[gregjor]

I signed up for LinkedIn when it started, stayed on until last year because I believed it offered some value to me. I never got a single lead from that site. I would call it useless unless you need to fill a recruiter's candidate database, or if you have the patience to spend a lot of time building a fake network of people who don't know you through "likes" and posts. Your mileage may vary. I ditched LinkedIn along with all other social media except HN and that has not affected my freelancing prospects at all.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

YMMV. I got my current position after a recruiter saw my LinkedIn profile (that was about 5 years old!) and contacted me last summer. I wasn't looking at the time, but it didn't take much to convince me to leave :-)

[edit] That said, for a freelancer, LinkedIn has less value unless you are active in the same communities that your customers are.

[gregjor]

If I was looking for a f/t job I might use LinkedIn, mainly because so many recruiters use it. In my own career, both with f/t jobs and freelancing, referrals and word-of-mouth always work best. A good recruiter can put you in front of hiring managers, but I would prefer finding a good recruiter face-to-face rather than on LinkedIn.

I think the worst way to find a job is filling out applications online and blindly sending in hundreds of resumes. LinkedIn at least sits a notch or two above that.

[satvikpendem]

All my jobs have been from recruiters on LinkedIn. I keep it open and get at least 10 messages a day talking about this or that position. I guess people don't optimize their profile like LinkedIn tells you to, after you do that, it's very easy to get inbound leads.

[gregjor]

Are you getting freelance work on LinkedIn, or job leads from recruiters? When I had a LinkedIn profile I got lots of contact from recruiters (both internal and external). Since I'm not looking for f/t jobs I just replied "Thanks but not interested."

I'm sure LinkedIn has value for some people, probably even some freelancers. It never did for me, I always found referrals and word-of-mouth work better.

[satvikpendem]

Both, if I wanted freelance work I asked them, usually they say no, but sometimes they say yes. It's much easier if you're talking to the founders of a startup, rather than a recruiter, since the former are much more flexible.

I'm not sure how people find freelance work for big companies like Google though, unless they go through an agency that has prior connections.

[gregjor]

Agencies like the one that represents me (10X Management) place people at Google, Facebook, etc. Another route is knowing someone inside the big company -- I know freelancers who got gigs at FAANG (or whatever it is now) companies through contacts.

That's not a good match for me because I prefer smaller companies with well-defined discrete business problems and shorter timelines, and because I usually live overseas and travel a lot -- full-time remote in other words, and not available for daily stand-ups or lots of meetings.

I generally don't work for startups. I have, but they too often lack the focus to get good requirements from, need a lot of interpersonal interaction with the team, and want to pay in equity. Great gigs sometimes but not for me. For me the best customers are small/medium businesses not in the tech industry, profitable and established, who can't attract/hire/keep software/system admin talent. For every job opening at a startup you can find 100 small companies who can't get anyone.

[iancmceachern]

You were clearly doing it wrong. I've done the opposite. I've built a robust network of real people that have real mutual interest in being acquainted with me professionally. You have to put good will into it. It's not a site, it's not linkedin, it's a tool to meet cool people who share your professional interests and to facilitate making real connections with them. If you used it to create fake friends and superficial relationships that's on you.

[gregjor]

Not sure how you got the idea I created "fake friends and superficial relationships," I think you misread my comment. I intended to dismiss that plan because it seems the norm on LinkedIn -- "connecting" with people you don't know, haven't worked with, for the sole purpose of creating a fake network. My LinkedIn network consisted entirely of former colleagues, customers, and a couple of recruiters I have worked with. Turns out I can stay in contact with them in person, by phone, or with email.

Maybe it comes from my age, but "connecting" or "liking" someone on social media doesn't equal "meeting" people, cool or otherwise. A referral is a referral, perhaps, but I think one from someone I worked with or for who can vouch for me counts for a lot more than one from someone I "connected with" on LinkedIn.

My personal address book keeps my "network" safe from anyone harvesting them from my LinkedIn profile, another bonus.

[iancmceachern]

I got that impression because you said "...fake network..."

Exactly. You don't just like them and stuff. That's just the beginning, you have to actually meet them and build a relationship. This isn't always in person, often a zoom call every so often to "talk shop" is how to start. Of course it wouldn't do anything if your just liking their pages and connecting with people. You have to put in the effort to go further, meet with them on zoom or in person, keep that relationship going. Extend those olive branches. It's just that you do it facilitated by linkedin and not at a conference or trade mixer or whatever.

There is no harm in people "harvesting" your stuff. That's what you want, you want to put up there your career accomplishments, the people you know, so that you can be found by the people that need you and your services.

[gregjor]

I wrote "fake network" to make fun of how too many people use LinkedIn and other social media. Boasting that 10,000 people follow your Twitter feed doesn't mean you have 10,000 friends who will help you land a job. I have found myself at the receiving end of aggressive networkers and like collectors. It starts to feel like an Amway conference.

If you find value in LinkedIn, great. I don't doubt that some people find ways to use it to build an actual professional network. I didn't try that, everyone in my network already knew me personally, and I had little incentive to expand beyond that. Personally I never got any job or freelance gig leads from LinkedIn, but I didn't try hard to use it for that either. I never had any trouble finding jobs or freelance work through word of mouth, friends, referrals. I did write "your mileage may vary" because I don't know that my experience with LinkedIn matches everyone else's.

[iancmceachern]

What is your advice for OP in how to find those prospects? This is a thread with that goal in mind, do you have any advice for him on how to find prospective clients?

[gregjor]

Yes I answered in other comments in this thread. I have a couple of long articles about finding freelance work, how to work with freelancers, and maintenance programming as a career on my web site typicalprogrammer.com, which I mentioned in my reply to OP.