[raw_anon_1111]

I’m sure that recruiters are going to scour the Internet looking for you.

I created my LinkIn account in 2012. By then I had been a developer for 15 years in Atlanta and knew all of the local recruiters and had met some in person. For the next 8 years, LinkedIn really didn’t serve a purpose. When I looked for a job in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, I just reached out to my network and interviews and offers fell into my lap. Admittedly they were just regular old enterprise dev jobs in Atlanta.

But in 2020, things changed. AWS reached out to me about a remote position in the consulting department (ProServe full time with the standard four year package) and after that my last two jobs have been based on either targeted outreach on LinkedIn where I was an industry expert in a niche of AWS that most people don’t have (2023) or an internal recruiter reaching out to me on LinkedIn 2024.

[mindcrash]

> I’m sure that recruiters are going to scour the Internet looking for you.

They don't have to do that. Apparently there are services which link any known email address, mobile phone etc. to your LinkedIn account through a browser addon even when you didn't hand these over to LinkedIn.

I know because my mom was called several times on her mobile phone (which has a number not in any phone book) by a very aggressive and disrespectful recruiter looking for me while I even was not looking for a job. (her first initial and mine are the same).

Only when I threatened him to report him and his company to LinkedIn and the authorities, and blocking him on LinkedIn the calls stopped.

[Grimblewald]

Like I said, mileage may vary. I can see how for some roles it would be useful, clearly it must be. It cant all be braindead takes, lies, and self-aggrandizing. However, in some countries linkedin has strong competition and poor presence. My stance is that if you value your time you wont use linkedin. It is an enormous time waste, which unlike conventional social media doesnt even entertain.

Saying linked in is good for jobs is like saying tinder is good for dating, or facebook is good for socialising. It sure can be, but the quality and substance of what youre after does need to factor in, and so does the time you spent there over higher value time sinks. For me, tinder does not serve my needs, and neither does linked in. Both offer poor signal to noise and terrible time economy.