You Win at The Interweb!
And you are the north end of a southbound horse.
It is quite obvious to anybody with even basic reading comprehension skills that my initial offering featured an almost equal amount of agreeing with previous posters - and expounding upon the point(s) made - and flat-out disagreement - again, often with commentary.
And again, as for Konstantin Guericke, I truly do hope he goes bankrupt.
Impugn on March 6, 2008 10:59 AMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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