What’s this ‘LinkedIn’? Is that like Facebook for old people?
Someecards
I’ve been on LinkedIn since it was in beta. In the early
days it really was an online business networking site, but that didn’t last too
long. Social media became a numbers game – whoever has the most, wins! And so a
new crop of LinkedIn members devoted themselves to gaming the system –
connecting with the most people, joining the most groups (this was later capped
at 50) ... It’s value as a business networking site quickly became diluted.
Gradually LinkedIn morphed into a quasi-Facebook site full
of political commentary and feel good stories. Instead of fulfilling its
promise as a business networking site, it became a site of shameless
self-promotion. And it became a fertile hunting ground for recruiters who make
up the lion share of LinkedIn’s revenue. In addition to recruiters, LinkedIn
became very attractive to cybercriminals using fake LinkedIn profiles to
connect with legitimate business people; many with access to sensitive
information. In fact it’s estimated that LinkedIn has over 35 million fake
profiles. LinkedIn does absolutely nothing about this large and growing problem. Over the years I reported fake profiles, with proof that they were fake, to no avail. Remember, it's a numbers game and the more members that LinkedIn has (even if they are fake), the better it looks.
Like it or not, it’s necessary to maintain a LinkedIn
profile for credibility purposes, especially if you’re job hunting.
Unfortunately LinkedIn’s job board has a very poor relational database; it just
spews jobs that have no bearing on the parameters or time frames you select.
And none of the jobs posted are exclusive to LinkedIn. They can be found on
other sites like Indeed and Workopolis which are much easier to use and have much
more effective relational databases.
The death knell for LinkedIn came after the purchase by
Microsoft. They immediately changed the user interface and made a cumbersome
site now impossible to use. I could collect pension by the time it loads; when
it finally loads it doesn’t recognize me and many of the search features that
actually had some value no longer exist. I’ve spoken with friends and colleagues
who have all had the same experience. If you’re using Chrome apparently there
is a work-around to get you back to the original interface but not for any
other browser yet (I use Firefox).
All I have to say is Bye-Bye LinkedIn. I’ll leave my profile
up but not waste my time on the site anymore. I can do my job hunting on Indeed
and Workopolis.
I wish all social media was as non-addictive as LinkedIn.
someecards
Make someone smile today.
Geri
