Comments on: Saying ‘Bye Bye’ To LinkedIn

By: PlanBForOOo

PlanBForOOo — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:48:16 +0000

Well, you seem to have had a bad experience and little patients for other people’s interests. And you seem to be too young to really benefit from a long term network.

For me LinkedIn is not a way to keep my friends, as you stated I don’t need online for that. But it is a way to stay in contact with my wider circle. I have lost interesting contacts due to them moving their e-mail (hello friends with ISP addresses I look at you) and/or companies. By the way I’m happy to invite the most boring and uninteresting of my co-workers or other acquaintances. Because sometimes it is useful to not cross paths with certain people again

But the most value for me is in helping others, as I make public who I know well enough to introduce contacts to. I make on average one new connection per month (not only per LinkedIn). And many of those have a positive impact. And written (published) recommendations are like any recommendation. It depends on who is giving the recommendation and how well do I know her/him.

By: Davy Brion

Davy Brion — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:58:41 +0000

ah, they deleted my account… while it can take another few days before my profile stops showing up in directory listings, i can’t even log in anymore

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:24:30 +0000

I received several invitation, but not accept yet. Based on your post, I’ll not accept it forever

By: Davy Brion

Davy Brion — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:06:34 +0000

I found a ‘close my account’ link on their settings page, but apparently my request needs to be approved by customer service because i have over 100 connections. is it even possible to remove connections? :p

so now i’ve emailed them to close my account, sent 2 official requests to close my account, configured my profile so that none of it should still be public, yet it’s still publicly accessible :s

By: Stef

Stef — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:02:51 +0000

Well, whatever you try your Linked-In profile will be there forever!
I deleted my profile a couple of months ago, tried to log in again yesterday with my old username/password and it worked.
(and yes I had contacted them to erase my profile)

By: James

James — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:14:31 +0000

All the great people I’ve worked with in the past have my email address, and we keep in touch. I really don’t see the point, as its unlikely some random connection from LinkedIn is going to be someone who has some jaw dropping job offer for me.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:43:10 +0000

I think there’s value to be had there, but I also think you’re smart to avoid the whole “networking just for networking’s sake” approach. The only people I will add to my network are people who I’ve actually worked with in a meaningful way *and* with whom I’d be willing to work again. Requests falling outside of those criteria just get deleted.

On the recommendations, I think they’re valuable if you follow the above guideline – that is, if I have recommended someone it’s because I truly think they’re a great person to work with. So hopefully anyone who values my capabilities would see value in people I’m willing to recommend.

In your example of 3 oxygen-thieves recommending one another, the point holds — a recommendation from someone who added negative value in the past *does* provide feedback. It’s just not necessarily positive feedback.

By: Jeronimo

Jeronimo — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:13:01 +0000

I agree with you 100% but I am faster Mine is closed a few months now:) Cheers!

By: Awkward Coder

Awkward Coder — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:37:25 +0000

This sounds familiar! I was on it about 3 years ago and then ‘deleted’ my account for the very reasons you’ve outlined above.

Do I feel regret now it’s even bigger?

By: Yoeri

Yoeri — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:51:48 +0000

There are indeed a lot of bandwagon-folks on LinkedIn. The main problem is that recruiters are not very technical, they just scan the profiles for buzzwords, the profile that matches their bingo-card is good for the job.

You will always have this kind of people, except that now it is written on LinkedIn and otherwise they just say they love scrum, tdd, ddd, bdd and other dd’s.

Most of them write what they want to know, not what they actualy know … kinda sad :-S

By: josh

josh — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:27:09 +0000

I’m on it, and the biggest benefit is just keeping tabs on former co-workers. For me and what I do, that can be useful. Other than that, no, not really had a big benefit. Bu then, I’m not big on social media. My limited social media presence is more our of necessity of my job or for personal growth. ..and, occasionally, to help others when I can.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:38:25 +0000

I’ve had a few prods from recruiters who have found my profile, some of whom are in business in areas I hadn’t considered, but that’s about it. I largely agree that it seems a bit… pointless. Your observation about recommendations is definitely 100% true, though. You can’t stop cliques and friends recommending one another willy-nilly, even if the are the sort of people you’d quit a company to get away from…