You don't really know that, maybe you missed out on interesting jobs and you'll never know.
At the very least, receiving recruiter emails from LinkedIn allows me to do networking and meet a lot of influential people at various companies, even if I don't end up landing a job there. It also builds my recruiter network, which is never a bad thing: if I ever need a job one day, I am planning to spam my entire network of recruiter, let them know exactly what I'm looking for and let them do the work for me. It goes both ways.
I respect deciding to opt out of LinkedIn but there is an opportunity cost to such a decision that you seem to have overlooked.
Obviously, everyone will be different but I get 2-3 emails from recruiters on LinkedIn per week. Managing them takes me about one minute per week.
Compared to the number of times where I ended up on a phone call or having lunch/coffee with a CTO, VP of Eng, architect or senior engineer, it's totally worth it to me.
My suggestion: don't cut out that option until it really becomes unmanageable. Chances are you'll find it's worth the occasional disturbance.
You have zero pressure, you can practice interviewing, network and you can make extravagant requirements. If it doesn't work out, no big deal, you like where you are. But if it does, your career can make quantum leaps.
In other words, a $10k increase in salary might not seem much but it will add up, and not only will raises compound as well but future jobs will start at a higher negotiation level as well.
Of course, spend your time wisely but I think it's really short sighted to think "I'm happy at my job, I am going to completely block out all the recruiters out there".
I understand that some people can find value from LinkedIn, but I just don't feel that I'm one of them. I attend lots of meetups in London, and participate in online discussions, and that's good enough for me.
I recognise that I could belong to LinkedIn as well as those other networks, but I get enough value out of my existing tools that LinkedIn isn't worth it.
The scummy data collection practises and the constant recruiter spam are what drove me away from LinkedIn. There is nothing pulling me back.
I've really only ever received an inordinate amount of entry level recruiters "connect" with me using the same canned email they send everyone. I thought the references feature was nice, but the past few places I've been at have officiously discouraged using the feature because of PR issues (I might personally give someone a recommendation which could then not actually represent the company's perspective of the person)
In my opinion, LinkedIn is just a very creepy and annoying service.
I've found that removing any mention of specific languages and technologies has dramatically reduced the number of job offers, all of which were a complete waste of my time. Now if only recruiters would stop offering me my same title at a 20% pay cut, I'd be fine.
Apologies for the snark, but all of this is anecdotal data. Your analysis is unwarranted.
I am always astonished when I hear phrases like "it's required". Really? By whom? I'm glad to hear there are other people out there who don't have it, because all I hear about is the other side: People bemoaning LinkedIn's existence but parroting this idea that their professional career would be all but ruined without it. I just cannot understand this, but I always feel like I must be naive or living in a tech bubble, or just outside the mainstream.
Do people really hurt their job prospects without LinkedIn? (Or did they when this was written in 2013?)
I don't understand fellow coders who view recruiters as a nuisance when u can use them to get a way better deal on your next gig.
With my LinkedIn I am vague re: where I currently work and provide them all with my spam contact info(spam email and spam google voice number that is a voicemail box which messages go to my email).
Maybe it's the volume of recruiters? I get ten a week and enjoy seeing what they can do for me.
I did apply for my current job through LinkedIn, that's the only reason why I haven't deleted the profile. That said it was my first job, seven years after I would be able to find another job just through email if I needed one.
You just don't know what you missed.
To do anything right, you need to devote time and attention to figuring it out. If you won't or can't devote that time and attention, then you're way better off just not doing it.
This is how you rapidly sift through all the myriad opportunities the world offers you to find the most salient ones. You can't devote your time and attention to just anything, so first you select for those you can reasonably see yourself putting in the time and effort to actually get something out of it.
Returns follow a power law distribution, it's tempting to think that there are activities that you can do that provide returns on the same scale as the effort you put in, but in reality 80 percent of the returns on practically anything go to the 20 percent of the people that take the time to do them effectively. The rest get the other 20% divided amongst them, basically nothing.
Spammy job offers is precisely what LinkedIn offers those who can't or won't take the time to do LinkedIn effectively. What does it offer those who do take that time? I have no clue. My guess would be a slightly accelerated path up the career ladder. Not really worth it. I have a tough time even imagining a possible return that LinkedIn could offer me career-wise that would offset the opportunity cost of working out how to get it.
In other words, the argument from ignorance is useless -- reminds me of a very weak version of Pascal's wager.
Not only because he's still doing OK, but also because statistically I can assure you that the people I know who still have the LI account haven't gotten anything worthwhile out of it career wise.
Besides, the whole argument is oblivious of the notion of Opportunity Cost.