I really like Linkedin for a simple reason of showing me which big companies operate and are hiring in my city/country. I would never have guessed that some companies operate over here (e.g. Oracle).
I then also really like one local website that shows which startups are hiring. The tone of the ads is very different, and there are no huge companies like Oracle or HP, but a ton of companies I don't even know existed.
What I think are gimmicks that won't work:
- asking candidates for tech skills and matching them with skill requirements of a job ad (been done a million times, never works for anything more than superficial word matching)
- trying to pre-screen candidates so that you can boast great quality of job applicants (I'll simply browse your companies and apply directly to them, not bothering with your system. If I can't see the companies, I'll pass. I'm not desperate to waste time on your skill checks)
- Not showing names of the 'amazing companies' who put the ads on your site (been done a few times, a useless gimmick, I'd never respond to an unknown company unless I were desperate for a job).
What I would love:
- Set up a "follow a company" watcher so that it gives me a breakdown of "these are the job positions opened/closed within the last $time_period", "they started hiring X% more of $position", etc. Simply data about company, or even a city. I would pay for that feature, provided the site was large enough to have meaningful statistics.
I tried using (paid) LinkedIn to find candidates once. It was not very helpful. Other than that I've never looked at anyone's LinkedIn profile when hiring/interviewing. Nor have I ever applied for a job using LinkedIn.
Some people swear by it, but they mostly seem like MBA types that post the annoying content mentioned in other threads.
As someone who has just joined the workforce in the past few years, I have never understood LinkedIn. The job hunting seems like a budget version of Indeed or similar. The "social media" aspect is by far the least engaging, most spammy, useless stream of information that's possible. The recruiters on there ruin things even further, adding to the pile of spam that we already deal with. I really don't see the point of LinkedIn past declaring who you work for.
LinkedIn would be fine if the type of jobs I wanted reach out to me, but that doesn't happen.
Their job board would even be decent if the fact that nearly half the results are "sponsored" and unrelated to what I searched for. That and the fact that companies with remote roles have decided to spam post the exact same remote job, except changing the location to every single metro in the country, worsening the signal to noise ration even more.
The part about companies being too picky doesn’t ring true. LinkedIn allows people to apply en-masse to jobs without any cost to them, so you end up getting a lot of nonsense applicants. That’s why it’s not surprising to see 1000 people applying to that person‘s job. I wish LinkedIn had more built in (but optional) ways of pre-filtering candidates before they reached the employer.
How is this better than just not using Linkedin? I used the Linkedin network (even the recruiters-- it only takes two good ones to balance out a hundred junk spammy ones) great effect in landing my last two jobs, even while the site itself is kamikaze nose diving into the toilet with its every trashier design evolutions to boost "engagement" and "stickiness" and "ad impressions" that no one wants. But if Linkedin, has nothing you, why not just leave?
On the hiring side, we tried using LinkedIn during a recent hiring round of about 5 highly skilled C developers. We flipped through hundreds of LinkedIn candidates and exactly zero made it past the resume filter. Completely useless. The only successful hiring method we found was actually the monthly Who's Hiring threads here on Hacker News.
I've had good experiences with Hired in my current and previous job searches. While there are a couple of companies (the usual suspects) who use it to send out the same recruiter spam that they send elsewhere, I've mostly gotten targeted reach-outs for pretty solid roles. I'm actually starting a job next week that I found with them. LinkedIn, by comparison, is just a constant stream of unsolicited garbage.
I am so glad to see someone else say this. LinkedIn jobs is utter garbage. I'll search for a particular skill keyword (a skill that I'm uniquely good at) and I'll get dozens of postings (promoted and otherwise) that have no mention of that skill at all. And a crapton of posting in other states.
No, LinkedIn jobs, I'm not interested in being an OTR driver or a sales representative. I'm a goddamn engineer.
Meanwhile I'm able to use search filters just fine in other job sites like Indeed.com.
LinkedIn's job search interface is pretty bad for tech employees. There's so many better options out there. But there's nothing better for getting quality recruiters to notice you than LinkedIn.
yeah linkedin has tons of useless stuff.. i just keep my cv updated, trying to avoid reading news, or subscribing to groups. i've actually have found few jobs through linkedin posted job offers. Most of recruiters sending automated messages with invitations which I always decline. there's no way to communicate with your connected person.. no chat, no email provided.. it's easier to grab name and surname, and write PM through facebook. in my country linkedin is not so popular and recruiters actually writing nice messages with a good suggestions, that's how i've found a job in barclays. After living 2 years in netherlands.. i still get lot's of spam from there. Sometimes it's seems for me that only my country has a culture of recruiting, all others just spamming to get your attension.
