Very few people with LinkedIn profiles read the social feed. Even fewer post things to it.

The majority use LinkedIn only for job searching and keeping contacts.

I do some times wonder if any hiring managers see a lot of LinkedIn social post activity as a positive thing. The few times we’ve interviewed candidates who had a lot of LinkedIn posting activity it was considered a risk: We could go through their LinkedIn activity and see that they must have been spending hours posturing on LinkedIn and replying to people everyday during the work day, which looks like a big distraction when they’re doing it constantly.

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keeda an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Anecdotally, I've noticed a correlation between spikes in LinkedIn social activity and subsequent job changes, after which the activity (typically) subsides again. The activity doesn't even have to be actively posting, just reacting to posts on their feed.

I think the dynamic you're observing is partly people just reacting to stuff (or if posting actively, fluffing up their "professional presence") as they do a job hunt.

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phillipcarter 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Very few people with LinkedIn profiles read the social feed. Even fewer post things to it.

Yes, but many of the people who matter in professional domains do. Much like all social media, the prolific few who do post have outsized influence, and engaging with them can often be to your benefit.

	▲	toolazytologin 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> engaging with them can often be to your benefit. How? Legitimate question.
	▲	bertylicious 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Could you please name a couple persons who matter in their professional domain, who post on LinkedIn, and who you benefited from by engaging with them on LinkedIn?

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estimator7292 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I do some times wonder if any hiring managers see a lot of LinkedIn social post activity as a positive thing.

About a year ago I had a friend recommend me to their management. After three rounds of interviews, the CEO overrode the process and rejected me because I didn't have enough on my LinkedIn profile.

As far as I'm concerned, I dodged a bullet. If the CEO cares so much about LinkedIn filler that he'd overrule the hiring process, I'm certain I would have hated every moment working there.

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a4isms 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Hiring can remain irrational longer than you can remain unemployed.

One manager no-hires you because you don't post enough. Another doesn't like what you post. A third thinks you post too much. A fourth is pleased you seem to pay more attention to shipping products than hot takes. A fifth loves your hot takes.

So you get a call and are asked to do a coding thing. One person no-hires you because you wrote fizz-buzz by hand and didn't use Claude. Another wants to see that you know how to code by hand, but although your solution is fast, compact, and correct, it isn't the solution they had in mind.

At the end of the day, it's a highly inefficient, mostly irrational process dominated by social factors rather than objective feature detection.

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drfloyd51 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Agreed.

Even if we could quantize someone into a feature matrix, every hiring process demands unique matrixes.

Even if I pass all the quantifiable stuff… the first answer to an HR “off limits” question will be given soon enough if I get the job.

Turns out being a Jesus nerd was a secret requirement.

Wish they could just put that in the job requirements.

	▲	zugi 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Turns out being a Jesus nerd was a secret requirement. Wish they could just put that in the job requirements. Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, in making religious hiring discrimination illegal, sometimes just drives it underground. Over the years it's done more good than harm, but at a certain point it may be time to let those who want to hire only Jesus nerds self-select.

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MrDarcy 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have consulted for CEO’s and other executives who think like this. You certainly dodged a bullet.

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loglog 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I recommend to block the Linkedin feed with uBlock.

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josteink 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Very few people with LinkedIn profiles read the social feed.

I read somewhere that in Norway (small sample, yes I know) LinkedIn is supposedly a more popular social network than X/Twitter.

You can have whatever opinion you mean about Elon, X, free speech and whatever. I'm not here to have that discussion.

All that considered, as a Norwegian this had me quite surprised. I don't have the source anymore, but I'd love to dig into it to see what sort of metrics they use to measure this sort of popularity.

Literally nobody I know uses LinkedIn except for business-SPAM.

	▲	sunaookami 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Same with Pinterest in Germany which seems bizarre to me. It's supposedly more popular than Twitter, Twitch, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Reddit (but below TikTok, Instagram and Facebook). EDIT: Data from 2023: https://medias.smart-home-fox.de/SDE/Social%20Media%20Statis...

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IshKebab 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I dunno if that is really true. I've started posting technical things on LinkedIn because it gets pretty good engagement from real people that I know. I've also seen some great technical posts there.

Definitely outnumbered by the inspirational slop, but I think it is a real mix and really depends who you connect with.

Anyway yeah the main point of LinkedIn is to get jobs. I've got several through recruiter spam.