So I'm sorry that you don't like the site, but I politely decline your recommendation to delete my account.
I don't like the site, and I don't like the company. That said, I've had on-site interviews at Google, Facebook, and the like not via my StackOverflow profile (which is pretty good, 20k+), or my blog, but directly through being hit up on LinkedIn.
I'm about to start a dream job next week, again after being contacted first on LinkedIn by my new employer.
Perhaps it's alright if you can post online about all the great work you do, or you have a name for yourself in the industry, or you make lots of OSS contributions on GitHub. Unfortunately I don't have any of those (yet!). But I do have a LinkedIn profile, and that's what got me on the one-way flight from London to SF next week.
I'm not defending LinkedIn as a company: I think they're pretty scummy. But if I didn't have my account, maybe I wouldn't have got this job.
Its features don't really acknowledge an individual’s skill set, and are flawed. For example the `endorsing feature` of linkedin allows people who haven't even worked with technology X, to endorse people for the same technology.
In short, I don't see linkedin adds any value, but at the same time since recruiters are on it and we are forced to accept it.
It has never really benefitted me in any way (I haven't been actively job-hunting this century), but since I don't care for social networks and if I did, I wouldn't want professional contacts in the same circle as my friends and family and barely-acquaintances, it is a fantastic way to keep in contact with colleagues throughout my career, on my own terms and segregated from the rest of my life.
Unfortunately, it has become more of a nuisance in the last year. News feeds, streams full of discussions, streams full of people posting links, advertisements. That doesn't even take into account the constant spam email from LinkedIn. I'm an engineer. I know how to make sure I hit the right buttons --- and yet just when I think I have unsubscribed from nearly everything I want to be unsubscribed from, I get more spam. So and so has joined! You should join these groups! These groups might interest you! Here's what went on today! Here's what went on this week! Here's some articles from people in the industry! You should add your email accounts so we can reach out to your contacts! So and so has a new job!
It's really the only service of its kind with this sort of reach, but I'm concerned that they're going to slit the throat of their golden goose by engaging in the sort of behavior you'd expect from traditional social networks (or worse).
The first thing I hear when I tell someone I work at LinkedIn is: "You guys spam too much." I can't blame them because even I get frustrated with the volume of email I get from LinkedIn each day. For the most part, each product team is responsible for the frequency of their emails. Our team tries to cut down on spam wherever possible. Unfortunately, there are differing philosophies within the company (and within the industry) regarding what constitutes spam.
My big gripe is that clicking through emails on mobile is usually a bad experience. Mostly it either wants me to log in for something I normally would not have to on a normal desktop and it always, always nags me about opening in the app first which is annoying after the 50th time.
I also think the updated recommendations feature is not useful since 1) the UI can take away from the rest of your profile by taking up too much room and 2) people not qualified to give a recommendation for a given skill do so. Your Uncle bob may be qualified to say you are an awesome programmer but mine is sure not.
Now get to work adding that feature!