As a recent graduate (actively looking for a job) I have been using LinkedIn for a while, and I am very disappointed.
I get around one response per 50 applications I send via the platform.
Recruiters don't classify their posts correctly, so when I search for "entry-level" positions, I get mostly positions that require 5 years of experience, or just list all possible web technologies so they land more search queries, etc...
Example : I search for a position with PHP/JavaScript listed as technologies. Then when contacted by the recruiter it turns out to be a JavaEE position, but "knowing PHP and JavaScript is a plus".
LinkedIn is good as far as it goes, but I wouldn't call it a complete or ideal solution to the hiring problem. Worth using - but also worth competing with.
I like LinkedIn, it helps me get in contact with hiring managers and gives me a platform to say nice things about my colleagues.
I also prefer it to résumés for getting an idea of who I'm working with.
I don't like that it tries to trick me into doing things I don't want to do. I hate to think that people might be sent unsolicited email just because I decided to interact with it.
I honestly think that they should stop trying to be a social network, and instead: perfect the résumé; help people find talent without having to resort to shotgun InMails; discourage boasting in the unstructured parts of the profiles (Summary specifically).
I think that if they fire some people and chop off a few limbs, they could emerge a company that people actually respect.
I'm no fan of LinkedIn. It's a mess of dark patterns, and I think that shortly after I joined, they tried to con me into giving them my Gmail password. They certainly offer me a lot of contacts who I do know, but they have no business knowing that I know them. There's certainly fishy stuff going on.
At the same time, though, recruiters find me there. Despite my CV being years out of date, and me ignoring LinkedIn most of the time, recruiters keep finding me there and offering me interesting freelance positions.
A co-worker who is also a freelancer uses LinkedIn more actively, and uses it to connect to hiring managers of companies he might want to work for. That way he finds work without middlemen.
I hate LinkedIn. It's a terrible, cluttered mess of a website. It's shady as all hell. Their mobile app is unusable.
And yet, just by having a profile that's even vaguely up to date, I get job offers left and right. Most of them are complete crap, but I was also contacted by a recruiter for one of the big four on there. I filter all the email to a separate folder where it can rot eternally, and I page through the messages on LinkedIn every few weeks to see if there's anything interesting.
A lot of people talk about how LinkedIn is still ok because recruiters just flock to them and it’s easy to get a job off it, but am I the only one who gets low quality recruiter trying to fill low quality jobs? I don’t think I’ve ever been contacted remotely by anything near the FAANG level.
I do like their job board solely because it allows you to filter by both job function and company industry, but OTOH it tries to be too “smart”. Outside that the content is eyeroll inducing at best, at the article notes.
Same. LinkedIn has helped me find 2 fantastic jobs now (and leads to many other potential ones). Granted, it was through one recruiter of the many that spammed my inbox. But still, that clutter stays on LinkedIn and I only deal with it when I need it.
In another use case I've also used LinkedIn to find service providers. Instead of relying on word of mouth I can vet someone from their work history, endorsements, and recommendations.
So yeah, they have bad practices, but they're not all bad. I do have to say that what they do provide of value is easily replicable and this is probably a great opportunity for anyone who wants to start something.
I then also really like one local website that shows which startups are hiring. The tone of the ads is very different, and there are no huge companies like Oracle or HP, but a ton of companies I don't even know existed.
What I think are gimmicks that won't work:
- asking candidates for tech skills and matching them with skill requirements of a job ad (been done a million times, never works for anything more than superficial word matching)
- trying to pre-screen candidates so that you can boast great quality of job applicants (I'll simply browse your companies and apply directly to them, not bothering with your system. If I can't see the companies, I'll pass. I'm not desperate to waste time on your skill checks)
- Not showing names of the 'amazing companies' who put the ads on your site (been done a few times, a useless gimmick, I'd never respond to an unknown company unless I were desperate for a job).
What I would love:
- Set up a "follow a company" watcher so that it gives me a breakdown of "these are the job positions opened/closed within the last $time_period", "they started hiring X% more of $position", etc. Simply data about company, or even a city. I would pay for that feature, provided the site was large enough to have meaningful statistics.
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