LinkedIn Promises To Bring Order and Meaning To Your Useless Endorsements (qz.com) 48
Oliver Staley, reporting for Quartz: LinkedIn's endorsement feature has never felt like the most trustworthy of sources. Rather than a panel of star witnesses who can honestly vouch for you, it more often seems like a random assortment of friends, acquaintances, and opportunists hoping for an endorsement in return. LinkedIn has recognized the problem and is trying to address it by creating a hierarchy of endorsers. Instead of all your endorsements having equal weight, the site will highlight people who might actually have some claim on knowing you, such as former colleagues and classmates, or who have credibility in the field. The goal is to make the feature more like the real world, where you ask for recommendations from people you trust or are in a position to know, says Hari Srinivasan, head of the LinkedIn team developing the feature. "If you want to find a good designer, you ask other good designers," he said.
Correlating LinkedIn data with my PC (Score:5, Insightful)
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I created a LinkedIn profile in 2008, when I lost my last tech job. Initially, it was okay, but after I became a recruiter, the experience went downhill.
For starters, LinkedIn refused to let me have multiple profiles, stating that it violated their terms of service. I wanted to keep my old profile, but also open a new one for my recruiter profile. Reason? In my old profile, I had links to my actual colleagues, and was limited to them and a few recruiters who I thought at the time might help with findi
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The endorsements, by contrast, are done by people who have no clue about what you do.
I get these all the time. I never give them out, as it feels like I'm be compelled to. So long as I never do it, the excuse of "I barely use Linkedin." works for any time anyone asks me why I never endorse them.
But no one's ever asked. It's a pointless exercise, meaningless to the nth degree, and no one cares.
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With Microsoft using Windows 10 to harvest data from my PC (emails, web browsing, etc), and Microsoft owning LinkedIn's data ... well, I've already have started to drastically reduce what I have on LinkedIn.
You're too late - LinkedIn is similar to a public billboard. You shouldn't have anything on it you wouldn't post on a billboard facing a major interstate in a downtown metropolis.
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well, I've already have started to drastically reduce what I have on LinkedIn
If you were worried about some company or people using the information you put up on LinkedIn.... you were using it wrong.
Paid advertisement (Score:1)
Wtf?
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Slashvertisement!
Counterpoint... (Score:5, Interesting)
A few years ago, I got a network request from the college-bound daughter of a client of mine. I thought, "Oh that's nice. She's starting early to build her professional network." So I clicked the acknowledgement. I then got a message stating something like, "Great! We'll notify her that you are interested in joining her network!"
I don't know if that was the exact wording, but the message made think there was an AI at work trying to make connections on behalf of the girl, and that because I responded, it would send my request to her out of nowhere. So she's 18 and I'm 40, and now I look like some kind of creepy stalker.
I haven't used LinkedIn since that day. It's just as well. I see little value in the site. To me, it's just a tool for head-hunting companies to spam me with requests to hire me or help the recruiter find someone who has my skill set and qualifications. Yeah, I'll get right on that.
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A few years ago, I got a network request from the college-bound daughter of a client of mine. I thought, "Oh that's nice. She's starting early to build her professional network." So I clicked the acknowledgement. I then got a message stating something like, "Great! We'll notify her that you are interested in joining her network!"...
That happened to me. Once. Then I was on to LinkedIn's egregious tactics. It is when I started to become suspicious of LinkedIn and what they were using my data for. Now that Microsoft (and Windows 10 data harvesting) owns LinkedIn, there is no way I'm going to increase my involvement there. Indeed, as I mentioned earlier, I'm decreasing my involvement.
Re:Counterpoint... (Score:5, Informative)
I have also been "tricked" into making unsolicited connections, thinking the other party had initiated it.
When I first created my LinkedIn account, they asked for my Yahoo and Gmail email addresses, and then ASKED FOR THE PASSWORDS. I saw no reason to provide that information, but my wife fell for it, and LinkedIn then, without her permission, logged into her accounts and sent a link request to every single person in her contact list, consisting of over 3000 people, many of whom she barely knew and hadn't heard from in years. Each email was phrased to imply that she was personally requesting the connection.
