Honestly, if LinkedIn disappeared today worldwide, I wouldn't miss it one second. It's really more of a chore than anything else. When you're looking for a job, or looking to recruit, it's helpful, but they haven't made the case of general everyday use, and I doubt they ever will.
Last month I had to spend an hour making sure someone hadn't opened a LinkedIn account under my 8 year olds name after his aunt asked us why LinkedIn is suggesting she connect with him. Turned out she had his iCloud email in her contacts because she FaceTimes with him. LinkedIn thought it was OK to use her contact list to make it appear like he had an account there. The bastards found a way to waste my time even though I have no account with them. Humanity would be generally better off without LinkedIn.
Really? Three of my last five jobs came from Linked-in.
I find it very convenient to have offers come-in out of the blue, only having to pay the cost of tweaking my profile once a year, and occasionally skimming/deleting random recruiter messages.
I see it as being open to opportunities. Usually, I would only look for a job when: 1) Unemployed, or 2) Unsatisfied at my current position. In both cases I would be motivated to solve the problem ASAP.
But being approached when happily employed gives you the upper hand during negotiations, allowing you to make demands that you would usually not be so confident to make. Not to mention becoming aware of good opportunities when your "job radar" is turned off.
Until last month I was in the "LinkedIn is irrelevant"-camp. Then I got the best job offer of my career from a company that does consulting from one of former employer. They don't want to steal people from customers, but when I finally got around update my LinkedIn profile I was contacted three hours later.
Without LinkedIn I would never have gotten the offer, because my new employer would have had no chance of knowing that I no longer work for one of their customers.
> but they haven't made the case of general everyday use, and I doubt they ever will
But who thinks of LI as general purpose social media? I don't think anybody uses LI except in the strict context of finding new jobs, and making sure you can find new jobs in the future.
I don't get the criticism. It's like blaming the screwdriver for not being able to hammer in a nail.
It's a jobs site. And for that purpose it's pretty good. End of story.
> I don't think anybody uses LI except in the strict context of finding new jobs, and making sure you can find new jobs in the future.
I also use it as an up to date electronic rolodex of sorts. Is this person still working at Cisco? What's their current contact info? Let me LinkIn with you so I don't need to keep this business card, etc.
The issue is not about LinkedIn. The problem is that there is silly law that requires all personal data of Russian citizens to be stored on the servers located in Russia. It means that Russian government can block access to pretty much any website on the internet that they don't like.
You should see the dev groups on fb. People post screen shot of their code and ask for help. Sometimes you can spot an actual photography of a monitor with code on it.
