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Comment by Ashanmaril | Hacker News Reader

Is LinkedIn actually an important thing to have?

I made one years ago and used to occasionally go in and update it, but with my most recent job I didn't even take the time to add it. The past few years I've really re-evaluated what should be public, easily-accessible information for anyone who knows my name.

And all I get from having an account is recruiter spam, and emails for connection requests that are oddly written in first-person and have the person's name as the sender which seems weird.

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I got my current job because a recruiter found me on LinkedIn. I participated in a “hiring day” that greatly increased my odds of getting an offer. Doubled my salary and it was an invaluable step for my career. I spent maybe 15 minutes setting up the profile after a few years of rolling my eyes at the platform. It’s worth it; much easier to get an interview than sending an application into the void.

That's good to know. And it seems like there's a good handful of other people with similar experiences (though that could be bias of the type of people who would be in a thread about linkedin)

Maybe I won't discount it. The dark patterns of the site are just such a turn-off, it really doesn't make a great case for itself in the UX.

Totally agree on the UI, and I’m by no means “active” on the site (I don’t post, comment, or really network at all). It’s just a copy of my resume that shows up in search results, essentially. And recruiters definitely abuse this (looking at you, Amazon). Pros and cons :(

What's a hiring day? A quick search found nothing.. Is it a LI initiative?

You get out what you put in. If you have a languishing account and don’t use it then you’ll get what you describe. If you are active then it gives you opportunities to network and meet people with similar interests.

Even if you aren’t looking for a job it can be useful to control your public profile as you meet interact with new people. As I work across groups, I definitely see people who I’m meeting for the first time check out my LinkedIn profile. It’s hardly every time, but enough that I’m glad I’m controlling the messaging.

I got a job at a very good company through LinkedIn

A guy had posted about opening in the company. I sent profile, he referred me and I joined a few months ago.

It was a blind referral. I didn't know the guy or that they had an opening!

I did get a job through LinkedIn once, so I think so.

It’s certainly more valuable than Facebook.

I find it quite valuable to get information about companies.

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