Finally deleted my LinkedIn account!

I keep LinkedIn telling myself it's necessary to find a job but I don't think I've ever gotten a job from LinkedIn, now that I think about it.

Got an amazing one thanks to a fellow alumni who proactively reached out.

Well played on this one, Microsoft… got me locked in, for now.

Can’t wait for the day login to LI is required to purchase something. A price discriminator’s wet dream.
I’ve never gotten a job from LinkedIn but I feel like that’s also one where potential employers might view not having one as a red flag? Like maybe it’s better to keep something up with a basic profile and job history matching your resume, but not actively using?
- I’ve never gotten a job from LinkedIn but I feel like that’s also one where potential employers might view not having one as a red flag?
  
  My hope is that any future employers may understand where I'm coming from by not having an account there. Not sure whether that really works out in the real world, though. Only one way to find out, I guess!
- Where do you get jobs from?
- Defiantly this.
  
  Depends on your job and the industry though I guess.
but I don't think I've ever gotten a job from LinkedIn, now that I think about it.

Yeah that was it for me. I got loads of messages from recruiters but they were really low effort communication. I even put in things like "INCLUDE THE WORD GLENDA IF YOU READ MY PROFILE" near the top of my profile/experience section. Out of the hundreds of messages, I'd say fewer than 10 actually wrote "GLENDA"!

The conversations I did end up having were shitty anyway. Essentially I think the world got software fever over the past few years and it's only just recently cooling down. People going into recruiting without any people skills, let alone industry knowledge. Companies desperate to hire people for no reason, including people who just did that "Quit your job and start coding!" nonsense.
I got recruits to buy me coffee while I ranted at them about the tech industry. That was cool, but wasn’t worth how much noise is in the inbox nor the privacy concerns of having your data & network stored with Microsoft, so I deleted my account a few years ago.

I’d love to delete all accounts associated with Microsoft, but we need to bully projects off of MS GitHub that refuse to acknowledge the privacy concerns (as well as the mental health issues caused as a result of turning a code forge into a social media platform that your job probably makes you uses). npm falls in this same category but is easier to avoid.
- I got recruits to buy me coffee while I ranted at them about the tech industry.
  
  Hold on... that's awesome. Shit maybe I deleted my account too soon...
  
  I mean, I get physically sick of the idea of the worst mindless parts of the corporate world being spammed around the genuinely amazing project that is the Internet. But paying for coffee sucks, too ;)
I got my current job through it, and it's a great job I never would've found otherwise. So I think it's absolutely worth keeping.

I keep forgetting about it though. I block all of their messages and only check it if I'm looking for a job.
I've gotten almost all my jobs, and probably a handful of offers, and more messages from recruiters than I can count, through LinkedIn...it's definitely the easiest way to find and get a job IME. I don't think I've gone "job hunting" since I was fresh out of university looking for my first job.
Shit, I got almost half of my jobs through that site, though. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. 😆
I got a job from it once.

It was the worst experience of my life. I quit after a few weeks.

Went through a couple comments of both „still use it“ and „dont need it at all“.

We need a fedi linkedin clone

Its again totally obvious that we need a fediverse linkedin clone, especially geared towards work, with a full cv function, option to hide your personal data until you approve a future employer, ways like mastodon for companies to prove they are legit to even be able to see a persons personal data so they dont dox themselves to some rando.

I cant do it on my own but willing to help

I‘m unable to set this up so please take the idea and run with it. Probably just a mastodon fork tbh with specific features. If anyone feels like doing this and needs business knowledge from an entrepreneur/CEO perspective, lmk.

Thank you for reading and have a good one!

I agree that LinkedIn is shit, but I'm not sure it'll be resolved by going fedi. IMO what would be more important is a better job posting board. LinkedIn job search sucks galactic balls. The "remote jobs" search option is a fucking joke. Keywords are so blatantly spoiled by SEO and LinkedIn refuses to clean it up.

Not sure if a federated job search board would improve the situation though...

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- "galactic balls" - I am so going to use this phrase...
- Its you again! Your signature always identifies you instantly.
  
  I agree that linkedin is shit. Any form of alternative would be good but honestly, I‘m not using any social media that isnt democratic anymore. So my only chance at it is making it democratic.
  
