[chatmasta]

As an engineer I never found LinkedIn useful. But during college I made sure to connect with everybody, even if I barely knew them. The only jobs I’ve had I got through other means, in some cases even “connections,” in the traditional sense of the word, which incidentally exist on the LinkedIn graph, but that’s just a mirror of real life and it’s not like the coordination occurs over LinkedIn messages anyway.

As a startup founder, it’s effective in some contexts, like as a contact point or promotional tool. We never felt the need to use it for recruiting. At least in the software industry, GitHub is a much more effective marketplace of talent. But LinkedIn can have some benefits for a startup outside of recruiting. Posting content about your product is a good way to stay in front of investors you’ve connected with who doomscroll their LinkedIn feed like a dev does HN. :) (it’s also something I need to automate because I block LinkedIn on /etc/hosts for productivity purposes..)

I’m not sure I’ve ever _sourced_ an opportunity from LinkedIn. I also never accept connections without at least one prior interaction. For me it’s a tool for following up and keeping in touch, not introductions. It might also be useful in some rare sales contexts, for some specific archetype of audience especially susceptible to the psychological tactics commonly deployed to the LinkedIn newsfeed. Developers are definitely not that audience (well, not on LinkedIn at least…)