

LinkedIn: Is it A Strategic Error? - rhhfla
http://sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com/sophisticated_finance/2010/06/linkedin-is-it-another-strategic-error.html

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rit
Lately, the majority of my experience with LinkedIn has been endless recruiter
spam (They wardial all the tech people at my office by looking at who is
listed as a "Developer" at my company, or just keep sending me email spam
offering crappy job prospects) or discovering former coworkers who want
recommendations. Looking at said coworkers often yields them taking credit for
projects they didn't do or work on. It's like exposing the resume lies in an
entirely new, social network-ey way!

Of course, LinkedIn is making huge contributions in the technology space -
they are the minds behind Project Voldemort - one of the burgeoning
Dynamo+Bigtable NoSQL hybrids. They're also a big user of the Hadoop stack and
much of their tech team has written some great articles about their use of it
over the last year or so.

Compared with MySpace, with which Mr. Hacker tries to inexplicably link
LinkedIn (For doing "nothing" over 2 years), this alone is a huge boon to the
community as a whole. MySpace was a SQL Server + ASP.net shop and as far as I
know did nothing useful for the tech community except make us run away
screaming in fear from the horror Murdoch hath wrought.

What exactly does a site like LinkedIn have to do at this point however?
They're still technically relevant - I don't cringe and laugh at the mention
of it like I would say, MySpace. It has proven for many people I know in
recent months to be a boon. At the very least I get a weekly email with
updates of people in my network. It's sometimes incredibly useful to know
where people have moved to jobwise, etc. Or if somebody really, really good is
now on the beach and just hasn't called you yet - it gives you a chance to
grab them before someone else does.

Also - WTF is with the site layout? It looks like it's 800x600 fixed, with
about a 200 pixel gutter for the content. It looks smushed in like crazy on my
screen.

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timdellinger
I think the author goes too far in saying that LinkedIn is squandering its
position. I don't think that any company is under obligation to expand in bold
new (headline-grabbing) directions just for the sake of doing so.

Personally, the interesting thing about LinkedIn is this: in the good old
days, company org charts were considered top secret for fear that the leaders
would be targeted by headhunters. Now that's all in the open. Similarly, job
descriptions can be mined to give clues as to company strategy.

I haven't looked closely at the extras that LinkedIn offers, but for the
casual user such as myself, it's true that not much has changed. But that's
fine.

The other thing about LinkedIn is that it will always be similar to the rate-
my-(professor,landlord,etc.) sites, in that it's extremely useful when you're
making (or considering) a big decision, but most of the time doesn't need
regular interaction.

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JoeAltmaier
Personally, I now almost totally ignore LinkedIn. My connectoins haven't grown
in a year; my friends don't often update.

Maybe this is natural; its a professional management site, and we don't change
jobs/titles very often. I DONT use it like facebook at all, and DONT care
about social features e.g. Twitter.

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jgrahamc
I think there's a correlation between "just updated my LinkedIn profile" and
"I am about to change jobs".

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Goosey
It is for this very reason that I update my profile regularly, even if
insignificant ways. I actually have a Google Calendar to remind me to do it
twice a month.

This can be great for your career.

If you don't work for a itty bitty startup you can count on someone above you
in the org chart catching wind of every LinkedIn update you make. I have been
asked about my frequent updates twice at my current job; the second time they
were so concerned that I was looking around for a new position (and I had just
taken a crucial role in a new project) that they offered me an unasked-for
performance bonus following the completion of the project. It totally floored
me.

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tonydev
I started losing interest when LinkedIn turned into yet another Twitter status
stream. I enjoyed it much more when it was pure, and focused on professional
relationship growth (debatable, yes). In the most egotistical sense, it is
still interesting to see who has been viewing your profile.

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yardie
While I like the idea of using LinkedIn more often the privacy implications
put the brakes on that. The good old saying, don't put anything on the
internet you don't want everyone to know still holds true. I know my employer
is actively using it to recruit talent, I even get requests from colleagues to
"link", but you don't know how that other person uses your information once
you share it with them.

Honestly, using LinkedIn is like using the office fax to send out resumes.
Except for recruiters and jobseekers I get no benefit from putting my career
on the line.

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eande
I did notice in the last weeks through friends I heard hthat LinkedIn has hire
at much higher rate software engineers. My assumption is that they will
integrate and add more features and try capitalize on it.