  Have a good one.
- I agree that going fedi doesn't automatically solve the issues. However, moving it away from a multi tiered paid platform (they really tailored it so they could do this) and controlling the bots/scam accounts would be a completely different experience. I think fedi would at least solve the first one, and I'd expect would help controlling the second.
Just imagine responding to LinkedIn post from Lemmy
- That would be both frightening and funny. But I dont know which one is more.
option to hide your personal data until you approve a future employer

I think this is impossible in a fediverse context. Data is either shared publicly or only shared with your home instance's admins. There's no other sharing model as far as I know.
- Thats no issue. You can make only public data federate and use p2p for sensitive data.
  
  Public would be your skills, some text about yourself, your industries and amount of employed years in each industry without dates or companies.
  
  Think of it like a puzzle. First part the employer gets to see. They can search „java dev 5 yrs exp“ and get 100 peeps, in state/country/remote, for xxx$ per year/month/hour.
  
  Then they can send you a request but only if they have authenticated through their own public website like on mastodon. If you accept, they can ask you questions and talk. If you reach common ground, they can request your full cv which could be self deleting or something in case the job falls through.
  
  Its not a perfect system but its a lot safer than sending a cv per unencrypted email imo. or answering to some rando on linkedin. Also, anyone who knows you can find you on linkedin with your clear name. Its totally crazy to decline the potential of such a project in light of the current situation.
- Things could be encrypted. But yeah, that's my biggest issue with the fediverse, it's just not designed around privacy. It's also why I'm working on my own lemmy alternative, I want something a bit more privacy-friendly.
  
  I don't think working on a LinkedIn alternative is worthwhile because it relies even more heavily on the network effect. The only point I see in LinkedIn is in finding jobs, and getting employers to look at something else is an uphill battle I don't want to fight.
What difference does the federation make in this case? Either way the personal data is in someone else's computer.
- Federated means democratic. We‘re on lemmy because free association. Its obvious that all other social media, including work related, should be federated, in fact it should be outlawed to have anything public-non-federated. We need to destroy all walled gardens.
  
  On the other topic of personal data: the critical data like real name, home address, phone number, email address, former employers etc. should absolutely not be federated, thats a need to know basis.
  
  The public profiles are the same as mastodon and don’t constitute personal data in my book: your skills, the industries and length of employment.
  
  The important part is that you can put your personal data on an instance (which might or might not be your own) and encrypt it so nobody except you can read it and if you get an offer, the future employer gets an encypted view of your data which could also be on auto delete if the job falls through.
Shout less, please.

Also, no I won't develop your app. Could (maybe), won't.
- I‘m not shouting. I‘m using proper headlines.
  
  I could also not care less what you would or could do.
The same has occurred to me numerous times. I'm not the guy to lead the project, but I'd certainly be willing to dive in and help.

Honestly, I'm somewhat surprised there isn't one, or at least a zygote of one, already.
- Feel free to help. I just spun something up. Whoever else is interested, dm me.

I “deleted” my LinkedIn a couple years ago, and last year I started getting fucking connection request emails again.

I went to LinkedIn and lo and behold my login worked. I fucking deleted my account again. I’m sure it’s still there. Assholes.

Change your employer to a company based in Europe, and send them a GDPR takedown request.

IMO LinkedIn is a garbage for mental health, too. Where everyone wants to show off their achievements to others.

Sadly that's true for all social media.
- Sadly that's true for all social media.
  
  Some are worse than others. Every now and then I log on to Instagram because I can sometimes see fun dirtbike clips. I can comment on YouTube videos of conference talks.
  
  I know people go to supposedly "adventurous" places on motorbikes just for clout, and I know that people at conferences often do talks that could just as easily be recorded themselves at home or even just as a text article. But at least I know, deep down, they want to share stuff with people who have a shared passion.
  
  The stuff that gets shared around via LinkedIn feels so, so hollow in comparison. Not a lot, if anything, beneath the surface.
LinkedIn is probably the social media platform where I get a migraine going the quickest. I only quickly glance over everything over every month or so

I still keep an account there though. It's pretty much required in the tech industry
Sure, if you actually use it to post. I never do, I just use it to submit applications and respond to recruiters' messages.
Worst of both worlds, the one-upping bootlicking culture, the fear of missing out on job prospects fueled by economic anxiety, with corporate enshittification liberally sprinkled in, all combined into one giant pile of turd.

And I say this as I'm also guilty of having an account on it. I also want to get rid of it, but can't afford to risk my chances while looking for better jobs. Fuck all this.

It's pretty much a place where everyone pats themselves on the back.

Only issue with LinkedIn is the prospect of finding jobs. I got my last job through LinkedIn actually.

