

Ask HN: Do you connect with unknown people on LinkedIn? - kanungoparth

Recently, I&#x27;ve started receiving many invitations to connect with people on LinkedIn. As a matter of habit, I don&#x27;t accept those requests. 
However, I&#x27;ve seen people in Sales, Recruitment etc. usually connect with such people on LinkedIn.
What are the positives and negatives of such connections?
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yasmina
LinkedIn is a social networking site for business professionals. In fact, it
is heavily used by recruiters and employers to source candidates for
employment. So, don't be surprised if you've seen people in Sales or
Recruitment who are trying to connect with you.

In regards to your question about the positives and negatives of LinkedIn
connections - let me provide you some:

1.) Career Networking - We can all benefit from building a network and
LinkedIn can serve that role.

2.) Identification - LinkedIn is not going to work for you if you don’t
identify yourself. However, if confidentiality is a concern, and if you are
trying to stay anonymous, just be careful to connect with only people you know
well.

3.) Search Engine Exposure - You can connect your blogs and other social
networks to LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn statuses can be updated when posting to
one of those places, providing the opportunity for greater network
connections.

4.) Job Hunting - Let say that you are looking for a job, but you are
currently employed and you don't want to jeopardize your current position. Be
strategic and don’t announce to your connections that you are searching for a
job. You can still do your job search confidential by not providing your
company's email and phone number.

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mindcrime
Usually, but with a few exceptions. If a random person tries to connect with
me, and one (or more) of a few conditions is true, I almost always accept.
Those conditions would be things like "We have a lot of connections in common
already", "they include a note explaining why they want to connect", "it's
apparent from their profile that we have common interests that justify
connecting", etc.

OTOH, a few "red flags" almost always cause me to decline. Some of those are
"the profile looks obviously fake" (these are the ones where the picture is a
beautiful blonde woman, and her profile shows no education history, one job
with a generic description like "retail" and they have like 5 total
connections, and none in common), or "some guy in another part of the world,
in a completely different industry, with no obvious sign why there would be
any mutual interests, and there's no note explaining why he wants to connect",
etc.

That said, if one of you sends me a connection request saying "Hey, this is
'soandso' from HN" then I would almost always accept that.

~~~
chrisBob
You get requests with a note explaining why they want to connect? I don't
think I have ever seen anything other than the default message.

~~~
mindcrime
Not many, but every once in a while I'll get something like "Hey, I saw your
article on X and really enjoyed it and thought we should connect" or something
of that ilk.

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brudgers
Some people curate their connections. Others don't.

If curating is providing a benefit, continue. If not, then there's less reason
to do it. Me, I decided to pretend to have lots of business friends years ago,
but I spend so little time on the site that their status updates don't create
much noise.

I don't find much value in the activity.

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alttab
You can always remove connections. Having a larger network won't hurt you. If
it seems completely random or an accident, don't do it. But consider - "could
knowing this person in 4 years be a good thing?" Almost always the answer is
yes.

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lalwanivikas
I do. If they write a proper note stating their reason for connecting.

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wsc981
Yes. Often recruiters ask me to connect with them and occasionally I found a
nice job that way.

