FridgeMagnet
Administrator
You don't want to be found in search on LinkedIn—see above "spam" post.
Linkedin - should I join?
- Thread starter Hellsbells
- Start date
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I want to be found when recruitment people are searching for people like me .. which means, having a photo, and a current position.
Helen Back
:-)
The spam I got might been from my CV on CV Library. When I deleted my account there my profile had been viewed 47 times and I only ever got one call from an agency wanting to do a quick job that involved listening to and rating audio clips for which I would get a £25 voucher for a shop I never go to. Great, is that all I'm good for?
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Well, I don't. I have never, ever, got a useful job offer cold from LinkedIn. What I have got, repeatedly, is dumb recruiters offering me jobs I've made clear I don't want.
Including a photo in an application is considered unprofessional in every industry I've worked in btw. I'm sure it would increase the hit rate from unprofessional recruiters.
Helen Back
:-)
I'll just stick to applying to individual jobs I see advertised on indeed, then.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I haven't yet had a lead leading to a job via LinkedIn but I live in hope and I don't mind speaking to a few recruiters along the way if that is what it takes.
I have however used LinkedIn to identify and then target decision makers in companies I want to work for, so that I can bypass the usual junior HR bot and get my details in front of someone who matters.
I agree, I wouldn't include a photo with a CV in Britain, but LinkedIn isn't a CV nor a job application, I see a LinkedIn photo as being just evidence I don't have two heads!
weltweit
Well-Known Member
If that is what you are doing then I also recommend phoning the next day to confirm the individuals have received your details as I have found in a lot of cases my details have not in fact got through, even when I received an acknowledgement from the board.
Either something went wrong between the job board (Monster / totaljobs / cv-library etc) and the recipient, or sometimes just because the recipient is badly organised. I would say in 4/10 cases I have been asked to email my details again.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Recruiters who spam you on Linkedin will not get you any job you want.
This won't work. Decision-makers don't use LinkedIn to recruit. All you can learn from LinkedIn is who the officers in a company are, which you could learn from their website. Trying to contact somebody direct via LinkedIn saying "hey give me a job" will mean you never get a job with that company.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I use LinkedIn to get me the names then contact them directly.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Another thing LinkedIn is good for is checking out who will be interviewing you, sometimes knowing more about your interviewers can ease start of interview small-talk or it could tell you that they have worked for a company you know. People are often flattered you have taken the trouble to look them up.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Well, all I can say is that I wouldn't do that. If people are hiring they put jobs out there via whatever channels. Maybe, just maybe, if they meet you socially or know you through some common interest, they might mention something before it appears publicly or ask you directly, which is why it's sometimes useful to join meetups and other social groups. Cold calling is a no-no.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Well I am cold contacting a sector at the moment, direct approaches in response to specific adverts don't seem to be working because I don't meet their HR bots traditional profile.
When people say no, which to date they have, I ask them to recommend what I should do next and that - the recommendations they give me - is/are useful.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
The trouble is that the system is basically broken. Few people use direct job ads in web dev because they don't have an HR department capable of filtering applications—if they do, they use keywords as you say which is worse than useless. HR will literally use ctrl-F on a list of words they've been given and reject applications without them.
On the other hand they all hate recruiters because recruiters send you dozens of people who are completely unsuitable for jobs, sometimes trying to train new applicants based on interview questions asked to failed applicants, and charge you if you ever hire anyone. They are the worst sort of arseholes. People still use recruiters though because what else are you going to do?
The best success I've had is to pick a recruitment firm that actually knows what the hell they're talking about and go with them. They can be very hard to find but they do exist, just in limited business sectors and geographical regions.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I tend to agree with respect to recruitment consultants. I have dealt with a shedload of recruitment consultants in the past months, because I have been job hunting for a while, I would estimate that possibly 50% of them are crap and don't know what they are doing. But of the 50% that seem better there are a few that genuinely are useful.
newbie
undisambiguated
Whether or not it's a direct recruitment tool, Linkedin is used for reputation management. CVs can be polished and tweaked to provide possibly unfair keywords, more so than recommendations and endorsements by peers and industry luminaries. And that's where photos come in, for immediate visual recognition on someone's LI front page. A very quick glance at eg page 1 of this thread immediately identifies FMs posts but to find one from weltweit takes more time and effort because other people also have blank avatars. A cursory look at LI endorsements that are all blank photos says little or nothing, one where familiar faces peer out has some meaning. So maybe the photo is of limited personal importance, but tmm it enhances the overall scheme of things.
