Ask HN: As a developer/engineer, how do you use LinkedIn?

No.

LinkedIn seems like nothing more than a spam hub. I constantly have friends that send me LinkedIn spam, I receive spam directly from them for a closed account many years ago, and they still want to harvest my contact list for their spammy purposes.

If I wanted to put myself out there for recruitment I would use GitHub or Stack Exchange; I'd be happy if LinkedIn died as a "thing."

1) When working with a new client I'll spelunk through the contact to understand the person better. What's their background? What technologies have they worked with before? Do we have anything in common I can use? How long have they been in this field?

After that, I'll circle out to their management and coworkers. What does their org look like? Is my contact the decision maker or just a junior person who will shoot everything back and forth to their boss? How many bosses are there?

A little homework goes a long way, and LinkedIn is a very easy way to start.

2) I load my own profile with buzzwords and technologies that I know the competition is using. Recruiters happily latch on to that and send me job listings, 90% of the time I can decipher who is actually hiring. Recruiters lazily cut/paste stuff and Google is your friend. Now I know a little more about the state of my industry and who is struggling to get stuff out the door (gee, why do they need 4 manufacturing engineers all of a sudden?)

Sometimes you see the same company trying to fill the same headcount for a year or more. Multiple recruiters, same job listing. You make a mental note that they are either a disaster to work for, their pay/benefits suck, or there is a culture problem. Next time you network, you can dig deeper and learn more (hey, what's the story over at FooCorp? Why can't they find an Android dev?)

I was required to use LinkedIn by a previous employer. I set up an IFTTT recipe so that twice a week 'interesting' stories from Buzzfeed get published to my timeline automatically. Once every 2 months I confirm any incoming friend requests, or whatever LinkedIn calls them.

My employer was very satisfied with my LinkedIn usage. Other than this, I don't use it at all. It's a pain to use and I get nothing but recruiter spam.

I've had success with it as a developer - my current and last job both found me from it (both via recruiters)

I don't like it as a system; I think it's rather annoying how many notifications they send and the constant pushing to use their 3rd party apps like Pulse or signup for a paid account - but it has worked for me.

As a developer/engineer, I signed up for LinkedIn in college and have tried to avoid using it ever since, despite the steady flow of recruiter spam it sends me.

I kinda use it as my resume. I still send my resume to companies, but having it 'out there' makes everyone being able to look it up and come up with opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten if I wasn't visible.

Other than that I don't really see a lot of value in its networking capabilities. I usually approach people through email anyway.

Edit: just wanted to elaborate a bit more: I can often see that potential clients have looked me up on LinkedIn. I wouldn't normally send them my resume so they would just have to 'trust me'. But because they can freely lookup my background info and see that people endorsed me for things, it gives me some credibility.

As place to keep my resume.

Also, its nice being able to to message old colleagues that I would not be able to communicate with through any other channels.

The recruiters are a problem. Disabling all notifications from LinkedIn is the only solution.

Not at all. Deleted my profile ages ago to help stem the recruiter spam.

I made my profile by mistake; it is way too spammy and uses dark patterns. I would consider it the shadiest of all social networks. I don't use it anymore and filter any mail from Linkedin directly to trash. But I keep it around for occasional chat with old colleagues.

(Maybe if I haven't connected with my old colleagues on personal email by now, then I should just forget about advancing our relationship any further.)

Some people use LinkedIn more than other sites, some people use Twitter more than other sites etc. Even if LinkedIn has its issues it's worth being on it so you can get in contact or be contacted by people that prefer using LinkedIn. I know lots of management types that love it and it's the first place they check up on when background checking job applicants.

I put things out there on it and I have had success leading to interviews at companies. I had a Google Recruiter reach out to me via LinkedIn two years ago while I was still in college, and ended up going deep into their interview process. Never applied to Google, they just reached out.

I also keep up with friends/acquaintances (typically people on the 'business' side of things). Though most of my software/programming buds and gals we connect elsewhere (typically through Steam).

I keep an updated resume on LinkedIn and try to participate in a few groups. I've also published a grand total of one post on their blogging platform.

I think there's some value in the tool, especially if you have listed skills in a buzz-wordy section of the industry. The last time I did an in-person job interview, everybody had printed copies of my LinkedIn resume beforehand, which nicely sped things up. That said, as others have pointed out, there is a very high noise-to-signal ratio in the network. Scrolling through a LinkedIn feed is nobody's idea of a good time, unless you're a recruiter.

I don't. It's spam through and through.

I hate it. I rarely use it but only keep it for that rainy day should I ever need to seek employment.

what I hate the most is that they force me through that annoying multipage wizard (with no cancel/skip) to connect to new contacts each time I open the mobile app.

I get a few requests a month from random recruiters. If I'm happy where I'm at, I decline or ignore. If I'm not, I may respond.

If I'm interviewing at a company I'll connect with the people I interview with or talk with people at the company a bit before I interview.

I use it to search job postings which often redirect to career pages on corporate sites. I also use it to look up resumes of new colleagues to get an idea of their background without coming right out and asking what they know/what kind of experience they have.

I don't. It's never provided me with anything but spam, so I deleted my account.

Used to use linkedin a bit but rarely visit there these days, for job searching I just do indeed.com and for real friends there are too many other ways to connect, really, linkedin seems irrelevant to me these days.

I use it as a resume. It got me my last two jobs. Well, the last job was actually through the LinkedIn Jobs app. But it used my LinkedIn profile as a resume.

It's very effective to showcase your skills, especially that others can endorse your skills, it just gives credibility to you.

And I can see my classmates on the website too; somehow it updates me on their life which is not possible on Facebook (because you may seem boastful).

Many recruiters have been able to reach me via LinkdIn. I don't treat it as a spam. I feel proud that I don't look for jobs, jobs look for me. Someone from Singapore even contacted me via phone just because of my credentials.

Make LinkedIn to convey your growth and success story, not be a record of your past mistakes.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

Very interesting though later chapters become less of history and more of philosophy.