LinkedIn?

[kpreid]

Should I get on LinkedIn? One hears far less about what they're up to than Facebook, and I recently received an invitation from a friend of mine.

Less subjectively: What does LinkedIn offer (given that it's a social network site), and do you find it worth your time?

Update: I signed up. No especially noticeable effects so far other than one newsletter sort of mailing and a lot of people I know wanting to add me as a contact^Wconnection; presumably LinkedIn notifies you when people in your address book create an account?

Comments

[atheorist.livejournal.com]

I'm on LinkedIn (during a period when I was joining whatever social network "in order to secure my name"), and I loathe it; just a source of spam.

[kpreid.livejournal.com]

Spam from LinkedIn-and-affiliates, from spammers just grabbing LinkedIn's data, or from parties connected to you on LinkedIn? Bottom-of-the-barrel webform spam, topical-but-unsolicited-and-uninteresting, or what?

[atheorist.livejournal.com]

The messages I was annoyed by were people trying to connect to me on LinkedIn; I don't know (or much care) whether they're real humans that I had some VERY tenuous connection to, or robots.

[juan-gandhi.livejournal.com]

Good stuff. More professional contacts, your work history recorded, more transparency, so that it's easier for hiring company to figure out whom they a dealing with.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

The thing that's annoying about Linkedin is that originally it was supposed to be just business contacts, specifically (and explicitly) those you trust and endorse.

These days it seems like it's mostly trying to make itself an employment oriented Facebook, with a strong encouragement to invite everyone, with increasing amounts of social updates. It could be useful for separating work and social life by having a Linkedin account for the former.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I get a lot of unsolicited recuiter contacts via LinkedIn, because my profile there is essentially my entire resume, and they do keyword searches. None of that's turned into jobs, but I do appreciate the attention, and it's conceivable that it could pan out at some point.

If you're not looking (or open to offers) for a new job, it's probably less interesting. It can be nice to reconnect with old coworkers, though (who you wouldn't necessarily want to connect with on Facebook).

[https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlBlkSB36G0w8aARQfs2ZNKgu4VAshlv_c (from livejournal.com)]

It's worked for me. I've had contact from recruiters as a result. Minimal spam.

[darius.livejournal.com]

I joined sort of by default and it hasn't done me any good that I know of. Maybe if I started actively wanting work. Source of irrelevant mail once or twice a week -- it is vaguely relevant if I were more into networking.