Sapphireblue
Well-Known Member
Cold calling someone you've found on linked in is the worst kind of rude unless they deal directly with recruitment. I get it because my job title implies I'm a team leader (although i'm not) so any time a job is advertised for a similar role at my company on any job website, scum-bags think that it's ok to cold-call me about it. and the job is nothing to do with me.
which reminds me i keep meaning to vague my profile up a bit as I'm not currently job-hunting and hopefully it should cut down the spam.
which reminds me i keep meaning to vague my profile up a bit as I'm not currently job-hunting and hopefully it should cut down the spam.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Would you mind telling me broadly what sector you work in? because you might be surprised to know that attitudes towards cold calling vary a great deal according to what sector people work in.
In my last job it was my role to cold call people in the heavy machinery, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, aerospace and automotive sectors. You might be surprised to know that Oil & Gas executives were positively the most happy to chat with me, while pharmaceuticals people were by far the most negative wrt my cold calling them.
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
LinkedIn (to be honest I find even the name obnoxious) may have its uses for some, but whenever anyone asks me if I'm on it, my heart sinks and I feel like I'm about to be groomed.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Calling warm leads is indeed better, but it costs more because you have to generate the enquiries in the first place and some directors prefer to make people cold call.
Sapphireblue
Well-Known Member
i work in IT. whilst you might be right that some people are ok with dealing with cold callers, everyone that tries to contact me or my boss knows damn well that their calls are very unwelcome.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
You can totally re-spin your entire career on there with minimal work, so no.
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
I've had quite a few "spam" emails from linkedin - asking to confirm contact/friend or whatever they call it - but almost all of them have been from people I've never heard of, and certainly not RL friends. Several have even been in Spanish, German, French and Italian !
Virtual Blue
ready
I saw this CV on my Linked In feed.
Pretty good - Robby Leonardi | [email protected]
Go the OP's question - yes, you should join.
Pretty good - Robby Leonardi | [email protected]
Go the OP's question - yes, you should join.
newbie
undisambiguated
26 billion dollars! for a “professional networking/dating/narcissism website” 
according to someone on the radio yesterday that values it at more than SkyTV, a massive company with huge realworld assets, which makes about a billion pounds a year profit. Linkedin makes, well, nothing and is just a database with a not very attractive website attached.
That values each user at $60, and I'm wondering quite how they think they're getting that value from me.
according to someone on the radio yesterday that values it at more than SkyTV, a massive company with huge realworld assets, which makes about a billion pounds a year profit. Linkedin makes, well, nothing and is just a database with a not very attractive website attached.
That values each user at $60, and I'm wondering quite how they think they're getting that value from me.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Tbh you should just call the person named on the advert for an 'informal chat'
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Getting everyone's employment details
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I'm not a fan of Linked In. Bizarrely perhaps for someone who posts about their boils on urban, it feels like too much private info online for me.
However, I have embraced it now for two reasons. One is that one of my jobs is temping in a large org where there are quite a few people who might be in a position to give me a job but don't know my background. The other is that what I do involves social media and I don't think it looks good to have a half-arsed profile, or even none if you work in communications at all.
I now don't see it as an online CV however, it is social media. My actual CV is pretty dry, my LinkedIn profile is a bit chattier. I've told more of a story about each job, pulling out the bits I want to focus on and my achievements. I also got my Facebook friends to endorse me for stuff, which is obviously pathetic but quite effective.
I've seen some good profiles on LinkedIn, which tell you who the person is but are funny or make a point. I'm starting to model myself on them.
However, I have embraced it now for two reasons. One is that one of my jobs is temping in a large org where there are quite a few people who might be in a position to give me a job but don't know my background. The other is that what I do involves social media and I don't think it looks good to have a half-arsed profile, or even none if you work in communications at all.
I now don't see it as an online CV however, it is social media. My actual CV is pretty dry, my LinkedIn profile is a bit chattier. I've told more of a story about each job, pulling out the bits I want to focus on and my achievements. I also got my Facebook friends to endorse me for stuff, which is obviously pathetic but quite effective.
I've seen some good profiles on LinkedIn, which tell you who the person is but are funny or make a point. I'm starting to model myself on them.
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