Are there any noteworthy LinkedIn alternatives?

[junaidkhalid]

Linkedin seems to have lost its charm in the last 1-2 years. I'm noticing creators moving to substack but it still doesn't seem to be a 1:1 match. Just like there's Bluesky as a prominent X alternative, have you come across any for LinkedIn?

[HenryBemis]

It began its first steps down that slippery slope (imho) 10-12 years ago. I only log in when I want to find 'the next job'. You can safely ignore anything that says "add your CV". I usually target mega-big corps, and in that case LI always pushes you to their corporate-30min-per-application systems (keep your CV in Word for easier copy & paste). So in a way it has helped me to limit my efforts to 5-10 CVs, and a couple of them always 'lead somewhere'.

and then some flag is switched and I start getting 'a number of messages' from headhunters that (want to) waste my time. An easy way to be blacklisted by those spammers is to _always_ tell them "I ain't telling you my current $$$ or my $$$ expectations, the effing gig/role/contract has a budget+benefits, tell me what are those and I will respond". That will send those assholes away faster than garlic does a vampire. If they stay, then they mean business and they 'like' the CV enough to talk/negotiate with you.

There are some other 'smaller' ones (Indeed comes to mind) that still stick to 'find a job and nothing else'.

[leakycap]

Make personal connections by reaching out to people you want to connect with. Many emails and messages will go unanswered or even unread/unnoticed - but others will get a response.

If you spend time thinking about the topic you want to connect on with the person and add value to their life in some way while communicating clearly, you'll have something much better than 100 LinkedIn connections.

[junaidkhalid]

I agree with the point you made, that's pretty much the only way to create a 'meaningful' relationship, or build trust.

But i'm thinking more in terms of just to share my thoughts/insights/learnings, etc. Blog & newsletter combo is good (i'm doing that for the last 1 year) but it requires far more effort than writing a ... for the lack of a better word, "LinkedIn post sized" content. You know, easy to write - easy to digest, gets the point across, and also gets to the "professional audience".

[GianFabien]

Not that I know of. It would have to be the LinkedIn before it became just another avenue for self-promotion and advertising for courses, seminars, etc.

Anecdotally, it doesn't appear to be any good for job searching. Lots of un-directed random messages from recruiters, but no real job sourcing.

It seems to be the fate of all socially oriented networking sites. They devolve into yet another advertising, spam delivery mechanism.

[scarface_74]

I got my last 3 jobs based on recruiter outreach on LinkedIn - one at BigTech in 2020 and my two subsequent jobs - 2023 and 2024.

I’ve also had two other BigTech companies reach out to me for my niche. But I would rather get a daily anal probe with cactus than ever work for another BigTech company especially going to an office.

[junaidkhalid]

Sad thing is that they never did a single thing to stop "spam job ads" that companies put out just to signal "we're growing".

Well.. I suppose in their defense, they didn't do a single thing to solve any of the other problems the platform has either

[fsflover]

> It seems to be the fate of all socially oriented networking sites.

It's called enshittification, and it only affects centralized cervices.

[xyclos]

If you're a high school or middle school student there's tallo[1]

[1] https://tallo.com/

[junaidkhalid]

haha, i'm wayyyy too old to be in high or middle or any kind of school

[brudgers]

Linkedin seems to have lost its charm in the last 1-2 years.

For most people, the Linkedin experience starts with the excitement of possibility and the line-goes-up endorphin buzz of increasing connections. After a while, it becomes clear that a Linkedin account requires management to filter push notifications and other spam. Finally, the basic physics of business networking replace imagined possibility.

Business networking is Serious work, Real work, Hard work. Linkedin facilitates that work, but about the best likely outcome of passive use is recruiter contact but there’s a big pile of tailings for any nugget…and there’s no guarantee of nuggets.

So is there an alternative? Existentially, No. Networking is work. You can work on Linkedin. You can work face to face. You can work on another platform. But there’s no substitute for work. Good luck.

[simantel]

Handshake was working on that until they realized they could be an AI company and compete with Scale instead.

[junaidkhalid]

I just saw their website. Seems like a "relatively close" alternative on the first look. Have you used it at some point? If so, could you elaborate on the "until they realized" part.. like what changed?

[simantel]

I haven't used it, just know a few folks who worked there.

They were building like a social network/college job fair platform kind of thing, but then in the last year or so they launched an AI labeling platform[1] and the revenue from that has blown up and I think eclipsed their original business by quite a bit.

According to a podcast[2] discussing the Scale acquisition by Meta, they apparently closed $50M in AI labeling deals in the couple days after the Scale acquisition was announced.

[1] https://joinhandshake.com/expert-ai/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AguI4JLQSA

[firefax]

None of the meaningful help I've had since my layoff has come from people who are heavy LI users. I could leave the network today, and the same people who offered to put in a reference for my application or do a CV review would still respond to my emails.

The few times I've used the messenger to ask for an email from someone lacking a personal or faculty web page, it hasn't been super fruitful.

Kind of like with dating apps, it feels like a small pool of people are constantly searching -- either because they're very prized, or because they're very flawed, and it can be hard to distinguish between the two in either context "early career".

Like, despite reading this site, I'm not a "startup guy" -- my goal was always to find a stable, respectful workplace -- and every crazy side quest on my CV was a result of that quest.

Respect to folks who have a legit product and grow it, but there is a definite "bubble" in Silicon Valley, in the echo chamber sense.

Classic example: bar full of "LI types" demanded the TV be shut off when this scene came up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo. Like, hands slamming on tables level anger about "what is this shit".

Anyways TL;DR I think the best professional network remains email.

[msgodel]

Yes. RFC 6530 + a blog.

Everything else is just flashy marketing.

[junaidkhalid]

I .. actually agree with you. Good thing is that i've kept a blog since 2017, bad thing is that uh, well.. I wasn't super active on that. But seeing how LinkedIn's been changing in these past few years, I'm starting to invest more and more time on the blog + a newsletter, so i own (not in that way) the audience and not the platform, even if it's lesser people