Deleting the LinkedIn account and becoming social network -free

[Warhawk]

It's Sunday evening here and I hoped that this topic would interest some. After many years, I deleted my LinkedIn account. I do not have any social media now and it feels right (now). I used to be happy with the idea of maintaining the professional network but
it became overwhelming about the time when MS took over. I was particularly not happy with:

• Tons of connection requests from people I've never met.
• Facebook-like content in the feed (I did not follow any specific channel or people).
• Technical articles are actually marketing promotions.
• It was giving me nothing. I received a few job offers from obviously desperate head-hunters who did not even read the profile. I received just a single interesting job offer but this was initiated by my ex-manager who left the company and was starting a new team.
• I visit customers and do technical presentations. Often people searched me afterward and wanted to stay in touch. I always felt guilty refusing their connection although I don't care for them aside from business.
• I am an introvert, nerd and I don't like people. (it's different here on the EEVBLOG, I think I am with my species)

Sure I am a terrible person but what are your first thoughts when somebody says linkedin? What does linkedin mean to you?
I am just curious.

[golden_labels]

Sure I am a terrible person but what are your first thoughts when somebody says linkedin? What does linkedin mean to you?

A place where one goes to buy personal information focused on professional career.

[WattsThat]

Means nothing unless you’re in the market for a job. It’s just FaceBook for the gainfully employed.

The social media sites are the first place HR types visit and they will form opinions from what they see, it may cost you moving to the next stage of the process. Hiring today is vastly different than what it was ten years ago and the bigger the company, the more it has changed, especially for older, white males, at least in USA. Yeah, it’s true, the amount of reverse discrimination is absolutely stunning. It’s a very good time for females in engineering. Female plus minority status and you go to front of the queue regardless of experience.

My job is identical to yours and I’ve got six months to go before I’m able to retire early. My employer of 12 years just put about 20% of the employees on a 50-50 furlough, one week on, one week off so it’s a 50% pay cut. Actually more than that since other deductions like health care and my car allowance remain at 100%. Ouch. If I wasn’t so close to retirement, I’d change jobs just on principle and that’s where the LinkedIn thing becomes an issue as I’ve never built my up my “brand”. I just couldn’t be bothered, never cared out it. Now I do but it’s too late. Oh well.

[coppice]

Sure I am a terrible person but what are your first thoughts when somebody says linkedin? What does linkedin mean to you?

Like Hormel, Linkedin is the place that spam comes from.

[digsys]

Yeah similar BUT - I turn off all notifications etc that I can - never reply to any requests, unless they are people I know well and want to "talk" to - keep a "dumping ground" email addy for sites etc that HAVE to have an email and I want to keep an eye on - I log in app once a week to see IF there are ANY interesting techie news .. often not, but I do like reading some amusing posts from acquaintances :-)

[DimitriP]

I deleted my LinkedIn account

 

[RoGeorge]

what are your first thoughts when somebody says linkedin? What does linkedin mean to you?
I am just curious.

Sheeple.

[joeqsmith]

I am an introvert, nerd and I don't like people.

I've never had an account on LinkedIn.  I also don't have a facebook or twitter account.  About the only social media accounts I have is on YT and here.  I don't see the problem.

[Gregg]

Sure I am a terrible person but what are your first thoughts when somebody says linkedin? What does linkedin mean to you?

LinkedIn is basically a cesspool of braggarts and ostentatious liars aggressively marketing themselves in meager hope of landing a higher paying job only to be deluged by head hunters interested in profiting from them. 
When LinkedIn started, I was influenced by coworkers to sign up. Against my better judgement I signed up with the bare minimum disclosure.  About a month later I realized what a mistake I had made and did my best to remove everything.  From this experience, I will never sign up for any social media no matter how out of the loop it may make me appear.

[Bassman59]

LinkedIn tells your boss that you're looking for a new job.

I mean, everyone is looking for a new job, either explicitly or just keeping an eye out for opportunities. But there's no reason to give the bosses any reason to think you might jump ship.

Anyway, I had a LinkedIn account for a couple of months back when it was a new thing. The primary results:

a) (actual) friends "recommending" me for particular skills I have but they have no way to support their recommendations. Thanks, guys, I know you mean well, but ...

b) a never-ending stream of salesdroids calling, asking if I do Skill X (no, I don't, didn't you bother reading the list of skills, oh, of course you didn't), and if not, can you connect me to the people who do? It got to the point where I (and others in the office) had the receptionist ask the caller to state their business. So the person trying to sell MCAD software (for example) would be told, "That person is not involved in that" and the discussion would end and the call would never get through to us.

c) the never-ending stream of recruiters calling on an office phone number during business hours. (All calls in go through the main line and if you don't have the extension you have to go through the receptionist.) And literally every single one of those callers (before they, too, got shut down) was pushing a sales-engineering job, never a real design job. The first few times it was amusing: "didn't you even read the skills list? what makes you think I want a sales job?"

