Most recruiter contacts are low quality, but I reply politely anyway telling them exactly what would be a quality job for me. 90% of them never respond, but the other 10% do and their quality of communication increases. A few have even called me up and started open discussions about trying to match me to roles. 3 out of the 4 jobs I've had over the last 15 years were landed this way.

So yes, if you sign into linked in and then treat recruiters like a worthless enemy, you are using it wrong. If you respect them as people and help them to do their job better, it can work for you.

I'm not saying Linkedin does not have problems... it does. But your responses to it can help.

I have had success by actively cultivating a small number of recruiters I perceive as high quality.

I find them if they are offering roles that are truly unique and special I will reply back and just say "hey I am not in the market right now but lets have a chat, this sounds interesting.."

Unique and Special defined here as either high level jobs that typically aren't widely advertised, Director/VP/CTO type stuff, or even IC stuff with "above market" comp. I am not in the right half of that group yet, but its what I am eyeing in a few years. Jobs with under-the-radar firms doing some really interesting things- I used to work in HFT and prop trading, and there are dozens of very successful firms you haven't heard of that have a minimal website, if they have one at all- the only real way in is to know someone there, for them to find you, or these recruiting firms. There are usually tells in the job listing/pitch though that this might be one of those firms.

Sometimes they just make a decent pitch that shows they actually read my profile and seem to understand where my career arc is going so I will give them a reply. A very decent just basic filter though is seeing if they have been in the industry for at least 10 years. So many churn and burn through the industry and move on to something else. I have "grown" with several recruiters that now do mostly executive and very big comp roles.

These days this happens about twice a year at most, but keeping that "stable" around has been helpful. In the past I have kept the list and shot off an email saying "hey its time for a change" and its been very helpful, though my last three roles ended up being through recommendations from previous coworkers.

I use it to make contact with coworkers, especially if they are leaving the company and I like them. It's faster and easier than manually exchanging contact details and gives each other a way to exchange other contact details later, if needed. And then also as an informal resume. I go months to years without logging in.

1 - I use it to get in contact with colleagues I've lost track of.

2 - When I have a meeting with someone I look them up on linkedin before the meeting/call/whatever. It's fun when it turns out we know some people in common or worked (even overlapped) at the same company or institution.

3 - I've paid for previous companies' recruiters to use the recruiting tool. I have no idea how it works, or how well, unfortunately but the recruiters all want it. I have gotten good candidates, but would we have gotten them without it? My current startup is still in the word-of-mouth mode but I'm sure if we need to step up hiring we'll be sending LI $20K/month or whatever it is.

I don’t like it, and in fact deleted (rashly, foolishly) my previous profile which went back to ~2006. Did that a bunch of years ago in a ‘fuck these guys’ sort of mood.

Anyway I recreated it and now I have a basic profile and <100 connections.

I finished my old contract in October last year, updated LI to say I was looking, and before midday I had been offered a job by an old colleague.

I just see and use it as a digital Rolodex, I don't care much about posts there. It's a good way to get in contact with former colleagues, or even recruiters you've had a good experience with in the past.

I received interview offers from Microsoft, Google and ByteDance at least directly from LinkedIn, so it's definitely worth having one.

But yes you're using it "wrong", never check the homepage, the feed is just full of absolute garbage. And regarding the bad quality recruiters for bad jobs, just ignore them.

If a recruiter sends you an inMail (a message before you are connected together), they pay LinkedIn if you don't respond. So if you want the overall quality to increase, never respond to any bad offer.

I only add people I've actually met on LinkedIn. I don't use the "FB, but for work" -aspect of it that much.

When I was recruiting, I looked up the people applying on LinkedIn to see if we had any common contacts, sometimes I reached out to them if they could say anything about the person applying.

Mostly it's just an online CV that everyone can look up. I've actually just exported the LinkedIn job history page as a CV when I've needed it. All the data is already there.

I got my current job from a cold contact from a recruiter and I've interviewed for other jobs in the past that I found through LinkedIn. I also have a good place to message former colleagues. All in all pretty useful.

