LinkedIn is a cesspool of scammers and identity theft
And Microsoft doesn't care.
And they all have the same problem LinkedIn has -- they don't fix the core incentive issues.
Because you know if any LinkedIn alternative ever becomes popular at some point they'll perform a rug pull to turn popularity into massive profit.
But they won't become popular because they first have to solve the trust issue.
And the trust issue is foundational. And has a solution -- it should be a non-profit and/or consumer co-op and/or producer co-op.
Which likely means it needs to be formed in Europe or Canada or someplace without the anti-co-op laws of the US that make it difficult for co-ops to raise capital.
And founders will have to be satisfied with solid six figure salaries instead of their dreams of becoming a billionaire.
I honestly believe the problem is inseparable from the social network itself. Either you have a space where people can connect and find jobs and nothing more, and you'll have zero engagement and no way to really fund the platform. Or you allow actual social networking (i.e. public posts) and then open yourself up for lots of engagement, and all the associated cancer that comes with that.
Users that thrive in those enviroment stay, others leave. LinkedIn is a scourge to the job market, being force to publish your entire life for everyone to see to find a job is completely dystopic.
I don't log my phone OS or web browser into any accounts, so I don't have to worry about LinkedIn making fake profile pages, but Cloudflare pretty much always assumes I'm a bot, so there's a bit of a downside. Honestly, I'm probably better off not visiting most of the web pages it blocks me from.
Somehow linkedin creates a new account (on linkedin? - so a brand new account?) without your agreement?
NO.
"New skill available: Puzzle solving"
Begging me to compete with colleagues. Oh, what they have become...
I have unsubscribed from their emails now.
Now debating whether I should delete it altogether.
Click here to read more"
It's also in part because any job advert I've seen is either intimidating (long list of skills required that I don't have), or they have a salary indication that's too low for me.
There seems to be a huge dropoff in job adverts after "senior developer with >5 years of experience". I have 15, but I'm not a manager or anything. But also the number of job openings for those are very limited, and I'm of the opinion that people should grow into a role like that instead of be hired into it.
LinkedIn has job boards, sales navigator and a bunch of things(ads, learning etc). We as users are paying them and also giving them data and they are harvesting on this data. They already have their AI to generate posts for you and all you get is infinite scroll of garbage like Tiktok or instagram. It is bound to pollute when you are doing a lot and trying to make shit load of money through it.
I think many have mentioned that the alternatives are also not addressing the right problems of LI.
But I have been observing the alternatives that have been showing up and of course it does not do justice for a professional network. Its my 2 cents and I can say this with my own conscience as I have built a couple of social networks across the last decade and have had considerable success. Maybe it is time to roll up my sleeves and take a jab at it. :). If anyone is interested to join just DM me and if we hit it, I am willing to angel invest and start a true professional network.
Look them up I think they have a reporting page if you come across more of these
After reading few LI posts full of “I am grateful” and “I am honored” or “Thank to my excellent team…” bla bla - you have to think that people in your circle became LI-infected as that jargon is not normal.
Nevertheless. There is an opportunity to start over with a new global professional network. LI concept still makes sense.
At the start, LinkedIn was great and you could really connect you to a vibrant community of former colleagues and weak relationships. I actually got fruitful introductions and evn job offers from those days.
Then, they wanted to become a social network. Because, you know, advertising... It started way before Microsoft.
We started to see "LION" (LinkedIn Open Network), it became a goal for some to have as many connections as possible. So, tons of connections, but no more answers to messages. No more introductions. Useless connections. LinkedIn encouraged that by allowing connection requests without knowing the email of the person. That's when spam started.
Then, messages became mostly irrelevant, simple commercial requests of people who did not give a sh*t who you were. I personally cut off all LinkedIn notifications from that day on. I guess a lot of people never read their messages anymore either, so it became impossible to get an introduction. What's a community worth when people cannot communicate with each other?
Then came the "let's be Facebook" idiotic strategy. People would post and repost other people's content, pure fantasies with no link to reality. 25-year-olds became management or strategy gurus. No more skills, only pretention. Add AI to that and you've got the most useless feed ever.
To add insult to injury, the mobile app has got the worst UX you can find, full of counter-patterns, buggy, slow, you name it.
And yet, they manage to charge $11000/year to headhunters. Or to sales reps. Or to advertisers.
We need a LinkedIn competitor.
AI content is everywhere on social media, especially LinkedIn
As an aside, something that would get posted on LinkedIn from an external source of some salespeople or something I knew or have connections with having an article written up about them changing jobs. I fear I might have mentioned once I changed a job (not with the eye-sore of the standard images they provide though), but the long stories of how people spent X years, living the best time of their life, now needs to come to an end because they want to move to the next best time of their life, is tedious. I get it, you are enriched in your worklife. Don't rub it in.
But I am staying for the AI slop. It's just a stream of jokes, if they can come up in my feed again!
And anyone who set up a LinkedIn account knowing all this don't care either. I look at people who're still on LinkedIn the same way as people who're still on Facebook. They don't have my sympathies.
If there isn't a decent equivalent in your area, I'd say the next best option is to reach out to a bunch of recruitment agencies and leave your CV with them. Also create your own personal blog/site where you have your bio, examples of your work, and regular meaningful blog updates relavent to your field (which will improve search engine ranking and increase chances of companies reaching out to you).
But I reckon the best option generally is IRL networking, considering the current AI era - where recruiters are being spammed with AI-generated CVs, and they in turn are using AI to filter out CVs, so now there are specific AI tools to make the perfect CV matching a job description - but now everyone is using these tools, which makes it a nightmare for recruiters. So IMO the best option these days would be to make IRL connections.
A number of companies only announce job openings on LinkedIn, and if you are looking for a job (as I am) you would handicap yourself by not having a profile there. HR departments around the World are infatuated with LinkedIn, unfortunately.
My strategy is to give LinkedIn a minimum of information, use it for job search, and filter away most of their emails.
I look forward to the day where I can close down my LinkdIn account. But until then I have to put up with it.
I block the feed and just use for messages and notifications. LinkedIn is a platform that I’ve had multiple job opportunities come through, shame to see it go into slop meltdown.