Yeah, I realize that salesdroids and recruiters have no qualms about fishing expeditions and they're unafraid of rejection and they don't care whether the person they're calling is even suited to the job being offered.

And LinkedIn doesn't care, either.

As for Facebook: yeah, a lot of you are all really proud that you've never used it and blah blah blah. But I find that it does serve its original function* of helping to stay in contact friends (actual people who know each other) and relatives (if you care about them) who may live all over the country and whom you actually see ... rarely. So it's good to see what they're doing, what their kids are doing, what their cats are doing, all of that. I have a lot of friends who were in touring bands (or were on tour or venue crew) back in the day, and it's nice to see what they're doing and hear their new stuff, and if they're going on tour. When I have shows I post links to them and friends get in touch and we get dinner and hang, which is part of the reason to keep getting in the van after all these years.

It all works well enough if you stick to a few simple rules. First and foremost, ignore or delete friend requests from people you don't actually know in real life. Second, ignore trolling. Third, if that person from high school turns out to have become a raving lunatic, don't even engage, just block the person. Fourth, go through the privacy settings and make all posts and all photos friends-only. (This is important, so the potential next employer sees only a photo and location information and not much else.) Fifth, don't join any FB "groups," as that's part of the data-mining operation. Sixth, disable the "personalized ads," and always browse in Private Mode through a VPN which limits the tracking. (Your ad feed will be full of nonsense.) Seven, never use the FB apps, only the private-mode browser.

* regarding "original function," I realize that Zuck and his douchy Harvard friends created FB as a way to basically rate college girls on their looks.

[Bud]

Linked in has the shittiest most confusing web site ever.

[peter-h]

My mail server deletes all mail from linkedin

Good comments above. It's a network for certain types of people.

They also got hacked recently and all email addresses and passwords (yes; they were dumb enough to store passwords in plain, rather than hashes) got stolen and now are everywhere.

Facebook is much better for staying in touch with old mates and exchanging non PC jokes Just make sure you set up the visibility correctly (friends only, etc) and if your birthday is shown make sure it is a few days off, in case of identity theft. Use Facebook Purity to remove most of the adverts.

[MT]

It's Sunday evening here and I hoped that this topic would interest some. After many years, I deleted my LinkedIn account. I do not have any social media now and it feels right (now). I used to be happy with the idea of maintaining the professional network but
it became overwhelming about the time when MS took over. I was particularly not happy with:

• Tons of connection requests from people I've never met.
• Facebook-like content in the feed (I did not follow any specific channel or people).
• Technical articles are actually marketing promotions.
• It was giving me nothing. I received a few job offers from obviously desperate head-hunters who did not even read the profile. I received just a single interesting job offer but this was initiated by my ex-manager who left the company and was starting a new team.
• I visit customers and do technical presentations. Often people searched me afterward and wanted to stay in touch. I always felt guilty refusing their connection although I don't care for them aside from business.
• I am an introvert, nerd and I don't like people. (it's different here on the EEVBLOG, I think I am with my species)

Sure I am a terrible person but what are your first thoughts when somebody says linkedin? What does linkedin mean to you?
I am just curious.

Technocracy's variant on the "old ages" slave markets.
:-Does he have good theets  sir?
:-Yes he does!
:-What about diseases?
:-Entirely free from it sir, all vaccinated.

[SiliconWizard]

Technocracy's variant on the "old ages" slave markets.

I do agree with this.

[fcb]

I use LinkedIn. It is basically FB for business. There is some great content out there - just have to sift through the dross.

Yes, the recruiters (COVID seems to have put them to sleep ) are annoying. "R&D Tax Credit Specialists" now get instantly blocked, as do Chinese PPE suppliers.

[SiliconWizard]

LinkedIn tells your boss that you're looking for a new job.

Yup. Especially if you suddenly appear on LinkedIn when you've been working at your current company for a while. Bosses know this doesn't happen for no reason.

I remember in a previous job, my boss "casually" saying to one of my coworkers that he noticed the guy had just created a LinkedIn account. Yeah.

Anyway, not being on LinkedIn or similar is likely to make you look kind of "suspect" to potential employers, if you're actually looking for a new job. Whether that matters is up to you. I personally don't have an account on LinkedIn.

But when you don't, people tend to tell you that you are "hard to find".

[coppice]

LinkedIn tells your boss that you're looking for a new job.

This idea is a trick used to get you to sign up early, so you are on linkedin before you start your job. 

[16bitanalogue]

I have an active LinkedIn account where I update my work history and 'resume'.