- Usually, I use it to get in touch with former colleagues.

- Recently, I've opened the floodgates to recruiters, which has led to dozens of strong leads.

- Since I spend so much time on LinkedIn recently for the reason above, I've begun filtering the posts, because so many of them are indeed low quality.

I got jobs at my current and last workplace through a recruiter reaching out to me through LinkedIn. I'm not necessarily exceptional in my skills and experience, and I don't even have a profile picture. But for recruiters, it is a game of numbers, and all the fish are swimming in the LinkedIn pond. The utility is that LinkedIn greatly dampens half the strain that normally comes with the job hunt - one's own initiative in mass applying, curating companies, hell even finding companies.

I have got one job through it (they were looking for people with JavaScript and C++ experience and found me), and as others have said it can be useful for keeping in touch with former colleagues.

I’m not sure there’s much point curating a detailed profile on there as no one reads it, I recently deleted 99% of the text from mine and just kept the company names and main technologies used, so it doesn’t require much effort to maintain.

I have had legitimately interesting offers reached out to me over LinkedIn. However it’s only around 1-2 a year like this.

I also use it as a rolodex where I can get an interview pretty much anywhere. Although, somewhat ironically, I’ve noticed recruiters are pretty bad at responding to cold calls themselves.

>> Slightly tangential question: what value have people derived from LinkedIn in their careers?

I found myself in need of a job, and after some time failing via online applications I used LinkedIn. I just went through my connections, thought about who actually knows my capabilities the bast and sent them messages telling my situation. Top 12 I think was how many I sent. Got a few responses and one led to an interesting job. Also, I ended up talking to one guy who was looking for a change and I put him in touch with someone we both worked with before, and he found a new place!

But it's not much other than a fancy contact list where people update their own information.

I got my current job through LinkedIn, for better or for worse, so it *can* work. A recruiter who had actually taken the time to read my bio wrote me an email asking if I had any experience with very, very specific technologies that were somewhat related to the ones I'd listed (but even more niche), and would I be interested in coming to work for their large public-sector client.

This landed right as I was thinking "fuck this place, I must update my LinkedIn and see if there's anything decent in the comms field just now", so, pretty much perfect.

I found a potential job there and got an offer (ultimately didn't take it - the job was not quite what I wanted -, but was a good company), and LinkedIn also meant we knew the founder and I had a past colleague in common who gave me a strong endorsement, which clearly was helpful. I go months not logging in at all; mostly active there right before and after changing jobs.

I’ve had a grandfathered in “business” account forever. It’s mostly useful to me as a research tool, both on potential hires for companies I’m advising, as well as on companies themselves. Every single recruiter contact I’ve received since 2006 has been unproductive. Of course having a 17 year old LinkedIn account is itself disqualifying for many recruiters.

I get all my jobs from LinkedIn now. Cold applying to a job on indeed/company website just does not work at all. When I'm looking for a job, I follow up with any recruiter which meets my criteria, even if they're just copy-pasting stuff.

Getting hired is, like all things on the internet these days, about volume and not quality

I've used it to get in touch with recruiters in companies I wanna join, worked decently well for me.

I live in EU and I use LinkedIn to look for work. I found all my previous jobs via LinkedIn.

> Slightly tangential question: what value have people derived from LinkedIn in their careers?

My past 3 jobs came via LinkedIn. Two of them were from recruiters reaching out to me, and one was from something I applied to via the site.

Networking with colleagues. Finding a new job. Filtering recruiter offers (instant-response bot: Remote only? Salary >X, or daily rate >$? I'm an X citizen. If the role meets these requirements, message me again!)

I only found it useful when a company I was working for was struggling, and another local tech firm's talent director wanted to know who worked there. I got a job out of it.

It's great for poaching talent from competitors.

I’ve used it to collect testimonials and to reach out to contacts that are higher level execs that probably get way too much Email.

Last two jobs I’ve gotten through LinkedIn - plenty of recruiter contacts too