LinkedIn was a very sleazy company. They should fit right in at Microsoft.
Re:Counterpoint... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's why I never accept any requests unless they are accompanied by non-generic invite text. Also, once accepted, they have two weeks to send me a message, otherwise they're removed from my network.
Many recruiters added me, only to be removed after two weeks because they never wrote me anything. i'm not going to become one of the 10K contacts they boatd having.
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I have a good friend who is a manager at Google. Several times he has contacted me because he noticed that someone Google was considering hiring was in my LinkedIn network, and he wanted my recommendation. I usually give good recommendations, but in one case he later told me my input led to a candidate being rejected.
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I was about to say the same thing it appear that technical fields are more common... I've been solicited multiple times as well, I think they like that my work history is a short list of long term employment.
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I doubt they have the will to make things better. (Score:3)
As Linked in seems mostly to be a spamming site of useless contacts. They would lose a lot of the so called "value" if they stopped the stupid spamming and only linked people to actual people they interact with as people could see how empty things are in reality.
Best part about LinkedIn! (Score:5, Insightful)
I always loved Endorsement Roulette on LinkedIn. I only log in every month or so (if I'm not actively pursuing something) and nothing beats seeing that real estate agent you never actually hired endorsing me for Python Development and CPU Design. I'm reasonably certain I never discussed either of these with that dude, because at the time I wasn't heavily into Python... and Intel keeps telling me that nobody needs a CPU made out of reconstituted coffee grounds.
Re:Best part about LinkedIn! (Score:5, Funny)
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And of course I have the slew of endorsements that I am not qualified for from friends and other people
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I especially like it when someone only marginally associated with me gives me an endorsement for a skill I do not possess. "Oh, yeah, he's a computer guy - I'll endorse him for PC Repair and Excel Pivot Tables".
Okay, technically I can repair a PC. And I certainly could figure out pivot tables if I had a reason for doing so. But even so, I really wouldn't those to be listed as part of my professional skill set - I'd rather work at Jimmy Johns than do either one.
Maybe a better example is my recent endorsement
Linked in needs to learn from Slashdot. (Score:5, Insightful)
Need a Slashdot moderation type system for Linked In.
Bob from accounting, +1 Insightful
Julie from Veridian Dynamics, -1 floozie
Greg from Acme weapons, -1 racist
Darn, I've run out of moderation points to mod Sally.
Lord Vader asks to be ADDED TO YOUR NETWORK (Score:2)
JOIN me (on LinkedIn), and I will COMPLETE your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring ORDER and MEANING To your USELESS ENDORSEMENTS!
Most of LinkedIn is meaningless (Score:2)
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Endorsements from people who don't know me.. (Score:2)
Endorsement of false profiles (Score:2)
Crap (Score:2)
LinkedIn recommendations are mostly bogus (Score:3)
I have written 100% truthful, positive recommendations for some really good people. And some of those people have written 100% truthful, positive recommendations for me. But in the competitive marketplace, the value of this information is lost as truthful stories are diluted into an ocean of fiction.
The only thing LinkedIn is good for is entertainment. It's fun to visit the profile of known underachievers, just to see who is writing "quid pro quo" recommendations. I have seen stories about accomplishments that never happened, touting various achievements for projects that were spectacular failures.
And all of this is on top of imaginary degrees, fictional job titles at imaginary companies, or sometimes inflated job titles at real companies. Fact-checking this stuff is tougher than it looks. Most employers have a strict "no comment" policy regarding ex-employees. And then there are all the companies (and even colleges) that no longer exist. Even if a person can produce a reference to vouch for their story, it may turn out to be a case of one liar validating another. Background checks are definitely not working. I know of some people with fictional LinkedIn profiles, and somehow they bounce from one employer to the next with impunity.
Did you know... (Score:1)