I do agree with the following:
1. Facebook like content. I do not post or reply to threads *at all*. I have seen so many people get into flame wars. Keep that shit out.
2. Head Hunters - never, and I mean never bother to read my resume. In fairness, I understand as I do believe they are required to 'contact' so many people as a quota. The only reason why I entertain head hunter messages is to guess what company they are shilling for. 8/10 I can guess correctly. I make that a game.
3. Far too many people who want to connect that I never worked with nor will never have an influence in my career path.
4. Pretentious "recommendations". What's the point of these? Full disclosure, I have 2 and I couldn't care less.

Some good things (for me):
1. I have been contacted by full time recruiters from the company in question. This is how I landed my current job.
2. It does keep me in touch with former colleagues and I have messaged them on the platform for job advice, answered their questions regarding local companies, and even snagged 2 former colleagues to work where we are now.

It may be better if one is active in the groups, but I do not participate. One former colleague has taken a more active role and blogging more or less on LinkedIn. Continually posting completed uDemy courses.

Now, if only can dump Facebook.

[olkipukki]

I only add people whom at least I met personally and they/me want keep in touch later.
At the time they sent request and if I remember who is (s)he and I'm still interested (or way around), then a new entry in 'My Network'.

As today, I never spoke and met again approx 95% people in 'My Network', but that's not so important. I am after 5% remining.

P.S.
Never used Facebook and as result 'lost' a more than few 'friends' over years, but again - Conservation of Energy took a place and restore a order.

[peter-h]

"Yup. Especially if you suddenly appear on LinkedIn when you've been working at your current company for a while. Bosses know this doesn't happen for no reason."

Unless you have always been on it and everybody else in the company is too.

It is fairly normal, in many companies, and State agencies like the CAA, for most people to be permanently on there. Are they looking for another job? Of course they are! Everybody is, subject to what it is.

[coppice]

Never used Facebook and as result 'lost' a more than few 'friends' over years, but again.

I've never used Linkedin, but at one point I was getting at least 100 spam messages a day from them, trying to connect me to people I'd never heard of. It works both ways. 

[olkipukki]

I've never used Linkedin, but at one point I was getting at least 100 spam messages a day from them, trying to connect me to people I'd never heard of. It works both ways. 

Nobody sent a spam to me from both places   

[Warhawk]

Everyone,
I did not expect such coherent feedback. I value this community and it seems that my decision was a step in the right direction. Brilliant minds think alike. I'll do my best to reply back on some thoughts tomorrow.
Have a great time everyone.
 

[exe]

I had the same fear about changing Linkedin profile -- my boss would know. But then what? There are several assumptions such as that people care about this, or your manager will spy on you, or fear of other unpleasant consequences. I think a lot depends on the company, culture, your manager, hr... Even country culture. For some reason I think in the US it's very easy to loose a job. I don't how true is that, I'm judging from what I see in Hollywood movies.

May be it can also be a signal to hr that they need to increase your salary . I know at least one such case, but that was long time ago in Eastern Europe.

My experience is I told my last two managers that I would be leaving even before finding a new place. At the end I regret it, part because I promised to leave, but "thanks" to the current situation I backpedaled on it. I was promised to be given a different position that would be a better match for me. But I had to work out our conflicts, because I was close to be fired to not get a contract renewal. All in all, don't do like what I did, unless you are willing to get some experience in tough negotiations where you don't have much weight. I know a lot of people will state that this sounds obvious, my motivation was that I reached a boiling point and needed a lot of support to get through it. I also had one factor in my favor: a lot of people left the company recently, enough to keep me.

As of usefulness of Linkedin... I have tons of spam, a lot of "social sales", tons of useless connection request, etc. So, I only use it as my CV. When I'm looking for a job I also use lesser known websites, network connections, meetups, etc as not everything is on Linkedin (although it's kinda weird when a company doesn't have a job posting on Linkedin, even though it costs, afaik, ~$300 per week per job). I try not to spend much time on it.

PS you can make up a plausible story, such as you want to be connected with your colleagues, or stranger you've met on a meetup.

[16bitanalogue]

I had the same fear about changing Linkedin profile -- my boss would know. But then what? There are several assumptions such as that people care about this, or your manager will spy on you, or fear of other unpleasant consequences. I think a lot depends on the company, culture, your manager, hr... Even country culture. For some reason I think in the US it's very easy to loose a job. I don't how true is that, I'm judging from what I see in Hollywood movies.

I have continuously updated my LinkedIn profile over the last 12 years and have never worried about my boss or their boss seeing it. This has never been an issue and no one has ever come to me with concerns.

IMO, if I am updating my resume and LinkedIn profile highlighting any new skills or position within the same company I honestly do not see this being a negative. Frankly, it never has been a negative for anyone I have worked with in the industry here in the US and A. If someone has a boss that does bring this up as a bad thing then that is a hint to GTFO of that group anyway.