Mediocrity at LinkedIn
My Rating of LinkedIn is C-
Why?
The majority of “supposed” Recruiters who contact me do so about junior-level positions and NOT about positions in Senior Technical Management or as a Technical Executive - that which I am most suitable for.
I asked one recruiter when he contacted me about a junior-level position. I asked why are you contacting me about this position, and why do you think I would be interested in this? He said he did a LinkedIn search, and my name popped up. When I asked if he looked at my profile, he said, “No”. What is wrong with this picture? Is the recruiter lazy, or is LinkedIn a very poor tool? Maybe both?
As a Technical Manager and as a Technical Executive, I keep up with current technologies. To NOT do so, IMHO, means you are NOT qualified to lead technical people. Does this mean that I am going to do production-level code? What do YOU think?
My second reason why LinkedIn is rated so poorly is because of their opportunity search results that are done on behalf of candidates - the standing searched. The search results are HORRIBLE and just so very wrong 75% of the time. If I do a search on LinkedIn for “Head of IT” in the “SF Bay Area,” I do NOT want to see Req for “Software Engineers” in “Seattle.” What is wrong w/ you folks at LinkedIn in implementing a simple search engine? When I worked on AltaVista, we invented that stuff.
My third reason is CyberSecurity. CyberSecurity at LinkedIn is an afterthought until someone turns around and sues the Company. For those who have Fake accounts, when they get reported, lock them down. Users where an attempt to have their identity stolen or compromised, take some responsibility, and help remove the bad guys. And should there be a hack in process on LinkedIn infrastructure, let your Users know that there is an issue and then take action.
Finally, when I spend the time to create criteria for positions I am interested in, the last thing that I need is for LinkedIn to wipe out this data and without notice. LinkedIn does this 2 to 3 times per year. Changing the content of a paying User’s Account is asinine and wrong! This is a Rookie move for an organization that has never dealt with User accounts or who has NO Respect for their Users – like Facebook.
The C- that I rate LinkedIn with is GENEROUS. For potential competitors of LinkedIn, their failures are YOUR opportunities… especially if they DO NOT listen to their Users.