Same. I keep mine, but I don't actively use it unless I'm looking for a job.
I got a couple of jobs thanks to LinkedIn, I don't know what problem people have with it. Yeah, the content is questionable, but nobody asks you to spend time scrolling the feed.
- Do you post your achievements there?

I'd love to do this, but I used LinkedIn to find my current job, & I'll probably need it to find the next one (when the time comes).

I keep it up to date, like a kind of running CV, but otherwise I don't interact with it.

This is how I use it. I’ve found a couple of jobs on LinkedIn. I’m currently happy at my job and not interested in dealing with passive searching so I check in maybe once a week to see visitors. Otherwise I don’t touch it at all.
running CV

Little bit off-topic and nitpicky, but a CV is by nature a running thing. The name even comes from a Latin word for "run".
- TIL

Linkedin is Facebook with a necktie and a blazer on.

Agree? (Lol)

Lemmy is Reddit running on an old ThinkPad instead of Azure Cloud

(upvotes to the left)
Clap for yes, Like for hell yes!
@DeadNinja I hate that I laughed at that “Agree?” hahaha

@privacy
It's 2 facebooks in a trench coat
French national necktie

Nice! LinkedIn is disgusting!

Microsoft owns LinkedIn

Nothing wrong with it if you just ignore the spam and karmawhore social feed. I use it for visibility, so employers can find me if they wish. My current job was from a LinkedIn search from my employer. I get around 2 or 3 legit offers a month.

Is there a specific problem with linkedin?

Its been turning into Facebook for a while now. I used to have a relevant work feed, but more and more I have these feel good posts and even memes popping up.

Oh, and its pretty toxic in content too. Had this post the other day where some woman director of some company posted how tough it was to lose her husband to some disease, how tough it is to take care of the kids alone, finishing with how it helps her to be engrossed in her work.

Like half of that was about her work actually. A very very weird read.

Another post on woman's day celebrating the working women who open their laptop again (for work) when the kids are in bed.

Such things, just ugh. And those gets lots of likes too.

I used to see such things only in the linkedinlunatic subreddit , but now I see it my feed.
- I get sick from the sleazeball slimey replies like ''I'm so happy to have been part of project a''. People chiming in to shamelesly self promote on other people's posts.
- Yeah there's something that feels so wrong about the site. One of my (fake) favourites by @SecureOwl@infosec.exchange when LinkedIn was down a couple weeks ago:
  
  LinkedIn was down. A lot of people were panicking.
  
  But rather than panic, I saw an #opportunity. Using all of my strength I ran to the nearest LinkedIn datacenter. I was able to gain access because I made a #personal #connection with the security guard. I actually invested in their ceramics business while I was talking to them.
  
  Once I’d gained access to the servers I was able to deploy a fix I’d written using ChatGPT #AI #genAI.
  
  I fixed LinkedIn, and walked out of the datacenter where everyone was applauding.
  
  I say this not to brag or show off, but to share a story of how you have to show #leadership in the moment, and step up when you can. The CEO of LinkedIn called me that night to thank me. #influencer #hustle #horseownership
  
  https://infosec.exchange/@SecureOwl/112050772234578411
  
  Apart from the absurd types of text being shared around there, most features of LinkedIn seemed redundant to me:
  
  list of "connections": contacts app (portable data format, too)
  
  job applications: many other job sites, or direct on company website
  
  messaging: email
  
  finding who works/worked where: I don't care
- Assuming that directors post was real, I am sure she wanted to properly grieve for her husband and have enough time to heal and provide for her children, to tie loose ends and close that chapter of her life in privacy.
  
  But all she had was a sanitized corporate billboard where all she knew was to unconsciously make her post into a self congratulatory advertisement, of a heroic single mother sacrificing her mental health for her work.
  
  It's all tragic.
- So, minus the feeds, you think LinkedIn would have been a good platform?
- But they're adding games!
In the early days they would quietly take all your contact info on your phone and send emails in your name that made it seem like you were reaching out to those contacts. Something like “(your name) is trying to reach you on LinkedIn”.

Back then, Android didn’t have app permissions like it does now where you have to ask the user explicit permission for access to certain data. It would only show up on the very first app install and only if you’d be looking for that.

I cancelled my account back then and never looked back.
- Android not having proper permissions back from KitKat era caused a lot of contact lists being leaked like rainwater. I'm still jaded at Google for that one.
I don't have proof but ever since I verified my work email I am getting non stop sensor and process control spam.